Thomas Kanza was a Congolese diplomat who served as Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC))’s first ambassador to the United Nations from 1960 to 1962. He also served as a minister of foreign affairs at some point. He wrote a memoir entitled, The Rise and Fall of Patrice Lumumba: Conflict in the Congo, which covered his own personal experiences as the Congo became independent, and his interactions with Patrice Emery Lumumba. He said, about Lumumba in an interview to Jeune Afrique:

“Patrice Lumumba represents for Congo what Fidel Castro represents for Cuba, Nasser for Egypt, N’krumah for Ghana, Mao Zedong for China, and Lenin for the Soviet Union.

Despite his short political life and his tragic end, perhaps because of them, Patrice-Emery Lumumba has entered history through the front door : that of heroism and martyrdom.

He is at once the flag and the symbol. He is all. He embodies everything : the struggle, the courage, even temerity, the suffering, the action and the perseverance. He lived as a free man, as an independent thinker : his writings, his words, his acts were those of the responsible man, conscious of his vocation as a liberator.”

(Lumumba et le lumumbisme, Jeune Afrique, nº 268, 13 Février 1966) Translated to English by Dr. Y., Afrolegends.com