Lumumba’s famous tooth is safe – daughter

The gold-capped tooth of Patrice Lumumba, the DRC's independence hero, is safe and has not been stolen, his daughter has told the BBC. The news comes as a relief to a nation gripped by fear that the only remains of the country’s revered first Prime Minister had been stolen after his mausoleum in the capital, Kinshasa, was vandalised last Monday. But Juliana Lumumba said previous concerns about the security of the site had prompted the family to move the tooth to a more secure location. The tooth was only returned to the Lumumba family by former colonial power Belgium two years ago – and had been placed in the special memorial building. Lumumba was seen as a symbol of change and hope after the harrowing years under Belgian rule, during which millions of Congolese people died or were brutalised. But within months of the country’s independence from Belgium in 1960 he was toppled as Prime Minister. At the age of 35 he was shot by a firing squad in January 1961, with the tacit backing of Belgium. His body was then dissolved in acid, but Belgian police officer Gerard Soete, who oversaw the destruction, took the tooth as a macabre memento.

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