 Following his assassination, he was widely seen as a martyr for the wider Pan-African movement.In 2002, Belgium formally apologised for its role in the assassination.Patrice Lumumba was born on 2 July 1925 to a farmer, François Tolenga Otetshima, and his wife Julienne Wamato Lomendja, in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgian Congo.