‘CHIMP’ NICKNAME ACCEPTED TO ‘FIT IN’

HERITIER Lumumba has explained why he went along with the nickname “Chimp” in his time at Collingwood in “order to fit in”.

In a social media post, Lumumba responded for the first time since Eddie McGuire’s exit as Collingwood president as evidence of the “overtly racist” moniker surfaced.

An old AFL record profile emerged this week and in it Lumumba states that “Chimp” was one of his nicknames at the club.

It has been confirmed the profile is genuine, and in fact was one of three profiles run in which he used the nickname.

The one circulating on social media this week came from Round 7, 2007, with another profile used in Round 3 and 19 in the 2009 season.

Lumumba said the profile was “proof that the nickname did indeed exist and was widely known at the club” and some people were now using it “as a means to discredit me”.

The former Magpie said the profile was “damning evidence that works against CFC and the AFL” but the “overtly racist” nickname was “far from the worst thing that happened”.

“A 2007 player profile that was published by CFC & the AFL has my nickname listed as ‘chimp’. Ever since I went public in 2017 with my experience,

I’ve been consistent in saying that I initially went along with the nickname & a lot of other racist behaviour in order to fit in,” he wrote on Twitter.

“The document is proof that the nickname did indeed exist.

“The #DoBetter report states that ‘structural racism occurs not through individual action but through policy, institutional culture, representations in media, laws, conversational norms and normalised behaviours’.”