On this day in 1959, Congolese residents of Stanleyville rebelled against Belgian colonizers, demanding independence after a speech by Patrice Lumumba. Police suppressed the riot, killing ~70, imposing martial law, and arresting Lumumba.

The day prior, Lumumba called for a nationwide campaign of civil disobedience in a speech to the MNC congress, also ordering Congolese people to not collaborate with the Belgian colonial government and announcing that the party would not take part in the upcoming December elections.

The rebellion began on October 30th when the police arrived at the suburb of Mangoba to arrest Lumumba. The uprising was suppressed with military force, including two companies of infantry.

In total, approximately 70 people were killed in the fighting, and up to 200 were wounded. Lumumba himself was arrested by police as the government imposed martial law and banned gatherings of more than five people.

Congo would achieve independence from Belgium on June 30th, 1960, with Lumumba serving as its first Prime Minister. He was assassinated by Belgian forces and their collaborators on January 17th, 1961.

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  • PosadistInevitablity [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been informed Gundam pfps are considered incredibly reactionary.

    I’ve only seen the ones back in the 70s and 80s. Themes of war being evil and superhuman powers to resist dehumanization and empathize with anyone seemed kosher to me. The bad guys are literal Nazis and all get wiped out.

    What am I missing here?

    • Comp4 [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      9·
      1 year ago

      Certainly not more reactionary than K-ON pfps ? Mind you I dont really spend thaaat much time on twitter to be able to tell all the meanings of different pfps.

    • Cromalin [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      gundam is good. there’s a ton of gundam fans who suck, a bunch who love to go “sieg zeon” at conventions and stuff, as well as a bunch who end up being really reactionary in general, but that’s not the shows fault

      if you’ve only seen the 70s and 80s ones you gotta check out turn a. it’s the best one, it’s by yoshiyuki tomino, the og director of gundam, doing a sort of ghibli take on war of the worlds with more or less a trans protagonist. it’s made in 1999 so it’s one of the last cel animated shows ever and it looks gorgeous, with designs by syd mead of blade runner and alien fame. if i didn’t have my beatrice avi i’d have a turn a gundam one

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        I miss cel animation so much. I genuinely do not think it’s just nostalgia. I wish more productions would combine cel techniques with digital, they can produce glorious synthesis.

        • Cromalin [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          it’s definitely not just nostalgia, i’m young enough to have grown up with more digital animation and i absolutely prefer cel animation (in the abstract, obviously there’s plenty of good looking digital animation that looks better than the large amounts of bad cel animation)