In September 1961, Munu Sipalo circulated a conspiracy pamphlet at the founding conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade. Chapter 5 thinks through the motif of conspiracy to ask how this cohort responded to the challenges of the global Cold War, particularly in the context of the Congo Crisis of 1960–1961. Congo had a particular resonance for this regional cohort, laying bare the high stakes of ‘nominal’ political independence in a time of Cold War neo-colonialism. In London, the Committee of African Organisations commented on the unfolding crisis and its implications for decolonising knowledge production, as Chango Machyo and Dennis Phombeah launched pamphlet ventures in the aftermath of an All-African Students Conference. For many in this cohort, engagement with the contours of the Cold War happened through youth and student internationals. Samuel Kajunjumele attended the 1959 Vienna World Youth Festival with the International Union of Socialist Youth at a pivotal moment: just as these organisations increased their contacts in the region, the uncertainty of independence negotiations made students abroad appear a liability – in notable contrast to the early 1950s.

Whilst the role of the UN and the institutional space it opened for staging the Congo crisis are undoubtedly important for international law, this chapter focuses primarily on the political event of Lumumba’s 1961 assassination. Lumumba became the site of extensive Cold War anxieties and postcolonial aspirations, as an embodiment of the communist threat to some and of a pan-African future to others. His death provoked the ascription of an excess of meaning to a single politician, a victim standing metonymically for the broader violation of Congolese sovereignty. Both larger than life as a postcolonial martyr and overdetermined as a communist, Lumumba was a contested figure in the Cold War political imaginary.