IEA Correspondent
Congolese people have finally buried the only known remains, a tooth of their independence hero Patrice Lumumba. This took place in the capital Kinshashasa.
Patrice Lumumba died in the hands of Belgian-backed secessionist rebels. 61 years ago. He was killed by firing squad on 16th January 1961 at the Southeastern province of Katanga after being deposed as prime minister the year before just after Congolese independence.
Thousands turned up for the funeral. The occasion was attended by the President of neighbouring Congo Republic, Denis Sassou Nguesso, Belgium Foreign Minister and several African Ambassadors.
“Finally, the Congolese people can have the honour of offering a burial to their illustrious prime minister,” President Felix Tshisekedi said. “We are ending … mourning we started 61 years ago.”
This comes during 62nd anniversary of D R Congo’s independence, a time when Patrice Lumumba gave powerful speech condemning 75 years of Belgium’s colonisation of Congo. Belgium King Leopold 11 was the ruler of Congo and millions of people lost their lives.
King Phillipe visited D R Congo recently and acknowledged the racist colonial abuses although he didn’t apologise. After dying in a firing squad, the body of Patrice Lumumba was never found. A Belgium police officer, Gerard Soete claimed he dissolved much of it in accid, set it on fire and took Patrice Lumumba’s tooth which is what was returned and was handed over to the family this month.
One of Lumumba’s granddaughters wrote on a letter she had written for Lumumba during the funeral.
“Your return home, the honours you are receiving here are a page of the history you continue to write,” one of his grandaughters said in a letter to Lumumba that she read at the funeral. “With you, today, Africa is writing its own history,” she said.
The rest of Africa is still campaigning to get body parts of their heroes and heroines in Europe returned to the continent. Lumumba’s case is one in many and the return a step in good direction.
