Lives in Africa are like candles in the wind. I came from Congo DRC, where the life expectancy is 60 years. Compare that to 78 years in the U.S., 81 in the UK, and 76 in China. Our brief life expectancy is not because of our race, intellect, ability, or geography. Instead, foreign invasion through colonization and persistent Central State failure plagues Africa, even today.

The precedent of exploitation and dehumanization was set in the late 1800s. Congo DRC was the site of one of the worst genocides in history under King Leopold ll of Belgium, who forcibly took the Congo to enhance his personal fortune by enslaving and gruesomely murdering Congolese in the rubber and mineral trades. During his 28 year hold on Congo, Leopold massacred an estimated 10 million Congolese, half the population, by cutting off their hands and genitals, flogging them to death, starving them, holding children ransom and burning villages. Growing up we heard stories that the living were envying the dead during the ‘reign of terror’.

Leopold’s methods were so appalling that worldwide pressure was applied until he turned Congo over to Belgium. The Belgians were “gentle slave masters,” pulling enormous wealth out of the country but also building a few roads, hospitals, and schools, never, however, permitting the Congolese people to be free or to have self-determination.

After having their entire way of life destroyed by foreign invasions, those who managed to survive genocide died young, leaving the four generations of Congolese that have followed a legacy of trauma and a country ravaged by violence, poverty and disease.

In some ways, COVID-19 is forcing the Western world to taste some of what African countries have been going through on a daily basis. Leadership has failed, unemployment is at a record high, there is a shortage of basic necessities, food insecurity, a rise in domestic violence and mental health crises, and the suspension of our Constitutional rights. Consider how the invasion of COVID-19 has affected your lifestyle in just a few months. How have you reacted to being told how you must live your life? What kind of toll has it taken on your mental, financial and physical health?

Since 1870, the Congolese people and all Africans have been at constant war with multiple enemies. They fight against unjust leaders, the corruption of multinational corporations, provoked division among tribes and deadly diseases such as HIV, Ebola, and Malaria. COVID-19 is one in a long line of invaders, it will unlikely be the last.

Makaya Revell
May 2020

The family has always been the cornerstone of society, and women were the cornerstone of the family. In the Congo of my childhood, much of the stability of life came from the women. At the same time, there was not much distinction between women and men. I remember telling my American mother how I couldn’t understand how men could disrespect women the way they do here in the US or how some women could be as passive as I saw here. I couldn’t even understand how much attention people paid to whether someone was a man or woman when the discussion was just about tasks. In the Congo DRC when I grew up, the top levels of government were mostly male, but this was largely because these positions were won by violence. Below this level there was much less gender discrimination. My mother was a prime example; she had a high level position running a government office. Most men were actively involved in the care of the family.

The important difference in Congolese society was not gender but age, because of the emphasis on respect for people older than you. My American mother had trouble believing that women could have a better position in society in such a poor country. But then I proved my point with language. In Lingala, the words more likely distinguish age rather than gender. For example, there is no word for grandmother or grandfather. There is just a word for grandparent, and when you say “Koko” you can be referring to either one. Also in English there are words for brother and sister but no word that tells you whether they are older or younger. In Lingala there is a word for older sibling and a word for younger sibling; whether they are brother or sister is less important. In English you can’t tell the age; in Lingala you can’t tell the gender.

Makaya Revell
September 2019

Over the last quarter century, proxy wars proliferated in the Congo DRC have been the main cause of the high child mortality rate in Congolese society.

These wars disrupt sustainable peace, public health, and socioeconomic development in the region which have a devastating impact on the health, well being and development of Congolese children. Children are suffering from neglect, poor hygiene, unsafe environmental conditions, displacement, poor nutrition, lack of access to drinking water, and inadequate health services. These conditions directly influence infant and child mortality in the DRC.

According to an article published in Al Jazeera News May 11, 2018, as a result of fighting between government forces and regional militia in the Congo’s central Kasai province, the UN’s children’s agency warned that 400,000 children were at risk of starving to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo unless humanitarian aid efforts were ramped up. Christophe Boulierac, a spokesperson for UNICEF who was quoted in the article, stated, “An estimated 770,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition, 400,000 of whom are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, are on the verge of dying.”

The Marie Mambu Makaya Foundation will organize a Day of Remembrance event. Our goal is to deploy groups of ordinary citizens throughout the country to create common ground. Our first strategy is one that stands alone, and that is to have a National Day of Remembrance for all the children who have died as a result of conflict. People from all over the country will be invited to submit names of those who died as children. We will gather names of all those who were killed before they had the chance to reach the age of 18. In addition to submissions, we will obtain names from death rolls and other sources.
On the Day of Remembrance, we will deploy floating lights on the Congo River. Each of the floating lights will bear the name of one Congolese child killed because of war.

The event will be publicized nationally such that all media outlets in Congo DRC will carry only this event. Worldwide coverage will be scheduled, to give maximum visual impact to the lights on the water and how extensive the loss of life has been.

Once the event is over, we will introduce plans for saving the next generation of Congolese children. Anyone who wishes, can sign to attend town meetings that will be held in locations that will enable participation across ethnicities. These meetings will include small groups where people can talk about their losses. Discussion will be directed away from blame or responsibility for these losses and the emphasis placed on the shared experience of losing a child as a result of violence. Through creating these groups we will unleash a powerful force for change and save the next generation of Congolese children.

References:
UNICEF
Al Jazeera news

In today’s Congo DRC all this has changed. Although Joseph Mobutu was a dictator who used his position to enrich himself at the expense of the people, there was a degree of stability during his regime that has disappeared completely. Congo DRC has become a failed state, prey to neighboring countries and criminal groups. For the predators there is a lot to gain. Although the country is one of the poorest in the world in per capita income, it is one of the richest in mineral wealth. For example, the South Kivu province, on the eastern border neighboring Rwanda and Burundi, is very rich in gold, iron, coltan, tungsten, and cassiterite. It is a rural area where people did low technology farming and sometimes very small scale mining. In areas where international interests gained control of the land, some of the people worked as miners for very low pay and under very bad conditions. But once the government lost its ability to protect the eastern border the scramble for minerals became a free-for-all. The Rwandan genocide spilled over into Congo DRC when fleeing Tutsis were pursued into Congo by murdering bands of Hutus. Troops from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi invaded with the goal of getting control over mineral-rich lands. The only thing that stood between them and extreme wealth were the people who lived in the area. Invading armies and gangs of armed looters go through the area looking to clear out the people so that they can take over the valuable land. They have learned that the most efficient way to accomplish this is mass rape.

In Congo DRC, as in many other countries, rape has been found by invaders to be a very effective way to win war. Jean Franco talks about its use as “a strategy designed to destroy or disperse ethnic groups… a form of torture that often terminates in death and aims to destroy a community.” In 2010 international media began to see the scope of the problem in Congo DRC after a mass rape in the town of Luvungi where over 200 women were raped in a few days without response from UN peacekeepers who were only a few miles away. Laura Heaton referred to Congo as “a posterchild failed state, the worst place on Earth to be a woman,” and cited a 2011 study that reported more than 1100 rapes per day, or 48 rapes per hour. This was all the more devastating in a culture where women were the foundation of the country’s stability. Mary Hawkesworth wrote about the terror that is created by rape. “Rape is an effective political device precisely because it produces a state of terror that renders women unable to act. As a practice of terror, rape produces powerlessness and dependence not only among those who are raped.” Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege stated “Rape as a weapon of war is even more destructive than a classical weapon. In the Congo, rape with extreme violence has been used in a systematic and widespread manner, not only to destroy women in their most intimate integrity, but also to harm the family and society as a whole.” Mass rapes in the eastern Congo have been very effective in achieving the objective of clearing the land for looting. The side effect has been the destruction of women, families, and undermining of an entire culture.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege

In the not-for-profit sector of civil society, there are some attempts to chip away at the destruction of family, particularly women and children, that is the devastating legacy of this war in Congo DRC. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege is a gynecological surgeon from Congo DRC. He originally wanted to create a maternity hospital in Bukavu, and with help from some Swedish funding organizations he built the Panzi Hospital. Soon it was clear that the region needed services for victims of sexual violence, and Dr. Mukwege became a specialist in repairing genital fistulas that were produced by rapes and other sexual atrocities. Known as “the man who mends women,” Dr. Mukwege invited the American playwright and activist Eve Ensler to come to Panzi Hospital and witness the extreme violence. Eve Ensler was already known for her work to stop violence directed against women. She had founded the movement V-Day, working to raise awareness and to raise money to support this goal. While in Congo she met with women survivors who were at the hospital, and she asked them what they needed. “It was these women who birthed the idea of the City of Joy, saying what they most wanted was a place to live in community so that they could heal— in essence, they wanted a place to turn their pain to power. Ensler also met a Congolese activist Christine Schuler Deschryver, who led the development of the project and the construction of City of Joy, located near Panzi Hospital. To date 1294 women have benefitted from the six month long program at City of Joy.

Regarding the children, there are more than 800,000 orphans in Democratic Republic of Congo. Maltreatment of these children has further eroded the position of the family in Congolese civil society. Many children who are brought into the conflict as child soldiers or sex slaves to these military groups end up as adults perpetuating the violence. The Marie Mambu Makaya Foundation was established to contribute to the salvation of the Congo’s children. We have taken in infants who were orphaned in raids on their villages in the eastern Congo war zone. We will raise and educate these children with the goal of producing adults who will help to alleviate the Congo’s ills. In addition, the Foundation will provide advocacy for Congo’s orphans, so that they can grow up with the values that once made the family the backbone of Congolese civil society.