Lumumba tooth
Lumumba’s tooth handed to the family in Brussels
The Belgian authorities have handed the tooth belonging to Congo independence leader Patrice Lumumba to his family in a ceremony in Brussels.
It is the only part of him that is thought to still exist after he was executed and then his body dissolved in acid in 1961.
Belgium was the former colonial power and an official inquiry said that some members of its government at the time “were morally responsible for circumstances leading to the death”.
The man overseeing the destruction of the body, Belgian policeman Gerard Soete took the tooth as a “kind of hunting trophy”, he later said.