Season 5 Special: It's A Continent x Trapped History on Patrice Lumumba

Season 5 Special: It's A Continent x Trapped History on Patrice Lumumba

Author: trappedhistory June 24, 2025 Duration: 35:34

Our new season kicks off proper next week with an enthralling episode where the broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake helps us tell the story of the woman who listened – the great Helen Bamber. And we’ll be taking you all the way through the summer till it starts getting cold again – introducing you to the tragic tale of the first singer-songwriter alongside the Communards’ Sarah-Jane Morris, the first female bodybuilding world champion with Jet from Gladiators, a story of love among the ruins of the concentration camps with the historian Gwen Strauss and the rollicking tale of genius and self-deception with the author Helen Lewis.

But to whet your appetite . . . we are absolutely delighted to give you this wonderful taster from the brilliant Astrid & Chinny, the brains behind the award-winning It’s A Continent Podcast. Which uncovers key moments in African history, one nation at a time. It is bite-sized history, it is accessible history and it is history which will deepen and broaden all of our understanding. So I strongly recommend seeking them out on apple, spotify, wherever you listen to stuff, right after you’ve listened to this episode.

Which we particularly want to share because Astrid and Chinny got there before us! I really think that this person is someone we should all know about and carry his name in our hearts. He is Patrice Lumumba, and he was a distinguished Pan-African politician who served as the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo after the country gained independence. Patrice was well-connected but as he became more politically active and vocal, calling for an end to Belgium's rule and advocating for his country's independence, he became a target of both the Belgian and American governments.

To such a point that we need to give you a trigger warning: there is a graphic depiction of death at the 29 minute mark.

In the meantime, sit back, enjoy the ride and make sure you’re back here from 1st July for the rest of Trapped History’s summer season.



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Head over to www.trappedhistory.com to sign up to the award-winning podcast, get our newsletter, bonus episodes and much, much more.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


Trapped History digs into the corners of the past that standard narratives often overlook, guided by James Baldwin's idea that people and history are mutually confined. This podcast is a deliberate effort to loosen that grip, one story at a time. You'll hear detailed accounts of individuals and events sidelined by traditional textbooks, from strategic minds in forgotten battles to cultural pioneers whose influence was deliberately minimized. Each episode reconstructs a specific moment or life, focusing on the nuanced realities of women's history, Black history, military history, and cultural history. The aim is to provide a more complete and human picture, moving beyond dates and dominant names to the textures of lived experience. By engaging with these overlooked chapters, the podcast invites a deeper understanding of how our present is shaped. It’s for anyone who suspects there's more to the story, offering a thoughtful and researched alternative to the history many of us were first taught. Listening feels like a conversation with a knowledgeable friend, one committed to unearthing truths that resonate with our contemporary world. The result is an educational and compelling narrative that challenges simple takeaways, encouraging listeners to question what they think they know about the forces that have built and bound our societies.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 76

Trapped History
Podcast Episodes
Hall of Fame: The Forgotten Hero of Architecture Minnette de Silva [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:47
Nihal Arthanayake's nomination for the Trapped History Hall of Fame is a great one. The lost, forgotten and overlooked Sri Lankan hidden hero of architecture Minnette de Silva.She was the first Asian woman elected to the…
The Hall of Fame Special: Who Would You Like to Add? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:53
We've spent so long asking our guests who they'd like to see in the Trapped History Hall of Fame, that for our 30th episode we thought we'd do something a bit different.And so Carla, MK and Oswin have each brought along…
The Animal King: Zippo, Frank Bostock and the Magic of Circus [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 36:33
Roll up, roll up for the Season Four closer — as we take a trip to the circus!At Trapped History, we look at lives and stories which have been forgotten or ignored, and there is one community in Britain which is still sh…
Hall of Fame: Seventy-Five Letters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:29
Join Oswin and Carla for this moving Hall of Fame from historian Clare Mulley as she remembers wartime nurses, Dorothy Field and Mollie Evershed. They are the only women among over 22,000 men to be remembered on the Norm…
The Missing Holes: Clare Mulley on the Courage of Agent Zo [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:31
She is one of the most important women of the Second World War — a fighter, a secret agent, a government envoy and a commando. But have we heard of her? Can we sing her name? If not, you've come to the right place.Tune i…
Hall of Fame: The Meaning of Memory [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:07
Tune in to a fascinating Hall of Fame as Professor Chris French nominates Ellizabeth Loftus, a psychologist famed for her work on false, recovered and repressed memory.It's not just Elizabeth's life story here — Chris fi…
Dikki Redux: The Woman Behind the Record [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:07
We might have heard of Amelia Earhart or even Amy Johnson, but who remembers Richarda Morrow-Tait, the first woman to fly around the world?Well, someone does because on 19th August this year, a blue plaque was unveiled a…
The Amazing Randi: Patron Saint of Sceptics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:55
Welcome back after our mid-season break! And what a return – with (drum roll) the mysteries, magic and mayhem of The Amazing Randi. He had everything a conjuror should have – the baffling genius, the cape, the beard, the…
Hall of Fame: Mark Twain and the Dishonesty of the American Flag [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:16
Every episode, we ask our guest to nominate someone for the Trapped History Hall of Fame. Usually, it's someone we've never heard of but really should have. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's someone we think we know al…