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Memoirs
Congo Connection – 3
by
Dr. Amitabh Mitra
 Olusegun Obasanjo is the UN
special envoy for Congo and a former Nigerian President. I saw him
coming out of a tent in Eastern Congo with General Nkunda after a round
of talks. The General was as usual smiling and Mr. Obasanjo looked grim.
All talks have failed since then and even at the latest one held at
Nairobi. The participating rebels had asked to discuss the situation in
the whole country as opposed to just the conflict in the east.
Mr. Obasanjo is a failed statesman in his own country. The United
Nations have done a blunder by appointing him as the mediator of a
complex war involving tribes, nations and people hungry for power. The
ideal person would have been Archbishop Desmond Tutu. A man respected
the world over; he has an intimate knowledge of African Conflicts.
General Laurent Nkunda seems to have a plausible answer to the ongoing
conflict. He has an infectious laughter and tells me of a war that would
end the day he is allowed to explain his views. I believe that he should
be given a chance. A government of national unity would bring the war to
an end.
But the General believes that neither the United Nations nor the African
Union is keen on resolving the ongoing conflict. The participating
nation's army on deputation are stationed in the safer zones of the
Congo war and are paid handsomely in US dollars. The Indian soldiers
spend their time playing cards while trying to ward off the mosquito
menace.
 The eastern region is rich in minerals, such as tin ore, gold and coltan,
underlining a decade of conflict in the region. Illegal mining has
fanned both sides in keeping the war going by buying weapons from the
proceeds of the sales of such minerals.
United Nations Resolution 1856, which commences on January 1, 2009,
authorises "the continuation of up to 19,815 military personnel, 760
military observers, 391 police personnel and 1,050 personnel of formed
police units."
It directs MONUC "to attach the highest priority to addressing the
crisis in the Kivu province [eastern DRC], in particular the protection
of civilians, and to concentrate progressively during the coming year
its action in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo."
The incumbent detail of 17,000 peacekeepers have been accused by human
rights groups of not doing enough to protect citizens in DR Congo,
affected by increased fighting between the Tutsi National Council for
the Defence of the People (CNDP) rebel forces and the army since August.
As the war continues, I stumble upon yet another famous writer, Albert
Russo who is of Congolese origin. I’ve known Albert for many years,
having encountered his poetry on the web pages and the print media. It
was in September 2008 at the World Literature Festival in Oslo, that I
actually met him for the first time in person. A great guy with a
fountain of knowledge on Africa - past and present, he has written a
number of novels based on Central and Eastern Africa.
His nonsense verses, I liked the best but the best I believe is yet to
come. In his own words
Albert Russo was born in what is now Zaire, of an Italian father (who
was born in Rhodes during the Italian occupation of the Greek
Dodecanese) and an English mother (brought up in Rhodesia, today's
Zimbabwe), which makes him neither Zairois, Italian, Greek, Rhodesian,
Zimbabwean, or English. After primary and secondary education in
francophone and anglophone Central and Southern Africa, he spent four
years obtaining a degree at New York University; which does not make him
American. During his seventeen Zaire-Rwanda-Burundi years he spent
several months of every year in South Africa, adding up to almost four
years, albeit in spaced-out instalments, during turbulent times, but
this does not make him South African.
He has by now spent the greater part of his life in France, but does
that make him French? Jamais ! He has been translated into Greek,
Turkish, German, Polish, Russian, Flemish/Dutch and Serbian, and he
happens to carry a Belgian passport. Bearing in mind James Baldwin's
pertinent remark, "it is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris
while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French," what
do all these geographic facts make of Albert Russo? Answer as a writer,
he is simply uncategorizable by nationality.
Russo writes in American English and in French and has published over
three hundred poems, short stories, and essays in Australia, Belgium,
Britain, Canada, France, India, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, the USA, and
Zimbabwe, plus more than a dozen novels published in both Anglophone and
francophone countries. His poems are invariably about the human
condition irrespective of geographic or national settings, and he has
more than once been published in monetarily risky books of poems in
English and in French within the same covers. One such book he entitled
"Dans la nuit bleu-fauve" on one cover, then, turned upside down, "Futureyes"
on the other. His recent collection of over 500 pages, entitled ‘The
Crowded World of Solitude’, volume 2, spanning a period of 30 years,
contains English and French versions of the same ten poems, and it is
impossible to tell which were originally written in French, which in
English; the messages are the same but the images are necessarily
different, and each version sheds light on the other most interestingly,
at least for those of us who are polyglots. Many of Russo's short
stories have definitely American backgrounds, while others are set in
Italy, Sri Lanka, China, etc. The majority of his published novels,
however, centre squarely on Africa and were either adapted by himself
from American English into French or written directly in French.
His sixth novel, 'Zapinette Video', which is now part of a series, has
nothing whatever to do with Africa. It will be seen, then, that in terms
of subject matter too, he his uncategorizable."
I was particularly interested in his education in the Congo, He writes -
I attended Athénée Royal Interracial in Usumbura (Bujumbura) for 6
years, along with Hutu, Tutsi, Pakistani, Arab and Indian students, a
unique experience in colonial Africa, which gave me a cosmopolitan
weltanschauung. After New York University where I majored in Economics
and minored in Psychology, I spent 1 year at Collegium Palatinum in
Heidelberg, Germany, where I studied German culture and literature. Then
I lived 8 years in Northern Italy, before going back to NY where I
worked for Unicef and taught languages to UN staff, translating for
magazines such as World Press Review and publishing in US literary
magazines and anthologies.
 His book, ‘The Benevolent American in the Heart of Darkness’ is an
internationally acclaimed novel trilogy, ‘The Black Ancestor’, ‘Eclipse
over Lake Tanganyika’ and ‘Mixed Blood’, set in the former Belgian Congo
and Rwanda-Urundi. It was published by Xlibris in 2004.
The book is a semiautobiographical novel which reveals the beauty of a
part of Africa that has been incomparable, the people who lived there
integrated to the environs that made them proudly Congolese and the
desperate struggle in the later years to part with an identity that they
have been born with. Exiled in different countries, they all share the
same dream every night, happiness and laughter in a land that was once
so full of hope.
Chapter one in The Black Ancestor starts like this -
“I was born in a once lovely town called Elisabethville, now Lubumbashi,
known as the Pearl of Katanga, Katanga or Shaba, which was and still
remains the Congo's richest province. The whole country is alas, today
in a pitiful state, after forty years of corruption and mismanagement.”
The story is about Leodine who comes to know that she is actually
colored, her great grandmother being an African-American with a light
complexion. It is a riveting story of love, life and conflicts that
rages within every colored person in Africa. Albert Russo has brought
this turmoil of an African in a narrative that the reader finds
difficult to keep down the book. As an African, I enjoyed it far more,
being so close to my daily life.
The last chapter goes like this -
“But the nostalgia of those carefree years - before I had learnt of my
father's legacy - would then be replaced by a sentiment of solidarity,
so much deeper and so much more meaningful, even if when, faced with the
unbearable loss and the huge misery of the populations I visited, I
could feel at times totally disarmed, and if my efforts would appear so
futile in the face of their ordeal. But I don't regret a thing, except
for the cruelty which humans keep on inflicting upon each other, as if
they have never learnt anything from history.”
Albert Russo is a master of African Literature, and, as opposed to
Westerners who find it so difficult to understand the African sentiment,
Albert has brought into life that period of the Belgian Congo and Rwanda
which very few Congolese writers could shed light on.
My friend Brett Beiles is a well known poet living in Durban. His father
was a popular medical practitioner who had the support of a clientele of
every racial group and was equally loved by all. I asked Brett if he
knew of any Congolese writer living in Durban. To my greatest surprise
he introduced me to Jean-Marie Spitaels who happens to be a medical
practitioner like me. I sent Jean the links to Congo Connection 1 and 2.
He wrote me back, 'I indeed remember you reading poetry to us and
showing us your painting. I have published two books on my life in
Congo. They are both written in French, ‘Le Vol d'une Hirondelle’
(Flight of a Swallow) in 2003 (Durban) and 2004 (Paris) and ’Lignes
Tracées’ (Lines drawn), by Jean Cornet (my pen name) in 2007
'In the Flight of a Swallow', Jean Cornet keeps a chronicle of
lacerations of his mind:
From childhood in Europe to the present days in Southern Africa, the
author, a retired medical practitioner will take your hand to lead you
from the slimy cobblestones of the North to the quivering swamps of the
South. Forget historical or geographical accuracy but listen to a story
told by a bard about events which took place in some fairy land. An
infant has memories of American and German soldiers; an adolescent
discovers the aloofness of bush hunting but ends up as a medical man,
disgruntled in useless service. Inner peace is found at last by writing
for those children whose soul has not been devoured by modern machinery.
His letter to me -
Dear Amitabh
I am not sure how I can help you any further short of translating
the whole book in English and I prefer somebody else would do that.
I beg to differ about some of the "facts" reported in your articles.
1 : Patrice Lumumba was not kidnapped by Belgian paratroops but by
the Congolese army under the orders of Mobutu. I was a medical
student in Leopoldville at the time of (July 1960) independence and
the speech delivered by Lumumba then, full of hate, reminds me of
how Mugabe speaks now.
2 : Mike Hoare was a soldier, and a good one at that, he could
indeed control his men, to the degree of shooting the rogue ones! He
was confronted with mobs of indoctrinated (and drugged) youngsters
who believed in being protected against bullets which would then be
transformed into water (May in Swahili) by the sheer power of the
mind. So those kamikaze men, armed with spears, charged at the
mercenary shouting "May Mulele".
What would you have done in the position of Mike Hoare, Sir?
Have you been confronted by an African mob? I have.
3 : "Evil colonialism has inflicted ?"
This is a cliché!
I met wonderful men and women in Congo who dedicated themselves to
uplifting the life conditions of local populations. My uncle,
Franciscan missionary, was one of them.
I added my little bit.
I believe Africa, like the Phoenix, will come back reborn from his
cinders when it stops blaming the "white man" for all its ailments.
Accept my apologies for being direct
Sincerely
Jean - Marie
General Laurent Nkunda breaks
into a hearty laughter when I ask him about his possibilities of him
becoming the President of Congo. Refraining from answering my question
he says 'I want people like you with me who understand the heart of
Congo'. South Africa lost the chance of attracting the best brains from
all over the world when it resorted to democracy.
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2 | 3
December 27 , 2008
Image of Congo refugees and a young
worker at the Congo mines under license with Gettyimages.com
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