“Every time we think we’ve reached the depths of colonial horrors, we discover something even more appalling!” These words from Cameroonian poet and writer Samy Manga on June 20, 2022, encapsulate the outrage sparked by Belgium’s decision to return a single tooth of Patrice Lumumba, the former Prime Minister of an independent Congo, assassinated in 1961 by colonial powers.
A Grim Legacy of Colonial Violence
The tooth, handed over to Congolese authorities, is the only known remnant of Lumumba’s body, which was destroyed with sulfuric acid after his brutal execution. Lumumba, along with two close allies, was tortured and killed by Katangese officials with the complicity of Belgium and the United States.
In 1999, Gérard Soete, a former Katanga police official who oversaw the disposal of Lumumba’s body, confessed to keeping “trophies” – two teeth and two fingers from Lumumba’s corpse. This shocking admission highlighted the sheer brutality of Belgian colonial rule, which, between 1885 and 1960, caused the deaths of an estimated 5 to 8 million people in Congo.
Belgium’s Delayed Acknowledgment
One year after expressing “deep regrets” for the injuries and suffering caused by colonialism in Congo, Belgium’s King Philippe visited Kinshasa in June 2022. The visit culminated on June 20 with the official handover of Lumumba’s tooth. During the ceremony, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo declared, “This moral responsibility of the Belgian government, we have acknowledged, and I reaffirm it on this official day of Belgium’s farewell to Patrice Émery Lumumba.”
A Manifesto Against Symbolic Gestures
Samy Manga’s work, The Tooth of Lumumba: Regicide Against the Colony, is a roar of indignation, denouncing both the colonial atrocities in Congo and the superficial nature of contemporary reparations discourse. Sociologists Véronique Clette-Gakuba and David Jamar, in the preface to the book, describe it as a response to King Philippe’s contrition, arguing that such ceremonial acts fail to address the devastating and lived consequences of colonial violence.
A Call for Justice
In his writing, Manga directly confronts King Philippe, holding him accountable for the legacy of colonial crimes. His words echo the pain and outrage of the victims: “I, President of Congo. Dear Colonizer, Little Philippe [son] of Paola Ruffo di Calabria, President and King, destroyer of Black beauty... I would have appreciated it if, before addressing us, you had turned your venomous tongue thirteen more times in your mouth.”
The return of Lumumba’s tooth, while significant, has reignited calls for more comprehensive reparations and a deeper reckoning with the horrors of colonial history.
