Archive for January, 2011

Posted on January 31, 2011 - by Kambale Musavuli

And then there were shots…

Pow… Pow… is what I heard…

Is it New York? Kinshasa? Bukavu? Where am I? Wait a minute… I’m in Brooklyn… Why am I hearing gunshots inside a subway car? This is what happened to me about a week ago, the night of January 22nd.

What happened? Where was I going? What did I do? Well…

On Saturday 22nd, a friend threw a going-away party for herself as she was getting ready to travel the world and do some work in India. It was a nice social gathering with lots of like-minded youth. I met technology innovators, social entrepreneurs, passionate activists, all under 30 years old. After sharing with some of the people at the gathering the work that I do with Friends of the Congo, they were enthusiastic about bringing their skills to improve the capacity of our organization. What I remember the most from the conversation is that all of us shared the same ambition: Make the world a better place.

As it was getting late, I went ahead and said my goodbyes to the host and new friends. After I left the party, around 1 am, I checked in with “the system” (a term I use in order not to disclose the name of the person). For the past two years, a few strange things have occurred that created a need for “a system” so that at all times, it knows where I am. Just this month, the system was checked again when I was in a car accident; luckily, everyone was OK.

While talking with the system and sharing the outcome of the networking at the social gathering, the most important words the system said to me before I hung up were “Be safe, Kambale!” Was it the first time the system said that? Not at all… But it was odd the way it said it… and this actually stayed with me as I was getting ready to take the subway home.

Here I was, getting on the subway cart 8464 of the J train Manhattan bound…. Yes… I have now developed a habit of documenting my every single move… It was now about 2 am. There was a group of teenagers who entered the car behind mine. They looked Latino/Puerto Rican and seemed happy, probably coming from their own social gathering.

When the subway stopped at the Flushing Avenue stop, the subway doors opened and two teenage girls from the group on the next car entered the car where I was sitting. One was crying and the other told her friend, “Keep going!” Everyone on the car looked at them strangely…  Then… while the doors were still opened… we heard two shots in the car where these two girls had come from. It was 2:42 am

Yelling, running, and near chaos started… In the car where I was, people from many races were there… from black and  whites to Latinos… all of us stood up to go away from the shots and move forward toward the first car through the doors… I remember the look on the face of a young white lady on that car…

I’ve seen that look before… It was the look I saw in Kinshasa in the early 90s when the Congolese army (Zaire back then) committed mutiny and were attacking civilians. We were in school in Petits-Anges and there were shots in the area. They had to dismiss class… Some of my classmates had that same look the young lady had… when you have the fear of death… not knowing if you will be hurt… That was the look…

But why? Why was I seeing this look in New York City? I thought I had come to the US to be out of harm’s way!? Was it possible to leave a war-torn country to come to a peaceful country only to realize that militarism is everywhere? Yes… all were afraid of the gunshots… I am sure they had never experienced anything like this before… I kept asking myself why no one was actually verifying if anyone was hurt.

I stopped… started going back… Then I saw one teenager running with a gun in his hand outside the subway with blood coming out of his head. Then there were many others running back and forth outside of the subway with no weapons… but yelling… so what was going on?

As I got back to the subway car I had been in, I could not get through the next car because the door that connected the car was closed. I sat watching everything unfold… a few people who had been in the same car with me started coming back too… Ten minutes had gone by; then we start seeing police officers coming through. Now I needed to call the system to let it know what was going on. It was 2:56 am and my phone had no battery. I started smiling… the system told me to be safe… never knew that included being prepared. As I smiled and happened to look up, I started laughing so hard that people looked at me as if I was crazy. Right there inside the subway car, there was an ad for a TV series called “Justified.” Surprisingly, the ad had a man holding a gun as if he were ready to shoot.

Kinda funny… in the mix of all the turmoil, one can still find humor in the most challenging situation. That’s some wisdom I learned from two wonderful men, Sierra-Leonean author and activist Ismael Beah and Rwandan genocide survivor Claude Gatebuke, as they shared with me insightful knowledge of people’s humanity in the time of war.

My recollection and laughter was interrupted by the arrival of the police. After their review of the car where the shot took place, they noticed a young man shot in his leg. The paramedics arrived and cared for this young man. He was no older than 18, I am sure. The “crime” scene made me realize how Americans really take for granted the institutions that exist to hold individuals accountable in this country. It is not perfect as it needs serious reform, but at the minimum, the victim gets medical care much more easily than in Congo. Literally 15 minutes after the gunshots, the victim was now being transported to a medical facility.

After the police interrogation and finally me getting back on a different subway to get home, I realized how we all take life for granted. I have had so many close calls in attempts against my life in the past years that those who are close to me always worry about actions I take. I am at times careful… but sometimes I forget that one should not tempt death…

Last weekend was a reminder. A reminder that life is precious… that you should live life as if it were your last day… that you should always do your best to be safe… and have at least one person always know where you are at all times. It seems to me that Congo is not so different than New York in some ways… but the challenge remains for me to contextualize weapon proliferation around the world, for the same proliferation is how one of these teenagers was able to acquire a gun. In the justice system here, the young man will be arrested… yet… the problem will remain…

So… what will you do for your neighborhood here in New York? You never know when you may find yourself in the situation I was in a weekend ago… Learn more about gun laws in New York, study police practices in low-income communities, advocate for more resources in schools in low-income communities, and most importantly, MENTOR A YOUTH!

Posted on January 17, 2011 - by Kambale Musavuli

FOTC Book of the Month: The Assassination of Lumumba

Friends of the Congo has chosen The Assassination of Lumumba as the book of the month for January this year once more. When I first read the book, I had chills right after I finished its introduction. As a Congolese young activist, I realized how misinformed I was on what caused the death of my country’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Emery Lumumba.

After reading the book, I became passionate in researching everything I could put my hands on that spoke about him or kept records of his speeches and radio addresses from 1958 until 1961 when he was assassinated.

So who was Patrice Lumumba?

Patrice Lumumba was a “leopard warrior,” a nationalist, a father, a friend, a passionate Congolese who wanted nothing but the best for the Congolese. He was misunderstood by many but his writings show how he saw the Congo as the super-power nation that would help develop Africa. When he took power in 1960 as our prime minister, he faced tremendous challenges in keeping the Congo together due to the Belgian invasion of Southern Congo using Congolese sycophants as leaders of the secession of Katanga.

As Lumumba sought help to stop the secession of Katanga, he asked Russia to come to the rescue of the Congolese state in a context where the United States, France, the United Nations, all were unwilling to support the Congo in this Belgian-backed secession. This factor caused the United States to label Lumumba as a communist and make it easy for him to be sidelined. This propaganda was even refuted years later in 1960 by the CIA Chief of Station, Larry Devlin, who was sent in Congo by US president Dwight Eisenhower. Devlin recounts “I don’t think he [Lumumba] was a communist, I think he thought that he could use the Russians – one, to frighten the western powers and two, to provide the technical help which he needed.”

Western powers, particularly the United States and Belgium, in cahoots with the hand-picked local elites, took Lumumba away from this earth in a very gruesome way on January 17, 1960. Fifty years later, though his physical presence is inexistent, his words still resonate in the minds and hearts of millions around the world and young Congolese.

The author of The Assassination of Lumumba, Ludo de Witte, is a Belgian writer. He wrote a historical narrative of the events in Congo in 1960 that led to the assassination of Lumumba. When the book was published in 2001, it was a bombshell in Belgium, forcing its government to launch an inquiry into what actually took place in the Congo in 1960-1961. With hard facts and evidence inside the book showing clearly the complicity of western powers, with Belgium included, the Belgian government had no choice but to officially apologize to the Congolese nation in 2002. Up until today, the United States has not taken responsibility in its complicity for the assassination of an elected leader of a sovereign nation.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction page of this book of the month:

‎In September 1960, the Congolese government and parliament which supported Lumumba were swept aside by Colonel Joseph-Desire Mobutu. The war against the Congolese nationalists came provisorily to a head when, on January 17, 1961, Lumumba and two of his closest associates were assassinated in Katanga, which was then being propped up by Belgian military and government personnel.

This dark episode was suppressed for almost forty years, hidden from the history books. For fear of losing prestige, funding and other facilities, nobody has dared undertake a serious analysis and describe the Congo crisis as it really happened. No politician has taken the initiative of subjecting Belgium’s Foreign Ministry archives to careful scrutiny, or requested a debate or parliamentary inquiry on the subject. On the contrary – once Lumumba’s government was ousted, an attempt was made to deprive the Africans of the true story of his overthrow: not only had Lumumba been physically eliminated, his life and work were not to become a source of inspiration for the peoples of Africa either. His vision of creating a unified nation state and economy serving the needs of the people were to be wiped out. In an attempt to prevent another Lumumba ever appearing again, his ideas and his struggle against colonial and neo-colonial domination had to be purged from collective memory.

What is fascinating about this paragraph is that Lumumba’s memory has not been erased from the collective memory of Africans, rather it has been imprinted into the DNA of every African child. My hope for those reading the book is to contextualize the current struggle in the Congo through this historical narrative and understand that the challenge of the Congo in 1960 is still the same challenge today in 2011, which is that the Congolese control their own affairs.

Today, January 17, 2011, two articles were published in major newspapers that are worth mentioning.

American scholar Adam Hochschild, author of the book “King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa“, had an article published on the New York Times titled “In Congo, An Assassination’s Long Shadow”. Also, Congolese scholar Dr Nzongola Ntalaja, author of the book “Congo: From Leopold to Kabila – A People’s History“, published an article on The Guardian UK titled “Patrice Lumumba: the most important assassination of the 20th century”. I hope you take the time to buy all three books mentioned in this post and read the two articles, as they will equip you to understand what is happening in the Congo today.

As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of his assassination, let us all stand with the Congolese people in their ongoing pursuit for peace, justice and human dignity.

Posted on January 16, 2011 - by Kambale Musavuli

A poem about Lumumba written by a Facebook friend

Tomorrow, January 17, 2011, is the 50th anniversary of the brutal assassination of Patrice Emery Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo. As the world commemorates this day, Congolese and friends of the Congo around the world are joining in solidarity with the Lumumba family to call for justice for the Congolese people.

I have been blessed to meet wonderful people through social media networks such as Facebook. I have learned so much about countries such as Algeria and Jordan, thanks to Facebook friends living in those areas. I also have appreciated Americans who have stood by the side of the Congolese and learned the history of my country to understand what has been taking place in the Congo for centuries.

A Facebook friend has just brought tears to my eyes today… She wrote a poem about Lumumba which made me realize that truly Congolese people are not alone.

Thank you Dorothy for your poem… and I know this will touch many people around the world.

Patrice Lumumba

Dedicated to the memory and spirit of Patrice Emery Lumumba
(2 July 1925–17 January 1961)

The soldiers stole you and two others
into the back of a truck
in the middle of the night
put you in a bag tied up your beaten bloody body with rope
sweating as they drove you into the middle of the country
Katanga Province, Africa
in a far off field
where there were no lights
where you could not see anything
they assassinated you and two ministers Okito and Mpolo

they attacked to kill you
they ripped apart your body
scattering it bone by bone across the fields
so that the blood mixed with the earth
they hid you and they hid their murder of you
they thought that by doing this your spirit would break
they thought that by doing this your memory would be broken

but a week before the killing you had written to your wife,
“I prefer to die with my head unbowed, my faith unshakable,
and with profound trust in the destiny of my country.”

Patrice Lumumba – born in the village of Onalua in Kasai province,
the Congo
you called for an independent country in those stuffy halls
where people taunted you with their viciousness
you were not afraid to speak the truth
because you knew that a village, a country, perhaps even
the world would remember your words

the night knows your secrets
the way you envisioned a united Africa
Lumumba
something about your spirit moves me
across these many years
in a land far away
something about your very presence on this earth moves
me to tears
just as your mother stood outside her small house
as the sky was changing to dusk
stood crying into hands which could not stop the tears
from falling, dripping onto the earth
so that a river of tears fell at her feet

Lumumba
Lumumba
your name should become a chant for all free thinking people
you who longed for corruption-free politics
who took pride in every step you walked
for a free independent Congo you said
and those words became a sacred chant for your people

they wanted your name to be forgotten
they wanted your warrior feeling to be cast out
they wanted to stamp on your vision
but it is not forgotten Lumumba
Lumumba
your mother weeping into her cupped hands
the tears filling her face her neck her body
Lumumba
your name is not erased from our history books
but brought back to life
and lived…

Copyright 2011 – Dorothy Johnson-Laird

Posted on January 1, 2011 - by Kambale Musavuli

Message to the Congolese Youth for the New Year

On this New Year’s day, the Congolese youth of America wish you a wonderful new year in 2011. May it be a prosperous and successful one that brings us closer to peace in our country.

I write to the youth, men and women, to remind you of the prophetic message of our elders who worked tirelessly and made the ultimate sacrifice for us to be called not only African, but also Congolese, united in the effort to rebuild the land of our ancestors.

When Patrice Lumumba sent his appeal to the Congolese youth in the 1960s, he realized that without the youth, the future of the Congo would not be guaranteed. Our youth long asleep, long exploited, he said, must understand their role as the vanguard of the peaceful revolution and the salvation of the Congo.

Living in the United States, we have been able to learn how Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the age of 26, began his illustrious work for equality of the black man and woman here in the West. The same is true for our Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, age 34, who embarked upon the task of leading a country the size of Western Europe. We cannot forget our brother, Steve Biko in South Africa, who also fought against the apartheid regime by mobilizing the youth in his country and who was assassinated at age 30. I would not do justice to the history of our country if I did not invoke the name of Kimpa Vita, the young Dona Beatriz, who mobilized the Kongo people against the Portuguese invasion and lost her life in the process. She was only 21 when she was burned alive at the stake.

All these historic examples remind us that today we are also able to create a revival in our country. We can make the Congo a great world power. This will not be easy. We will have many difficulties, but our elders will be there for advice and wisdom. It is a duty we owe to our ancestors who, even till death, fought so that we would not lose our land. We in the diaspora are counting on you.

Rest assured that we, your brothers and sisters in the diaspora, and also the many people of goodwill around the world, from China, Canada, Japan, Australia, Belgium, the United States, and elsewhere, are here to provide you with support, moral as well as financial.

The awakening of the Congolese youth is paramount in achieving a new and prosperous future for not only the Congo but also Africa as a whole. The pride of being Congolese should compel us to toil day and night for peace as it will come only through our hands in synergy and unity among us in the Congo and the Awakened Diaspora.

Congolese Youth, the Great Congo of today is ours. This gift is not just hereditary, but also because millions of Congolese have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country since 1482. We must do everything in our power to assure that our beautiful Congo remains in the hands of the sons and daughters of the Congo.

Long live the Congolese Youth!
Long live the Democratic Republic of Congo!
Long live Africa and Africans!

Kambale Musavuli
Friends of the Congo
New York, USA