Eye on Africa

Rock the Vote! — July 30, 2006

Quelle que soit la durée de la nuit, le soleil se levera.

Today, the Congolese went to the polls to decide who would lead them for the next five years – their president and members of parliament. The first multiparty elections in over 40 years. Unexpectedly, the vote took place in relative peace.

In the meantime, it has been a long walk through darkness. The Congolese have seen it all: wars, dictatorships, international apathy and over 4.4 million dead. At last, there is light at the end of the tunnel. We hope it is not a train.

To be sure, Congo is not yet out of the woods. Not even close. The elections, which bring hope today, almost never came. The armed forces have yet to be integrated, insecurity remains a problem in the east, a cleavage is emerging between east and west, and corruption plagues all public institutions.

For three years the former warlords in the transitional government, and their backers in the international community, dragged their feet and missed every single deadline set for the electoral process. Even though the international community has invested over US $450 million in support of these elections, there was no sense of urgency to keep the timetable.

Africa Lost a Friend — June 25, 2006

"Another strong voice for Africa was silenced today. He was committed to making Africa a full partner in the global community." — C. Payne Lucas, a close friend and president emeritus of Africare

Death hurts. It reminds me how vulnerable and fragile life is, my own, any human life. I often feel even greater loss when it is the passing of someone who touched so many people like Leonard H. Robinson.

From the first day I met Leonard, a few years ago at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, he impressed me with his magnanimity. He had a way of making everyone feel welcome and at ease, which is rare among people of his professional stature. I saw Leonard a couple of days before I left on my reporting trip to Congo in June. His words still resonate, “be careful in Congo.”

Leonard always had time to hear what others thought. His modesty edified and motivated those who came in contact with him.