Roland Gilbert Okito Lumumba, the youngest son of the hero of the independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, died in the capital, Kinshasa, at the age of 67, after a struggle with illness.
Roland Lumumba, an architect by training, served as a member of the Congolese Parliament for nearly ten years. He was also known for his political and intellectual role in defending his father’s legacy and seeking to uncover the truth related to his assassination.
Patrice Lumumba briefly assumed prime minister after the country's independence in 1960, before he was overthrown and assassinated in 1961 by separatists supported by Belgium, in one of the bloodiest and most controversial incidents in modern African history.
In 2002, the Belgian government made an official apology for its role in Lumumba’s execution, before returning twenty years later a tooth belonging to him, which is the only known remains found from his body. The passing of Roland Lumumba represents the end of an influential chapter in a long path of demanding truth, justice, and national memory linked to the assassination of his father, as he devoted a large part of his life to defending the right of the Congolese people to know what happened.
This comes at a time when judicial proceedings related to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba are still ongoing before the Belgian courts. Following Lumumba’s assassination, Congo entered decades of dictatorial rule led by Mobutu Sese Seko, who seized power through a military coup in 1965, and remained in power until his overthrow in 1997.
