Patrice Lumumba was the first prime minister of the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo). He was elected by the people after the DRC got independence from Belgium in 1960.
Belgian officials gave a tooth of Patrice Lumumba to his family during a ceremony in Brussels. The tooth is his only remaining body part after he was murdered.
Lumumba became the first prime minister of the DRC after it got independence from Belgium in 1960.
Chief prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw gave Lumumba’s family a small, blue box containing the tooth in a ceremony at Egmont Palace in Central Brussels. The ceremony was also on TV. Frederic Van Leeuw said that the family’s legal action helped get the tooth back.
Patrice Lumumba’s son, Roland Lumumba, told reporters that he feels satisfaction after trying for several years.
The tooth will be put in a casket and flown to DR Congo.
While Patrice Lumumba was prime minister, he scared the West by trying to make good relations with Moscow during the Cold War. He also made Belgium angry when he attacked the country in a speech about colonization.
Belgium ruled Congo from 1885 to 1960. It has been reported that more than 10 million Congolese died from killings, disease, and not enough food in the first 23 years. At that time, when villages did not produce enough rubber, they had to cut off the hands of workers. During that period, the king of Belgium was King Leopold II.
Belgium’s current king, King Phillipe, recently visited DRC. He has said that Belgium’s rule over the DRC was unjustifiable and racist. However, he didn’t apologize.
Lumumba’s time as prime minister lasted only three months. He was overthrown and killed by a firing squad, at just 35 years old. His supporters and some historians think that the CIA organized the killing.
There are many reports that say Lumumba’s body was taken out of the ground, taken apart, and then put in acid by Belgian officers. One of the officers took Lumumba’s tooth as a “trophy.”
In 2016, Lumumba’s family filed a complaint to get the tooth back. After that, Belgian officials took the tooth from the daughter of the policeman, Gerard Soete, who took the tooth from Lumumba.
The DRC will have three days of national mourning from June 27 to June 30 and have a burial ceremony in Kinshasa, the capital city of DRC. It’s now the 62nd anniversary of independence.
Vocabulary
- Elected – chosen by the people, many people voted for, to win an election
- Independence – not ruled by another country
- An official – an important person connected to government or a large agency
- Remaining – still there, not gone, left over
- Murdered – the act of killing a person, to kill a person
- Chief – head, top, leader, boss
- Prosecutor – a lawyer
- Contain – to have inside, to keep inside
- Legal action – a lawsuit, to fight someone in court, legal proceedings, to sue
- Get back – to get again, something is returned to you, something is given to you again
- Casket – a coffin, a box for a dead body
- The West – usually means non-communist countries in Europe, North America, and Oceania
- Colonization – when a country takes control of another country and the original people there
- Rule – to be in charge, to have power over, to control
- Congolese – the people of Congo
- Rubber – a material used to make tires, rain boots, and more
- Unjustifiable – not right, not reasonable, no reason for, inexcusable
- Racist – to treat a group of people poorly because of their ethnic group, to be mean to a group of people who are different than yours
- Overthrow – to remove from power, to take down, to beat or destroy
- Firing squad – a group of people who have instructions to shoot someone
- Trophy – a prize, an object you win after a tournament (often a “cup” or “shield”)
- File a complaint – to complain officially, to make an official complaint, to say something is wrong
- Mourne – to feel sadness, regret, or sorrow because somebody died
- Burial ceremony – a ceremony where you put a dead person’s body in the ground
Original article from Al Jazeera below:
