The remains of Patrice Lumumba, hero of the independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo, assassinated in January 1961, is the subject of a documentary film directed by Benoît Feyt, Dieudo Hamadi and Quentin Noirfalisse. Entitled “Lumumba, the return of a hero”, the film details the political celebrations surrounding this return, while seeking to know what is the legacy of Lumumba, both in Congo and in Belgium. The film will be presented in preview on June 8, 2023 in Brussels, at the Vendôme cinema.
Lumumba, assassinated at the age of 36 with two of his close collaborators, Okito and Mpolo, is a hero of African independence. His funeral took place in relative discretion, the height of the cold war having then right any movement of international protest. During the Cold War, Western countries tried to counter any independence movement that might encroach on their sphere of influence.
Several years passed before a former Belgian policeman, Gérard Soete, broke the silence and threatened to reveal the whereabouts of Lumumba’s body dissolved in acid. The human remains were discovered in 2016. Despite numerous international calls for those responsible to be brought to justice, the crime remains unpunished.
The return of Lumumba’s remains to the DRC, a very political event, is a story of reunion between the Congolese people and their hero. The film by Benoît Feyt, Dieudo Hamadi and Quentin Noirfalisse retraces this return while asking the question of what remains of Patrice Lumumba in the memory of the Congolese people and within Belgian society.
It is a film eagerly awaited by the relatives and supporters of Patrice Lumumba, and it will be interesting to see how it will be received by the Belgian public, while the country sticks to a very ambiguous position vis-à-vis of its controversial colonial past, and of a murder that became a symbol of colonial oppression