Africa Is a Country

Tintin in Congo

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Tintin in Congo

By
Tom Devriendt

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?

Some days ago, De Gucht participated in a debate on the current state of play of the Economic Partnership Agreements at the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Kinshasa. This is how he was greeted by some street vendors:

– Tom Devriendt

Further Reading

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.