Patrice Lumumba’s tooth returns home 60 years after assassination. AP/Twitter.
Kinshasa: Patrice Lumumba, an anti-colonial hero, pan-African nationalist and the DRC’s first democratically elected prime minister was tortured and assassinated in 1961. Now, over half a century later, his coffin – made of black wenge (a hardwood) known for its resilience – has been returned to Congo from Brussels. The journey of the casket is unusual because of what it contains – single, gold-capped molar belonging to the slain leader.
Who was Patrice Emery Lumumba?
Patrice Emery Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was killed by firing squad on January 17, 1961. He played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic.
According to a report in Financial Times, Lumumba was arrested, tortured and shot to death by political opponents in the province of Katanga. His murder took place in the presence of Belgian officials.
What happened to Lumumba’s body?
Lumumba’s body and those of two colleagues who had been travelling with him, Joseph Okito and Maurice Mpolo were never found. However, decades later, as per the report, a Belgian police commissioner in the Congo named Gerard Soete confessed that he and his brothers had disposed the body, cut into corpses and dissolved in vats of sulphuric acid that belonged to the Union Mini?re du Haut-Katanga.
Incidentally, this Union Mini?re du Haut-Katanga established by King L?opold II in 1906 to exploit the Congo’s mineral resources was what Belgium was interested in protecting from Lumumba’s nationalist movement.
Source: AP
The gold-capped tooth
Ludo De Witte, a Belgian sociologist who wrote a groundbreaking account of the murder and its causes decades later had revealed that Soete had admitted that he had two of Lumumba’s teeth but had thrown them into the North Sea. He died that same year.
Later in 2015, his daughter had in an interview with a Belgian magazine showed one gold-capped tooth in a padded box. De Witte complained to the police and Belgian authorities confiscated the tooth.
Letter to King Philippe of Belgium
At the height of Black Lives Matter in June 2020, Lumumba’s daughter Juliana wrote to King Philippe of Belgium urging for the “return of the relics of Patrice ?mery Lumumba to the land of his ancestors.”
“Why, after his terrible murder, have Lumumba’s remains been condemned to remain a soul forever wandering… used on the one hand as trophies by some of your fellow citizens, and on the other as funereal possessions sequestered by your kingdom’s judiciary?” she asked in her letter.
Source AP
It was three months later that a Belgian court cleared the way for the tooth to be returned to DRC and the final stage of its journey began in the year 2022.
No DNA test
However, no DNA test has been carried out on the relic because it could have destroyed the tooth. The report mentioned Belgian officials saying that they have enough proof to effectively say that it is the tooth of Patrice Lumumba.
Eric Van Duyse, spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said they don’t have the DNA proof as, in consultation with the family, they decided not to do it.
Importance of Lumumba’s tooth
The president of Congo F?lix Tshisekedi says Lumumba’s is a true icon. “Despite the many generations that came and went, and this is the third generation since Lumumba, he is still regarded as an icon,” he said.
Source AP
Tshisekedi understood the power of the moment Lumumba’s tooth finally came home and at the ceremony Tshisekedi told the assembled crowd that the country was finally able to end the period of mourning that had begun 61 years before.
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