Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- After 61 years, the next of kin will receive the remains of the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo back. A tooth will be handed over to Lumumba’s sons and daughters in the Egmont Palace on Monday. “It’s important for the family, but also for the millions of people who believe in him,” says son Roland. “This is the end of an era. Now we must build a new era.”
“After 61 years of captivity, the remains of our national hero return home to Congo.” On Friday afternoon, representatives of current president Félix Tsishekedi took the floor in a slightly too small room in the embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Brussels. The big moment will take place on Monday. If the attachés of the Congolese head of state have not yet made it sufficiently clear how important that moment is, Roland, one of Lumumba’s sons, makes another attempt. “The biggest event ever for Africa was the release of Nelson Mandela. The repatriation of Patrice Lumumba’s remains will be the second most important moment.”
It is Lumumba’s children who went to the Belgian court in 2011 to lodge a complaint against twelve Belgians for their involvement in the murder of their father in 1961. He had been elected as Prime Minister of Congo less than six months earlier, which had only just become independent. Lumumba’s body was never recovered and reportedly dissolved in sulfuric acid.
Gerard Soete, then a member of the colonial police, was involved in the disappearance of the body. He claimed for years that he had wrung out two of Patrice Lumumba’s teeth before the body was dissolved, but died more than ten years before the start of the Belgian judicial investigation into what the prosecutor described as a war crime. In 2016, the parquet found one tooth in Gerard’s daughter’s house. It will be confiscated for judicial investigation.
‘This was never a battle for reparations’
Two years ago, the Belgian court announced that the tooth was no longer necessary evidence. That same year, Juliana Lumumba, one of the daughters, had made an emotional appeal in the context of the 60th anniversary of independence to get the tooth back. Now the time has come. “I can’t say that this is a moment of joy, but it is positive to finally be able to bury ‘ours’. It is important not only for the family, but for the millions of people who believe in him. His soul can rest in peace at last,” said Roland Lumumba Friday afternoon during a press conference in the Congolese embassy in a room filled with Congolese and a few Belgian and European journalists. For him, his brother François and sister Juliana, the return of their father’s remains means the end of a chapter that has lasted far too long. They want to turn the page now.
“This is the end of an era and now we have to build a new one. Everyone should know their history, not to extract hatred from it, but to work with it for an impetus of respect and equality between Congo and Belgium,” said BRUZZ. When his father was murdered, he was barely three years old. A Congolese journalist asks whether everyone in the family is behind the restitution. Guy, Lumumba’s youngest son and a 2006 presidential candidate, is opposed. He believes that President Tshisekedi has politically recovered the return of the remains. And what about a possible reparation payment?
“We are a big African Congolese family. That means there are younger and older people, smart and less intelligent people. As in every family, not everyone has the same vision, but with us the democratic rule of the majority counts,” replies Roland calm down. “We leave the question of possible reparations to the courts. Our struggle has never been financial. Only two defendants are now alive. We hope that the judicial investigation will yield results for their deaths.” The return of the tooth does not in any way mean the end of the judicial investigation, emphasises Tshisikedi’s entourage.
The tooth is currently in the Egmont Palace. An official ceremony will take place there on Monday morning, in which the federal prosecutor’s office hands over the tooth to the Lumumba family. In addition to Prime Minister De Croo, the Congolese president or prime minister will also be present. Before that, Lumumba’s family is received at the royal palace for a conversation with King Philippe.
It is under the reign of his uncle, King Baudouin, that Patrice Lumumba was murdered. “Obviously we are not a fan of his uncle, but we do not hold him responsible (King Philip, ed.). I don’t even know whether he was born then,” Roland says. King Philippe paid a visit to Congo just over a week ago. In the capital Kinshasa he gave a historic speech in which he expressed his regret about the abuses and atrocities that took place during the colonial period. There were no apologies, critics emphasised.
Roland Lumumba: “Even if the king had offered a thousand apologies, this story is not over for us. I see a historical evolution – there is now also a Lumumba square in Brussels – and we cannot remain resentful if someone reaches out to us. We too reach out and show our good will, to move forward. We do not forget our history and our dead, but we look to the future.”
Real tooth?
The Congolese delegation that comes to Brussels for the return also takes a coffin with them. “With Congolese wood,” someone from Tshisekedi’s cabinet emphasises. After the ceremony in the Egmont Palace, the coffin leaves for the embassy, where a mourning register is opened. On Tuesday there will be a memorial at the square at the Porte de Namur that is named after Lumumba, after which the tooth flies back to Congo. There, the head of state has declared days of national mourning from June 27 to 30.
Whether the tooth that will be handed over on Monday is indeed the remains of Patrice Emery Lumumba is not even one hundred percent certain. The prosecutor’s office has never conducted a DNA test. According to the prosecutor’s office, the tooth would have to be destroyed for this, and Lumumba’s family does not intend to do that either.
“Who proves the authenticity? There are testimonials. We had the choice between destroying the only element we still have after 61 years for DNA research to make whomever happy, or to take the remains back home with us. We have made the choice,” Roland continues. “It’s a bit like fatherhood. Who proves that your father is also your father? Nobody does a DNA test for that.”
