Guy Tillim and Adam Hochschild
October 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
America has ‘blood on our hands’ in Congo
February 1, 2011 By 1 Comment
Author Adam Hochschild interviewed by PBS program, Need to Know, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Congo’s first prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. A conspiracy of American, Belgian and Congolese military and diplomatic operatives played a part in Lumumba’s murder. Last week The New York Times published an op-ed by Hochschild on this subject.
Congo: The benefit of the doubt has expired
August 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment
- The Eisenhower administration wrongly cast Patrice Lumumba as a proponent of Soviet ideology.
- the CIA provided Joseph Mobutu with the support he needed for a military coup.
- CIA Station Chief in the Congo, Larry Devlin, was a dirty scoundrel.
- A 1975 U.S. Senate committee (The Church Committee) investigated U.S. involvement in Lumumba’s murder but failed to uncover incriminating evidence due to inattention to detail.
Congo 50
July 9, 2010 By 7 Comments
Guest post by Brussels-based anthropologist and, more importantly, Africa is a Country reader Tom Devriendt on a new graphic novel written and illustrated by a group of Congolese graphic artists taking stock of the half-century of DRC independence — Sean Jacobs.
When asked in 2009 how he would celebrate Congo’s 50 years of Independence, Congolese comic creator Asimba Bathy reacted surprised.
Together with the Belgium-based organization Africalia, he set out to create a graphic novel about Congo and its recent past. In stores since June, it is one of the very few books published this year that is written by a group of Congolese authors. With Belgian book stores stacking piles of new books on Congo, most of them looking bleary-eyed at its own fraught past in relation to its former colony, Congo 50 comes as a timely reminder of the almost absolute absence here in the Low Countries of books about Congo as told or written by Congolese writers.
Independence Cha Cha Cha
April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment
@Boima (at Ghetto Bassquake) posted a music video (via Sonja Uwimana) by the Congolese artist Baloji, “… the greatest music video maker in the world right now.” Baloji is doing an update of Grand Kalle et l’African Jazz’s independence rumba from 1960.
Remember Baloji’s last effort? He is killing it now.
UPDATE:
My man, Tom Devriendt–his day job is PhD student at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium–send me this note with some more information on Baloji’s exploits:
