In a striking display of historical echoes and geopolitical intrigue, Congolese supporter Michel Kuka Mboladinga's tribute to Patrice Lumumba at AFCON 2025 intertwines with recent global events. The complex web of historical and political connections between Morocco, the DRC, and Venezuela highlight just how global politics intertwine with sports. DR ‹ › During his four national football team's games in the AFCON 2025, Congolese supporter Michel Kuka Mboladinga stood motionless on a pedestal in the stands. He was most of the time with his right palm open, raised assertively high in the air. Wearing each time a different suit with his country's flag colours, namely red, yellow, and sky blue, he paid tribute to Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Lumumba was assassinated on January 17, 1961, against the backdrop of domestic mutiny and internal dissensions, with the Belgians and the Americans lurking around the corner. For many people, the assassination of Lumumba is a reminder of Africa's long struggle for autonomy and the firm clutch of the Cold War the continent found itself trapped in, starting in the 1950s. Three days before the Congolese national team was knocked out of the round of 16 by a late Algerian goal, Nicolás Maduro was kidnapped by the US Army's Delta Force in the middle of the night. The Venezuelan president and his wife were abducted on board the USS Iwo Jima and, after that, «shipped» by air to Stewart Air National Guard Base, in New York state. In front of reporters summoned to the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, the American president Donald Trump boasted about an «extraordinary military operation», «overwhelming military power», and a «spectacular assault». Now, if the connection between Mboladinga and the AFCON 2025 host country needs no explanation, the links between Morocco, Patrice Lumumba, Venezuela, and the USA may create a politico-historical maze that can trigger incredulity. On August 4, 1960, Patrice Lumumba landed in Rabat, coming from Tunisia after meeting President Bourguiba, and was welcomed by Crown Prince Moulay Al-Hassan, a title and a name shared by the latter with his grandson. It is the actual Crown Prince Moulay Al-Hassan who presided over the AFCON 2025 opening ceremony on December 21, 2025. His Royal Highness was spotted later on with a brief fist in the air, celebrating the astounding bicycle kick goal by Ayoub El-Kaabi against the Comoros national team. Except for the fist detail, it was almost the same pose that Mboladinga held for more than 390 minutes, mimicking Lumumba's statue in Kinshasa. Back to Lumumba's historical visit to Rabat, he was in the midst of an African tour to six African nations, his country freshly independent, not yet freed from Belgian custody, and already a Cold War battlefield. News reports described him as the late «King Muhammad V's friend» after the monarch awarded him the Grand Cordon of the Throne Order. As support for Congolese independence, the king also accepted Lumumba's request to send a military contingent to the DRC under the UN banner after the secession of the province of Katanga. Both heads of state passed away in the beginning of 1961, within a short time span. Nonetheless, the circumstances of Lumumba's assassination are worth mentioning should we want to emphasize how the aforementioned historical events, past political figures, and current news relate to each other, although seemingly disparate. Briefly after escaping a house arrest in September 1960, Patrice Lumumba was «captured» -the same term is used nowadays to talk about Maduro's abduction- by Colonel Joseph Mobutu's forces and «executed» four months later. This said, in 1977 and 1978, former Crown Prince Moulay Al-Hassan and King Hassan II would send armed troops to Zaïre -DRC's name from 1971 to 1997- as «token of friendship» to Mobuto Sese Seku, the same one that had abducted Lumumba. Mobutu himself died in Rabat on September 7, 1997, after he had been removed from power by Laurent-Désiré Kabila four months earlier. As for what happened in Venezuela, it is, as the Americans themselves may put it, «the USA being the USA». Maduro's name is, up till now, the last one in a long list of heads of state toppled by America. Iran's Mossadegh in 1953, Chile's Allende in 1973, and Saddam in 2003 are among the most famous, but the list is way more jam-packed than that. Economist and UN adviser Jeffrey Sachs, at a recent emergency UN Security Council meeting, quoted political scientist Lindsey A. O'Rourke's book Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War. The latter documented «70 attempted US regime-change operations between 1947 and 1989 alone». At least one of those operations had targeted Lumumba, according to an official 1975 Senate report entitled Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders, available at a few clicks. It clearly mentions that «the CIA's clandestine service formulated a plot to assassinate» him. The pan-African leader had foretold his own demise before it took place with the following statement: «If I die tomorrow, it will be because a White man has armed a Black man». More than American secret plots targeting their heads of state, Venezuela and the DRC have a lot in common. While Venezuela possesses the largest oil reserves, about 300 billion barrels, the DRC has one of the richest and most diverse natural resources in the world, including diamonds, cobalt, copper, gold, timber, etc. Needless to say, this abundance of raw materials contrasts with the country's economic underdevelopment and is, just like Venezuela, a magnet for trouble. Last but not least, Maduro's Venezuela was known to be one of the last allies of Algeria and its proxy, the separatist Polisario Front, the latter two facing an unprecedented dissipation of their last residues of supporters on the issue of Western Sahara. After the UN Security Council had voted, on October 31, 2025, to pass Resolution 2797, endorsing Morocco's 2007 autonomy plan as the «most feasible solution for the disputed territory», the expected regime change in Venezuela will certainly rebound to the advantage of Morocco. If condemning the US's latest strike on Venezuela is a moral obligation, as Jeffrey Sachs did, realpolitikers may foresee in how it will unfold another political victory for Morocco. Just as an eventual victory of the kingdom's national team in the AFCON 2025 will also and certainly be a triumph of diplomacy. Not surprisingly!
