Nyumbani

It was in the matatu on the was to Ol Kalau in the Central Highlands that I first saw the Great Rift Valley. I’m not quite sure what I expected – perhaps something in the nature of the Grand Canyon, maybe just an enormous crack in the surface of the Earth. It was so green and so vast and there were peaks that rose up from within the valley. Dormant volcanoes. As we descended down the road carved into the escarpment, there were baboons on the side of the road, lazily watching the Friday afternoon traffic go past. The winding road finally spread out across the floor of the valley. As we passed Lake Naivasha, I saw zebras grazing alongside cattle and trees whose branches reached out toward each other. Although the road was only barely tarmacked, thinking back I feel myself gliding along the bottom of the valley. It’s all a euphoric haze that cannot be matched.

Don’t think I haven’t been paying attention. Rafiki zangu, don’t think I haven’t been watching.

I wrote the above on the Great Rift Valley some years ago now. It was my first trip out of Nairobi on my first trip to Africa. My first zebra sighting. And the beginning of what can only be described as life-altering infatuation. In short, I fell in love the way you do when you are 20 and seeing the world beyond your doorstep for the first time.

I lived with a Kenyan family and ate ugali and tried to speak Swahili on a good day. I drank Pilsner baridi (being sure to throw a few drops from my glass to the ground for the ancestors) and stayed out at Carnivore til all hours. I tracked rhinos with the rangers in Nakuru Park. I attended NGO meetings in Kibera slums. I went down River Road.

Daniel arap Moi was in power. Kenya was a post-Embassy bombing multi-party democracy. World Bank was still trying to reform the civil service. No one had cell phones yet and internet cafes were still expensive. Raila Odinga was the main opposition leader.

Watching Kenya’s elections and stability unravel over the last five weeks has been heart-breaking. Kenya was my first home in Africa and I still consider the people I lived with there to be jamaa yangu (my family). I have sat down many times to write this blog post, combed through horrifying and depressing newspaper articles, spoken with Kenyans and I knew then and now, and wondered how to begin.

If you ask me whether I saw this coming, I could tell you that tribalism was alive and well when I was living there (I could have easily written a post similar to this on Kenyans). I could tell you that crime and corruption has shaken the credibility of what should have been a model African government. I could tell you that two years ago, I learned that the US government was watching Kenya for signs of political fragility.

But none of that really matters, because I would have told you that I did not believe Kenya would be willing to let herself collapse like this. Even now, watching the country crumble, I still can’t believe it. M, an award-winning Kenyan blogger whom I admire greatly, has seen it with his own eyes and it is well worth reading his thoughtful and sage words.

As for myself, ‘euphoric’ is no longer the word that comes to mind when I think of Kenya.

Keeping abreast of Congo

While I’ve been whiling my time away in the US, life is Congo chugges along through thick and thin. Bemba is still in exile in Portugal but promises to return to DRC in time for the next legislative session in mid-September.

In more positive news, six new animal species were discovered in eastern Congo on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The expedition was carrier out earlier this year by the Wildlife Conservation Society (the Bronx Zoo), Chicago’s Field Museum, the National Centre of Research and Science in Lwiro and the World Wildlife Fund. The discoveries included a bat, a rodent, a shrew, and two frogs. Potentially new plant species collected are currently being classified.

Congo’s ongoing instability, particularly in the east, has created an incredible amount of human suffering and economically stunted the country in countless ways. Despite this, the war has also inadvertently protected vast swaths of rainforest that might otherwise have been logged, farmed and destroyed under a more stable government.

Here’s to looking at the brighter side of things.

Vanity Fair does the Congo

Reading Vanity Fair’s July article Congo’s Battered Cockpits brought back to life Congo’s chaotic beauty for me. …Though perhaps beauty is not something most people would take away from an article about Congo’s frighteningly unregulated airline industry. The anecdote whose punchline is a plane bellyflopping on Brazza’s runway only to fly again no doubt will bring a nostalgic smile to any ironic soul who’s spent time in the Congo. (I keep my own air travel stories to myself if only to avoid being grounded by mother who occasionally reads this blog.)

But then, Vanity Fair’s article succeeds where most others fail: it creates an realistic image of the Congo without the pity party in tow. From the pillages of the 1990’s to the diamond smuggling back and forth across the Angolan border, one can begin to imagine how things work and don’t work in the Congo. The sense of complete freedom that only comes with the absence of government mixed with the destruction that decades without governance has intertwined itself with each story told.

For my own part, this article reminded me that living in the Congo, however briefly or long, gives one a sense that anything is possible in this world — no matter how outrageous, forgiving, or impossible. The Congo is filled with extremes: riches and poverty, opportunity matched with risk, and hope facing down desolation. Go out and read this one, folks; it’s well worth your time.

As for myself, I’ve been bumming around the US for the last month and am having a pretty good time of it. I’ll be heading to Costa Rica this weekend for a bit of holiday so stay tuned for the tales of woe as I discover that the phrase ‘Donde esta la cerveza?” is not a good substitute for actually speaking Spanish.

Congo’s ongoing war

Congo’s war officially ended in 2002 with the signing of the Peace Accords in Sun City, South Africa. There have certainly been changes since that time: inflation has stabilised, there is a reasonable amount of economic development for a country that still has no infrastructure, and now there is even an ATM.

But anyone who cares to cast an eye in Congo’s direction even occasionally sees fairly quickly that this is not a country at peace. The international community focused attention heavily on last year’s presidential elections -the first in over 40 years- as the key to bringing the country back together. But six month after the results were announced, the country is still experiencing low-level warfare and the continuing electoral process, now trickling down to the municipal level, is beginning to stall due to lack of funding.

MONUC has not yet decided the fate of Bemba’s foot soldiers who surrendered to the UN at the end of March’s brief siege in Kinshasa. Bemba himself is just over halfway through his 60-day medical stay in Portugal, his fate still unknown.

Meanwhile, ongoing clashes between government soldiers and rebels near Goma caught a student in the crossfire. A demonstration to commemorate the student’s death was held yesterday in Kinshasa.

If Congo claims any peace at all, it is at best a shaky one.

There is no doubt that I live in an occupied country. As I watch the increasing push for allied forces to withdraw from Iraq, the equation with Congo comes easily. Without MONUC’s presence here, the next round of elections will not take place. Without MONUC’s presence in the east, low-level militia fighting could easily take over the urban centers once again. Kinshasa’s finer restaurants will most certainly suffer when MONUC finally withdraws, but that is another tale of woe for another time.

The first phase of the electoral process last year was simply the beginning of the much longer phase it will take to rebuilt a country that was hardly held together from the moment it was born. Convincing people to have faith in a government that has done nothing but fail them -and at the same time give that government adequate time to built lasting change- is asking a stupendous leap of faith.

There is no one moment when war is over and peace rides in on a shiny white horse. Reconstruction can certainly not wait for a complete cessation in fighting that may not come for years. But keeping the faith: that is the real battle.

Blackout season

Imagine this: you arrive home from a rough day of drinking beer by the pool, only to discover that due to yet another power outage, you will be hiking the 8 flights of stairs to your apartment. Not for the first time, you wonder what made you decide to live in a building with no backup generator.

We’ve had ‘power fluctuations’ courtesy of SNEL (the municipal power company) nearly every day for the past two or three months and it’s been getting old. REGIDESO (the municipal water company) has not been much better.

So last week’s cartoon in the paper (translation: It’s his fault! No, it’s his!) got a bitter laugh from all who had enough light to read by.

Which brings me to my favourite Congo joke:
What did Congolese do for light before kerosene lamps?
Electricity!

A bit short of asylum

Mr. Bemba finally left our presence last Wednesday when he headed to Portugal for medical treatment. Bemba received permission from Parliament to travel last Monday on the condition that he returns in 60 days.

In the meantime his political party, the MLC, has refused to participate in the lower house of Parliament due to harassment they claim to be receiving from Kabila’s party.

The public prosecutor has asked the Senate to remove Mr. Bemba’s immunity as a senator so he can be prosecuted for inciting last month’s violence.

Kinshasa is relatively calm these days but the question of Mr. Bemba’s post-Portugal fate remains unanswered (although this bloke has some disjointed theories that seem a bit clouded by his own experience).

While it was expected that Congo’s political situation would lighten following the elections, the violence both in Kinshasa and Matadi (and similar reports from other areas of the country) coupled with sustained reports of opposition harassment indicate we’re not in the clear quite yet.

In response, the UN Security Council has extended MONUC’s Peacekeping mandate a month further to the 15th of May, stating that “continues to pose a threat to international peace and security in the region”. It’s expected that a new resolution will be introduced in the coming month to extend the mandate farther.

But there are a few small signs of hope. The Congolese government is being held responsible for a journalist killed (one of several throughout the electoral process) in late 2005 when the court convicted two soldiers and demanded that the State pay reparations in the order of $3 million to the family and the Congolese National Press Union.

A judicial affair

While our old friend Jean Pierre Bemba has been braaing away his time at the South African Embassy here in Kinshasa, he still has not received permission from the Congolese government to travel to Portugal. It’s not clear who is responsible for granting the request, nor has a warrant been issued for his arrest to date.

An unnamed minister comments “Bemba is a judicial problem… This has nothing to do with us.” while the state prosecutor says that although Bemba is being investigated, “(t)his case doesn’t concern the judiciary. We have nothing to do with his departure.”

Apparently Bemba is not the only one looking for a new home: two swimmers competing in Melbourne on behalf of Congo have decided to make a break for a better life.

On the ground here in Kinshasa, the streets are quiet in the evenings as all UN personnel are still on an 8pm curfew. There’s still some question about what will happen from this point forward. With some of Bemba’s former soldiers now integrated into the national army with unknown loyalties and others still hiding in la cité, it’s difficult to say whether his forces are too fractured to continue to cause unrest or still pose significant threat. Maybe we need some technical support from Sahara Sarah who’s latest adventures in Burundi include a CD ROM on coping with insecurity.

Meanwhile word is that the government is running on a 10% budget deficit which certainly won’t help the dip the Congolese franc suffered as a result of last month’s fighting. That combined with complaints that Kabila’s government has been harassing different members of the opposition does not present a pretty picture for the path to democracy.

Fallout

While news agencies now reporting over 600 deaths during the recent violence, the EU and its member states’ leaders come out strongly against the attack on several embassies: Article 22 of the convention states that all diplomatic premises shall be inviolable, and that the state is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage…

Meanwhile Bemba, still camped out in the South African Embassy (in Kinshasa, contrary to rumours!), is most likely headed to Portugal for medical treatment. Hopes are high that this will diffuse the political situation, although there has been much speculation over Bemba’s forces that supposedly escaped across the river to Brazzaville. With 200 of Bemba’s men in Equateur agreeing to integration into the national army, it’s difficult to say how many active troops he had prior to the fighting.

We’re all still trading war stories and trying to figure out which rumours are true. How exactly did Bemba’s brother get out of prison last Wednesday night after being picked up by the police for threatening the Prime Minister?

Problème de communication?

Yesterday was President Kabila’s first interview with the press since his inauguration in January, about 100 days ago. Since first coming to power in 2001, Kabila has been known as a man of few words. In a country of the overly-verbose, most people find this puzzling. What is a leader if not someone to make long-winded speeches to his subjects?

Whether you attribute Kabila’s silence to his lack of comfort in French and Lingala (his preferred languages are English and Swahili), a solitary nature or a lack of intelligence, I give you a few select quotes from which to draw your own conclusions.

On the possibility of opening a dialogue with Bemba:
Ce n’est pas avec des négociations qu’on va assurer la sécurité des Congolais… Il faut faire respecter la loi.
(Negotiations are not what will ensure the security of the Congolese people… The law must be respected.)

What do you have to say to those who say you do not communicate enough?
Vous étiez trop habitués aux discours dans ce pays, habituez-vous aux actions sur le terrain et moins aux discours.
(In this country, you are too used to discourse. Get used to actions speaking louder than words.)

What do you have to say about the opposition and freedom of expression?
C’est constitutionnel… Quant aux média de l’opposition, je n’en ai pas entendu parler, il faut demander au ministre de l’Information.
(It is constitutional… As for the opposition media, I haven’t heard much about it. Ask the Ministry of Information.)

Rumours are flying right now and the government is not dispelling them.
La rumeur, est-ce un problème de communication ? Je ne pense pas.
(Rumours are a communication problem? I don’t think so.)

MONUC and others says that the violence was avoidable. Do you feel that you have lost some credibility in the democratic process?
Quelle est la contradiction sur le plan politique ? Le problème était militaire… La paix n’a pas de prix.
(What is the contradiction in the political plan? Le problem is military… Peace does not have a price.)

Do you think there is a possibility of amnesty for Mr. Bemba?
L’erreur, pendant la Transition, était de croire qu’on pouvait arriver à la réconciliation sans la justice.
(The error during the transition is to believe that there can be reconciliation without justice.)

For those of you still wondering where Bemba is, I heard three possibilities while exchanging rumours with friends at dinner :
• He’s still at the South African Embassy
• He’s in Brazzaville
• He’s at the South African Embassy in Brazzaville.

All sounded plausible until someone pointed out that there is no South African Embassy in Brazzaville.

(Milles excuses for my paraphrasing of questions and poor translation skills on the responses but you get the idea.)

What passes for normal

I’m not sure what constitutes normal in this part of the world but it seems that most people around here are trying to get back to it.

Somewhere between 100 and 150 were killed during the clashes. The International Committee of the Red Cross has organized a relief mission which arrived on Saturday and has taken a major role in cleaning up the bodies and supplementing the medical supplies of the Hôpital General for treating the wounded.

While many of Bemba’s men are surrendering to MONUC, there’s some discussion as to whether they are turning in all of their arms. One of the major failings of the DDR programmes here (and I would guess in other places) is that large stocks of weapons are hidden when militia members turn themselves in, leaving open the opportunity to re-mobilise again fairly quickly. Others report seeing large caches of arms being brought into MONUC compounds – garbage cans filled to the hilt with AK-47s and RPGs. But no ammunition; which was apparently the limiting factor in Bemba’s forces efforts.

The have been rumours of Angolan troops in the country on and off for several months and there have now been definite sightings in Kinshasa. Apparently during the fighting the Angolan army was ready for deployed to Congo.

Bemba is still said to be at the South African embassy although there is no definitive news as to his future plans or pending asylum applications. He continues to insist that his life was treatened several times.

We’re back in the office today, as are most people. Back to the grind as everyone awaits the shaky next step in the supposedly enlightened path to democracy.