Meet the fan from Atlanta standing in for Congo’s ‘Lumumba Vea’

Lumumba Vea’s absence at Atlanta Stadium was not overlooked.

In the middle of the match, the halo board flashed to another fulfilling superfan’s legacy, and the crowd erupted. The stand-in Lumumba Vea was stunned by the reaction but kept the motionless pose.

Meet Enock Kabwende, an Atlanta resident who took up the mantle from Nkuka Mboladinga. Only allowing himself reprieve during halftime and hydration breaks, Kabwende remained frozen — no matter how badly he wanted to cheer — through Congo’s historic 3-1 comeback victory against Uzbekistan to advance past Group K as one of eight third-place teams.

“I decided to take over when I (knew) he’s not gonna be at any of the games in America,” Kabwende said. “My interpretation was just to carry the dream to represent exactly who we are and represent our hero.”

Kabwende is still trying to secure tickets to the Congo’s first-ever World Cup knockout match against England at Atlanta Stadium on Wednesday. If he gets in the building, he will continue to embody Lumumba Vea.

The Atlanta Congolese community was upset when they heard the news of Nkuka Mboladinga’s visa denial, Congolese Community of Atlanta senior adviser Aimé-Stéphane Mukendi said. If he had completed his 21-day quarantine, which is required of travelers from the region where Ebola is spreading, they wondered why FIFA did not step in to help.

In the single match Nkuka Mboladinga was able to attend, he took on a slightly different posture. Instead of just mimicking the Lumumba statue with an outstretched arm, he covered his mouth with his hand and pointed an apparent finger gun to his forehead.

“We have guns on our heads and hands over our mouths, so that we cannot express ourselves against the war,” Mukendi said.

Mukendi described how the people of Congo have historically been “exploited” for their natural resources, from rubber in the industrial revolution during the car boom and into the current day, where most of the world’s cobalt is extracted from the region with dangerous mining practices that have resulted in child labor and the death of many.

If the original Lumumba Vea had been allowed into the U.S., there would be a murky history to reckon with, Morehouse College professor of Africana Studies Samuel Livingston said.

“Americans should ask themselves as they look at the image of this Black man from Congo standing in the stadium, motionless, but standing dignified,” Livingston said. “We have to ask ourselves, what can we do to actually have a good relationship with these people with whom we owe so much?”

Both Mukendi and Livingston described the former leader as the Martin Luther King Jr. of the DR Congo, then known as Zaire. Also, like King, Lumumba was assassinated. Shortly after DR Congo had just gained its independence on June 30, 1960, Lumumba visited the United States, but the visit was not as fruitful as he had hoped in setting up democracy in the DRC.

Not long after, Lumumba was kidnapped and tortured before he was executed.

Over the years, there have been allegations that Belgian officials and the United States, under President Dwight Eisenhower’s leadership, were involved in his death.

“He was a living, breathing model of leadership,” Livingston said. “As Malcolm X would say, ‘The greatest African leader was Patrice Lumumba,’ and it was just a tremendous betrayal of the relationship that the United States could have had.”

Livingston can clearly see a domino effect from Lumumba’s death to Congo’s current struggles, including the United States’ role. Many died as a result of a dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, who later followed Lumumba’s leadership. War has continued to ravage the region. Since 1996, about six million have been killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in history, according to the Council on Foreign Affairs.

When former President Biden delivered a commencement speech at the HBCU in 2024, Livingston held up DR Congo’s flag as a visual reminder that “the American people have to do better and not think we can continue to exploit Congo’s minerals and to ignore the demand for justice.”

On the eve of Les Léopards’ first knockout game, the DRC celebrated its 66th Independence Day from Belgium. While there is cause for exuberance, there are also many suffering in the country from the military conflict or the current Ebola outbreak, which has 360 confirmed deaths as of June 27, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the spread is not likely in the U.S., the current administration’s cuts to health departments have hurt the containment of the disease.

“I’m asking the world not to close their eyes, not to turn their backs on us,” Mukendi said. “We are happy people. We believe in dancing, singing and being resilient.”

From his vantage point in Atlanta, Mukendi works to broker equitable deals with American companies that are interested in mining. With the Congolese Community of Atlanta, they try to raise money to donate survival supplies, everything from medicine to cooking oil. Bottom line, he wants the Congolese people to have a seat at the table of those looking to profit from its natural resources.

While Lumumba Vea became widely known for his match-day routine, the message of empowering the Congolese people prevails. A message that the community in Atlanta is trying to keep alive.

“He’s staring in the face of America,” Livingston said. “You can kill the man, but you can’t kill the ideal — can’t kill the dream of freedom. That’s what Congolese people want: peace, prosperity, freedom and democracy.”