A gold-crowned tooth is all that remains of assassinated Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba. Shot dead by a firing squad in 1961 with the tacit backing of former colonial power Belgium, his body was then buried in a shallow grave, dug up, transported 200km (125 miles), interred again, exhumed and then hacked to pieces and finally dissolved in acid.
The Belgian police commissioner, Gerard Soete, who oversaw and participated in the destruction of the remains took the tooth, he later admitted.
He also talked about a second tooth and two of the corpse’s fingers, but these have not been found. The tooth has now been returned to the family at a ceremony in Brussels.
Soete’s impulse to pocket the body parts echoed the behaviour of European colonial officials down the decades who took remains back home as macabre mementoes.
The burial of the tooth – planned to coincide with the 61st anniversary of Lumumba’s famous independence-day speech – will offer an opportunity to revisit that past.
Credit: bbc.com
