Last year we pointed to the fact that sports commentators, statisticians and journalists can’t distinguish the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC) from its neighbor the Republic of Congo every time they talk about NBA basketball player Serge Ibaka. He was born in Brazzaville, in the Republic of Congo, normally referred to as Congo-Brazzaville, not the DRC or what used to be known as Zaire (until 1997) and now commonly referred to by its initials or as Congo-Kinshasa. The only thing the two countries share is a river: the Congo (yeh, that river which Conrad fictionalized). Earlier this week Deadspin, the American sports blog, pointed out that ESPN lists Ibaka’s birthplace as “Brazzaville, Zaire.” At least they know that Zaire still existed when Ibaka was born in 1989. But again it is the wrong country. Today I noticed they just deleted his country and his birthplace is now only listed as “Brazzaville.” So now he has no country.
NBA player Serge Ibaka has no country
Music Break / J Martins and Fally Ipupa
Nigeria and Congo. From 2010. J Martins featuring Fally Ipupa. It’s a remix. The latter owns the track. If you don’t want to wait, fast forward to the 1:49 mark.
Tintin in Congo
Earlier this year, the Congolese government declared European development commissioner Karel De Gucht persona non grata because of comments he made to the European Parliament, stating that the weakness of the Congolese state meant that EU aid had limited impact. Kinshasa dubbed De Gucht’s comments as ‘racist, disrespectful and irresponsible,’ barring him from entering the DRC. This wasn’t the first time. Six years ago he had already been called a ‘Tintin minister’.
We’re almost a year later. De Gucht has swapped portfolios, now being the European trade commissioner, and the Congolese government seems to have forgotten about their earlier ban. How do we know?
Do you know Omar al Bashir?
I recently ask students in a graduate class I teach on ‘media, culture and international affairs’ to do an experiment: take a camera, go outside (really downstairs on the New School ‘campus’) and test people’s knowledge of Darfur and Eastern Congo. Quick context: We had been reading and discussing Mahmood Mamdani’s Saviors and Survivors as well as viewing the film, “Darfur Now.” (The contrast between the two texts could not be more obvious of course. Mamdani’s book is a takedown of Save Darfur, while the film is essentially a fundraising and recruiting tool for the American activist group and its supporters.)
Anyway, we figured we should target students about their knowledge about Darfur (and Congo) since organizations like Safe Darfur (and the Enough Project) claim to have had the most success with young people. It also made practical sense.
Cédric Gerbehaye’s Congo
Tom Devriendt
You probably know Belgian photographer Cedric Gerbehaye from his portrait of Laurent Nkunda. That 2007 picture was part of a broader story on Eastern Congo. Gerbehaye is a frequent visitor to the Congo. Many of the resulting pictures were collected and published in Congo in Limbo, including his most recent story on the Katanga mines. You’ll find the full Katanga copperbelt series here.
Here and above are some highlights
The Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra
The trailer for the documentary, “Kinshasa Symphony,” about the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra and Chior. The orchestra, named for a Congolese resistance leader, is based in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital.
The film, co-directed by Claus Wischmann and Martin Baer, premieres next week at the Berlin Film Festival.
I have been following the bands exploits online since the first photographic projects and clips of the Symphony appeared. I am definitely looking forward to its US premiere.
Via Solo Kinshasa
PHOTOGRAPHY / SARAH ELLIOT
A young boy gets a haircut in a refugee camp in Eastern Congo. Her most recent work has focused on Kenyan communities.
Link.
EVENTS IN NEW YORK CITY / CONGO IN HARLEM
Starting tonight through October 24th, the excellent Maysles Institute in Harlem is showing films about the Democratic Republic of Congo for the next three and a half weeks. Films like “Soul Power,” Raoul Peck’s “Lumumba,” Mweze Ngangura’s “Piece d’Identite,” “White King, Red Rubber, Black Death,” “Dan Rather Reports: All Mine” (about the sale of a diamond mine by the Congolese government to an American company at basement bargian price), the short films of director Petna Katondolo, and the 3-hour documentary, “Mobutu, King of Zaire.” I’ve seen all these films with the exception of Katondolo’s work. They’re all worth watching.
The films selection is so good, that we’ll forgive the meaningless PR, as spotted by Lara, which refers to the multinational war (that has been going on since 1997) as “the deadliest humanitarian crisis.” Lara also pointed to the strange habit of referring to the conflict in the third person: “… It has taken nearly 6 million lives …” As if it is like a thunderstorm that no one can control.
“THE ANGEL OF BUKAVU”
Most of the time I complain about Western media coverage of African subjects, with white people (usually humanitarian workers, rich people or actresses) usually saving us. But when things pan out differently, I’ll be the first to step up and acknowledge it. Maybe the fact that CNN International (not the US version) hired African journalists to do more of these stories (even they slip sometimes), has something to do with it. An example of the kind of reporting I like is the profile, in the video above, of Denis Mukwege, a doctor who operates on rape survivors in the Democratic Republic in Congo, as reported by CNN’s David McKenzie.
[It is a screen grab, I could not embed the video; so click on the picture to get the link to the video]
