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Congo history and society

Congolese Rappers Highlight Social and Political Ills

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Congo in August 2009 she told a crowd in Kinshasa, “You are the ones who have to speak out. Speak out to end the corruption, the violence, the conflict that for too long have eroded the opportunities across this country.”

One movement that is doing just that is a loose collection of rap musicians in that same city. I came across an article about them the other day by Radio Netherlands Worldwide, picked up by AllAfrica.com (a terrific source for news of Congo, by the way). Collectively known as the Generation of Politically Conscious Congolese Musicians, they are centered in the communes of Barumu and Kinshasa.

These musicians are activists for two causes: for the recognition of rap, in the face of other, more established styles, and “for political change and better living conditions” in Kinshasa and the entire country.

“Kinshasa is a big village. We must denounce the ills that plague it,” says one of the rappers. Another says, “Politics in the DRC suffers from malaria. The country urgently needs to be put on a quinine drip.”

Another center in the city’s music scene, the Ngwaka neighborhood, is shared by rap bands like Kin Mafia Style (or KMS) along with other groups, such as Staff Benda Bilili, whom we wrote about in the Paul Carlson Update in March 2011.

Rapper Alex Ndende, who uses the name Lexxus Légal, says “there are musicians, our elders, who are solely focused on love and money.” In comparison, “the Kinshasa underground movement is engaged in social issues. The people need to be defended somehow.”

You can read the full article on Radio Netherlands Worldwide here.

By the way: Staff Benda Bilili will be touring North America in October. This group has a wonderful, infectious sound and a distinctive story: they were living in the streets near the Kinshasa zoo, most with polio or other conditions, some playing homemade instruments, when they were “discovered” by Europeans. They’ve toured extensively in Europe and England and will now play nine cities on the U.S. East and West Coasts, bookmarked by Montreal on Oct. 15 and Vancouver on the 28th. To find out more about the stops on the tour, check out the listing on their website. Click on “Live Dates” in the menu across the top, then choose Staff Benda Belili in the drop-down menu.

SAJ 24 Sep 2012

What Is a Sustainable Community?

Every once in awhile you’ve got to step back and ask yourself what you mean by what you say. Byron had a moment like that not long ago, and he got me thinking too. We say, in our tagline, that we are “Investing for Sustainable Communities.” What does that mean? What is “sustainable”? And in particular, what is sustainable in sub-Saharan Africa in general and the DR Congo in particular? I’ll get to Byron’s answer in a minute. First a couple of possible perspectives.

Village in Equateur province, DR Congo

One way to respond could be by looking at un-sustainability, and that leads us to the Failed States Index, published each year cooperatively by the Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine. The 12 indicators here include demographic pressures (pressures on the people, such as hunger), uneven economic development, questions of state legitimacy, and others. The article in Foreign Policy introducing the 2012 list puts it bluntly, saying that most countries that fail are “ruled by what we call ‘extractive’ economic institutions, which destroy incentives, discourage innovation, and sap the talent of their citizens by creating a tilted playing field and robbing them of opportunities. These institutions are not in place by mistake but on purpose. They’re there for the benefit of elites who gain much from the extraction — whether in the form of valuable minerals, forced labor, or protected monopolies — at the expense of society.” The DRC could be the poster child. Actually, it is — it’s #2, right behind Somalia.

Another perspective is measured in the annual “Human Development Report,” published by the UN Development Programme. The 2011 report defines human development as “the expansion of people’s freedoms to live long, healthy and creative lives; to advance other goals they have reason to value; and to engage actively in shaping development equitably and sustainably on a shared planet. People are both the beneficiaries and the drivers of human development, as individuals and in groups.” This year’s report emphasizes environmental sustainability along with equity: “questions of fairness and social justice and of greater access to a better quality of life.”

The DR Congo came in last on this scale of human development — not surprising when you look carefully at the definition above. Most people in Congo are still at a survival level, living in extreme poverty. The United Nations defines extreme poverty as an income of less than $1 a day; the World Bank says “average daily consumption of $125 or less.” Goal number one of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals is “Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.” According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind on this goal: “The largest reduction [in extreme poverty] has occurred in East Asia and Pacific, where China has made great improvement. Sub-Saharan Africa, which stagnated through most of the 1990s, has begun to reduce the number of people in extreme poverty.”

Secondary school students in Equateur; poverty keeps many girls from reaching this level

So how do you think about sustainability for people and communities that are in extreme poverty, located in a failed state where human development is the slowest in the world? Here we come back to Byron’s reflections (I told you we’d get here):

“A sustainable community is one where nearly all families can send all of their children to school, pay for basic health care at the local clinic, raise a surplus of food every year, and support their church at a level where the pastor need not be a subsistence farmer.” A surplus of food will allow a family to earn income by selling part of what they grow, without taking anything away from the family’s own nutritional needs.

When Byron included this in a report he sent to our board of directors, board member Doug Morton wrote back that he would add the phrase “without outside assistance.” Point well taken. So do we have here an appropriate and feasible definition of a sustainable community in Congo?

I’ve invited Byron to add his own further comments (he has some good references to a couple of current books), either by adding a comment to this post or by writing a follow-up post of his own.

What do you think? The comment function is open to all, and I’ll promise to check for responses periodically.

SAJ 30 Aug 2012

Kinshasa’s Amazing Orchestra

Photo: CBS/60 Minutes

Did you see the “60 Minutes” story about the Kimbanguist Orchestra in Kinshasa? It was shown on April 8. If you didn’t see it then, we strongly encourage you to watch the video online. We did a news piece about this orchestra here in the Paul Carlson Update about two years ago, having spotted it on the BBC online, and it was an impressive story then. By now they’re even better. Watch this, and you will never again underestimate the Congolese people.

Here’s the link, and we’ll quit talking so you can go watch. Go! ……. Go!

SAJ 27 Apr 2012

Protecting Journalists in Congo

The organization Journaliste en Danger (JED) has announced the formation of a “Rapid Alert Network” to prevent and follow up on “serious attacks on press freedom and the physical integrity of journalists [in the DRC], particularly in the sensitive period leading up to the elections of 29 November 2011.” This action was taken at a meeting on October 5-7 in Kinshasa, where representatives of other media groups as well as “provincial government delegates responsible for security issues” worked together with members of JED.

In the JED press release circulated in translation by allAfrica.com, the Rapid Alert Network was described as a joint project of JED journalists and other members of the Congolese press, the Audio-visual and Communication Council, and governmental entities dealing with security matters. The larger plan agreed to in the course of the three-day meeting also included other activities to defend press freedom, and work within press organizations on issues of security and journalists’ rights and responsibilities.

Journaliste en Danger is a thirteen-year-old organization working in the DRC and eight other Central African countries. It is a partner of the international group Reporters Without Borders.

SAJ 14 Oct 2011

Hammarskjold’s Crash in Congo

Just came across a good article on the BBC website: “Dag Hammarskjold: Was his death a crash or a conspiracy?” It was posted last Saturday, the 17th, timed for the 50th anniversary of Hammarskjold’s death–in a plane crash in Congo on Sept. 18, 1961. He was at that time the secretary-general of the U.N. and was on a peace-making mission in Congo. The article mentions two investigations that have been recently undertaken by persons wanting to look at the case when fresh eyes. One, a “British academic” by the name of Susan Williams, has just released a book on her investigation, entitled Who Killed Hammarskjold?

There’s no good way to give you a synopsis of the article, but the title says enough to clue you in. All the mystery, clues, and witnesses of a TV crime drama, with the bonus that it’s a true case and has never been settled. Take a look and see what you think. (Photo: UN/DPI)

SAJ 19 Sep 2011

Celebrate Congolese Independence Day!

June 30, 2011, marks the 51st anniversary of Congo’s return to its people to govern. The country had been in foreign hands since 1885, when Belgium’s King Leopold took possession of it and ran it as his personal fiefdom. He got rich on exporting rubber and valuable minerals, which were produced by Congolese people under brutal conditions. When it became clear that atrocities were widespread, the Belgian government took over in 1908. Finally on June 30, 1960, Belgium relinquished its claim and gave the country back to the Congolese.

Here’s a link to the remarks given by Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of Congo, during the independence ceremony in 1960.

Congo: Battered Family Syndrome?

I’ve come to think of the Congo as a vast battered family.

There seems to be a kind of systemic dysfunction throughout the country. Is that a fair statement? If you’ve been part of any ongoing work in Congo, you’ve probably found the same thing we have: much of what we Westerners think of as essential accountability is just not assumed there as it is here. The country has been ranked second to last on earth for running a business.

And then there’s the violence. The senseless, relentless violence.

We have the good fortune to know and work with some really capable people in Congo. We continue learning a lot from our many Congolese friends, in many ways. I don’t mean, in what I say here, to underestimate or disrespect all that is good in them and so many other Congolese people. Nor do I mean to treat the Congolese as children. Adults are victims of domestic violence too.

But look at it: For at least the past 125 years, everyone who has had power over the people of Congo has abused them to one degree or another. From brutal King Leopold’s personal domination through the long Belgian colonial period (marked by the abuse of apartheid and conscripted labor, and a neglect to give the Congolese any experience in governing or other economic, professional, and societal skills they would need). From an independence in 1960 that they were completely unprepared to stabilize, through continuing unrest capped off with the civil wars beginning in 1996 and the violence that persists in places today.

Whether a colonial or national government or local warlords, there has always been somebody beating on the Congolese people. Even today, the Congolese army that is supposed to be protecting the people from the militias has itself been widely accused of wanton rape and killing. Meanwhile, the wealth that accrues from the lucrative mines in the southeast never eases the lives of ordinary citizens, going rather to line silk pockets and fuel militia massacres.

Now: A battered family is menaced by physical violence. Check. The abuser dominates their life, leaving them powerless in essential ways. Check. And beneath the visible damage, they suffer neglect and deprivation. Check

And the effects of all this? I ran this whole image past Byron (Miller, our executive director), and he responded by asking, “So what does this mean for how we work with the people?”

If this framework holds any water — if it does– then what does it mean for us who seek to work with the people of Congo to help them build better lives? I’ve got just one possible answer right now, but I’m going to save that for another post. Meanwhile, we would welcome any insights you may have — on that or on the appropriateness of the image itself.

SAJ