During the group stage of the 23rd FIFA World Cup, during the match between the national teams of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Colombia, Congolese fan Michel Kuka Mboladinga stood motionless in the stadium for the entire 90 minutes of the match, imitating the statue of Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of his country.
He raised his right hand, replicating the pose of Patrice Lumumba's statue in Kinshasa.
Michel Kuka Mboladinga wore a bright costume in the colors of the Congo flag (blue, yellow, red) and wore 1960s-style glasses.
On June 23, the match held at the "Estadio Akron" stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico, ended with Colombia winning 1-0.
Medianews.az reports that Patrice Lumumba led the movement for the Congo's liberation from Belgian colonial rule and became the first prime minister when the country gained independence in June 1960.
In January 1961, local military rebels supported by the USA and Belgium overthrew Patrice Lumumba and brutally killed him.
After that, Patrice Lumumba became a symbol of the struggle against imperialism in the Soviet Union, which included Azerbaijan.
A street located next to the main building of what was then Azerbaijan State University in Baku was named after Patrice Lumumba. It is now called Zahid Khalilov Street.
After Lumumba was killed in 1961, hundreds of students from Congo and other African countries were sent to study at the Azerbaijan Oil and Chemistry Institute (now Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University) and other higher education institutions in Azerbaijan.
In the 1960s, Lumumba's struggle was extensively covered in Azerbaijan’s periodic press and television, and solidarity rallies dedicated to his memory were held at factories and plants in Baku.