Lumumba’s tooth returns
Publish date: 12 January 2021
Issue Number: 904
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: General
* Belgium will return a tooth taken from the remains of assassinated Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba to his family by the end of June. The tooth was seized from a Belgian policeman who admitted he took it while helping to dispose of Lumumba's body after the charismatic leader was murdered in 1961. A pan-Africanist who played a key part in steering Belgian Congo towards independence, Lumumba was appointed the newly decolonised country's first Prime Minister at the age of just 34.
