Roland Lumumba exposes Neo-Colonialism

teleSUR English

Activist and son of African revolutionary icon Patrice Lumumba—joins Venezuela in commemorating the legacy of anti-colonial struggles. As Africa fights for full political, cultural, and economic independence, Lumumba exposes how Western powers continue plundering the continent’s wealth through proxy wars and economic sabotage.    #LumumbaVive  #AfricaLibre  #GlobalSouthUnity   #StopLootingAfrica #VenezuelaConAfrica  #ResourceJustice  #DecolonizeNow   These and more stories now! 🌐Join teleSUR's community and be part of a space where your ideas matter.  https://chat.whatsapp.com/KLABTE41aSj3ioYabXQQ6K 🗣 Don't be left behind, join teleSUR's Channel https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va98Z437Noa2tjytCt1N Web💬 https://www.telesurenglish.net/ X🧶 https://twitter.com/telesurenglish Instagram 📸 https://www.instagram.com/telesurenglish/?hl=es Facebook 📱 https://www.facebook.com/teleSUREnglishOfficial Youtube ⏯ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmuTmpLY35O3csvhyA6vrkg Tiktok👌🏼 https://www.tiktok.com/@telesurenglish?_t=8hMLCY0a6z7&_r=1

Transcript

00:00What a pleasure. Welcome to this special interview. It is a pleasure to greet you.

00:08We are here in the framework of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the life of the

00:12outstanding African anti-colonialist revolutionary Patris Lumumba. We have with us the pleasure

00:18of having in our studios his son, Roland Lumumba, member and president of this Patris Lumumba

00:24Foundation. Welcome to Venezuela and welcome to El Sur. Thank you very much. The 100th anniversary

00:33of Patris Lumumba's birth. Why choose Venezuela to commemorate a day that is not only iconic

00:40for its legacy but also for the transcendence and the message that this represents for Latin

00:45American countries? Indeed, Lumumba considered himself as an idea without borders. Lumumba

01:03spoke of himself and said, I have no father. I have no mother. I have no religion. I am an

01:13idea. The Congo created me and I will find a way to create it. Besides, I had an old problem

01:38in France for which I was preparing to return to the Congo and I received a message asking me to record

01:49a short video for the commemoration that they were going to make here in Venezuela. At that moment, I did not hesitate

02:03and I answered, I am not going to send you a video. I am going to go myself. For me, Venezuela is a country

02:17that has led a struggle similar to ours. For a long time, leaders have been fighting on behalf of our

02:36our peoples. And for what Lumumba did to liberate Congo from colonization. I also thought maybe Lumumba,

02:55wherever he is, if he ever had another life, maybe he would be the brother of

03:06Simon Bolivar, Simon Bolivar, or the friend of Nasser, Nasser, Krumah, Hugo Chavez, and of all the leaders who have

03:24dedicated their entire lives to fight for justice and for the liberation of their peoples.

03:32So, a country that is thousands of kilometers away from where Lumumba was born and that decides to

03:43commemorate the 100th anniversary of its birth. For me, I felt that I should be there

03:50because if I were in the Congo or in any other country in Africa, because the objective is the same.

04:04We are all countries fighting against fascism and seeking the welfare of our population. That is why I came here.

04:12It is very interesting what you say when you also point out the fact that despite the territorial distance

04:23between Venezuela and the African continent, we are close because of that anti-colonialist struggle.

04:36Today, in the midst of the global challenges, of the advance of a new current, let's say renewed,

04:48based on Zionism, colonialism, extremism, there is a persecution of Latin American migrants.

04:58Migration is criminalized today. Giant prisons are being built to place immigrants and treat them as terrorists.

05:11Do you think this is a new form of colonization?

05:13Yes, totally. It seems to me it is a new type of colonization. You have to go into history.

05:27We are a product of our past.

05:33The welfare that you find in the West comes from the exploitation of our resources.

05:40And they also did it in Latin America, in Asia, in Africa.

05:51Some countries consider themselves superior, stronger, and they exploited other countries.

06:01By doing that, they made their revolutions take much longer.

06:04I don't see what's wrong with trying to look for the welfare of our people.

06:15Actually, if we talk about justice,

06:22these people are always a colonial debt.

06:25There were problems during those years of exploitation, so we're not going to start a problem today,

06:35knowing everything that they did to us in the past.

06:39So really, this is the path that some people chose, and we must reach a dignified solution to all.

06:48We cannot talk about human rights only for the men of the West.

06:57If we talk about human rights, we must refer to the rights of all men.

07:02They oppressed us, they caused us hunger, weakness, and now they're asking us to stay where we are.

07:22But everything they took from our parents and grandparents was what we should have inherited.

07:28So we're not going to look for violence, but we have to find a solution, and a solution that is fair for everyone.

07:42But at the moment, that problem is really also created by the West itself.

07:46And this problem should also have a response from international organizations.

07:57A role that is being questioned today.

08:00The United Nations with a High Commissioner who does not utter a single word.

08:06The African continent is also being treated in the same way.

08:09Today, there is an uprising, a revolution in the face of those colonialist powers.

08:14But the media tries to make them look like a totally different reality from what is happening.

08:20For example, the Sahel region, Burkina Faso.

08:23One of the regions, one of the nations that has decided to get rid of years of colonization.

08:29What do you think about these processes?

08:34It is a natural evolution of things.

08:36There are people who understood what Nasser and Krumah wanted to convey to them.

08:46That you have to fight for the people.

08:51Many of these countries did not fight for their independence.

08:55It was granted to them.

08:56Not all the countries in Africa fought.

09:03Several were granted independence with a new agenda.

09:08A new program that still continued with the exploitation of that country.

09:14But in a different way.

09:15In the eastern countries, maybe there were agreements that were not really fair.

09:31And when some people wake up to make the whole people aware of the injustices,

09:38it is normal to see all this.

09:42Because really, many people have gone through those processes.

09:47So if some African countries are going to pay through these processes, we are going to criminalize them.

09:54We are not going to criminalize them today.

09:56Because it is a natural process towards positive evolution.

10:04They are the first countries that are starting now in these modern times.

10:10But we hope that the other countries that are still to be emancipated will follow these steps to achieve

10:19the political, cultural, and economic independence.

10:31Your father, Patrice Lumumba, had a key phrase.

10:34He said that independence is not a gift.

10:38However, this also transcends with the reality that today is implemented in countries,

10:44especially in the global south, specifically in Venezuela,

10:47in Venezuela, which has and has traced a path of that direct protagonist and participative democracy.

10:54And I say protagonist because the structure comes from the people upwards,

11:01through assemblies that debate projects and proposals.

11:06There is this direct democracy that has as its central axis the citizens, the people.

11:13Do you think this is also a way of emancipation in these modern times?

11:18Of directing laws in favor of the citizens?

11:23How do you perceive this progress?

11:24We cannot import a revolution or a democracy into each country.

11:41We must create our own democracy and see what is good and what works for each one.

11:47What is good for the man in the United States may not necessarily be good for the man in Burkina Faso.

12:00Here in Venezuela, they have a reality and they have considered within that reality that this

12:06is the best way to liberate man, to achieve well-being.

12:17But we should not look to our neighbors and what they are doing,

12:20because not everything works in the same way for all countries.

12:24There are many examples in the West, but we are different.

12:38We have countries where there are villages

12:45where people walk around naked and have no freedoms.

12:48But that doesn't apply in our countries.

12:56We are all different. It is good to compare a little, but a little bit,

13:00or to see what we can keep from their positive points

13:04and what we can work for each country, for each culture.

13:10So Venezuela should carry out what Venezuela considers positive for its own population.

13:18However, this anti-colonialist struggle for the revolt of the peoples, respecting this self-determination,

13:30is one of the fundamental principles of all democracy in the world.

13:36It has also been undermined by the interest of the large transnational corporations.

13:42We have seen it in Latin America, and we can also see it in the African continent.

13:48The strategic resources above the benefit for the population,

13:52even attempting against the lives of those who think differently,

13:55and do not obey the guidelines set out by Washington.

14:00This was the case of your father, Patrice Lumumba.

14:04Threats against leaders of our Latin American region,

14:09with failed assassination attempts,

14:12and also with extremist plans to undermine democracies.

14:15So gathering all these elements, I would like to ask you,

14:21how to keep alive the legacy of Patrice Lumumba,

14:25with all that experience that also marked his path of defending not only his land,

14:31but also to have the courage to raise and raise his voice

14:35before that colonialist power as the Belgian one?

14:42First of all, in many things we have to explain to the population what is happening.

14:50It is not normal that today,

14:59Belgium and other European countries come to help us

15:04when we are one of the richest countries in the continent.

15:10How is it possible that the country is rich, but the population is so poor?

15:22We have so many natural resources.

15:31We are exporters of industrial diamonds,

15:37gold, uranium.

15:40We are not proud of it, but the bomb that was dropped on Japan to end the World War II,

15:52the uranium came from the Congo.

15:54Thank goodness it was not us who used that bomb, and we are really against violence.

16:08But they are rare, expensive minerals,

16:11and we have them in our territory.

16:15But our country does not benefit from it.

16:17Today, these minerals that are manufactured,

16:22that are used in the manufacture of computers,

16:27televisions, etc.,

16:30we have 70% of the world's reserve of these minerals.

16:37And in spite of this, we are all still poor.

16:40They use a border country to steal those materials that we have,

16:49and sell them at a low price to the multinationals.

17:03And it seems normal to them.

17:04They think that giving some crumbs to the Congolese will convince us that they are helping us.

17:17And that is a big problem.

17:20We have to solve that problem.

17:24We have to change that mentality.

17:26Exploitation continues.

17:29And we have people who have good intentions in the West.

17:31We are not going to generalize that the way is bad.

17:40But relative to the interests of each one,

17:43we have to put an end to this domination that they continue to have over us.

17:54We have some countries in Africa and Latin America that have the resources to develop well.

18:01What links can be drawn between these African and Latin American countries?

18:14There are countries that have strategic resources,

18:17but at the same time, especially in the case of the African continent,

18:20they are rich but poor countries.

18:22First, we have to start to relate more, to get closer.

18:35It may be that we unite because we have people who have the same level,

18:40even though we are all, in quotation marks, poor.

18:48I believe that if we all unite and create a collectivity, we can achieve adequate solutions,

18:54because it has been at least 60 years or more since we have been independent.

19:00Again, in quotation marks, but we have to see how we can support each other to end up getting out of this.

19:10There are some countries that are trying, but each one defends its own interests.

19:16It is a chess game. We analyze who can support us, who can weaken, but we all have to look for the interests of our populations.

19:30And for that, we have to look for the interests and the interests of our populations.

19:44When we talk about the United Nations,

19:46But who created the United Nations, there are people who are permanent members of the Security Council.

20:01And they have the right of veto.

20:06And they can have an opinion on a problem that affects other people.

20:11But they, because they have the right of veto, they can block.

20:16Africa is trying, as a continent, to have the right of veto.

20:27And we are fighting for that, because many countries do not agree with Africa.

20:36Here we are talking about Africa as a homogeneous entity.

20:42That is, the whole continent for one position.

20:46In other words, that we should have the same weight as France as a country.

20:53And Congo represents four-time France in terms of surface area.

20:59And we are much richer than them in terms of resources.

21:08So how can they determine that they have a position and we don't?

21:11Anyway, I will not enter into this controversy.

21:23But it is a very interesting one.

21:24Yes, it is interesting.

21:25Because this may help to open the debate on the need to restructure the United Nations system,

21:32which has become practically obsolete in the current reality that you are mentioning.

21:37How is it possible for such a large and diversified continent as Africa to have only one voice within the United Nations?

21:44Yes, that's right.

21:49In fact, even the only voice that we have is not a full voice.

21:55We are told that, yes, we can participate.

21:58We do not have that right of veto.

22:00China, Russia, the United States, England, they have all the right to veto.

22:05But we, even if we ask 54 countries to think the same way, there are certain things that are not going to be respected.

22:17There are structures that have to be changed.

22:24They have to be modified.

22:25We have to think about how to restructure them in our interest and to solve our problems.

22:35How do you think that the legacy, especially the thought of Patrice Lumumba,

22:39could somehow impact these leaders of the African continent, but also of all Afro-descendant communities,

22:50in this unity that you have well traced throughout the planet?

22:55A few years ago,

23:04President Maduro carried out something very interesting.

23:12It was the first Congress of Afro-descendants here.

23:20And I had the opportunity to be invited.

23:25And I was able to speak on behalf of Africa.

23:36And in that Congress, I proposed to President Maduro

23:41that this Congress of Afro-descendants does not become just a simple conference,

23:59but that it becomes a permanent structure

24:04structure

24:08to defend our interest in the way that we see fit.

24:15We must succeed

24:18in creating structures created by ourselves.

24:23All structures are created to solve a specific problem.

24:37And in general today,

24:40almost all structures were created to solve other people's problems.

24:44Maybe well they left us the African Union, but there are still many efforts to be made.

24:55Beyond the African Union, I precisely proposed this structure

25:00and it goes beyond the African Union because it unites Africa and Latin America.

25:11And so we seek to unite two continents that have many similarities in their struggle.

25:17And we can try to see how to defend our common interests.

25:28Thank you very much, Roland Lumumba, for joining us in this special interview,

25:34for having accepted our invitation, and for being present in these Telesur studios.

25:38Thank you for joining us, and to you, our viewer, as well.

25:42Thank you for tuning in.

25:43Thank you very much.

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