For much of the past year, there have been plans for the sacred human remains of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s first postindependence prime minister, Patrice Émery Lumumba, to finally be returned to his children in Belgium and then repatriated to the Congo. Originally scheduled for a ceremony on June 30, 2021, the sixty-first anniversary of the country’s independence passed with Lumumba’s remains still in the custody of Belgian authorities.

The ceremony with King of the Belgians Philippe, current Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo, and Congo president Félix Tshisekedi was then planned for January 17, 2022, the anniversary of the assassination. On January 5, Tshisekedi announced another delay — this time until June 2022. The official reason for the delay was the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the Congo, but the pandemic crisis is deeply entangled with a series of other political maneuvers and other crises that are undoubtedly factors in the decision.

At the center of this story, Lumumba’s family continues to be victimized. As Nadeen Shaker recently reported, his children were forced to escape to Cairo during their father’s house arrest, never to see him again. The disturbing fact that the remains of Lumumba spent another Independence Day in Belgium may provide opportunities for metaphor and analogy, but, amid the widespread complicity in this ongoing desecration, the most important outcome must be to respect the ethical and legal claims of his children, which daughter Juliana Lumumba described in an open letter to the Belgian king last year.