Written by: Pambazuka News
February 8, 2012
By Jacques Depelchin
To whomever wants to listen to the voice of conscience in the Democratic Republic of Congo, be they from the DRC or other countries, it is clear that these voices of conscience emanate from the majority of the Congolese population, revolted by a fraudulent and criminal electoral process. It would be wrong to only see the hierarchical role of the Catholic Church in this revolt. Revolt is not too strong a word to describe the goings-on in DRC. The roots of this revolt are multiple, profound and secular. Belittling the importance of this revolt of consciences, as many press organs have tried to do, illustrates the degree of unconsciousness of forces which, from generation to generation, have enriched themselves on the back of the Congolese people.
It can be observed, even from a distance, that this time round the revolted consciences are organizing themselves in a manner to ensure that change in DRC does not experience the failings that have always marked the most historic of transitions in Africa. The iron fist, which is now clenched, can lead to a separation with secular practices, which have led today’s humanity to the point where its obsolescence is no longer a fact of philosophical speculation but rather one that challenges any person of conscience, anguished by the current situation of humanity, obsessed by the search for material profit through the imposition of the law of the strongest in all and everywhere.
Be it in DRC, Europe, Asia, in rich or poor countries, revolted consciences express the same message; that the dictatorship of corruption, injustice, falsehood and finance should cease. What should also cease are the attempts to liquidate the most vulnerable by the most rich. That the recourse to charity, humanitarianism to buy the most faithful of revolted consciences to maintain justice, truth and humanity should end.
These revolted consciences say that they have had enough of twisting of words which say one thing yet systematically practice the contrary. That justice and truth should prevail with neither division nor negotiation. For these revolted consciences, one objective seems to dominate; faultless fidelity to justice and truth that is defended patiently will put an end to all practises of corruption. So why think that the revolted consciences of the Congolese are carriers of ideas that are completely new?
A GLANCE OF DRC’S PLANS A AND B
The architects of dictatorship are frantically looking to implement Plan B given that Plan A, which entailed corrupting the elections, did not work as they hoped it would. Plan B should, for the dictator and his allies, compulsorily produce the results intended in Plan A.
The act of enriching oneself on back of the Congolese people is not a recent thing. To better resist future Plan Bs, it is important to recall that the history of Congo is specific as it is generic. Before the traffickers of black people decided to use Africa as their privileged hunting ground in search for slaves, their predatory concerns had reduced the indigenous population of the New World to a fraction of what it was before their arrival in 1492. (See Ch. Mann, 1491, David Stannard, The American Holocaust).
The practices of corrupting justice and truth go back 51 years, when the heirs of the enriched ones organized themselves to assassinate Patrice Emery Lumumba because he had committed himself to being true to justice and truth in defence of the interests of the Congolese people. There has always been only one humanity. By killing Lumumba, the ones who have enriched themselves on the back of the Congolese people were also killing a member of humanity.
In the period of our interest, the last half-century, the dictatorship of injustice and falsehood took its roots in slavery. This type of dictatorship is more powerful than the individuals who escaped the mass destruction of humanity, which started with the industrialization of human trafficking from Africa. The dictators leave, but the system which bore them remains.
Under slavery, colonization and neo-colonization, the dictatorship of injustice and falsehood found itself faced with the believers of justice and truth, known and unknown in the likes of Kimpa Vita, Kimbangu, Lumumba, Mulele, and thousands of others. Should we not then reflect on the lessons from our past? Kimpa Vita burnt alive for having denounced slavery, a body without a resting place; Patrice Emery Lumumba’s body was soaked in a bath of sulphuric acid, another body without a grave. From 2 July 1706 to 17 January 1961 the killing of two people denouncing the dehumanization of a system first termed slavery then colonization. Two consciences revolted by the situation they experienced in their path. Two consciences affirming their humanity but killed for not having bowed to the demands of a system supported by external factors: political, economic and religious.
In all transitions of our history without exception, we find a principal characteristic, notably that those who enriched themselves on the back of the Congolese people have always organized themselves in such a way that the changes do not affect the relations between the rich and the poor. The goal was always to maintain the status quo; Plan A.
In the event of doubt, we should review Louis Sala-Molins’ book (the Black Code or the Ordeal of Canaan p.277) which recalls how during the abolition of slavery, planters and abolitionists were in agreement as Tocqueville so nicely sums this up as follows: ‘If blacks have the right to become free, it is undeniable that colonies have the right to not be destroyed by the freedom of blacks’. Just in case you may think that this is a slip-of-the-tongue, Sala-Molins once again quotes the very Tocqueville: ‘Gentlemen, France will not destroy slavery to have the pain of seeing ruined Whites leaving colonies and Blacks falling back into barbarism’. And again in ‘Little wonder that we do not consider them (Blacks) as an intermediary between brute and man.’
For the nouveau riche, all change is acceptable as long as it does not alter their status, privileges and the power struggle that exists between them and those who have been impoverished, tortured and destroyed by their system. The latter should never fulfil their dream for a just society based on truth and solidarity. Vis-a-vis fidelity, justice, truth, solidarity and humanity, the nouveau riche respond with charity and humanitarianism, in other words relations of submissiveness of the poor towards the rich remain unchanged according to the rules (written or not) by themselves. The rules can even change but the unchangeable rule is that which brings out the submissiveness of the poor towards the rich.
GLOBAL IMPORTANCE OF EVENTS IN DRC
In the hierarchisation of history, the dominant tradition would relegate the history of countries like the DRC to an onlooker’s role. Statistics from the United Nations on the most corrupt countries in the World do not explain the various ways that led to the spread of corruption. Where did the corruption of humanity begin as one and indivisible? Where did the corruption of justice begin, that of truth and humanity?
When will the rich understand that at the origin of their wealth, crimes against humanity were committed; when will they admit that at the origin of their riches there was criminal corruption of justice, corruption of truth and that of humanity; when will a fair and true dialogue between the rich and the poor looking to abandon the hierarchy dictated by the rich begin? Only then will the healing of crimes against humanity begin, crimes that are reproduced every time the rich refuse to acknowledge how their justice and truth have spread in the name of civilisation with the passing of time; justice has transformed into the barbarism that is called globalisation. A barbarity that recreates by changing words; discriminations from acquired mentalities during slavery, colonization and apartheid. With a few rare exceptions, these mentalities are rooted in society because the impunity of injustice and falsehood of the rich remain the law. The revolted consciences of the Congolese people are saying that that kind of mentality should be eradicated.
Jacques Depelchin is executive director of The Otabenga Alliance. Translated from French for Pambazuka News by Caroline Sipalla.
‘Pambazuka’ in Kiswahili means the dawn or to arise as a verb. Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations – academics, policy makers, social activists, women’s organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa.Source:http://www.eurasiareview.com/08022012-drc-what-next-after-corruption-of-truth-and-justice-oped/
Moves by unknown shell companies to control lucrative natural resources may have cost Democratic Republic of Congo $1 billion in lost revenue, as UK-listed mining company Glencore under pressure to explain deals
UK-listed Swiss commodities gi
ant Glencore PLC recently announced a huge merger deal with miner Xstrata. As the preparations for the merger get underway though, there remain worrying and unresolved issues from Glencore’s little known Congo operations.
In July 2011 Bloomberg reported about an opaque series of deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo involving two mines that Glencore operated and co-owned via subsidiaries. In September 2011 the story briefly made the news again, and in November UK MP Eric Joyce tried to bring the issue to the attention of the UK government. He presented documents suggesting that the deals, and three others like it involving several other companies, could have cost the citizens of the DRC $5.5 billion.
What one Congo diplomat suggested could be the ‘treasury scandal of the year’ has been largely underreported, and seems set to pass out of the public eye, lost in the mire of previous opaque deals in the country. There are serious concerns that, yet again, the ordinary citizens of the DRC may be losing out to unaccountable powerholders.
Glencore in Africa
The Democratic Republic of Congo possesses vast natural resources within an immensely fragile political structure. Environmental regulations are almost non-existent, state capacity is extremely weak in many areas, and violence is commonplace. Monitoring in such an environment is extremely difficult.
The risks involved in operating in the DRC means that few major companies are prepared to set up operations there. In the lucrative mining sector it is often the mining ‘juniors’ – smaller companies with less reputation to protect – that are often the most active, taking on the risk in the hope of large returns.
Glencore PLC though, has in recent years made advances on Congo mining assets, entering into joint ventures with smaller companies and DRC state-owned enterprises likeGecamines and Sodimco. “The spirit of their controversial founder Marc Rich is still very much in Glencore’s DNA,” says Andreas Missbach, co-author of a recent book on Swiss commodities traders. “They’ll go where other major companies fear to tread.”
The processes for securing mining concessions in the DRC are notoriously non-transparent, with few watchdogs to maintain the integrity of state processes. Key decisions on granting concessions and licences often end up in the hands of localised and unaccountable strongmen, with access to these fragmented networks of power mediated through local power-brokers.
In this context there is a high risk of human rights, environmental integrity and community development being overrun by private interests. Thus, in 2011, suspicions arose concerning two mining ventures in Katanga province.
The controversial mining deals
Katanga is rich in copper deposits and Glencore operates, via subsidiaries, a number of mines in the region. Glencore owns 50 per cent of a company that owns an 80 per cent stake in a mine called Mutanda, and owns 50 per cent of a company that owns a 75 per cent stake in a concession called Kansuki. When Glencore initially entered into these agreements, the remaining stakes (20 per cent of Mutanda and 25 per cent of Kansuki) were held by Gecamines, the DRC state-owned mining company.
In early 2011 though, Gecamines decided, under uncertain circumstances, to sell its stakes in both Mutanda and Kansuki. This was a type of privatisation, and theoretically the proceeds from the deal should have gone to the DRC state via Gecamines.
Source: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1235793/glencore_faces_questions_over_controversial_drc_mine_sales.html
Stop pretending that you don’t know, stop playing blind.
We are having a nightmare in heaven.
”
Without dignity there is no freedom, without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men.
Cruelty, insults and torture can never force me to ask for mercy, because I prefer to die with head high, with indestructible faith and profound belief in the destiny of our country than to live in humility and renounce the principles which are sacred to me.
The day will come when history will speak. But it will not be the history which will be taught in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations.
It will be the history which will be taught in the countries which have won freedom from colonialism and its puppets.
Africa will write its own history and in both north and south it will be a history of glory and dignity.
Do not weep for me. I know that my tormented country will be able to defend its freedom and its independence.
Long live the Congo!
Long live Africa!”
Thysville prison
Patrice LUMUMBA
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