June 30, 1960. The day the script was burned.
In the stifling heat of Leopoldville, the stage is set for a polite transfer of power. King Baudouin of Belgium stands before the newly independent Congolese parliament, not to apologize for eighty years of brutality, but to praise the "genius" of his ancestor, King Leopold II—the man responsible for millions of deaths. The King expects gratitude. He expects order. He expects silence.
But Patrice Lumumba, the 35-year-old former postal clerk turned Prime Minister, has a different history to tell.
In Episode 1/6: The Speech and the Silence, witness the electrifying moment when Lumumba defies protocol and takes the podium unscheduled. Listen as he shatters the diplomatic veneer, refusing to thank the colonizers for the "gift" of freedom. Instead, he unleashes a torrent of raw, unvarnished truth about the "tears, fire, and blood" that truly paid for the Congo’s independence.
He speaks of the insults, the beatings, and the humiliation of being treated as second-class citizens in their own land, famously declaring to the stunned European dignitaries, "We are no longer your monkeys".
This was not just a speech; it was an earthquake. As the Congolese crowds erupt in jubilation and the Belgian King sits frozen in rage, the machinery of the Cold War begins to grind into motion. In Washington and Brussels, powerful men realize that this charismatic leader cannot be controlled—and in that moment of triumphant defiance, Lumumba unknowingly signs his own death warrant.
Tune in to hear how seven minutes of truth-telling terrified the world's superpowers and set the stage for one of the 20th century's most tragic betrayals. The silence is over. The storm has begun.