Archive for July, 2010

Posted on July 24, 2010 - by Kambale Musavuli

Rhodes University Breaks The Silence

Where do I start? Writing about this experience is quite a challenge. The number one place that topped all the schools I have visited is St Michael’s College in Vermont. I also enjoyed the wonderful students at the University of San Francisco given that they actually have a class on Congo. I must also say that the students at St Lawrence brought tears in my eyes when they sang STAND UP to move the students on their campus to get engaged with Congo advocacy. Now, I have just been to a college campus in Africa and must add Rhodes University on the list of schools to remember.

Rhodes University, in Grahamstown South Africa, had invited Friends of the Congo to come share with the delegates at their annual journalism conference about how it uses digital media, commonly called New Media, to expose resource exploitation on the African continent. Who could have thought ten years ago that social media could become a tool for advocacy? I have seen in the past two years the effectiveness of using social networks to spread information about the situation in the Congo. With these new tools in the hand of indigenous people, we all are bearing witness to a new digital revolution where the common medium is now controlled by the people rather than the mainstream media. Due to this fact, I saw myself embark in a new journey to break the silence on the African continent.

So… what is this conference that I attended? The fifth annual Digital Citizen’s Indaba (DCI) [www.dcindaba.com], held on July 7 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, drew together citizens, advocates, bloggers and activists from around the world to discuss how new media can revolutionize development work and give a voice to the unheard or silenced. This year’s theme, Africa’s Underdevelopment: Digital Citizens Talk Back, explored citizen media and the exploitation of natural resources, disasters, climate change and mega events. The DCI is a project of the Highway Africa Conference [www.highwayafrica.com] which took place on July 5 and 6.

It was a long travel to get to the campus. A 20-hour flight from New York to Port Elizabeth, followed by a 2-hour drive to the town, made me appreciate more the scenery of rural areas. It has been so long since I’ve been to Africa. It was nice to get to see the land of our ancestors once again. I completely forgot that I was in a country that had a huge British influence. I was shocked to see the wheel on the wrong side of the car, and surprised to see the car driving on the wrong side of the road. Then came the discussion with the student helpers, who came to pick us up from the airport, about what side of the road is right. My argument was irrefutable when I stated “driving on the right side of the road is the right way to do it!”

In Grahamstown, when checked in at the hotel, it was with a bit of sadness that I watched the music channel which only played American music for about four hours and when there were South African musicians that came on, their music sounded so Americans that I literally thought that Viacom owned the South African Broadcasting Channel (SABC). Was I in Africa? I came from so far to realize that there is slow death of the African culture as Africa is embracing everything from the outside without keeping its culture. I hope to expand on this matter in a future post, but this experience was quite telling.

The following day, I met two other speakers as we had breakfast together. They were South Africans who gave me a piece of their mind about FIFA and other local issues in South Africa. They both came from Jo’burg. I appreciated their openness in allowing me to see that issues that Americans face are not so different than the ones that South Africans are facing. The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental aspiration for every human being, but sometimes the greed of certain individuals interferes with the lives of millions and put ordinary, hardworking people out in the streets. It was nice to make that connection with them and appreciate the fact they were willing to share their experience.

When I arrived on campus, I really appreciated the hospitality of the student workers and people around campus. I have worked on conferences and know how frustrating it can be. From a pompous speaker who wants his hot water in the bathtub to be a certain temperature in their hotel room, to the students who forgot to go pick up a speaker at the airport as he has been waiting for 3 hours… all of these issues can be very frustrating. But what I noticed from the logistical team of the conference, is the patience and grace it had in dealing with all the issues at hand and the hospitality which has been unmatched during my stay in South Africa.

After participating in a few workshops that day, I returned to my room to prepare for the presentation I had to give the next day. I was asked to give a keynote speech as the person who was supposed to do it had a death in the family and could not join us at the conference. I had lots of ideas of how I should be speaking to the delegate about the topic at hand and Congo. I am always keen in making sure that people understand the historical context of issues to know what to do in changing the present. But the challenge was more so on how to contextualize Africa from a digital media perspective and make the Congo as the emblematic example of what happens in every African country. I was set for a long night with no sleep. But… the all-nighter paid off.

The next day, I had 15 minute to make my case that the underdevelopment of Africa has its causes, but with tools at hand today we can address the many complex issues Africans face through technology. As I started my presentation, I was so happy to see so many young people in the audience. I have always been enthusiastic about the future of Africa when I see a lot of young Africans discussing African issues or even engaging in solving them. This event revitalized my resolve for a new Africa. By the end of the presentation, I made the critical point that Congo was a very important country for the future of Africa whereby there is no greater issue today in Africa as the situation in the Congo and it requires the participation of all.

The presentation was received well and I was added on a panel discussion on resource exploitation in Africa. This panel was quite interesting because at the end, a gentleman, if I should call him that, working for a mining company (he did not identify himself as working for a mining company but I later found out he did) dismissed claims of the wrong doing of a Canadian mining company by stating that they are doing a lot of great things. I will expand on this in a separate blog post. After that incident, I understood that what we do is very sensitive and is being watched by all the forces against the Congo that now I have to be a bit wiser about how to bring truth to the people. I really am thankful that an employee of a mining company took the time to be disruptive at an event thus exposing the true nature of what they are doing in Congo and giving me now more motivation to write about the actions on that one company in Congo so the world could see how the Congolese continue to be exploited.

After the workshop, I continued to attend the different workshops and later that evening, Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave a closing speech of the 4-day conference. His sense of humor is unique. He truly spoke to the heart of people. He reminded all of us how tough it was to fight the Apartheid regime by letting us know that not everyone supported their effort and some actually were ok with Apartheid. He concluded his speech by telling us “Remember where you come from!” I really understood that… as I have seen the many challenges that almost made me forget who I was… because when all is well and done, the only thing that is left in you is who you are. Who you are is defined by where you’re from. With no roots… a tree can’t grow! Strong roots will forever hold the tree through any turmoil.

Thank you Archbishop Tutu for a remarkable speech, and a very special Thank you to Elvira, Jane, and Hailey (Digital Citizen Indaba’s coordinators) at Rhodes University and all the beautiful students there who demonstrated excellent professionalism!

Posted on July 5, 2010 - by Kambale Musavuli

Sankofa 2010: Prelude To The Return Home

A few days ago, I had my conviction strengthened as I witnessed how the Congolese youth worked together to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Congo’s independence in Montreal, Canada. I saw how Congolese youth leaders in Montreal organized film screenings and a fundraiser to support a hospital in Congo. I saw how other African youth joined the planning of the events and offered their expertise to make it an excellent week of commemoration from June 29th to Lumumba’s birthday date of July 2nd. This experience was a true testimony that there is a shift taking place right now around the world, especially within the Congolese youth where we now see the urgency of taking control of the destiny of our country, the beautiful Congo.

When I flew back to NYC on July 3rd, the following day I was to be on the plane to Africa. A lot of my past started playing in my head… It has been 11 years since I left Congo, since I left Africa… I remember how it felt leaving friends behind with this sense of guilt that they were still in harm’s way. I remember my involvement in the church while in Congo. I was an altar boy and really enjoyed being involved in the church. I used to wake up at 4 am to get to my church by 4:50 am so I could open the church for people who had the 5 am rosary prayers. Memories of how religious I used to be. I guess America happened to me…

I also remember the day we left… going through South Africa… then arriving in JFK after a hurdle for the connection flight. I go into details about this hurdle experience in my book which will be published in the near future. But what I miss the most about leaving Africa is the sky at night when there is a power outage. So much peace, a wonderful blue sky, a natural silence, an indescribable feeling of happiness… usually spoiled by the return of the power and noise of refrigerators and TVs turning on. I miss Africa.

Not anymore! I am on my to Africa… the day Americans celebrate being independent, I am traveling to still-dependent African nations.

I assumed due to the holiday weekend, there would not be lots of people traveling to the continent. I was wrong. A full plane of people from many backgrounds and ages, all going to the land that birthed us all. A land always full of surprises, with so much pain it has endure, and still producing vibrant people with hopes and aspirations to make a better world. This is what I’ve been experiencing as I am connecting more and more with the Congolese youth on the ground and abroad.

Yet my trips have always unnexpected encounters. Sitting beside me was an American citizen, heading to Zambia, to help with that nation’s census. He actually works for the US Census bureau and he is familiar with the Congo. It was interesting to hear that he was in Congo and left it around the same time my family did too… that was 1998. What also raised my eyebrows was when he told me that his wife worked for the US Center for Disease Control office in Kinshasa, the capital of Congo, and was responsible for monitoring HIV infections in Kinshasa. She arrived in Congo in 1982. I asked a lot of questions about HIV as he has also done data collection for USAID in other African countries. He shared with me that HIV infections data during that time was a flat line compared to an increasing oblique line for new HIV cases in the other countries, which was good for Congo. My reply to that was to find out from him what caused the low HIV infections from the data he collected. His response was “behaviors.” He went on to explain that in other African countries, certain behaviors allowed HIV infections to spread faster than in Congo.

The whole time he was talking, I wondered why, out of the many people on the plane, I had to sit beside someone who worked for the census bureau and worked in Congo? He did seem like a friendly guy and we shared a lot about Congo, Africa at large, and the census work in the US. I may meet him again in the future, but for the time being, we both broke the silence.

While on the 20-hour-long flight, I had the opportunity to watch the many different movies available on the plane. I saw the movie “Invictus” listed there. I remembered that a filmmaker friend of mine, Kevin Wilson (producer of The Emmit Till Story and working on a Congo film), told me that it is a must-watch movie. I now understand why. Watching it made me appreciate Nelson Mandela, despite the growing criticism of him in progressive arenas. I could see how difficult it is for a leader to bring people who before hated each other to work together. A memorable quote from that movie that still replays in my head is when Mandela asked François, the captain of the South African Rugby team, “How do you inspire your team to do their best? … How to get them to be better than they think they *can* be?”

This is the challenge we all come to face some day as we work to revitalize the Congolese people to be inspired to see a brighter day in Congo, to strive for excellence and a better future for Congo. It is a tough job but we,  people of goodwill and Congolese together, must be better than we think we can be to meet the challenges we face in the Congo.

That is why I’ve returned to the continent this time: To inspire the African youth to not lose hope and accept the fact that we may not see the fruit of our work, but we must start rebuilding our continent.

That is why Sankofa is the only way to get Africa to rise as a phoenix… it has been written…

That is why I am writing you this from Africa… the mother of us all.

Now that I am here… I can see that the work that must be done will need all of us. Africa is ready. ARE YOU READY!