Emmanuel Bamba

Emmanuel Bamba was a prominent leader who served as the Minister of Finance for the Republic of the Congo and the primary organizer of the Kimbanguist Church (an influential, indigenous African Christian movement originating in the Congo). After years of colonial suppression, the church sought international recognition and legitimacy during the country's turbulent independence transition. In 1965, Mobutu Sese Seko seized total power over the nation in a military coup. In 1966, Emmanuel Bamba was arrested by Mobutu's regime under charges of participating in a counter-coup plot (the Pentecost Plot) and was publicly executed in May 1966