Erasure and Remembrance: Lumumba's Tooth and the Politics of Decolonial Memory

This essay explores the symbolic restitution of Patrice Lumumba's tooth as a prism through which the unfinished process of decolonization in the Democratic Republic of Congo can be understood. It argues that the preservation, disappearance, and recent return of this bodily fragment illuminate the enduring entanglement between colonial violence, historical amnesia, and contemporary struggles for sovereignty and justice. Drawing on historical records, scholarly literature and current debates on restitution, the paper demonstrates how Lumumba's assassination and the erasure of his body were not merely acts of political elimination but strategies of memory control. The return of the tooth in 2022, while symbolically powerful, raises critical questions: Can memory alone repair colonial injustice? Can restitution exist without accountability? Ultimately, Lumumba's tooth embodies the paradox of postcolonial Congo — a nation free in name yet still grappling with the coloniality of power, resources and representation.