Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

In 1961, Patrice Lamumba, the young firebrand leader of the newly independent Republic of the Congo,

was brutally assassinated.

Less than a year after gaining its independence from Belgium in 1960, the new republic was in

tumult, and the execution of its figurehead caused further chaos.

In this episode, we're joined by Stuart A. Reid,

author of The Lumumba Plot. The book has just been shortlisted for the Kundal History Prize

of which we're a media partner and covers Lamumba's rise and fall, examines how he became a target

in the battle for Cold War allegiances, and digs deeper into the murky role that the CIA played in Lumumba's death.

Stuart was speaking with Eleanor Evans.

So I wondered if we could start this episode with an introduction to your central protagonist, Patrice Lamumba.

Who is the man at the center of your book?

So, Patrice Lumumba is this endlessly fascinating character to me.

He was the first prime minister of the Congo, which was formerly a Belgian colony, and led the country

into independence.

His personal life story, he rose from very humble beginnings in a

small village in the Belgian Congo, and he rose remarkably high within a system that was

extremely cramped because of colonial rule and managed to educate himself and was something of an

autodidact despite the restrictions

on information and education. And he founded the most popular political party in the Congo

before independence. And then in elections in May 1960, a few months before independence in June

1960, he emerged as the top candidate and then became

...