Thread by @paulkleinfancam

I'm gonna do a longish thread on Chappelle's mother, Yvonne Seon (formerly Yvonne Reed/Yvonne Reed Chappelle), laying out some interesting things I found while trying to clear up my own confusion about her connection to Lumumba. 1/x

https://twitter.com/CharlesRayMusic/status/1448775913349554182

You'll see repeated across various articles and blurbs about Seon that she worked for the Lumumba government, but this isn't true. Her work in the Congo began *after* Lumumba's assassination. 2/

By her own admission, she arrived in the Congo in March of 1961. Lumumba was assassinated in January.

*The History Makers link is gated but see her interview here, which I'll also be transcribing from: imixwhatilike.org/2015/03/13/yvo… 3/

So why then has it become a kind of universal wisdom that she worked for Lumumba? Seon encourages this by emphasizing she had initially been recruited by Lumumba and putting in fine print the steps between her meeting Lumumba and her eventual employment by the Congolese gov 4/

This section from her Wiki is a good example of the move. Unless you're attentive to the historical chronology, easy to come away from it thinking she had worked for Lumumba. But by 1961, the coup had already happened and Lumumba had already been kidnapped. 5/

Ok, so some brief background before getting to the meeting with Lumumba: Seon graduated from Allegheny College in 1959, and then did one year as a Woodrow Wilson fellow at the School of Government and Public Administration at American University. 6/

During Lumumba's 2-day visit to DC in June '60, Seon says she attended a reception hosted by the African Diplomatic Corps in lieu of her mom. There she spoke to one of his aides who "bc [Seon] spoke French" agreed to introduce her to Lumumba the next morning before his flight.7/

So, as promised, the next morning she and her parents personally met Lumumba and he offered her a job. Yuuup, that's really her story.

Also check out her anecdote here, which lines up with this op of a story that was planted all over the US press. 8/

soundcloud.com/congolive/seon…

Make of this Lumumba meeting what you will... It's certainly an interesting story?

Maybe a good time to point out for no particular reason that Nkrumah later found out that Lumumba's interpreter at the All African People's Conference ('58) had been CIA. 9/

Taking Seon's story at face-value, one obvious question is how do you get from being recruited by Lumumba to going to work for the government who had just deposed him? Now this is where the story really takes a spookier turn. 10/

According to Seon, Kasa-Vubu personally sent an emissary to her home while he was in the US, assuring her that though they had disagreed with Lumumba about a lot of things, they were in full agreement on hiring her (??). 11/

And that emissary sent to her home? None other than Holden Roberto (alias: José Gilmore), head of the UPA (and soon after the FNLA), and by then already one of the CIA's prized assets in Africa. A role he would continue for decades. 12/

So make it make sense... What is this 23yo recent college graduate bringing to the table that is so important that Holden Roberto is making a personal visit to her home requesting she come work for the coup government? Only months after he met the Congo CIA station chief? 13/

If Seon's story is true, her meeting with Roberto likely took place sometime in Nov '60 (after the coup in Sept). This is when Kasa-Vubu was in the US visiting the UN (Roberto can also be verified to have been in the US in November). But her memory seems to be failing her... 14/

Kasa-Vubu wasn't visiting the UN about the secession of Katanga. He was visiting the UN to consummate the coup with Mobutu. If anything it was Lumumba's visit in July that could be said to have concerned the Katanga crisis. 15/

Hey, look, here she is ~15 years later praising Mobutu, another CIA puppet and co-conspirator in Lumumba's assasination, for his authenticity and historic achievements for African people... 16/

Seon also had links to 2 CIA fronts, African-American Institute (AAI) and American Society of African Culture (AMSAC). Many ppl associated with these groups were unaware of their CIA ties/participated unwittingly, but given Seon's story so far, it's worth pointing out. 17/

Btw, I won't be quoting from them, bc the scan quality makes it hard to read, but the 2-part series published in 1969 in the BPP paper, "The CIA as an Equal Opportunity Employer", also provides good background on these fronts. 18/
marxists.org/history/usa/pu…
marxists.org/history/usa/pu…

AAI was a CIA front created by Dulles with an assist from American Metal Climax, which had major interests in the Congo/region. On AAI's board were reps of the same interests & key players in Lumumba's liquidation, like US ambass. to Belgium, W. Burden 19/

https://twitter.com/paulkleinfancam/status/1445450458143756296

Also on AAI's board, Maurice Tempelsman, who would later hire Larry Devlin to work for him in the Congo. Devlin had been among the most important planners of Lumumba's assassination as CIA station chief in the Congo 20/

https://twitter.com/paulkleinfancam/status/1290672127759310848

Seon says she and her mother (Beatrice Reed) frequented the Africa House, sponsored by AAI. And her first job was at the Africa House during the period between meeting Lumumba and leaving for the Congo in March of '61 to work for the regime that had displaced Lumumba 21/

The job that Seon was so critical to (that Kasa-Vubu had sent Holden Roberto to her home to hire her) was on the Inga Dam prjct. Incidentally, Burden, AAI board member, had visited the Inga dam site pre-independence, surveying investment opportunities 22/

archive.org/details/americ…

As for AMSAC, whose activities and circles overlapped considerably with AAI's, it too was another CIA front, set-up, in part, to co-opt and subvert SAC (Société Africaine de Culture). 23/

AMSAC's asst exec director until 1961 was the CIA agent, Ted Harris (who later was also an officer at AAI). In 1961, around the same time as Seon, he went to the Congo to run another CIA front: École Nationale de Droit et d’Administration (ENDA) 24/

https://twitter.com/RayTheGrouch/status/1446881748231544843

It's pretty clear that these Americans who had traveled to the Congo, including Seon. formed a tight-knit community there. In an autobio written by Albert Berrian's daughter, who was 14 at the time, recalls her family's friendships with Seon and the CIA agent, Harris. 25/

So perhaps it's not so surprising that when Seon made a Jan 1962 trip back to the US for some "R&R" (her words) during her Congo post, she was spotted at AMSAC's 5th annual holiday party with her mother, along with some very distinguished guests 26/

psimg.jstor.org/fsi/img/pdf/t0…

At the end of 1964, after Malcolm X's second trip to Africa, the CIA scrambled to run a counter-prop campaign in Africa. Enter AMSAC, who recruited James Farmer for a 5 week/9 country tour of Africa. "From PR pov, the tour was a great success," reported US embassy in Lusaka 27/

In 1966, AMSAC followed up with The First World Festival of Negro Arts in Senegal, following on the heels of two CIA-backed coups (Mobutu's and Nkrumah's ouster). With her mother, Seon, now officially a State Dept employee, took a chartered AMSAC plane to the festival. 28/

Rewinding a bit, Seon says she returned from the Congo in 1963 and then joined the State Department, thanks to her family "having friends in high place." She says Val Washington helped her get the job; another source says it was Charles Diggs, so idk what to make of that 29/

Also the State Dept newsletter reports her appointment in June of 1965. Unclear what she was doing between her return in '63 until then. 30/
archive.org/details/sim_st…

It's noteworthy I think that as a foreign affairs officer, Seon's official branch in the State Dept was in the Office of International Conferences. Seemingly a very good fit for the CIA's Congress for Cultural Freedom operations, as well as those of AAI and AMSAC 31/

Ok, going to conclude for now, and hopefully pick back up on a few other things later 32/

Oh ya, one last thing.. what the fuck? 33/

Messed up the screenshots here and posted near duplicates. This passage should've been there in place of the first screenshot 34/

https://twitter.com/paulkleinfancam/status/1449197334517145601

lol "I knew people in the Congo government at every level of the government. I met Mobutu on one occasion during that period.. on at least one occasion during that period... Actually more than one." 35/

A weird thing to dissemble about. It's not a secret the State Dept (& others) sponsored the US delegation. And if she's trying to exploit the technicality that it didn't sponsor the festival itself, well no escaping that the CIA front, AMSAC, did. 36/

https://twitter.com/paulkleinfancam/status/1449198346737012739

Kinda wild when you deep it that based on one single meeting with Lumumba back in 1960, now whenever she's introduced or makes a media appearance and so on, her alleged association with Lumumba is presented as an essential biographical detail 37/