{"id":37763,"date":"2026-06-22T19:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37763"},"modified":"2026-06-22T19:41:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:41:25","slug":"lumumba-vea-arrives-at-world-cup-to-offer-unique-brand-of-support-to-drc","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/lumumba-vea-arrives-at-world-cup-to-offer-unique-brand-of-support-to-drc\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Lumumba Vea&#8217; arrives at World Cup to offer unique brand of support to DRC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will have the unmistakable figure of Michel Kuka Mboladinga in \u200bthe stands when they take on Colombia in Guadalajara \u200con Tuesday, after he belatedly arrived at the World Cup to bring his unique brand of support.<\/p>\n<p>Mboladinga, who rose to prominence at \u200bthe 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals in \u200bMorocco, will be a welcome sight for the \u2060Congolese team as they look to build on \u200btheir opening 1-1 draw, opens new tab with Portugal in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Dressed in a jacket \u200band tie to resemble his country&#8217;s first Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, Mboladinga stands completely still in tribute to the politician who was \u200bassassinated by firing squad in 1961.<\/p>\n<p>Nicknamed \u2018Lumumba Vea\u2019 because \u200bof his tribute, Mboladinga raises his arm to strike a pose similar \u200cto \u2060one held by Lumumba in a statue of him in his country&#8217;s capital Kinshasa, and in stark contrast to the vibrant singing and cheering fans around him.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200bAlgerian football federation \u200bapologised to \u2060Mboladinga at the Cup of Nations after forward Mohamed Amoura mocked him when Algeria \u200bknocked the Congolese out of the tournament, \u200bwhich \u2060caused a social media backlash.<\/p>\n<p>Mboladinga\u2019s arrival at the World Cup was delayed following restrictions put in place for travellers \u2060from the \u200bDR Congo due to the \u200bEbola outbreak in the country that has now infected more than 1 000 people \u200band claimed 254 lives.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37006,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37763","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37764,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37763\/revisions\/37764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}