In the stands of the World Cup, this man pays tribute as a living statue (for ninety minutes) to the first Prime Minister of Congo, the murdered Patrice Lumumba

Michel Nkuka Mboladena (49) prefers to celebrate his country in silence. He stands motionless on a pedestal, wrapped in the Congolese flag: chest forward, right arm in the air, palm open, chin slightly raised and his gaze fixed ahead. It is Wednesday evening and the stands of the Estadio Guadalajara in the Mexican city of the same name form the backdrop during the World Cup match between Congo and Colombia. Around him the stands ripple like a grandstand does: singing, cheering, rows that bounce with every nice touch of the ball.

Mboladena is an atypical resting point in between. His bright red jacket stands out sharply against his sky blue trousers. The pose that Mboladena adopts is that of a statue that overlooks the Congolese capital Kinshasa more than ten thousand kilometers away. That of the murdered anti-colonial resistance hero Patrice Émery Lumumba. And Mboladena maintains that pose for ninety minutes.

His nickname, ‘Lumumba Vea’, means ‘Lumumba lives’. Mboladena paid tribute to the very first Prime Minister of independent Congo during the African Cup of Nations last fall in Morocco an internet sensation. Also at the current World Cup he grows into a supporter phenomenon.

Mboladena’s tribute touches on a need to bring Lumumba into the present. “Lumumba is a symbol of dignity and freedom for us (Congolese),” says Mboladena in a telephone interview, which is interrupted after eight minutes and taken over by his agent – ​​Mboladena now has several sponsorship deals. “A source of Congolese pride. He gave us independence.”

Mboladena reportedly traveled to Mexico at the players’ request. Les Leopards are playing at a World Cup for the first time since 1974 and have now traveled to Atlanta for their final group match against Uzbekistan on Saturday night. It was not yet certain on Friday whether Mboladena will be there again because his American visa had not yet been confirmed. But he has already chosen his colors: “yellow trousers, a blue suit, a red shirt and a yellow tie.”

Despite the defeat against Colombia, after a draw in the opening match against Portugal, Congo retains its chances of qualifying for the next round. Mboladena, who received a diplomatic passport from the Congolese government as ambassador for sport and culture, had to miss the opening match due to health restrictions surrounding the Ebola outbreak. He himself was previously against it TV5Monde said that he wanted to excel again at this World Cup. He would be there, he would be there againboom” to make.

World Cup debut

Mboladena often expresses this dry self-evidence in interviews. Apart from the defeat against Colombia, he could hardly imagine his World Cup start better. Certainly, he looks back, for a debut. Mboladena does not see himself as a spectator, but as a participant. “I performed. It went great. C’était merveilleux.”

During the Africa Cup, Congolese media counted that he had been in his position for a total of 438 minutes. But Mboladena does not see it as an endurance test or a mental tour de force. The arm raised, the body in the position, for ninety minutes: for him it is routine. Mboladena says he “trains” it every day, at least ninety, sometimes 120 minutes – he has to take extensions into account. “I have experience,” he says, “and have been doing it since 2013. Wherever I am, I rehearse. Also here, in my hotel room in front of the mirror. I just do my job.”

The man whom Mboladena reshapes in every match, Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), became one of the faces of the Congolese liberation struggle and the Pan-African liberation idea in the late 1950s. Even after Belgium’s enforced independence and his appointment as Prime Minister in 1960, his plea for true African sovereignty remained a major source of concern in Brussels, Washington and among their Congolese allies.

The later president Joseph Mobutu, then an army colonel, sidelined him politically with the help of Belgium and in early 1961 the then 35-year-old Lumumba was tortured and executed under the watchful eye of Belgian officers. A remaining tooth, taken by a Belgian police commissioner after Lumumba’s body was dissolved in acid, was not returned to the Belgian state until 2022 back to his family.

Gun gesture

With his tribute, Mboladena brought the Congolese revolutionary to the attention of an audience that does not know this story this World Cup. The American journalist Bomani Jones tweeted this week that he hoped that Americans who found Mboladena “so cute” would also “look up the real Lumumba and what happened to him.”

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On Wednesday, Mboladena placed one hand over his mouth and two fingers against his temple during the Congolese national anthem. It silence-on-tuegesture, is an indictment of the ongoing war in Eastern Congo: the hand on the mouth for the silent international community, the pistol gesture for the deadly violence – from the Rwanda-backed M23 militia – that comes with it.

There is little room for such political messages at this World Cup. According to FIFA, national associations are liable when their supporters convey a message that “does not fit a sporting event”. According to agent Samy Ntumba Shambuyi, Mboladena is well aware that he must avoid political messages during the match. But for now, his management – Mboladena has five representatives – says he has not heard anything from FIFA.

According to William Ackah, researcher into Pan-Africanism and the African diaspora at London’s Birkbeck University, the power of ‘Lumumba Vea’ lies precisely in what it does not do. “He doesn’t say anything,” says Ackah. “He only portrays. Fans take photos with him and celebrate that image. The question is whether the meaning behind it lands outside Congolese and African communities that recognize this ancient struggle.”

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Sixty-five years after the assassination, Lumumba’s anti-colonial legacy is alive and well. His centenary of birth attracted new attention last year. Within Congolese and African communities, but also beyond, his name is linked to conversations about liberation and colonial guilt.

Congo is also the country where the riches in the soil have been leading to geopolitical and military strife for decades. In his independence speech, Lumumba promised to ensure that “the lands of our homeland truly benefit his children.”

According to Ackah, that struggle has never stopped. Lumumba reminds us of that painful reality, he says, but also offers hope that the struggle has not been given up. “Many countries and communities are still stuck in old chains of colonial power relations. That requires an answer. Iconic figures from the past help with this. Look at the rise of Ibrahim Traore in Burkina Fasowho tries to evoke a revolutionary spirit (the authoritarian leader who emphatically refers to the Pan-African fighter Thomas Sankara refers). ”

African solidarity

Lumumba is more than Congolese heritage: he gained significance within a growing movement of African solidarity. During the Africa Cup, Mboladena’s tribute prompted Egyptian football fans old news footage of Egyptians who, after the murder of Lumumba, took to the streets of Cairo in anger and attacked the Belgian embassy. In recent weeks, Egyptian supporters called on their football association to invite Mboladena to cheer on their team during the group match against Belgium. According to Shambuyi, similar calls also came from Moroccan, Senegalese and Algerian quarters.

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Before Mboladena returned to his hometown of Kinshasa, he lived with his family in neighboring Congo-Brazzaville. In addition to his work in a bakery, he also worked as an impersonator. His hairstyle, posture and physique: according to his agent, people saw the local president Denis Sassou Nguesso in them. Mboladena thus played in the street life of Brazzaville, between the sapeurs.

Upon returning to his home city in 2013, he began to wonder what he could do “for his own country, for his nation,” says manager Shambuyi. He found inspiration in national hero Lumumba. Not long afterwards, Mboladena performed the iconic gesture to the stands of ‘his’ AS Vita Club, one of Kinshasa’s largest football clubs.

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In 2016, he was “recruited” by the Congolese Football Federation as one of the national team’s ‘animateurs’: the singers, dancers and drummers who follow the team and cheer them on from the stands. But his performance was initially not appreciated. “Some said: he doesn’t sing, he doesn’t dance in the stadium. He was thwarted.”

He was therefore missing from the African Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in 2023. Only after a new Minister of Sports took office did he get a chance on big stages, such as the last Africa Cup, where Moroccan influencers discovered him. “No one is a prophet in their own country,” says his agent. “Fortunately, football fans from other African countries did see him.”

Apolitical?

When he returned home from Morocco, he was welcomed as a national hero and Congolese politics took over: President Félix Tshisekedi wanted to meet him and Sports Minister Didier Budimbu presented him with a Jeep. When Mboladena joined the political party of the same Budimbu in April, it led to a lot of criticism, after which he broke those ties again: Lumumba’s name would be better left apolitical. The Continent spoke earlier with one of Mboladena’s other managers, who clearly summarized the weight Lumumba still places on Congolese shoulders: “Mboladena no longer belongs to himself. He belongs to millions of Congolese.”

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