In this Monday, March 12, 2018 file photo, Congolese opposition leader Moise Katumbi speaks to delegates at a three-day forum in a resort hotel near Johannesburg, South Africa. Katumbi returned to Congo on Monday May 20, 2019, one of a number of political exiles coming home after a new president took office this year. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe,)
JTA The ancestry of the son of a Jewish refugee in the Democratic Republic of Congo has emerged as a flashpoint for a political crisis that is threatening the integrity of the massive African country.
The crisis came to a head last week when lawmakers loyal to President Felix Tshiseked introduced a bill that would restrict the presidency to those with two Congolese parents.
(JTA) Like many powerful politicians in Africa, Moise Katumbi goes by multiple titles. He is widely seen as the leader of the opposition of his native Democratic Republic of Congo, and he’s the president of its TP Mazembe soccer team, which is one of Africa’s finest.
Now Katumbi is also closer than he’s ever been to becoming the first African ruler descended from a Holocaust refugee.
Katumbi’s father, Nissim Soriano, was a Greek Jew who fled the island of Rhodes from the Nazis and settled in Congo in the 1930s, when it was still a Belgian colony. Soriano built a fishing business empire and married the daughter of a local chief, Mwata Kazembe XIV Chinyanta Nakula, with whom he had two children.
Son of Greek Jewish Holocaust refugee now one of most powerful leaders in Congo timesofisrael.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesofisrael.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
(JTA) — Like many powerful politicians in Africa, Moise Katumbi goes by multiple titles. He is widely seen as the leader of the opposition of his native Democratic Republic of