I know. It's been a while. If I keep going at this rate, I'll only post 3 or 4 times this year. My apologies. It's hard for me to know what to say about my life here on the other side of the globe. Things are certainly interesting, but it's all just so different. I usually don't know where to begin. I guess I'll start with the last four months.
The Last 4 Months
A good portion of my time over the last four months has been spent teaching English at a local Mennonite church. I pivoted to this work in mid-February because my old partner was having funding problems and didn't have work for me. We picked this project because we wanted to work with the local Mennonite church and I felt that teaching English was a skill that I could offer. We are hoping that better English skills will help young people find jobs because unemployment is a big problem here. I also use the class as a chance to discuss issues, history, and change. The intention is to have a peace-building component to the class. This is easier said than done but I'm enjoying the challenge.
The class is always a combination of dedicated students, first timers, and other random stragglers. Some of them are old ladies, some are pastors, some are young students, and all struggle to speak in the past tense correctly. Despite what often feels like chaos, there is a group of students who attend regularly and seem to be improving. I usually start the class by asking people questions trying to get them to converse in English, and inevitably end up explaining some random vocab words. After that we might read an article together or look at a grammar rule. We usually end the class by singing songs in English out of a booklet that I put together. I'm hoping that the songs will help them with vocab and pronunciation.
So that takes up a few days a week. When I'm not teaching, I'm usually planning for class, working on improving my language skills, or reading. I also usually play ultimate Frisbee in the park on Saturdays. This weekly ritual was put on pause 7 weeks ago, when I got elbowed in the side and fractured one of my ribs. The pain was tolerable but slowed me down for a couple of weeks. I finally started playing Frisbee again last Saturday.
Apart from missing Frisbee, my injury also meant that I could not lift heavy objects. This was a problem because we had just entered the dry season. Water had become limited meaning we were often forced to haul 5 gallon jugs up the stairs to our 3rd floor apartment. It felt silly to be carrying the water up by hand because we have a water pump, but there is a strange politics to water during the dry season. My landlords household workers prefer that me and my roommates use less water (leaving them with more to wash the endless amount of laundry that my landlords three young children produce). The best way to limit our water use is to force us to haul it up the stairs in 5 gallon jugs.
As we get lower and lower on water, we usually become more and more nervous. We eventually go and negotiate for more water (there are many different ways). We usually get enough water to last at least a couple days, or maybe even a week or two. Then the process starts all over. Recently, my boss worked out a deal with our landlord where his household workers bring us 5 gallon jugs full of water. I was never really clear on whether we are supposed to pay them or not. They ask me for stuff, but I'm not sure whether or not that's related to water, because they have been asking me for stuff since I moved into this apartment 10 months ago.
There is an article on negotiation in Kinshasa called "the Kinshasa Bargain." (you can read the article here, the story on Les Mamans Manoeuvre is particularly interesting) Kinshasa is far away from Bukavu, but the ideas, in my experience, hold up in Bukavu. Here's a quote:
"The overwhelming material needs of Kinois transform anything with the slightest real or perceived value into a coveted consumer item. Office furniture, laboratory equipment, a fork or spoon in a restaurant, telephone cables, metal rods embedded in a cement wall, or light bulbs in a public area or a private parcel, can be the object of a Kinshasa bargain."This quote highlights the value placed on stuff in Congo. My landlords workers often see me coming home with a bag full of stuff from the store, and beg for whatever I will give them. Apples, cookies, a piece of bread, a roll of toilet paper. I usually tell them to ask my landlord. The rent we pay for my apartment is pretty high, so it seems reasonable to me that he can take care of their needs. This has become more difficult since they have been delivering water. They usually ask for biscuits (cookies) upon delivery. A few nights ago, when I said that I didn't have any biscuits one of the girls poked her head into my room and said "just give me one book." I had to laugh. There is a large stack of books in my room, but they are mostly in English and I can't imagine what she wants with them. I have since begun paying for the water deliveries with sleeves of Oreos. So far, this seems to be an acceptable arrangement.
Negotiating over strange things is a regular part of my life in Congo. I find myself frustrated and exhausted by how much time I spend negotiating over things that in America are so easy. In America, when you want to buy something, you walk into a store or go online, compare options, and make a decision. It's more complicated here, because you never quite know where to go to buy what, and whether or not your getting a good price. The easiest way to navigate the system is to have a local friend that you can trust, but those are hard to come by. It's during negotiations that you find out who your real friends are.
The system was particularly stressful when my family came to visit in May. Negotiating the life of one Muzungu in Congo is a hassle, but negotiating the life of four Muzungu's is exhausting. The visas were the first challenge. It's very difficult and expensive for westerners to get visas in Congo, but I managed to get them through a local national park. After a long drawn out game of good cop bad cop with said national park, I was able to secure the visas in a package deal along with a day trip to hike through the jungle and see some gorillas. The whole thing cost more then I'd care to admit, but I got them in so I count it as a win. Once they were in, things got easier, but there was still a lot of negotiation over things like who we spent time with, who drove us where, and where my family stayed.
I was of course happy to do all these things because they're my family and I love them. I found a strange pleasure in seeing these two worlds collide. They were given a taste some of the challenges that I've faced since I've been here (lack of electricity and internet, bad roads, being force-fed by my host father). Overall, it was a very pleasant visit. We went to see gorillas in the jungle, ate many of my favorite foods, and they even came to chat with my English students. During one visit with local friends, we were sent home with a giant bag of fruit and a live chicken. You never know what you're going to get here.
Imagining the Congo:the stories we tell and the things that we do
I recently read a book called Imagining the Congo: The International Relations of Identity by Kevin C. Dunn. It's a meditation on representations of Congo throughout Congolese history. The way we imagine and represent Congo is important, because the region has been heavily affected over the years by policy decisions made based on these representations. The western image of Congo hasn't changed much since its creation 130 years ago. We continue to think about Congo as chaotic, savage, dark, backwards, and uncivilized. Dunn writes that "most scholars on U.S. foreign policy toward Africa argue that it is largely reactive, driven by responses to crises rather than coherent long-term strategies." It's like every time a crisis happens, we take out our stereotypes and misinterpret another situation.
Although our understanding has remained static, it has influenced western policy in various ways over the years. In the colonial era, the Belgians used this image to justify direct dominance of the region. After independence, the US used it to justify meddling in Congolese affairs. Since the 1990's, the west has used this image in order to justify non-intervention policies during times of crisis.
The Congo Free State was created in 1885 by King Leopold II, a man who only saw Congo in his imagination, never actually setting foot on what because of him would eventually be called Congolese soil. He relied on the adventurer Henry Morton Stanley to help him plot out a large piece of land connected by the many tributaries of the Congo River. Leopold needed justification for taking over this large chunk of land, so he crafted a vision of Central Africa as dark, backwards, chaotic, and in need of help. He claimed that his mission was humanitarian, meant to bring civilization and open the region up to free trade (130 years later, the region is still waiting on that promise). After convincing his fellow westerners of his good intentions, he went on to pillage the country, using whatever means necessary to make a profit. Most of this profit came from rubber extracted through forced labor. There was also ivory involved. Many Congolese people were killed.
An international movement formed in response to these atrocities known as the Red Rubber Movement. This movement included some people who actually had been to Congo, but mostly people who hadn't. Some authors regard this movement highly, but Kevin Dunn does not. By his description, the movement did not combat the negative images of Congo, but instead labeled Leopold II and Belgium as uncivilized. It was an attack by the English speaking world on a French speaking colonizer. The problem was not the colonization of Congo, but the fact that Leopold II had done a bad job. This representation was better, but still not very good for the Congolese people.
The movement led to Belgium annexing Congo as a colony in 1908. The colonial state instituted a policy they referred to as "Paternalism." They considered themselves fathers and the Congo their child. This attitude - paired with media images and exhibits of Congo as uncivilized and savage - continued into the 1950's. In 1959, a year before Congo's independence, the Belgian Minister of Colonies said, "I see these simple populations outside the large urban centers, and I feel myself more than ever the father of a family."
This is a weird representation that some might consider nice, if the Belgians had actually been good parents. The reality is that the Congolese people were still being subjugated and exploited. Belgium did improve Congolese infrastructure over these years, but didn't put much effort into elevating the people. After 52 years of Colonization, the country only had a handful of college graduates.
Many Congolese - including Patrice Lumumba - accepted the paternalism story. In his 1956 book he wrote: "Belgium's mission to the Congo is essentially a civilizing one... to introduce the ferment of political life prematurely among the ignorant and irresponsible masses in response to a craving for modernization would be to introduce the ferments of discord and dissension." The Congolese education system was controlled by Belgians so it seems reasonable that he followed this worldview. However, world order changed in 1945, and by the late 1950's that new world was catching up with Africa.
In December of 1958, Lumumba was one of 3 Congolese to attend the All-African Peoples Conference, a meeting in newly independent Ghana that included many future African leaders. The conference was his introduction to international politics. The trip changed Lumumba who was inspired to take a new pro-nationalism anti-imperialism stance. He began claiming that independence was not a gift but a right. In doing this, Lumumba was the first Congolese politician to articulate a national identity. Other party leaders focused on region or ethnicity, but Lumumba accepted this colonially constructed space, creating unity by railing against the countries collective suffering. He became the most popular Congolese politician, because his views appealed to all Congolese people. They were less appealing to the Belgians.
In June of 1960, the Congo became independent and elected Patrice Lumumba as the first Prime Minister. Relations between Lumumba and Belgium went sour almost instantly. At the independence ceremony, King Baudouin - the King of Belgium - gave a speech praising the work of his grandfather, King Leopold II. He claimed that independence was the fulfillment of his grandfathers work. Obviously, Lumumba could not accept this. He made some changes to his speech,
"Our lot was eighty years of colonial rule; our wounds are still too fresh and painful to be driven from our memory. We have known tiring labor exacted in exchange for salary which did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe and lodge ourselves decently or to raise our children like loved beings. We have known ironies, insults, blows which we had to endure morning, noon, and night because we were Negroes."This was the beginning of Lumumba's short and difficult relationship with the west.
A few weeks after independence, the country began to fall apart, with the south-eastern province of Katanga seceding. The Belgians encouraged the secession and provided them with military support, in efforts to protect their business ties to the mineral rich region. Lumumba, enraged by this invasion, reached out to the UN for military support. The UN called for Belgium to remove their troops and dispatched a peacekeeping force, but this did not meet the expectations of Lumumba who was hoping for military action. Unsatisfied with the UN, Lumumba sent a telegram to Moscow. It was this telegram that sealed his fate. The United States, symbol of freedom and shining city on the hill, could not allow Congo to be led by a communist sympathizer, even if he was democratically elected. The US eventually teamed up with Belgium to plant a coup d'etat and have Patrice Lumumba executed.
It might seem hypocritical for the democracy loving US to impose their values in such a way. I guess it's kind of like King Leopold and his humanitarian mission where he killed millions of people. The US rationalized their actions in a similar way to Leopold. Media images described them as backwards, savage, and uncivilized. For example, Time magazines coverage included a lot of this language. A headline from 4 months before independence said "Belgian Congo: Freedom Yes, Civilization Maybe." A reporter covering the election wrote: "most of the half-naked illiterate black voters had no idea what the candidates were talking about." President Eisenhower wrote in his 1965 memoirs that the Congolese people were "a restless and militant population in a state of gross ignorance -- even by African standards." Keven Dunn explains American motivations: "the dominate American view was that the Congolese were incapable of ruling themselves. Once such a notion was disseminated and internalized, Congolese sovereignty and independence became meaningless."
Mobutu with the help of Belgium and the US took over and began ousting his rivals, bringing "order" back to the country. He eventually developed the same sort of savior complex that western nations had taken. No matter how bad things got (and they got pretty bad) Mobutu could always fall back on the argument that he was the only thing standing between Congo and chaos/communism. The US continued to support him until the end of the cold war in 1990, despite his disastrous human rights record. This support started to disappear now that the cold war was over.
Throughout the 1980's the US supported a number of authoritarian leaders with difficult human rights records in places like Liberia, Somalia, and DRC. Without the threat of communism, US policy in Africa became more focused on humanitarian goals along with democracy and human rights, meaning that they phased out support for these leaders, eventually plunging each country into chaos. For people who didn't know African history, it might have seemed like like Africa was inherently chaotic. Author Philip Gourevitch comments on this view in 1998,
"An alarming number of Western commentators took cynical solace in the conviction that this state of affairs was about as authentic as Africa gets. Leave the natives to their own devices, the thinking went, and - Voila! - Zaire. It is almost as if we wanted Zaire to be the Heart of Darkness; perhaps the notion suited our understanding of the natural order of nations."Again it is ironic. The US supported these awful leaders for years, then suddenly pulled out and started talking about human rights. Simultaneously, the US ignored responsibility claiming that this is just what happens in Africa.
For 100 years of history, the west has seen Congo as chaotic, backwards, and uncivilized. It's a conveniently shallow representation that can used for justification of both meddling and staying out of it. There is some amount of truth to these stereotypes, but it's more complicated than a few simple words. The thing I would stress the most is that Congolese people are not irrational or unintelligent. They are part of a system that despite it's many flaws makes sense. It's important to remember this, because a system that can be understood is a system that can be improved. It's a system that can be changed.
Is Congo chaotic, dark, savage, and uncivilized?
I don't really want to talk about the savage and uncivilized stereotypes. I think they're mean although maybe a little true, but then what exactly is so civilized about colonialism, or killing a democratically elected leader, or supporting a violent dictator for 32 years. I don't want to talk about that, but I do want to talk about darkness, chaos, and order.
I have a vivid memory of a discussion with a fellow American that took place a few months after I arrived in Congo. We talked about the difficulty of living in a country like this. He described it as chaos and I agreed with him.
This chaos comes from the lack of a central government. In America the government is ever present. When you turn on your tap and water comes out, that's the government. When you drive on a road, that's the government. When you turn on a light, government. The government organizes our society and provides a certain glue that holds us all together. Theoretically, the government in Congo does the same thing, but if the American government is superglue, the Congolese government is elmers. Also, there are a lot of places where the elmers hasn't been applied in 50 years. It's either falling apart of completely absent.
There is a book about how people respond to this problem in Kinshasa, called Reinventing Order in the Congo: How People Respond to State Failure in Kinshasa. The book is a collection of sociological articles about how people survive in Kinshasa without government services. There are chapters on water, food, healthcare, and education. There's also a chapter about NGO's and how they try and fail to respond to the lack of government in all of these domains. Without a central government organizing all of these services, it's like trying to reinvent the wheel (but how do you replace the wheel, you can't build a car without wheels). What has evolved is a complex system of negotiation over power and resources, based on a variety of complex identities rooted in years of conflict and oppression. This system feels rather chaotic for a Muzungu accustomed to a central organizing power.
More than any other domain, this country needs government in the security sector. There are police and the military, but they don't get paid well and corruption is rampant. They also don't have much power outside the main cities. The political system in Congo has worked like this since colonial times. The country is essentially held together by various strongmen who are kept loyal to the government in Kinshasa through patronage. A friend recently compared this situation to the way power and sovereignty worked in Europe during the middle ages. There was a time when scholars referred to this era as the dark ages.
But most scholars don't use that term anymore. They say that it's misleading. Development historians actually point to the middle ages as a time when systems essential to the success of the western economy were developed. During this time period, Middle Eastern and Asian societies would have seen Europe as uncivilized and chaotic, but this lack of central power allowed more decentralized political structures to emerge. This decentralization allowed private enterprise to grow in power, eventually becoming the back bone of western success. The development of private property rights, another central part of capitalism, is also attributed to feudal systems. The basis for western order emerged out of this chaos.
The problem with stereotypes - uncivilized, savage, chaotic, dark, backwards - is not that they're totally unfounded, but that they're shallow and don't show the whole picture. They only tell one side of the story. England went through a number of wars before the industrial revolution. I imagine that back then, nobody thought the whole world would be speaking English 500 years later. Congo certainly has the resources and size to be a major world power. With a few tweaks, this country could become a center of civilization. The problem is that people don't believe it, at least not enough to take the necessary risks. Americans didn't believe 60 years ago, not enough to give Patrice Lumumba a chance. Many Congolese don't believe it either. History has told them that their country is no good. A lot of people here think the only option is to get out. They see no future for themselves here.
Words have power. As long as people believe the DRC cannot change, they are correct. Many of the stories about DRC are full of violence and pain. I encourage you to read these articles, but don't let them fool you into thinking that's the only thing here. Don't let them fool you into thinking that there is no hope for this country.
Strange Joys
The way that our apartment is set up, I have to walk past my landlords kitchen area to leave. His household workers are almost always there, often along with his 3 young children (sometimes the neighbor kids are there too). When I walk by on the way to my English classes, I usually have my guitar because I use it in class. As I pass, they demand - in the most serious way - that I play them a song. Never in my life has anyone responded to music with such excitement. In the last few nights, the children have been following me up the stairs, begging for me to play. I don't know if its because I'm a foreigner or maybe they just don't have YouTube, but they really get excited about even a few notes. It makes me feel good. Amidst the chaos, there is a strange and beautiful energy to this place.
My friend and co-worker Aaron got married a couple weeks ago. It was a good chance to be together with everyone.
Third rib down you can see the fracture. One of the nice things about Congo is that seeing the doctor and getting this x-ray only cost $30. I didn't even need an appointment.
This is from a hike a took a few months ago. That's the Ruzizi river. It snakes across Africa and eventually ends up in the Atlantic Ocean.
Here it is up close.
Some friends
My friend Jimmy and I at a different wedding in Bukavu.
This guy performed at a local church recently. I was really impressed.
This is a pretty good documentary about the region, that shows the difficult things people go through. The main guy is obviously very intelligent which makes his hopelessness all the more difficult. This attitude, particularly that the only hope for his children is to go abroad, is very common here. There are many people who believe that Congo cannot change.
This is an Angola musician. You here his music regularly on the radio. People describe this style as the classics or oldies.
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