KINSHASA -(MaraviPost)-On Thursday June 30, 2022 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) held a ceremony to bury the gold-crowned tooth of independence hero Patrice Lumumba more than 60 years after he was assassinated.
The ceremony which is said to be the only late Lumumba’s funeral took place in the capital Kinshasa.
It was the only part of his body that existed after his remains were dissolved in acid.
The Belgian policeman who oversaw the disposal took the tooth as a trophy.
It was returned to the family last week and had toured several parts of DR Congo in a coffin.
President Félix Tshisekedi, Lumumba’s family and other dignitaries were among other top officials at the service which took place before the coffin was transferred to a specially built mausoleum.
Lumumba was the Democratic Republic of Congo first Prime Minister and one of the leaders of the struggle for country’s independence.
He was also one of the most prominent voices in Africa’s anti-colonial movement.
Thursday marked exactly 62 years since the former colonial power Belgium relinquished control of the vast country.
Lumumba was viewed as a barrier to its efforts to maintain influence as well as hold on to important economic interests.
In a famous speech on independence day in 1960, in front of Belgian dignitaries including King Baudouin, Lumumba, aged 34, castigated Belgium saying that the Congolese had been held in humiliating slavery.
The Belgians were stunned as a black African who had never dared to speak like this in front of Europeans.
Lumumba was toppled as prime minister just over two months later.
In January 1961, with the tacit backing of Belgium, he was shot by a firing squad, along with two allies.
A Belgian policeman, Gerard Soete, was given the job of getting rid of the evidence.
It was during that process that he pocketed the tooth and took it back with him to Belgium.
It took decades for Soete to reveal that he still had the tooth and only two years ago, Belgium agreed that it should be returned to the family.
The Covid pandemic delayed the process but last week it is when the tooth handed over in Brussels.