Back to the US for two to three months...

A vaccination campaign in the streets of Kinshasa (Photo: Alex Engwete)

 

 

 

 
I'm back to the US for two to three months after a full one-year stint in Kinshasa. Though the place at times has the feel of the Wild Wild West of Western yarns, I can't wait to go back. For Congolese cuisine, among many other things...

Besides, people are so loving and generous in Kin--despite urban insecurity caused by "kuluneurs" and rogue cops. I was for instance once mugged around 1 a.m. by a six-man patrol of cops who wanted to see my ID. In total darkness and without night-vision goggles! I refused to show them my ID as I didn't see how they could read it in the dark as they didn't have either a flashlight or one of those new Chinese phones that have a tiny torchlight. And I made a mistake of telling them law-abiding citizens weren't subjected to such indignities under Mobutu! Well, this comment irked them so much that they started beating the living hell out of me. Fortunately, as this happened a few meters from my residence, my family came out in force to the rescue while I kept yelling at the fleeing cops: "Kuluneurs! Kuluneurs!"

There's however one sector where the government seems efficient: public health, particularly the recent national anti-polio vaccination campaign. In Kin, for instance, the vaccination was carried out in three successive waves. And every resident, including myself, had the opportunity to be vaccinated. Vaccination teams fanned all the neighborhoods, quarters, and streets--including the "ngandas," the sidewalk bars. I don't know whether this efficiency was due to the fact that the campaign was funded by the international health organizations...

On my SN Brussels Airlines flight from Kinshasa, I had the opportunity of seating across the aisle from Chicagoan blues singer Peaches Staten who was returning from the 5th Kinshasa International Jazz Festival (June 16-20) aka JazzKif (Festival International de Jazz de Kinshasa) created by Dominique Poindron, a French bar owner of Kinshasa, and his partner. This year featured a tribute to Django Reinhart ! Now, I thought I knew Kinshasa through and through, but I was taken aback when I first heard this festival mentioned on Radio France Internationale (RFI) about two weeks before I left Kin. The RFI program was an interview of Dominique Poindron by Sonia Rolley, in which Peaches Staten is also mentioned.

On the plane, I heard Peaches Staten laugh her head off as she was telling another musician how she was stunned to see a guest Congolese band at the JazzKif that was 50-member strong! Well, that's a typical lineup of a Soukous band, my dear--what with an army hollers and singers, multiple guitarists, a proliferation of saxophonists and keyboardists, drummers, dancers, jesters, etc.

Anyway, next year I'll definitely attend the JazzKif if I happen to be in Kin.

Peaches Staten offered me her last CD titled Peaches Staten Live at Legends, which she signed. Now, Legends is Buddy Guy's band. And Buddy Guy was among the international artists Mobutu would now and then invite to Zaire to perform. I told Peaches Staten that in the late 70s or early 80s Buddy Guy had performed at the Olympia of Kisangani, my hometown.

If there's JazzKif and if Peaches Staten leaves Chicago to go all the way to Kinshasa to sing, then maybe things aren't totally bad in the Congo...