Héritier Lumumba rejects Collingwood's offer to meet over club racism allegations
Héritier Lumumba says he has “no intention” of facilitating a private reconciliation with Collingwood until the AFL club publicly acknowledges allegations of racism Lumumba suffered during his time at the club.
Magpies coach Nathan Buckley on Thursday said he was keen to reach out to Lumumba after the former Pies player took to social media this week to detail his experiences during 10 years with the Pies.
Lumumba repeated claims he endured a “culture of racist jokes” and took magic mushrooms to cope with the situation. The 33-year-old, who retired from football in 2016 after repeated concussion problems, also accused Buckley of failing to adequately support him.
Lumumba said neither the AFL nor Collingwood had the capacity or desire to address the issues he raised, branding them both “negligent”.
Buckley issued his offer to meet just hours after Collingwood and Richmond players had come together in the middle of the MCG and taken a knee in a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
But Lumumba accused the club of
“shifting the narrative” in its claim of trying to reach out to him.
“Let me very clear: I have no intention of sitting down with anyone until they publicly acknowledge some fundamental facts,” he wrote in a thread on Twitter.
“Why a public acknowledgement?
Because I have been discredited publicly. I don’t want a private handshake. I want justice for how I was treated. That includes correcting public denials about my account of the racism and isolation I faced.”
Lumumba called on Collingwood to acknowledge “they did not have the cultural competence and organisational literacy to deal with a real culture of racism at the club, of which I was a victim for a number of years”.
After Collingwood’s draw with Richmond in the AFL season re-opener on Thursday night, Buckley said he had not spoken to Lumumba since the former defender was traded to Melbourne at the end of 2014.
“I’m not comfortable with the fact that Héritier feels like he’s been belittled and diminished in our environment,” Buckley said. “I haven’t spoken to ‘H’ since 2014. I’d love to speak to him again. I would love to have him come to his old football club and to see what we have become, and the culture of acceptance, a celebration of difference no matter your colour, your religion or whatever your upbringing has been.”
Lumumba this week also reiterated the claim that he was called “Chimp” by Collingwood teammates, which was publicly backed up by Andrew Krakouer in 2017. While not specifically addressing that claim, Buckley said Collingwood had “been able to grow as an environment” in the time that has passed since Lumumba left.
“We were growing when he was there and he was a big part of it, and we’re still growing,” Buckley said. “But I’m really proud of the club that we are now and I would love to share that with him because he’s been a big part of that.
“I’ll continue to try to reach out to listen to him to see if there’s something that we can do about how he has felt about his experiences at the club.”