Les jeunes rappeurs de Goma ont eu ce mercredi une séance de prise de contact avec leurs encadreurs de l’atelier de « Bit making » pendant cette dixième édition du Salaam Kivu International Film festival. La question majeure tourne autour des défis liés au Hip pop congolais qui s’inspire principalement du style américain, situation qui le plonge dans le risque du « plagia ».
Par Bernadette Vivuya Tenus en cercle dans la salle de « Bit making » de Yole ! Africa, ils sont ces jeunes rappeurs de Goma à l’Est de la RDC avec le Dr Mark Katz, professeur à l’université du Nord Caroline et Paul Kowner, ambassadeur de la culture et art des USA en débat pour faire revivre et grandir le Hip pop congolais. Dans tout et avant tout, l’antidote reste la culture de l’originalité qui semble jusqu’alors disparaitre avec l’influence des artistes américains qui tend à écraser la culture africaine. « Si vous voulez être spécial, chercher à être original ; et on ne sera original que lorsqu’on maitrise sa culture, ses origines. Vous devrez être conscients de cela pour évoluer », suggère Paul Rockower, ambassadeur de la culture et art des USA ; et à Dr Mark Katz Schedule de l’université de Nord Caroline d’insister : « Le monde n’a pas besoin d’écouter le hip pop avec le ton américain mais celui de l’Afrique où il y a encore plusieurs thèmes à développer. Ces artistes sont conscients du risque qu’ils courent. Des engagements divers pris sans contraintes. « Je me réalise que je me trompais en pensant que chanter comme 2PAC, c’est ce qui me donne de la force. Aujourd’hui, la vérité est tout à fait différente. A partir de ce hip pop que m’inspire cette star américaine, je dois arriver à créer mon originalité aux accents africains, de la rumba, le tam-tam, par exemple. », Jeune artiste Ngabo Chifundera voulant faire une prise de photo avec ses deux futurs enseignants.
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On the evening of Saturday, October 5th, Celebrating Congo 2013 came to a close. After a compact two days of performances, roundtable discussions, and general conversations about Congo, the festival went out with a bang – more literally, a performance by Kanda Bongo Man. Before this final performance, a fashion show displaying DRC ApeParel and Mamafrica brought a change of pace for the festival. After an afternoon of roundtable discussion, the fashion show revived the crowd at Celebrating Congo. After a brief introduction, the models displaying DRC ApeParel showed off the brand’s designs as “Cho Cho Cho,” a collaboration piece made by Yole!Afria in Beat Making Lab, blasted over the sound system. The designs in the collection were all made of vibrant colors and bold patterns. For the male models, this meant bright patterned shirts with jeans or khaki pants as well as the occasional letterman jacket. For the women, the designs were more daring. Many included dresses, skirts, and t-shirts that we would not be surprised to see worn in everyday life. Yet other models wore dazzling bikinis paired with stilettos – designs that prompted the most noise from the crowd. After a brief word from the designer of DRC ApeParel, the Mamafrica models paraded around the room as “Zenga,” a song by Flamme Kapaya and produced by Apple Juice Kid, filled the room. Their pieces also had a theme of bright colors and bold patterns. Compared to the previous collection, Mamafrica had a more edgy and fashion-forward vibe, with outfits that would be seen on the streets of any modern city in the United States. At the end of each collection, the designers spoke about the intent of their pieces. The designer of DRC ApeParel explained that because of all of the negative attention the Congo receives, he wanted his designs to be able to show off the good side of Congo. The designer of Mamafrica described her brand as an “ethical clothing line” with the purpose of having a “vehicle to share a story” and “create a safe haven for women.” She elaborated, saying that she wants her line to create curiosity in the U.S. about affairs that are happening abroad. At the end of the fashion show, people were able to meet the designers and peruse the merchandise of DRC ApeParel and Mamafrica in the halls of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center. The fashion show was brief and perhaps an overlooked part of the festival when compared to the other events. Yet, the designers of these brands are doing incredible things to bridge the cultural gap between the Congo and the United States, which is the exact mission of Yole!Africa, one of the organizations that brought about Celebrating Congo 2013. To many Americans, Congo is a war-torn country filled with countless conflicts and endless suffering. One of the things these brands do is publicize important causes. The DRC ApeParel website lists two main causes – one for “The Land” and one for “The People.” The cause for “The People” reads, “Support and protect the people of The Congo, especially the woman and children who are at the highest risk of having their liberties and choices taken from them,” is incredibly extensive. Similar literature can be found on the Mamafrica website about empowering women. While it is important that these clothing lines expand the awareness of big issues such as these, they do something equally important – they redefine how Americans view Africa. By using something so intrinsic to daily life that it at times feels as though its part of us – our clothing, the designers have created a new way for consumers to relate to the entire African continent. For patrons of these brands, having a daily reminder that Africa is not as distant as we might think proves that their clothes serve a greater purpose, which is bridging that cultural gap. Another implication of the fashion show is that the future western image of Africa is yet to be made. Not only that, but the power of shaping this image lies in the hands of the American and Congolese youth. Throughout the fashion show, youth was seen in the faces of the models and the modernity of the designs as well as heard in the voices and the lyrics that filled the room. To the western world, much of the Congo remains unseen; however, with the energy and power of the youth, what we uncover might just be all of the life that lies there. ––Mary Maher On Saturday, October 5, the legendary superstar Kanda Bongo Man performed with his Orchestra Belle Mambo at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center as a part of Celebrating Congo 2013. In an eye-opening event, the festival showcased celebratory elements of Congolese culture as a means of helping Westerners understand both the vibrancy and the conflict that co-exist in Congo. The festival, which took place October 4-5, was sponsored by the UNC Music Department and hosted by student group Yole!Africa U.S., Celebrating Congo 2013 featured guests from across the world and across the spectrum of creative backgrounds. Yole!Africa U.S. is a student led, non-profit organization at UNC-Chapel Hill advised by Dr. Chérie Rivers Ndaliko of the music department. The goal of Yole!Africa U.S. is to foster cultural exchange between Congolese youth and their peers at Carolina. The organization seeks to do this through sharing and co-creating cultural pieces, in particular music and film. As both an arts festival and academic conference, Celebrating Congo 2013 sought to “engage the Carolina community in meaningful discussion about both the cultural power and conflict of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” as stated on the festival website. The culminating point of the festival was Kanda Bongo Man’s performance Saturday night. Kanda Bongo Man and the Orchestra Belle Mambo have been international superstars since they began performing in the 1980s. They have toured throughout the continent of Africa, Europe, Australia, Middle East, Canada, and the United States. According to Lubangi Muniania, an art educator who participated at the festival, “His popularity helped him meet with so many African heads of states as the leading ‘ambassador’ of popular culture of Africa.” For most Carolina students, however, Kanda Bongo Man and Congolese culture are as far off their radars as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is far in terms of geographical distance. I was ignorant of the man and his music until about a week before the festival. When talking about Kanda Bongo Man and the soukous genre, I was told by one of the event’s coordinators that soukous is “the sexiest booty shaking music you’ll ever hear.” Having now heard and experience Kanda Bongo Man firsthand, I can affirm this statement. His band, a modest four-piece group consisting of electric and bass guitars, keyboard, and drums, they created a sound which sounded familiar. In some regards, soukous has a very similar aesthetic to Afro-Cuban music. Rhythmically, the bass and drums groove hard with syncopated, but not totally inaccessible lines – it is dance music after all. Muniania, who has worked closely with Kanda Bongo Man and many other Congolese musicians, has written on soukous: “It’s lilting, rippling, dance groove that seems to smile from every register, with inseparable melody and rhythm.” At the beginning of their set, the band performed separate from Kanda Bongo Man. The upbeat group built up excitement for the main attraction, and as I soon discovered, there were many passionate fans in the audience. “ALLÉ, ALLÉ, ALLÉ, ALLÉ,” shouted Kanda Bongo Man over the mic, yelling in French “GO, GO, GO, GO!” Distinctly cool. That is what I thought of Kanda Bongo Man. With his wide, round-brimmed hat and relaxed spirit yet energetic vibrancy, I felt like he was the embodiment of cool. What surprised me most was how quickly the crowd got up, or rather shot up, out of their seats. As soon as he arrived on stage, Kanda Bongo Man compelled almost the entire auditorium to dance. I couldn’t help but smile at a young father who danced as he carried his daughter on his shoulders. I could easily compare him and his stage presence to that of funk legend George Clinton. When Clinton performed at Memorial Hall last month, I realized what made his performance so exciting. When I saw Kanda Bongo Man just a week later, I instantly had a flashback and realized that the performance of a man who I had known for several weeks was just as exciting to me as the performance of Clinton, whose music I’ve been listening to and obsessed over for almost a decade. Kanda Bongo Man and George Clinton are successful as performers because they are leader – they get what they want out of a band and know what a crowd needs to hear and see in order to excite the most people as quickly and for as long as possible. At the end of his performance, Kanda Bongo Man invited students onstage, and the dancers who had previously occupied the space in front of the auditorium nearly swarmed him and the band. Surrounded by fans, both new and old, he professed his love for the crowd, his excitement for the event, and his pride in the message of the festival. Through all the music, the fun and the dancing, he brought Celebrating Congo 2013 full circle and to an excellent close, reminding everyone of the beauty and brilliance of Congolese culture. If the goal of Yole!Africa U.S. and Celebrating Congo 2013 was to help UNC students see Congolese as people, people with a distinguished and nuanced culture, people with a story to tell, then the festival in my opinion was a major success. Visit Yole!Africa U.S. on Facebook here. To learn more about the ongoing challenges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, visit Friends of the Congo. *End Article* “Kanda Bongo Man” links to http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChqKkwzMCF6o_-ZIThZ6ZqQ “Celebrating Congo 2013” links to http://www.salaamkivu.org/skiff-us-celebrating-congo.html “Yole!Africa U.S.” links to http://yoleafrica.us/ “Lubangi Muniania” links to http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/KandaBongoMan “here” links to https://www.facebook.com/YoleAfricaUS “Friends of the Congo” links to http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/ ––John Reardon Photo's by Maggie Zabrine On October 4-5, the UNC Music Department and student group Yole!Africa U.S. hosted an arts festival at The Sonya Hayes Stone Center. Celebrating Congo 2013 featured guests from across the world and across the spectrum of creative backgrounds. By bringing together world-renowned musicians, filmmakers, artists, and intellectuals, “Celebrating Congo 2013 sought to engage the Carolina community in meaningful discussion about both the cultural power and conflict of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” as stated on the festival website.
Celebrating Congo 2013 welcomed guests such as - Kanda Bongo Man, the premier Congolese soukous musician and an international superstar - Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and activist whose provocative film style poses various questions on the state of Africa today - Ndungi Githuku, a filmmaker, poet, musician, and actor who is inspired by the MauMau Freedom Fighters to use his talent to fight for social justice and freedom. The festival featured many more guests, including scholars from various departments at UNC and Duke University, activists from the east of Congo, and advocacy organizations from across the United States. Of these guests, there were: Dr. V.Y. Mudimbe is a Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature at Duke University whose interests are in phenomenology and structuralism, with a focus on the practice of everyday language. Dr. Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is a Professor in the African and Afro-American Studies Department at UNC who has served as president of several African Studies associations and has written several books and numerous articles on African politics. Dr. Bob White is an Associate Professor of social anthropology at the University of Montreal whose research interests include popular music in Africa, especially in Congo-Kinshasa, and theory of cross-cultural understanding. Muadi Mukenge is the Sub- Saharan Africa program director for the Global Fund for Women. She has contributed to several articles on women's rights and African development and regularly writes opinions pieces. Yole!Africa U.S. is a student led, non-profit organization at UNC-Chapel Hill advised by Dr. Chérie Rivers Ndaliko of the music department. The goal of Yole!Africa U.S. is to foster cultural exchange between Congolese youth and their peers at Carolina. The organization seeks to do this through sharing and co-creating cultural pieces, in particular music and film. Yole!Africa U.S. is the American sister organization of Yole!Africa, “a center for artistic creation and cultural exchange based in Goma, east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kampala, Uganda,” founded by Petna Ndaliko. In a conversation with Petna Ndaliko, he stated that he felt the dialogue between the youth of both the Congo and the U.S. was fantastic. “I have been asking myself, how will we get Congolese to also be able to express what they are feeling about how they are being represented in the U.S. This is an opportunity to create a bridge online and offline. Because Congolese will be able to engage with Americans and vice versa." Celebrating Congo 2013 wass the culmination of these efforts. However, Yole!Africa U.S.’s goal is not simply communication for communication’s sake. Yole!Africa U.S. wishes to spread awareness about the ongoing conflict occurring in Congo today. Since 1998, over six million people have died in Congo as a direct result of the ongoing conflict. The conflict is economically motivated. Militant groups, competing for Western alliances and markets, commit atrocities over natural resources – including a mineral called coltan – in order to reap profits. “We all carry a piece of Congo in our pockets, through our cell phones, laptops, and all these devices,” Ndaliko said. “The world needs to know that the coltan that facilitates that comes from Congo.” Coltan is an important resource for Congo due to its abundance – more than half of the world’s coltan is located in Congo. The mineral is used in cell phones, laptops, cameras, automobiles, etc. Without coltan, most modern electronics would be unable to operate. Ndaliko stated that he wished Westerners could understand the conflict from a Congolese perspective. “A better understanding of the current conflict going on in Congo is what I am dreaming of. To see people here trying to start understanding that. So far, most of the people that have been talking about the conflict in Congo will only engage in one way, with an American understanding.” To understand the conflict from a Congolese perspective, here is a short history lesson. Formed in 1885, the Congo Free State was neither free nor was it a state – it was the personal private property of Belgium’s King Leopold II. The Congo is a region rich in resources. Under King Leopold II, the tradition of plunder was firmly established in the Congo, a tradition that includes massacre on a massive scale and that continues today. This is where Yole!Africa U.S. believes it can make a difference through cultural exchange. While King Leopold II no longer rules the Congo, his regime has been succeeded by the ongoing conflict fueled by global markets and Western demand for personal electronics. Therefore, Yole!Africa U.S. states that it is the West’s responsibility to understand it’s role in the Congo conflict. Ndaliko explained that he feels the Congo conflict needs to be solved collaboratively. “Today’s world, in so many ways, needs Congo. Needs what is in Congo. For that, no matter what Congolese do, the outside will have a say, or will need to have a say in what is going on in Congo, right? No matter what the outside wants to do in Congo, the Congolese will have a say in what is happening in their own country. So this solution should be an inclusive solution, whereby Congolese themselves have to find a way of inviting the outside.” For this reason, Yole!Africa U.S. organized Celebrating Congo 2013 as a forum for discussing these issues. Most importantly, the festival showcased celebratory elements of Congolese culture as a means of helping Westerners understand both the vibrancy and the conflict that co-exist in Congo. Ndaliko stated, “My expectation is to get the voice from the ground, from Congo, to be part of the advocacy that is already going on in America.” The goal of Yole!Africa U.S. and Celebrating Congo 2013 is to help UNC students see Congolese as people, people with a distinguished and nuanced culture, people with a story to tell. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a long and distinguished history as a public forum. From the steps of Wilson to the Nelson Mandela Auditorium of the FedEx Global Education Center, the campus of UNC lies beneath a deluge of conversation. Celebrating Congo 2013 is an excellent continuation of that tradition. ––John Reardon “If you don’t tell your own story, someone else will.” Pierce Freelon—musical artist, spoken word artist, adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina— summed up the importance of Yole!Africa US’s 2013 Celebrating Congo Festival with this statement. Yole!Africa (http://yoleafrica.org/) was founded by the internationally acclaimed Congolese filmmaker and activist Petna Ndaliko in Goma as an outlet for performers and artists within the community looking to catalyze social change within the country through their art. The Celebrating Congo Festival was organized collaboratively by the American branch of this organization, Yole!Africa US (http://yoleafrica.us/), by UNC professor of Music, Dr. Chérie Rivers Ndaliko, and four additional partnering departments at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Through the festival, consisting of musical performances, speakers, and discussion forums, they have brought together a grand assortment of influential figures from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and have provided them a platform through which they can share a fuller story. The story missing as a result of years of corruption and colonization within the country. The story that continues today. The history of Africa is closely tied to storytelling. The African Griot—the musical performer, and living historian of a community—would spend his nights in a fiery spirit, retelling tales of culture and family and war and peace from the community’s past to circles of listeners. In this way the history of the community was passed on, intertwining culture and history as the position of the Griot passed through the generations. And as the traditions of the Griot passed, so did the stories their ancestors shared with them. For centuries, the Griot’s words were the history book, and this was widely understood. But toward the end of the 19th century, in the area now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo, King Leopold II and his Belgian force seized control and changed this. And as colonization overpowered the traditional culture, the story of the Griot was lost, and, subsequently, his words were replaced by those of the western power. And, for the following years, the western world tried to erase Congolese history. The rest of the world looked to Belgium for information, and they understood and believed the Belgian explanations of the area, that its people were incapable, dependent on outside powers to provide for them, unintelligent, inhumane. And many tales—those that would be told by the Griot—were ignored. Slavery. War. Death. Corruption. The majority of the western world has heard little, if any, of the full story of the conflicts taking place within the country. And because of this, a disconnection has formed between stories and truths; a dichotomy melded by years of Belgian words—or lack of words. Yole!Africa and the Celebrating Congo Festival, put forth this weekend on the University of North Carolina campus, have begun to bridge this gap. In one energized auditorium sat radical filmmaker Petna Ndaliko; a pioneering community developer in Samuel Yagase, various musicians, poets. And two different audiences —the informed and the misinformed. And I, as a unique individual with an experienced background in African history but without significant knowledge of the entire Congolese history, sat in the back—in limbo between informed and misinformed — to observe the reactions of the two surrounding audiences. And then the festival began; the storyteller walked onto the stage. In homage to storytelling’s role in Congolese culture and history, the Festival began with a spoken word presentation by The Sacrificial Poets’ CJ Suitt. As Freelon, MC and musical performer for the night, stated in reflection of the Festival, “The oral tradition is as ancient as the human race, and storytelling is still one of the most powerful means of expression. Spoken word is just a new branch of an old tree—allowing us to communicate through words, gestures, performance, emotive expression, call and response.” Spoken word allows for storytelling, musical expression, artistic expression and, therefore, was the perfect opening to an evening dedicated to the beauty of the Congolese and the multiplicity of its stories. Slightly hesitant, silent, piquing the curiosities of all watching, the spoken word poet CJ shuffled his feet and muttered. “I hope you all are excited. I’m nervous.” And then the silence took over. We waited patiently, and we wondered, eventually questioning slightly his abilities as he stood in apparent discomfort. In a sudden, heated passion, he proved us wrong. And the first true story of the night was told. And the misinformed in the audience, those raised in a world deprived of the Congolese voices for these many years, were brought immediately to a new Africa. We were brought to a family of many children. And a sunny, small village where “survival is as predictable as coin flips and wishing wells.” And a son listening to his mother, “seeing slave ships in her shadows.” And an American disease. An American disease infecting and killing slowly an African woman. Patients in hospital beds, physically incapable of telling their story, waiting, like the peanuts in the fields where they work, to be “harvested by the virus.” A growing man watching his cousin dying from HIV/AIDS in NYC, too weak to lift herself from the stone cold bed on which she lie. Tears, tragedy, and helplessness. We gazed dumbfounded as a man on stage poured struggle and pain into a performance of eloquent movement and dance. We heard a story, but we felt a history, and, slowly, we began to understand. Slowly, the voices of millions dead, millions enslaved, millions deprived of opportunity erupted through his echoes in the dark auditorium. And the power of one story told mirrored the impact of millions left untold. As CJ spoke for the whole of his community, his presence began to mirror that of a Griot. And we, the misinformed audience—in a daze of emotional wanderlust—sat before the spoken word artist in a small community. We sat like the eager and moldable youth who, throughout history, have encircled blazing night fires as the Griot shaped their views of the past. And the new Griot, like the storytellers and historians of centuries prior, used his performance to retell terrors from the Congolese past. And in this way, our previous images of the Congo and its history were intertwined with the lasting impact of this story, and somewhere between the contradiction and the confusion lay the truth. Freelon urges us to understand spoken word’s ability to bridge cultural and physical barriers as he narrated the festival throughout the night. “When brothers and sisters engage each other in any type of dialogue, connections are made. Even more so with artistic dialogue and exchange. Spoken word is just another medium, like beat making, film making, dance, and rap, that allows us to see each other with more respect and clarity.” As the Celebrating Congo Festival progressed, the spoken word introduction set an emotional precedent, and Yole!Africa’s platform, the one through which the Congolese could share stories of the truth, grew in strength. And, more importantly, it attained its essential component, the one that could guarantee a successful festival and could cascade eventually into action and impact throughout the western world. A passionate, informed, moldable, audience. While progresses will continue for far too many years in the future before the solution has been reached, a door has opened here in Chapel Hill. And Yole!Africa’s ability (http://yoleafrica.org/) to connect the troubles and conflicts of Congo with the misunderstandings of the western audience was cemented. Here, through the spoken words, the storytelling, of a modern Griot. And in this way, the story of Congo’s full history has begun to travel from local Griots to American populations. And through this festival, storytelling again has taken its role in historical understanding. On the opening night of the two-day Celebrating Congo Cultural Festival & Interdisciplinary Conference Program that took place on Oct. 4 and 5 at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, internationally acclaimed film-maker Petna Ndaliko Katondolo shared a sneak peak with attendants of his new documentary film Mabele na Biso (Our Land).
It is business as usual. The day begins and man rides his bike across the village; another sweeps the dust off the yellow pathways; a few more work to saw wood, and many gather round their radios to hear the morning news. “Welcome to all the listeners of the Mabele Community Radio. We are broadcasting live from Tolaw at 99.0 FM.” From the studio, a calm, clear voice reminds listeners of the upcoming community fund meeting. Day to day, the Mabele Community Radio connects the inhabitants of Tolaw to neighboring villages, to the nation, and to the world, therefore freeing the community from the isolating chains of distance. By taking the spectator on a journey to meet Tolaw leaders and community organizers and to watch students singing and playing, artists performing, and men and women hard at work, Ndaliko tells a story of the remote village of Tolaw in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mabele na Biso focuses primarily on Tolaw’s development and on the role played by a local community organization named GOVA (Group of Village Organizations for Autonomous Development). Due to its remoteness, Tolaw faces the challenges of disconnectedness and achieving economic prosperity. GOVA brings autonomous development to the community by means of acquiring technology and by capitalizing on the area’s existing resources. The documentary recounts GOVA’s recent success at providing access to radios for the community. By bringing important news, radios provide a channel to relieve this community from its isolation. Additionally, these radios are partially powered by a palm oil-fueled generator that was donated by the Canadian organization Development and Peace to support GOVA’s efforts. Because palms are abundant in the region, they serve as a powerful, cheap resource for Tolaw to exploit. As a result of these programs, made possible by the cooperation among the nine clans that inhabit this area, Tolaw has been able to serve as its own agent of development. Mabele na Biso highlights GOVA’s successes in order to demonstrate the ability of Congolese organizations to improve conditions for their own people. In this documentary, GOVA leaders criticize foreign aid entities that build systems that can only be sustained by their funding and that fail to include the local population when making decisions as to how to provide aid. The result is an ineffective system that perpetuates local dependency on outside forces that may cease to be available at any point in time. In order to produce true, lasting development, a community must seek to build upon what it already has and to be as autonomous as possible. “Are there any American NGO’s doing good in the Democratic Republic of the Congo?” asked a concerned spectator after the watching the documentary segment. Petna Ndaliko had a striking response to offer. “No. At least not in Goma.” Ndaliko went on to explain that the main problem with foreign aid is that its constituents come with a preconceived notion of their superiority and intelligence and of the local people’s ignorance and incompetence. Consequently, the aid-givers fail to listen to the local’s true needs and instead seek to impose whatever systems they have already decided work best. Does this mean that the outside world has no role to play in helping Congo develop? Samuel Yagase, an internationally acclaimed community organizer and the founder of the GOVA initiative, claims that other nations can play a role if they are willing to truly work alongside the people they seek to help. “Do not go there with your own agenda,” he emphasized, “money and efforts are wasted when the benefactor decides that the recipient does not get a say.” In essence, through the lens of this story, Mabele na Biso teaches that effective aid requires a collaboration among givers and receivers. By providing the example of Tolaw and GOVA’s success, the film demonstrates that the Congolese do have the ability to creative effective systems for their own change. Ndaliko’s hope is that the story shared in his film “not only stands as an example of the possibilities that can come of resisting aid, but also serves as a model for a larger dialogue… My hope for this film is that it contributes to providing a different perspective on the relationship between aid donors and recipients, a perspective that challenges both groups to develop new policies and brings a larger population’s attention to the successful collaboration between international donors and one local community.” ––Nicole Sonderegger Over one hundred foreign aid organizations have been present for more than a decade, while millions of dollars are spent on development-intended programs, and yet, the Democratic Republic of the Congo still sits in the last spot of the United Nation’s Human Development Index ranking. The message? More foreigners and more money are not equivalent to more effective programs. Why? And most importantly, is there a way to change this? Let me begin with a short analogy.
It’s a Sunday afternoon. You’re happily sitting on your couch in your PJ’s, absorbed in your favorite magazine or movie. Suddenly, I, a stranger, walk in to your home. I don’t knock or ask for your permission—but there I stand, in your living room. I may take a second to greet you, but really, I have just come to tell you three things: 1) What you do and what you know is wrong. 2) What I do and what I know is right. 3) I am here because you need me. Therefore, we need to improve your life by having you act according to my norms. “Agreed?” Oh silly me, why did I even ask? I’m not going to wait for your permission. Your first reaction may be to call the police. You are in America. People do not get to simply walk in uninvited into your private property, insult you, and give you orders. Imagine though, you are not in America. You are instead in a place where your defense institutions are too small compared to my forces. I am high and mighty and in my eyes, you are dumb and in need. Therefore, I get to tell you what is best for you. You are unlikely to have experienced this series of events; but for so many others, this is a commonplace occurrence. Travel beyond the bubble of fully independent and stable nations and you will find yourself next to people who for years have been told by outsiders that they are not good enough and that they must change the way they think and act. Focus on Africa. Africa—that continent that so many outsiders have depicted as a land marked by conflict and ignorance that only the brave foreigners can cure. Zoom in further and reach the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a mineral-rich land whose success is suffocated by a multiplayer war and by injustice. Centuries ago, it was Belgians who stormed into Congolese doors, completely uninformed, but completely determined to Europeanize the “poor natives.” Today, it is the UN, the IMF, the World Bank and a multitude of non-Congolese organizations that invite themselves and their agendas into the country. It cannot be denied that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is plagued by severe problems, and that an abundance of problems calls for a plethora of changes that the international community can facilitate. However, the conception that the disasters manifested in Congo are a product of a population who is innately incapable and flawed can, and must, be rejected. Congo’s natural wealth has fueled the greed of many groups and nations seeking an immense profit opportunity. From players inside Congo, to Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers backed by the U.S and the British governments, to multinationals—“everyone wants a piece of Congo” (Crisis in Congo). It is this fighting that tremendously destabilizes the country, and it is the country’s history of subjugation that makes it infinitely harder for its people to gain control of what belongs to them and put an end to the brutal war. I recently had the great opportunity of attending UNC Chapel Hill’s first “Celebrating Congo Cultural Festival & Interdisciplinary Conference:” an event in which Congolese scholars and advocates for change spoke of the main roots of the nations’ conflicts, the misconceptions surrounding Congo, and the ways in which positive change can be brought about. Hearing from local voices made it clear that one key to effective change in Congo is Congolese empowerment. Money and guidance, the current commonly provided means of aid from the international community, create a system in which Congo fails to effectively develop because its people continue to be dependent upon others. When the aid leaves, the programs crumble. Furthermore, fomenting dependency reinforces the long-existing stigma of the recipient’s inferiority. Such mentality often produces individuals who are unmotivated to act against oppression because they inherently underestimate their capacity to transform national institutions. Because of this history of belittlement, what Congolese need, as Dr. Chérie Rivers Ndaliko has said, is to undergo mental decolonization and regain a sense of self-esteem. Mental empowerment can enable Congolese to fight for their rights in a way more powerful than monetary handouts could ever provide. As stated by a Samuel Yagasi (an internationally acclaimed community organizer in Congo) “our [the Congolese’s] poverty is not material. Our poverty is mental.” Because Congolese fail to acknowledge their worth, they do not recognize that they are sufficiently capable and intelligent to fight against those in power. If, however, Congolese can realize their own value, they can start to question social, economic and political constructs and find ways to alter the status quo. The success of Congolese empowerment can be evidenced by the fruits of Congolese organizations such as the GOVA initiative and Yolé!Africa. GOVA, a local community organization from the village of Tolaw, has brought autonomous development to this remote community by means of capitalizing on the area’s resources. The village has focused on the production of palm oil, and uses the revenue both for its own development and to provide scholarships for its youth to study in the cities. By profiting from its existing resources, Tolaw is able to create a self-sustaining and lasting system. Yolé!Africa, a center of artistic creation and cultural exchange based in Goma, promotes empowerment by enabling critical thought and encouraging the expression of resulting questions through art. By producing critical, challenging works and sharing them, not only with the immediate community, but also with the outside world, the participating Congolese can stir a fight for justice by expressing their voices. For instance, in the song named “Justice” by the group Uhaki, a rapper states: “Judges and rebels, give me a straight answer, why do you condemn the innocent?…I want equality that honors the law, punishes the unjust, and protects the weak.” Congo’s Human Development Index is not very low because Congo is poor. Congolese are poor because they have never truly owned their country. Congo’s wealth has always lied in the hands of outsiders and in the hands of small, corrupt elites—from King Leopold, to Belgium, to Mobutu Sese Seko, to the M23, to current world powers. Neither of these parties has ever had the true intention of allowing the population to benefit from the resources of its home. Therefore, aid agencies that simply provide money and implement programs that do not address any of these issues cannot possibly bring the Congolese out of their poverty. Because of their often ignorant, arrogant ways, aid organizations not only fail to produce effective change, but also generate popular resentment along the way—“I need justice, not humanitarian assistance” (Uhaki). It is not wrong to want to offer a helping hand, but the manner in which that hand is offered is of extreme significance. A hand that mindlessly grabs, gives, and overprotects holds its recipient back; but a hand that takes another’s, seeking to truly listen and understand, can become the hand that empowers an individual to produce true change. If on that Sunday, I had knocked on your door first, maybe you would have welcomed me in and we would not have had a problem. If I had listened to you and then offered you assistance, instead of giving you orders, maybe you would have gladly accepted my help and we could have achieved something fantastic. Likewise, if foreign aid agencies wait to be welcomed in, and want to meet and work alongside the Congolese, then they can help build the needed type of change for Congo. Moreover, if these organizations are able to relinquish the idea that they know how to maneuver and change Congo better than the locals themselves, then this assistance may actually yield positive results. Organizations who fail to do so are continuing to abide by the age-old notions of the White Man’s Burden, which as history has shown, produces much more harm than good. Conversely, by seeking to empower the people to take control of their country and resources, aid agencies can help Congo stay on a more stable track towards development. Do not invite yourself into others’ homes—remember common courtesy and knock first. ––Nicole Sonderegger |
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July 2015
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