La Jornada: Living statue makes FIFA uncomfortable and reminds the world of the Congo tragedy

Solemn, still and silent in the stadium. Congolese Michel Kuka Mboladinga revives the anti-colonial and pan-African struggle of Patrice Lumumba, murdered in 1961 by a plot that included Belgium, the CIA and the manipulation of jazz star Louis Armstrong.

Mboladinga moves only to cover his mouth and imitate a gun pointed at his head. In this way he also protests against the silence that surrounds the persistent conflict in the east of his country, one of the most tragic in the world today, which has recently displaced thousands of people and has caused more than 6 million deaths since the 1990s.

FIFA, which had been giving spotlights to this living statue, stopped broadcasting its image the moment it put one hand to its mouth and another to its temple, the message of protest that alludes to the atrocities that continue to be committed today.

In the recent World Cup match in Guadalajara of the Democratic Republic of the Congo team against Colombia, the character nicknamed Lumumba See (which means Lumumba lives) stood on a pedestal with his arm raised.

Always elegant

As in each of the national team’s international matches that you can attend, Lumumba See appears elegant. On this occasion, his clothing is a bright red jacket and tie, a yellow shirt, and blue pants. They are the colors of the Congolese flag.

Firmly, he took his seat an hour before the game at the stadium in the capital of Jalisco on Tuesday. During the match, he remained motionless on a pedestal behind the Congo bench, with his right arm raised.

In a message spread through the Lumumba Vea en X account, he thanked “the Mexican people for their welcome, their hospitality, their affection and their sportsmanship. Soccer is love.”

His image recalls the sculpture in Kinshasa, capital of the Congo, dedicated to Lumumba, who was declared a national hero of his country in 1966. Revered throughout the continent as one of the main voices of African liberation, he suffered like few others the humiliation and violence of the colonial powers.

During the colonial regime of King Leopold II of Belgium, between 1885 and 1908, the territory suffered from the exploitation of resources such as rubber and ivory. Various historical studies estimate that millions of people died then. There were physical punishments and amputations against those who did not reach the required production quotas.

A brief period of hope

Lumumba’s memory is powerful. The Congolese was prime minister of the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo, between June and September 1960. A brief period of hope in freedom from Belgian occupation.

In 1960, Lumumba expressed that “the independence of the Congo is a decisive step towards the liberation of the entire African continent. Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country.”

During the Leopoldville Pan-African Conference in August 1960, he warned: “The colonialists do not care at all about Africa, only their own good. They are attracted by the riches of Africa and their actions are guided by the desire to preserve their interests in Africa against the will of the African people. For the colonialists, all means are good if they help them possess those riches.”

Lumumba had predicted: “the day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history that is taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations… Africa will write its own history, in the north and the south, and it will be a history of glory and dignity.”

The colonial response was extremely violent. Following a coup d’état supported by President Kasa-Vubu, Joseph Désiré Mobutu seized power in December 1960. Lumumba was arrested and executed in Katanga before Belgian and American spy agents. Their remains were made to disappear with the participation of Belgium and other countries. To prevent it from becoming an object of worship, they dismembered the corpse and dissolved it in acid.

The singer Louis Armstrong, the distractor

A little-known fact was the use of the renowned American musician Louis Armstrong, without his knowledge, to give American agents access to the secessionist region of Katanga, rich in uranium, cobalt, copper and diamonds. These are data from Susan Williams, published in her book White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa (White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa).

Last year, on tape Soundtrack for a coup d’étatwhich was nominated for an Oscar for best documentary, Belgian director Johan Grimonprez reconstructs “the story of Lumumba’s murder through jazz.”

The Spanish newspaper The Countryin a review of the audiovisual document, noted that “for Khrushchev (leader of the Soviet Union during part of the cold war) it was quite obvious that there was a diplomatic strategy (in jazz). Lumumba was overthrown the first week of September and was largely absent from the 15th UN General Assembly. A month later, he saw Louis Armstrong sent as a propaganda instrument.”

After his murder, Belgian police officer Gerard Soete supervised the destruction of Patrice Lumumba’s remains and took a gold tooth that was returned to his family just four years ago, in a ceremony in Brussels.

Now, the renowned Pan-African leader reappears on television at this World Cup.