Senate President Léon Kengo wa Dondo
The summary of a cable created on January 20, 2010 by the US Kinshasa Embassy and titled “Senate President Kengo’s Ouvertures to the U.S.- What’s the Old Fox up to now?” reads:
“Senate President Kengo wa Dondo has unexpectedly approached United States diplomats, in Kinshasa and at the AU in Addis Ababa (reftels), to request assistance in facilitating meetings with senior USG officials during an upcoming trip to Washington. One of the Congo's most astute politicians, Kengo is the only oppositionist to hold a senior position in the GDRC [Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo]. We suspect he may be testing the waters to see if the U.S. will support him in connection with a possible run for the presidency in 2011. We recommend that Department not arrange meetings for Kengo without the knowledge of the DRC embassy in Washington (which Kengo does not want) as Kengo may wish to embarrass Kabila, or even the U.S. Although possibly discredited by his long association with late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and handicapped by his ethnic background (European father and Rwandan Tutsi mother), Kengo may eye an historic opportunity to lead the dispirited, rudderless opposition lest the increasingly unpopular Kabila wins the 2011 race by default. We are skeptical Kengo will capture voters' imagination in 2011 but Congolese politics is nothing if not unpredictable.”
The prospective analysis of Ambassador was uncannily right and, in this case, it proved prophetic. Since the date of the creation of this cable, Léon Kengo wa Dondo: A) has launched a political party, the Union des Forces du Changement (UFC) that held a mass rally at Kinshasa Stade des Martyrs on July 24, and B) is among the presidential contenders.
2) Fallout of UDPS urban guerrilla campaign of mass action: CENI opens its central server to opposition
Jacques N’Djoli Eseng’Ekeli
CENI Deputy Chairman
Photo : Le Soft Numérique
At first blush, it’d seem that the UDPS campaign of mass harassment of CENI has somehow paid off. Before the smoke of tear gas fired by riot cops at UDPS demonstrators had cleared out in downtown Kinshasa, Jacques N’Djoli Eseng’Ekeli, CENI deputy chairman, announced, at the weekly press briefing of the national independent election commission held on Thursdays, access to its electoral rolls as well as opening the central server to the opposition and Kabila’s camp. “The opposition, as well as the entire Congolese nation, will have access to the electoral roll,” N’Djoli stated.
But the devil is in the details, as the saying goes. And the details N’Djoli gave will in no way allay the opposition politicians’ suspicion—particularly the deeply-entrenched anti-CENI bias harbored by UDPS secretary general, Jacquemain Shabani.
N’Djoli said that the “law forces CENI to publish these lists 30 days ahead of the electoral campaign.” According to Le Potentiel, this means that these rolls will be published on September 28. Now, the problem is that the opposition wants to access the central server before the treatment of the electoral rolls and its publication by CENI.
As regards the access to the central server, N’Djoli only reiterated what CENI chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda had said on August 21, in his response to the opposition memorandum. Both the opposition and the incumbent’s camp have each to designate each 2 IT experts to whom “would be clarified the concerns regarding the utilization of the central server and its connected applications.” Rev Mulunda had also extended an invitation to “5 leaders of the opposition and 5 leaders of the Majority to visit the national data treatment center and the facilities of data transmission using VSAT technology.”
And in his response to the opposition, Rev Mulunda had made perfectly clear that there’s one element that is non-negotiable: “the need to safeguard the independence of CENI, expression and overt will of the constitution legislators as asserted by Article 211 of the Constitution.”
In Rev Mulunda’s mind, anything that doesn’t follow the letter and spirit of the Constitution would amount to meddling with the independence of CENI.
3) Bana-Congo put the fear of God into Congolese soukouss musicians
Noël Ngiama Makanda aka Werrason aka Le-Roi-de-la-forêt aka Igwe-de-la-jungle aka Ya-Ngiama aka Mbonge aka Sima-Ekoli
Congolese Soukouss star
(Poster)
Werrason recently complained on Kinshasa TV that “we [Papa Wemba, Tshala Mwana, Koffi Olomide, JB Mpiana, etc.] can no longer play in Europe” as these musicians are now systematically and violently attacked by the Congolese diaspora opposition goons known as “Bana-Congo”—whom I call “informal sovereigns” (Thomas Blom Hansen) or “Doppelgänger anticitizens” (Comaroff and Comaroff)—who are the bane of any Congolese appearing on their list of accursed “Josephites” (or supporters of Joseph Kabila).
According to the article of the e-zine LeSoftonline quoted above, the Bana-Congo have achieved in putting the fear of God into Congolese soukouss musicians. These days, in Kinshasa, whenever pro-Kabila politicians invite musicians to play at the opening of their rallies, no one shows up—despite the lucrative contracts this usually obtain. With the exception of musicians like Koffi Olomide, who has officially enrolled in Kabila’s PPRD (and thereby barring himself from European concert venues); emerging bands “who have nothing to lose and everything to gain”; and Christian soukouss bands nobody would dare to attack for fear of retribution from the God of hosts! Those who still show up at pro-Kabila rallies despite Bana-Congo’s fatwas are fair game in Europe: “Upon landing at the first [European] airport, you are assured of being slapped by the first group of Bana-Congo that spots you, if they don’t make you swallow your passport.”
Things have been so bad lately for Congolese musicians on their tours overseas that some of them have become “turncoats.” Thus, claims LeSoftonline, Werrason was recently seen in Canada marching with Congolese women protesting against rapes in eastern DRC—which is not anti-Kabila activity per se, but, LeSoftonline thinks that this appearance might have “laundered” Werrason's past and ingratiated him with Bana-Congo. And the proof of this change was that the Bana-Congo let him perform unmolested.
But this assessment is contradicted by Freddy Mulongo, one of the intellectual forces behind the Bana-Congo, who wrote in a stinging op-ed published August 18:
“Down with a chameleon artist of the ilk of Werrason Sima Ekoli who acts modestly when he’s in Europe and changes into a pyromaniac when he’s in Kinshasa, prancing on all TV studios belonging to the Josephites to attack resisters-patriots-combatants…”
When it comes to politics, Congolese musicians have historically been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Under Mobutu, Tabu Ley Rochereau pulled a daring stunt by writing a song for executed rebel leader Pierre Mulele. He was personally confronted by Mobutu and never ever again dared to pull that one. Franco Luambo Makiadi obviously sang for Lumumba before Mobutu’s takeover; after which, he turned into Mobutu’s patented griot. The only Congolese who had successfully resisted Mobutu’s pressure to produce praise songs was Joseph Kabasele aka Jeff Kalle.
Besides, it doesn’t help musicians’ case when one of them, namely Papa Wemba, claims ad nauseum with a straight face that “musicians are like prostitutes” and can’t be expected to take political stances! Meaning that they can sing for the highest bidding politician!
A “Mwana-Congo” Leader seeking “cooperation” from Brussels riot cops
Bana-Congo wanted to go into the blocked path to an Ixelles shopping mall
DRC First Lady Olive Lembe was meeting Congolese businesswomen at the mall
Brussels, September 2007
a) The first method is used with isolated individuals in the streets: 1) they surround their unsuspecting victim in the street; 2) drag him/her in a dark alley; 3) set up a kangaroo court, with one of the muggers playing the role of a pro-bono defense attorney; 4) then a “judge” renders a guilty verdict and a sentence that usually entails stripping naked the victim, beating him/her (though so far there had been no female victims), and 4) posting on the internet the videos of the mugging.
b) The second method is used at concert or conference venues. A flashmob of Bana-Congo would suddenly materialize, attack the place, and suddenly set upon whoever is declared a “Rwandan infiltrated agent” (that is, any pro-Kabila politician or senior government official).
c) The third method is attacks at the residences of Congolese ambassadors and diplomats (one attempt thus far, at the residence of Kinshasa ambassador in London).
d) The fourth method is mass demonstration whenever Kabila or a high-ranking Congolese official visits a European capital; or whenever there are important events happening in the Congo.
e) Cyberattacks: two years ago or thereabout, Bana-Congo attacked the internet portal of the DRC embassy in Washington DC—smearing porn photos on its homepage.
This dangerous antidemocratic trend is encouraged by radical opposition politicians and opinion-makers like Honoré Ngbanda, Freddy Mulongo, and others. Known Bana-Congo gang leaders organizing these “blackbloc”-type direct actions on the ground in Europe are Didier Ramazani, Jean Pierre Samba Tele, and Henri Muke Disuishe, who are identified by intelligence services of European police. Some of them, like Didier Ramazani, have spent months in Belgian prisons for torching vehicles at violent anti-Kabila demos.
Doppelgänger anticitizen Didier Ramazani Ali
Leader of the Bana-Congo in Belgium
Solo picketing in Brussels
0 comments:
Post a Comment