The Congolese African hero and liberation warrior Patrice Lumumba's tooth has just been restored to his family by the Belgian government.
This development occurs 61 years after he was killed by members of the firing squad of the previous colonial regime.
After killing him, Lumumba's assassins disintegrated his body in acid while preserving some of his teeth as grisly souvenirs.
The only thing left of the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Lumumba's tooth (DRC).
The Congo's war for independence from Belgium was frontally led by the ferocious revolutionary Lumumba.
As a warrior in the struggle against the abhorrent injustice and European colonialism in Africa, Lumumba passed away.
In 1961, Belgian mercenaries and separatists both killed him.
The tooth was reportedly taken from Belgian police commissioner Gerard Soete after he admitted to taking part in the horrible murder of Lumumba.
According to accounts, the gold-capped tooth was given to a group of family members on Monday morning in the Egmont Palace in Brussels before being placed in a casket and sent to the DRC embassy.
The tooth's recovery meant that Lumumba's family could "end their grief," according to Roland Lumumba, Lumumba's son.
But Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo described the incident as a terrible and unpleasant fact that needed to be said.
"A man was killed for his political convictions, his speech, and his ideals," he declared.
King Philippe of Belgium paid his first visit to the DRC earlier this month, during which he professed his sincere apologies for the country's historical scars.
The Belgian monarch characterized the Belgian system of government as "a regime of unequal relations, indefensible in itself, marked by paternalism, bigotry, and racism," which "led to violent acts and humiliations."
Prior to the tooth's ceremonial burial in Kinshasa at the end of this month, the DRC government has proclaimed three days of national mourning.
Up to 10 million people perished from starvation and disease during the first 23 years of Belgium's administration starting in 1885, when King Leopold II ruled the Congo Free State as his own property.
The brief and clear book by John Mumba offers a modern perspective of the return of Lumumba's tooth, his life, and his career, analyzing both his virtues and faults as a political figure. It also examines the national, continental, and global circumstances of Lumumba's political rise and quick demise at the hands of those whose interests were jeopardized by his concepts and effective reforms.