Description
Patrice Lumumba's coffin arrived on Sunday in Haut-Katanga in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo where a wake is being held at the site of the independence hero's murder. A single tooth is all that remains of the young scholar and nationalist politician whose life and career were cut short in a dark struggle for leadership and control of resources in the central African country.
His body was dissolved in acid after he was killed, but a Belgian police officer kept the tooth as a trophy. Belgian authorities in 2016 seized the relic from his daughter.
Belgium finally returned it on Monday to Lumumba's family members during a ceremony in Brussels.
It was then placed inside a coffin for the funeral tour, 61 years late. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES