Lumumba Pop Art | Unisex Organic Oversized T-shirt

Material: 100% organic combed ring-spun cotton

Fabric weight: 200 g/m²

Fit: loose, with dropped shoulders

Set-in sleeves

1 × 1 ribbed neckline

Self-fabric neck tape at the inside back

The fabric of this product is certified for its organic cotton content.

To mark the return of Patrice Lumumba’s relic to Congo, Fred Ebami creates a colourful, politically engaged Pop Art portrait for United Souls.

The intention is to symbolically restore to Lumumba the colours and emblems of his country that imperialism had taken from him. The Congolese colours and leopard symbolism reaffirm his connection to his homeland.

This artwork has its own distinctive visual language: it is a drawing by Fred Ebami. As part of the United Souls collection, it embodies this desire for reclamation.

THE MARTYR OF AFRICAN INDEPENDENCE
PATRICE EMERY LUMUMBA (1925–1961) – DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

Born on 2 July 1925 in Onalua, Patrice Emery Lumumba attained the status of an “évolué”, a colonial designation for Africans considered assimilated into European culture, in a Belgian Congo shaped by paternalism. Embracing Pan-Africanism after attending a conference in Accra in December 1958, he won the May 1960 elections and became Prime Minister.

On 30 June 1960, his speech on Congo’s independence day denounced Belgian colonialism and provoked King Baudouin’s anger. A few days later, the Congo Crisis erupted: mutiny, secessions and foreign interference. Lumumba tried to save his country, coveted for its vast resources.

He was eventually arrested and executed during the night of 16–17 January 1961, alongside Okito and Mpolo. Their bodies were buried, exhumed and dissolved in acid. In June 2022, Belgium returned to Congo a tooth belonging to Lumumba that had been kept by a mercenary.