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Britain’s involvement in assassination of Congo’s Lumumba confirmed
April 28, 2013
A senior British politician has revealed Britain’s involvement in the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo’s first prime minister. The leader of the Congolese independence struggle from Belgium was brutally murdered just seven months after taking office on the direct orders of the U.S. and Belgium. Britain, whose involvement had long been suspected, also had a hand in it.
Obama administration official provides insights on U.S. Congo policy
February 23, 2013
On Monday, Feb. 11, outgoing Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson presented an outline of the Obama administration’s policy position on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The purpose of Ambassador Carson’s presentation was twofold: discussing why efforts should be redoubled to bring stability to the Congo and laying out a framework for “moving forward.”
Six million dead since 1996? It’s time to break the silence on the Congo War
December 9, 2012
Congolese problems should have Congolese solutions. We ask that the United States of America and the United Kingdom immediately withdraw all forms of financial and military aid to Rwanda that is a state sponsor of terrorism in Africa. We must pledge to ourselves that we will never again betray our people and ourselves by staying quiet and passive.
M23 tragedy manufactured by Rwanda and Uganda
November 24, 2012
Joseph Kabila was in Kampala Nov. 20 meeting with Rwanda’s Gen. Paul Kagame and Uganda’s Gen. Yoweri Museveni as the Congo city of Goma fell. Why would Kabila be in Uganda when the UN in a report by a group of experts found that M23, the army that seized Goma, was created, trained, financed and is sustained and commanded by Rwandan and Ugandan officers?
A young man set himself on fire in Boma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and becomes a martyr of the Congolese Revolution
January 4, 2012
On Dec. 10, 2011, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a young man named Cedrick Nianza self-immolated by pouring gas on himself and setting the fuel alight. He continually shouted, “Congo na nga, Congo na nga” (“My Congo, my Congo”), while the flames consumed him.
Congo: Elections, democracy and the Diaspora awakening
January 2, 2012
Congo’s Nov. 28 presidential and legislative elections were fraught with tremendous irregularities and widespread charges of fraud. The opposition categorically rejected the results as fraudulent. Nonetheless, Joseph Kabila was sworn into office on Tuesday, Dec. 20.
Resource sovereignty: Congo, Africa and the Global South
October 18, 2011
Congolese youth are not going to give up. They’re fighting day and night, educating their peers, their communities and mobilizing throughout the country to bring about change, whether it comes today or tomorrow. They’re clear that they have to be organized to protect their interests, and no one, no one, can protect their interests like they can.
Who benefits from sexual violence in eastern Congo? Cui bono?
June 26, 2011
Are the so-called rebels furthering the aims of heads of state by shattering communities in eastern Congo, driving people into refugee camps and thus separating them from the vast resources that corporations and the major world powers are so determined to control?
50 years after Lumumba: The burden of history
January 25, 2011
It wasn’t just Patrice Lumumba his assassins wanted to kill, it was the genuine self-determination, dreams and aspirations of African people, writes Horace Campbell, reflecting on the murder of the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Jan. 17, 1961. Two poems by Lumumba follow the story.
Questions about Congolese human rights defender’s murder
June 5, 2010
Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s leading human rights defender, was found murdered on Wednesday, June 2. On the evening of June 1, Chebeya was en route to a meeting with John Numbi, inspector general of the Congolese National Police, in response to a summons. The next day his body was found in his car.
A different lens in Denmark: WOMEX and Staff Benda Bilili
November 7, 2009
After two years of researching paraplegic street musicians, I found out that Staff Benda Bilili of Kinshasa, Congo, released their album and were invited to perform at the annual WOMEX Festival – World Music Expo. WOMEX has moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, which is also home to my sister, Pamela Juhl, and the Copenhagen Voice, which she founded. Yes, both my sister and I are journalists for the people!
Letter to Hillary Clinton from Congolese elected officials
August 30, 2009
One is hard pressed to find media accounts of what the Congolese people want or how they believe that the United States could best play a constructive role in ending the suffering in the Congo. Considering that the United States has played a significant historical role in the stifling of the democratic aspirations of the Congolese people and the backing of the 1996 and 1998 invasions of the Congo by its allies, Rwanda and Uganda, which unleashed what the United Nations say is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II, it is important to hear directly from the Congolese people regarding U.S. engagement in the Congo.
The beauty and poetry of it
June 25, 2008
For the past seven years, filmmakers Renaud Barret and Florent de La Tullaye have been filming Staff Benda Bilili, a revolutionary and politically active Congolese band made up of disabled musicians.