I was delighted to read former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s article in the Sunday Times of South Africa. It partly answered one fundamental question I have been asking myself: where are DR Congo’s patriots in this crisis? Where are Patrice Lumumba’s students? President Kabila’s passionate write up proves that DR Congo’s patriots have been watching. Perhaps more of them are going to step up and be counted. They really need to! Google defines a patriot thus ‘’a person who loves, supports and defends their country and its interests with devotion,...a person who values individual rights, especially one who attempts to defend those rights against presumed interference......’’ I am not in politics, I have never been a politician or a diplomat, but I have been around them, and watching regional and global issues long enough to understand a little about this vast, sometimes confusing subject. I have interacted a lot with the Congolese people in various settings. I know there are many patriots and intellectuals among them. Their beautiful, resource-rich country with fun-loving people has been in the throes of war and conflict ever since it was born. It has never known peace, largely (some would say, wholly) due to poor governance. For a start, to sort out this governance deficit, DR Congo’s patriots should accept and fully embrace the legacy bequeathed to them by the colonialists, with all its geographical, sociological, anthropological, and other inequities. To continue to deny this reality is an exercise in futility. Many countries have done that and their people are living peacefully. Those supposedly trying to help DR Congo, while sidestepping this issue, are not being genuine. Today, an African migrates to America or Europe and returns after 5 years, flashing a red, green or blue passport from there. Some African leaders have passports and citizenship of other countries. Yet, at home, we have failed to settle this question, in some countries. We are still arguing ‘your mother comes from the other side of the hill; your father comes from across that river, so you don’t belong here’. That is why I find this whole argument about who is and who is not a citizen of which country, not only counterproductive, but quite honestly, childish and silly, if it was not causing death and destruction. As for Rwanda and Rwandans, we have learnt the hard way, how to protect our ‘’small head from flying stones’’. Now, as before, we need all hands on the deck! The writer is a businessman and former Chairman of Rwandan Diaspora Community in The United Kingdom.
