The mausoleum of Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has been broken into. His only remains – a tooth that Belgium only recently returned to its former colony – has possibly been stolen.
The tooth is of great symbolic value to the DRC. It is kept in a large concrete mausoleum in Kinshasa in honour of Lumumba, who played a large role in helping to lead Congo's struggle from a Belgian colony into an independent republic.
"We do not yet know whether the relic – the tooth – is still present in the casket or has been taken away," a person in charge of the memorial site told Congolese news agency ACP. "An investigation has been launched immediately."
Le mausolée de Patrice Lumumba à Limete (Kinshasa) vandalisé
Vitre brisée, cercueil à terre, l'objectif était vraisemblablement de “voler” la seule dent du Héros national qui y est gardée. Heureusement, “la situation est sous contrôle” actuellement. “Les lieux ont été… pic.twitter.com/AFiHqyozXi — Barick Buema (@barickbuema) November 19, 2024
Images circulating on the internet show that a window at the back of the mausoleum has been smashed. The casket, in which the tooth is kept, is lying on the floor.
The Congolese Ministry of Culture called the break-in a "heinous act, with the desecration of the grave of our national hero as the intent" in a press statement. "Strong measures will be taken to punish the perpetrators of this unacceptable act, and all necessary measures have been taken to restore the mausoleum as soon as possible."
Culture Minister Yolande Elebe could not confirm whether the tooth had been stolen or not and said they had to wait for the police investigation to know more.
Why did Belgium have Lumumba's tooth?
The tooth had been in Belgium until 20 June 2022, when the Belgian State returned it to the Lumumba family during an official ceremony at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. During the ceremony, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also apologised for the role Belgium played in Lumumba's assassination in 1961 – one year after the DRC's independence.
Lumumba was killed in disreputable circumstances and, as De Croo touched on in his speech, Belgium tried to conceal its involvement for a long time. In 1999, however, former Belgian Chief of Police Gérard Soete admitted to assisting in the assassination, and dissolving Lumumba's body in sulfuric acid.
At this moment in time, Soete said he took several of Lumumba's finger bones and multiple teeth, one of which was covered in gold, reportedly seeing it as "a type of hunting trophy." The remains were kept in his possession, and he even showed them on a Flemish television programme.
The official ceremony to return Lumumba's remains to his family on Monday 20 June in Brussels. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
Soete died in 2000 and was never prosecuted. During an interview in 2016, however, his daughter Godelieve Soete showed one of Lumumba's teeth. Her house was then searched by the police, and the remains were taken to be stored in Brussels' Palais de Justice.
In June 2022, the tooth was officially handed over to Lumumba's next of kin, his daughter Juliana Lumumba. She asked for the return of her father's "relics" in a letter addressed to the Belgian King at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in July 2020.
