Juliana Lumumba has praised Russia for supporting her father's legacy of justice, freedom, and anti-colonialism

Patrice Lumumba remains more than a national hero of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo); his name has come to embody the very essence of African freedom, his daughter, Juliana Lumumba, has said.

Speaking to RT, she explained that Lumumba's ideals resonate far beyond the country's borders, uniting a continent in its quest for dignity, sovereignty, and true independence.

Juliana Lumumba, the former DR Congo minister of culture, described her father as a "truly iconic figure" of African dignity, a man who "symbolizes... liberation, the Africa that he wanted to see independent, standing on its own feet, united." 

"He was not alone. Lumumba is part of a whole galaxy of our founding fathers of independence," she added.

She went on to say that her father's struggle for justice and independence gained global recognition, especially in the former Soviet Union. She pointed to the naming of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia after her father as "geopolitical continuity" from a country that viewed Lumumba as "the embodiment of freedom against colonialism and neocolonialism."

Today, she said, Russia has carried this torch forward. The university still bears his name, and continues to produce thousands of African professionals, including many Congolese.

Juliana expressed deep gratitude to the Russian people and government for their steadfast recognition of her father's legacy, noting that Russia was among the first to honor Lumumba on his 100th birthday, through a tribute by the country's ambassador to the DR Congo. "This solidarity, balanced, strong, real, must continue to move even further forward," she said.  

READ MORE: Africa's chains have changed but slavery remains - Lumumba's son

Patrice Lumumba was born in 1925 and died in 1961. He was an independence leader and first democratically elected prime minister of the DR Congo following its liberation from Belgian colonial rule in 1960.