Was Patrice Lumumba a medical doctor?
No, he was not. He was a postal clerk. Lumumba was born in Onalua in the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo. He was educated at a Catholic missionary school and the government post office training school, passing the one-year course with distinction. He subsequently worked in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa) and Stanleyville (now Kisangani) as a postal clerk. In 1955 Lumumba became regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium, where he worked on editing and distributing party literature. After traveling on a three-week study tour in Belgium, he was arrested in 1955 on charges of embezzlement of post office funds. His two-year sentence was commuted to 12 months after it was confirmed by Belgian lawyer Jules Chrome that Lumumba had returned the funds, and he was released in July 1956. After his release he helped to found the non-tribal Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1958, later becoming the organization’s president. Lumumba and his team represen
