Patrice Lumumba was a fiery centrist whose goal was to unite the Congo's tribal factions into one governing body. My e-book looks at his rise to power beginning in 1951, his imprisonment for embezzlement, and his ambition for a unified African country. Lumumba can be described as non religious. His parents were Catholic but he looked at both Catholic and Protestant missionaries as impediments to his ambitions. Patrice was democratically elected as the first prime minister/premier of the newly independent Congo. The country was granted independence from its colonial governor, Belgium, in the summer of 1960.