Eye on Africa

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — School is Out, Mbandaka, Equateur

Mon Dieu que j’aime
Sous leurs chapeaux étranges
Tous les visages d’anges
Les enfants congolais

I love Congolese children. They are fun, beautiful, and down right smart. What kills me is that their future has long been compromised. In spite of their efforts and dreams, they are dealt some lousy cards – and they can hardly win in life. Most of these kids have no future. Unless, of course, things change. God knows we need change.

**** Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele – Children Heading to School, Mbandaka, Equateur

**** Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele – Children Heading to School, Mbandaka, Equateur

When I was a child my father told me countless stories about the hardships he and his friends faced to get to school. “The school was far away,” he said. “ We walked so many miles every day, rain or shine. Life was tough.” He really meant to say that my life was easy and my load quite light. I dismissed his stories as grown-ups’ complaining. Yes, the older guys always thought they were better, worked harder, were more respectful and had a greater sense of purpose. I silently disagreed.

But my father’s words came back to me recently on the bank of the Congo River in Mbandaka. I was at the Rocher des Ages restaurant, enjoying a delicious dish of maboke and lituma, when I noticed several pupils and high school students rowing in their canoes on their way to school. Tucked in blue trousers and shorts, their white shirts shone under the bright equatorial sun as they struggled to cross the powerful current and reach the bank.

*** Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Pirogues near Bamanya, Equateur

Remember Adam Hochschild? He is the fellow who wrote King Leopold’s Ghost. If you have not yet read that book, then you must. He writes well — and has a Pulitzer Prize to show for it. In his commentary, A Congo Lesson for Bush, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times on December 22, he admonishes President George Bush to look at Congo’s history and draw a lesson concerning Iraq. In his own words:

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:

Your interview in the Washington Post made headlines across the country Wednesday because you continued to talk about "victory" in Iraq — a hint that you may increase the number of American troops there.

But it caught my eye for a different reason. In it (after expressing some "befuddlement" at the suggestion that you do not read books), you explained that the most recent book you read was "King Leopold’s Ghost," about the plundering of Congo a century ago. This pleased me because I wrote that book.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Mbandaka, Equateur

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Children on Voting Day in Bongonde, Equateur.

ELECTION RESULTS AS THEY COME IN FROM CEI.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Mbandaka

Ballots arrive at the Mbandaka Compilation Center – by cart.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele. Wangata Commune, Mbandaka, Equateur.

The high number of "radies" or omitted voters on Polling Day was problematic.