Why is Belgium handing over Patrice Lumumba’s tooth to the DRC?

“Here in our culture when you don’t see the body of someone, for the woman you can’t go back to sleep on the bed. You have to stay on the floor all the time. So this is what the family has gone through. For them that tooth is the body of their father”.

Patrice Lumumba is a national hero in his native Democratic Republic of Congo. He became the country’s first prime minister at the age of just 35, after it won independence from Belgian rule in June of 1960. But less than a year later, he was overthrown, jailed and killed by factions reportedly supported by Belgium and the US.

Now a tooth, believed to have been stolen as a trophy by a Gendarme when his body was destroyed, is being returned to his family and the DRC.

Last week the Belgium monarch, King Philippe, expressed his ‘deepest regret’ for colonial era abuses – but stopped short of formally apologising or offering reparations.

Presenter: Alan Kasujja (@kasujja)