ABSTRACT
Patrice Lumumba is a controversial figure in Belgian history. He is known for the anti-colonial speech delivered at the ceremony of independence. Following his death, an ambivalent image was constructed around this historical figure that has oscillated between the extremes of redeemer or enemy. Read with a postcolonial approach, Lumumba settles as an inspiring leader. Through a comparative analysis of contemporary artistic production, from 2000 to the present day, which addresses the post-memory of colonial wars and the end of empires, I analyse how Lumumba’s ghost has evolved from a fantasy of the past to a shared culture of resistance in the present, and how his image is used by Congolese and Belgian descendants. The chapter will show how artists dig into the public colonial archive and create artworks that dialogue with contemporary racial and postcolonial issues still not resolved in the twenty-first century. What ghosts emerge from our shared heritage?
