Global Safari : Checking In and Checking Out in Pursuit of World Wisdoms, the American Dream, and Cosmocitizenship [1 ed.] 9781443884198, 9781443875561

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Global Safari

Global Safari: Checking In and Checking Out in Pursuit of World Wisdoms, the American Dream, and Cosmocitizenship By

Zekeh Gbotokuma

Global Safari: Checking In and Checking Out in Pursuit of World Wisdoms, the American Dream, and Cosmocitizenship By Zekeh Gbotokuma This book first published 2015 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2015 by Zekeh Gbotokuma All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-7556-2 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-7556-1

In Memoriam

This boook is dedicated to t my beloved parents, p E. G. S Sua (1928-2009 9) and Lucia Ye Yenda (1930-2013), both of wh hom made their transition and safari to the aafterworld. My father passed away a in July 20009 and my motther passsed away in December 2013.

Requuiem aeternam dona d eis Dominne Et lux perpetua luceat eis C sanctis tuiss in aeternum Cum Quia pii sunt. Requiescantt in pace! May they restt in peace! Bapema na boboto!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures........................................................................................... xiii Foreword ................................................................................................ xxiii H.E. Amb. Mohammed S. Sheriff Preface ..................................................................................................... xxv Prof. V.Y. Mudimbe Acknowledgments ................................................................................ xxviii Prologue................................................................................................ xxxiv From My Local Village to Our Global Village: All Roads Lead to Rome and Beyond Part I: Growing Up in Congo-Zaire Chapter One ................................................................................................. 2 Family and Ethnic Background I. Early Childhood II. Teenage and High School Years III. Three Years of Adulthood and Early Higher Education in My Native Land IV. My Ethnic Group: The Ngbaka People in a Nutshell V. Photographs Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 21 Congo-Zaïre-Congo: My Native Land and the Congolese Experience I. Quick Facts about the Democratic Republic of the Congo II. DRC’s Brief History: The Pre-Colonial and Colonial Eras III. The DRC’s Post-Independence Era IV. Photographs

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Part II: Living and Surviving in Europe Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 46 Pilgrimage or Tour du Monde? The Great Departure and the Seminary Experience in Rome I. From a Prophetic Nickname and Children’s Song to Omen II. Leaving My Homeland for the Eternal City III. Tales from Pontifical Institutions and the Vatican IV. Changing My Mind: Perspectives on Priestly Celibacy and Hope for Reform V. Photographs Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 88 Developing North-South Dialogue Awareness I. Participating in International Development-RelatedActivities II. Promoting Interculturalism and African Perspectives Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 96 Financial Benefits of Multilingualism: Studying in Italy and Working in Germany I. From the Goethe Institute to German Factories II. Foreign Language Facts III. Financial Hardships and 48 Hours in Villa Literno IV. From Centro to Parioli: Overcoming Financial Hardships V. Photographs Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 138 Receiving a Helping Hand through Networking and Friendship I. A Helping Hand from Cologne II. A Helping Hand from Austria III. My Abruzzi Connections and a Cultural Misunderstanding IV. Photographs Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 146 Breaking an Interracial Dating Taboo: My Relationships with Celia and Pina I. Dialogue on Racism in Italy and Meeting Celia II. Genesis and Evolution of a Problematic Relationship III. A Short-Term Relationship with Pina IV. Concluding Notes: My European Experience and the Next Move V. Additional Photographs from My European Experience

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Part III: My American Journey Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 188 My USA Safari: A Dream Vacation or Evacuation? I. Planning My U.S. Travel II. A Change of Plan and the Search for Opportunity III. Living and Surviving in the USA: Friendship and Networking Matter IV. Photographs from California Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 202 Saying Good-Bye to San Francisco and Flying with My Own Wings I. Moving to Manhattan, Kansas II. Linguistic Challenge and the Manhattan Experience: Teaching in English What I Learned in French and Italian Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 207 Moving from Manhattan, Kansas to Baltimore, Maryland I. My Employment at Morgan State University II. Visa Issues Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 214 Marriage and Family Life I. Engagement, Wedding, and a New Life II. Dealing with Step-Parenting, Prejudice, and Conjugal Issues III. Family Photographs Chapter Twelve ........................................................................................ 221 Professional Challenges I. Applying for Promotion and Tenure II. Recommendation Letters from Ivy League Gurus III. Waiting for the University’s Notifications Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 233 Cosmoportism: Directing the Center for Global Studies at Morgan State University I. Cosmoportism: Advocating for International Education through NAFSA II. The 2005 USA-EDUESPAÑA: A Trade Mission to Spain III. Baggage Mishandling and Spanish Hospitality IV. Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk V. Photographs

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Table of Contents

Part IV: My Virtual Return to Africa Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 268 Virtual Returns: Keeping in Touch with Family and Friends in Congo I. Correspondence to My Family and Relatives II. Correspondence from My Family, Relatives, and Friends Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 277 Hollywood’s Unholy Africa and Eurocentrism: Virtual Return and Keeping in Touch with Africa through Scholarship and Research I. Hollywood’s Image of Africa and Eurocentrism II. The Image of Africa in the West III. What Should Be Done? Part V: Returning, After Much Procrastination, for a Visit to my Homeland Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 304 Planning the Trip and Leaving for DRC via Schengen and Yaoundé I. Planning the Trip II. The Trip Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 315 Diaries of My Homecoming I. Welcome to Kinshasa, or Kin Malebo! II. Traveling to, and Enjoying Gemena III. Homecoming Photographs IV. Photographs from Africa Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 413 Commemorating World AIDS Day in Gemena I. World AIDS Day Speeches and Testimonial II. More About AIDS III. DRC’s AIDS Fact Sheet IV. Photographs from World AIDS Day 2009 in Gemena

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Chapter Nineteen ..................................................................................... 439 Dongo Uprising and Fleeing from My Village to Kinshasa I. Leaving Gemena for Karawa (KW) and Bogwabe Village II. The Dongo Uprising III. Dongo Uprising and Congolization: The Unpaved Road to Security, Development, and Peace in DRC Chapter Twenty........................................................................................ 470 Education and Development in DRC: Reflections on the Congolese Government’s Cinq Chantiers I. KERCUN and Cultural Issues in DRC II. The Relevance of Education for the Five Chantiers III. Gender Equality and Development IV. Conclusion Part VI: Naturalization and Cosmocitizenship Chapter Twenty-One................................................................................ 480 The Naturalization Process I. Applying for Naturalization II. A Special Milestone: The New Citizenship and Congratulatory Messages III. Certificate of Citizenship and Passport Chapter Twenty-Two ............................................................................... 499 Reasons for Becoming a US Citizen I. Citizenship and Membership II. Travel Problems III. Photographs Epilogue................................................................................................... 545 Veni, Vidi, Didici, Docui, et Spero - I Came, I Saw, I Learned, I Taught, and I Hope: The Dream Continues I. Meditations on Global Immigration, the American Dream, Cosmocitizenship, and Netizenship II. Lessons Learned and Global Travel Advice Appendix A: Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................. 566 Appendix B: Photo Gallery ..................................................................... 573

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Bibliography ............................................................................................ 643 List of Contributors and Permissions ...................................................... 651 Index ........................................................................................................ 653

LIST OF FIGURES

Chapter One Fig. 1-1 Fig. 1-2 Fig. 1-3 Fig. 1-4 Fig. 1-5 Fig. 1-6 Fig. 1-7 Fig. 1-8

Gbosasa Catholic Elementary School Building Gbosasa Catholic Church Bolongo Minor Seminary’s Church Bolongo Minor Seminary’s Refectory Bamanya Major Seminarians’ Excursion on the Congo River Bamanya Seminarians’ Excursion to Bikoro Bamanya Major Seminarians’ Group Picture Bamanya Major Seminary’s Original Building

Chapter Two Fig. 2-1 Fig. 2-2 Fig. 2-3 Fig. 2-4 Fig. 2-5 Fig. 2-6 Fig. 2-7 Fig. 2-8 Fig. 2-9 Fig. 2-10 Fig. 2-11 Fig. 2-12 Fig. 2-13 Fig. 2-14 Fig. 2-15 Fig. 2-16 Fig. 2-17

DRC Map DRC Flag Zairian Flag Emery Patrice Lumumba Monument Artistic Globe in Kinshasa Kinshasa Tower Zaire Currency DRC Currency Tears without Cheers in Gemena Looking at a Burned Body A Teary Crowd Gather Around Bombed House A Mother Cries Next to Her Child’s Dead Body Abandoned Burned Out Body A Devastated Crowd Rushes to a Dead Woman’s Body A Bombed and Ruined Building Dr. JKK of the American Leprosy Mission and an Amputee ALM Vehicle Stands Behind an Overloaded Truck

Chapter Three Fig. 3-1 Fig. 3-2 Fig. 3-3 Fig. 3-4 Fig. 3-5 Fig. 3-6

Gate of Pontificio Collegio Urbano in Rome Zekeh Dressed in Clergy Uniform Pope John Paull II Shakes Hands with Altar Boy Zekeh Good Friday 1980 Liturgy with Pope JP II in St. Peter’s Basilica A Special Holy Mass Celebration at Collegio Urbano Pope JP II Gives the Holy Communion to Zekeh in St. Peter’s Basilica

xiv Fig. 3-7 Fig. 3-8 Fig. 3-9 Fig. 3-10 Fig. 3-11 Fig. 3-12 Fig. 3-13 Fig. 3-14 Fig. 3-15 Fig. 3-16 Fig. 3-17 Fig. 3-18 Fig. 3-19 Fig. 3-20 Fig. 3-21 Fig. 3-22

List of Figures Zekeh Takes a Walk to a Crowded St. Peter’s Square in Rome Zekeh Stands in Front of Collegio Urbano Residence Collegio Urbano’s Congolese Seminarians Dressed in Clerical Uniform Collegio Urbano’s Soccer Team My Original Music Show at Collegio Urbano Zekeh and Col. Mbelenga at a Vatican Reception Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana (PUG) Greetings from St. Peter’s Square Handshake with a Swiss Guard St. John Paul II’s Canonization Poster Pope Francis Incenses in St. Peter’s Square Handshake at the Dual Canonization Ceremony Witnessing a Dual Canonization Ceremony at the Vatican Documenting the Canonization Ceremony in St. Peter’s Square Popemobile, or Papamobile in Italian A Friendly Diplomatic Handshake in Rome

Chapter Five Fig. 5-1 Fig. 5-2

Zekeh and Stan Sheriff Archbishop E. Milingo and Nigerian Ambassador to Italy at ASAR Meeting Fig. 5-3 Centro Giovanni Students at Ferrari Show Fig. 5-4 My Italian Work Permit Fig. 5-5 Zekeh Delivers the Occasion Speech at the 1984 International Art Exhibit at Centro Giovanni Fig. 5-6 Card. Gantin Among Dignitaries Attending 1984 International Art Exhibit Inauguration Fig. 5-7 A. Rossi Speaks to Centro Giovanni Students Fig. 5-8 Meeting with Archbishop Fr. Etsou of Kinshasa Fig. 5-9 Barrio Latino: Centro Giovanni’s Latin American Dance Troop Fig. 5-10 Dialogue on Racism at the University of Bari Fig. 5-11 International Literacy Day 1989 Antique Car Show in Rome Fig. 5-12 ANC’s Benny Nato Talks About Apartheid Fig. 5-13 Zekeh Meets Two Kennedys in Milan Fig. 5-14 Regione Lazio’s On. Troia and Zekeh at the Settimana dei Popoli in Rome Fig. 5-15 A Panoramic View of the Foro Romano from Campidoglio Fig. 5-16 Zekeh’s Homecoming Talk at Centro Giovanni XXIII Fig. 5-17 The Wolf Statue Ride at Rome’s Hilton Hotel Fig. 5-18 Zekeh Stands on Ponte Sisto in Front of Centro Giovanni Fig. 5-19 Zekeh Stands in Front of Piazza Venezia Fig. 5-20 Zekeh Revisits the Colosseum Fig. 5-21 Visiting Friends in Rome Photographs from England Fig. 5-22 On the Boat to and from the UK

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Fig. 5-23 Zekeh and English Classmates in Wincanton Fig. 5-24 Zekeh and Classmates’ Tour of London Fig. 5-25 Tour of London: Big Ben and London Bridge Fig. 5-26 Zekeh Plays and Snacks with British Children Fig. 5-27 Playing with Mrs. Gudrun’s Cat Fig. 5-28 Teatime: A British Sacred Tradition Fig. 5-29 Zekeh Holds a Child During Teatime Photographs from Germany Fig. 5-30 Schnapps Time in Boppard: The Goethe Institute Way Fig. 5-31 Zekeh Works as a Werkstudent at Villeroi & Boch Mettlach Fig. 5-32 An Auf Wiedersehen Toast on the Last Day of Work at V&B Fig. 5-33 Renault 16: My First French Car Fig. 5-34 Zekeh and Landlord During Employment with Daimler Benz in Sindelfingen Fig. 5-35 Zekeh and Spanish Amigos in Sindelfingen Fig. 5-36 Mercedes Benz C300: Remembering My Werkstudent Days in Germany

Chapter Six Photographs from Austria Fig. 6-1 Mrs. Maria Schwärzler of Lingenau Fig. 6-2 My Austrian Friends Herma & Albert Fig. 6-3 Enjoying Nature with My Austrian Friends

Chapter Seven Photographs from France Fig. 7-1 The Eiffel Tower Or “La Tour Eiffel” Fig. 7-2 Hervé and Zekeh Enjoy a Meal on L’avenue des ChampsÉlysées Fig. 7-3 Zekeh Takes a Tour Break Next to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris Fig. 7-4 Zekeh Enjoys Paris from Pont Alexandre Fig. 7-5 A Spectacular Firecracker Show in Paris Fig. 7-6 Hervé and Zekeh at the Versailles Gate Fig. 7-7 My Experiences at the Institut d’Etudes Françaises de Touraine Fig. 7-8 My First Driving Lesson in France Fig. 7-9 Visiting Le Mont Saint Michel in Normandy Fig. 7-10 Zekeh Speaks as a Tour Guide at Cité Secours Saint Pierre in Lourdes Fig. 7-11 Cité Secours Saint Pierre’s Volunteers Share a Meal Fig. 7-12 Amelie and Zekeh Visit Champagne Headquarters in Reims Fig. 7-13 Dinner Chez Mayor Christophe Boury’s Parents in Thenailles Fig. 7-14 A White Cow at Ferme Du Bois in Thenailles Photographs from Liechtenstein Fig. 7-15 Zekeh and Classmates at Liechtenstein’s International Academy of Philosophy

List of Figures

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Photographs from Holland Fig. 7-16 When in Amsterdam, Ride a Bike Photographs from Spain Fig. 7-17 Spanish Flag Fig. 7-18 Palacio Real de Madrid (Royal Palace) Fig. 7-19 Zekeh and Real Betis Soccer Team Fans in Madrid Fig. 7-20 USA-EDUESPAÑA 2005 Trade Mission Meeting in Madrid Fig. 7-21 USA-EDUESPAÑA 2005 Trade Mission Reception in Madrid Fig. 7-22 Paella Cooking Demonstration at Malaca Institute Fig. 7-23 An Impressive Mermaid Statue at Marbella Beach Fig. 7-24 A Spanish Woman in Traditional Costume Photographs from Greece Fig. 7-25 Greek Flag Fig. 7-26 University of Athens, Zografos Campus Fig. 7-27 University of Athens, Zografos Campus Aula Fig. 7-28 Zekeh “Wonders” at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athens Fig. 7-29 The Acropolis and Parthenon Fig. 7-30 Dionysus Theater, Athens Fig. 7-31 Athens Olympic Stadium Fig. 7-32 Zekeh Visits the Temple of Zeus in Athens Fig. 7-33 Zekeh Waves from the Propylaea Fig. 7-34 A Panoramic View of Athens from the Acropolis

Chapter Eight Photographs from California, USA Fig. 8-1 San Francisco: Cable Car Ride Fig. 8-2 Visiting Yosemite National Park

Chapter Eleven Fig. 11-1 Fig. 11-2

Madeleine and Zekeh’s Wedding Day Family photograph

Chapter Thirteen Fig. 13-1 Fig. 13-2 Fig. 13-3 Fig. 13-4 Fig. 13-5 Fig. 13-6 Fig. 13-7

MSU Professors Participate in NAFSA Workshops in Baltimore, Maryland (USA) International Education Week 2002 at Morgan State University Baltimore Universities’ International Program Directors Participate in Congressional Advocacy Day in Washington, DC Mayor W.R. Bankole-Johnson of Freetown Speaks at MSU Meeting with Card. Fr. Etsou at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington, DC Madeleine and Zekeh Chat with Baltimore’s Mayor Martin O’Malley Figure 13-7 Amb. C. Stith Signs a Book for Zekeh

Global Safari Fig. 13-8 Fig. 13-9 Fig. 13-10 Fig. 13-11 Fig. 13-12 Fig. 13-13 Fig. 13-14 Fig. 13-15 Fig. 13-16 Fig. 13-17 Fig. 13-18 Fig. 13-19 Fig. 13-20 Fig. 13-21 Fig. 13-22

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My First US Students at Kansas State University Yale University’s PIER African Studies Summer Institute 1999 Zekeh Participates in the United Nations Climate Change Conference Third Commemoration of September 11th Attack on Ground Zero Lunchtime at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Partnership Meeting and Handshake at Hubei University, China Reception Dinner and Toast at Hubei University, China The Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II International Award 2008 Goes to Dr. Zekeh S. Gbotokuma Dr. Gbotokuma Wears the Sash of the Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II International Award The Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II International Award Plate The Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II International Award Medal Memorabilia for My 20 Years of Service to MSU and the State of Maryland Zekeh Holds Certificate of Service Global Friendship in Action: Zekeh Shakes Hands with, and Says Au Revoir to Anthony of France Zekeh S. Gbotokuma Is Profiled in Afrimpact Magazine

Chapter Seventeen DRC: Homecoming Photographs Fig. 17-1 Zekeh Stands in Front of DRC’s Map at Jardin d’Éden, Kinshasa Fig. 17-2 Enjoying DRC Flag and Leopard Skin Fig. 17-3 New Year 2010 Dinner in Kinshasa Fig. 17-4 A Memorable Christmas Dinner in My Homeland Fig. 17-5 Visiting Friends at the Université Catholique de Kinshasa Fig. 17-6 Visiting CDI Bwamanda Headquarters in Kinshasa Fig. 17-7 Zekeh Shakes Hands with, and Thanks Mr. Goza of Hewabora Airlines Fig. 17-8 Kermesse Culturelle de l’Unité Nationale (KERCUN) 2009 in Kinshasa Fig. 17-9 KERCUN 2009: Equateur’s Day Fig. 17-10 RTNC Officials & KERCUN 2009 Special Guests Fig. 17-11 Traditional Dancers at KERCUN 2009 Fig. 17-12 Waving from and Participating in RTNC Radio Program in Kinshasa Fig. 17-13 University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) Church Fig. 17-14 UNIKIN Students Attend a Lecture Fig. 17-15 Kinshasa Food Market in Kalamu Zone Fig. 17-16 Babysitting Time in Kinshasa Fig. 17-17 Adam and Eve Statues at the Jardin d’Eden Fig. 17-18 Giant Giraffe Statues at the Jardin d’Eden

xviii Fig. 17-19 Fig. 17-20 Fig. 17-21 Fig. 17-22 Fig. 17-23 Fig. 17-24 Fig. 17-25 Fig. 17-26 Fig. 17-27 Fig. 17-28 Fig. 17-29 Fig. 17-30 Fig. 17-31 Fig. 17-32 Fig. 17-33 Fig. 17-34 Fig. 17-35 Fig. 17-36 Fig. 17-37 Fig. 17-38 Fig. 17-39 Fig. 17-40 Fig. 17-41 Fig. 17-42 Fig. 17-43 Fig. 17-44 Fig. 17-45 Fig. 17-46 Fig. 17-47 Fig. 17-48 Fig. 17-49 Fig. 17-50 Fig. 17-51 Fig. 17-52 Fig. 17-53 Fig. 17-54 Fig. 17-55 Fig. 17-56 Fig. 17-57 Fig. 17-58 Fig. 17-59 Fig. 17-60 Fig. 17-61 Fig. 17-62

List of Figures A Relaxing Canoe Ride on the Nsele River Ding at Kinshasa’s Portuguese Restaurant Obama Flippers Made in DRC Handmade Bags and Flippers Congolese Female Sculpture and Drum Congolese Mask Giraffe Sculptures Made in DRC Congolese Painting Firewood Bundles Papaya and Banana Trees VODACOM Sign in Gemena My Arrival at Gemena Airport Dr. Mbembo Nyamowala Stands in Front of His Residence at Gemena-Based Memisa Uncle Hilaire and His Children Visit Me in Gemena An Evening Gathering in Gemena My Sick Day in Gemena Drinking Water Solutions Gemena Taximan Meeting Mayunga and Wife A Special Gathering at the Capuchin Missionaries Residence Keeping the Company of Gemena’s Capuchin Missionaries DRC Senator Nzege Shakes Hands with Zekeh An Entertaining Drumming Performance in Gemena Gemena’s Institute for Rural Promotion Bridging the Digital Divide: Computer Literacy in Gemena Gemena-Karawa Exit Road ALM Employees Load a Truck for a Trip First Dinner in Karawa with Mr. Bangabutu Mr. Bangabutu and Zekeh at Karawa’s Rond Point Family Gathering and Mourning in Karawa Homecoming in Bogwabe: A Truly Village Affair Homecoming: It Takes a Village Homecoming and Police Visit Homecoming: Bogwabe High School Students’ Visit Homecoming: A Wake Up Visit Homecoming: First Breakfast Tall Palm Trees in My Parents’ Backyard A Two-Person Meeting in My Parents’ House Bogwabe High School Students Learn Shakespeare’s Language English Instruction at Bogwabe High School Palm Wine Making in Bogwabe Ngbako: Traditional Liquor Distillation in Bogwabe Returning from a Tour of Bogwabe’s Palm Wine and Ngbako Factories Handmade Container MADE IN BOGWABE

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Fig. 17-63 Fig. 17-64 Fig. 17-65 Fig. 17-66

Bobutu Elementary School Staff Zekeh Speaks to Bobutu Elementary School’s Pupils and Staff Bobutu Elementary School My D-Day One: Getting Ready to Flee From Bogwabe to Gemena Fig. 17-67 African Artistic Map Photographs from Senegal Fig. 17-68 Zekeh Relaxes in the Backyard of Novotel in Dakar, Senegal Fig. 17-69 House of Slaves on Gorée Island Fig. 17-70 Zekeh Sits at Gorée’s “Door of No Return” Fig. 17-71 A Slave Boat-like House on Gorée Island Photographs from Tanzania Fig. 17-72 A Representation of Slave Trade and Conditions in Zanzibar Fig. 17-73 IAABD International Conference 2005 Participants in Dar es Salaam Fig. 17-74 Zekeh Shakes Hands with a Man in Zulu Warrior Dress

Chapter Eighteen Photographs from World Aids Day/Journée Mondiale Du Sida (Jms) 2009 in Gemena Fig. 18-1 JMS Occasion Speech Fig. 18-2 JMS Testimonial Fig. 18-3 ALSCO – Gemena (Sign) Fig. 18-4 TOMIBATELA (Let’s Protect Ourselves) Fig. 18-5 CE QUE JE SAIS DU SIDA (What I Know About AIDS) Fig. 18-6 LE SIDA TUE (AIDS KILLS) Fig. 18-7 World AIDS Day March in Gemena Fig. 18-8 ASSI Sud Ubangi (Sign) Fig. 18-9 Two Women Carry an ALASCO Sign Fig. 18-10 A Policeman Secures Law and Order at JMS March Fig. 18-11 DRC’s Armed Forces Reinforce Maximum Security at JMS Fig. 18-12 Two Men Carry an AIDS Sensibilisation Sign Fig. 18-13 Two Women Carry a COAPHAR Sign Fig. 18-14 JMS Participants Gather at Papa Movoto Soccer Stadium Fig. 18-15 JMS March Takes Place on a Barely Covered Soccer Stadium Fig. 18-16 Two Women Carry a CIC Sign Fig. 18-17 Gemena’s Trumpet Players Take a Break during JMS at Papa Movoto Soccer Stadium Fig. 18-18 A Woman Carries a Huge Condom Pack During the JMS March Fig. 18-19 ALASCO’s AIDS Education Sign Fig. 18-20 A Post-JMS March Ride

Chapter Twenty Two Fig. 22-1

A Naturalization Ceremony Handshake

xx Fig. 22-2 Fig. 22-3 Fig. 22-4 Fig. 22-5 Fig. 22-6 Fig. 22-7 Fig. 22-8 Fig. 22-9 Fig. 22-10 Fig. 22-11 Fig. 22-12 Fig. 22-13 Fig. 22-14

List of Figures A Post-Naturalization Ceremony Congratulatory Handshake Waving from the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington Venue Amb. Andrew Young and Zekeh at the National Summit on Africa 2000 Witnessing CHANGE in Baltimore Invitation to the First Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the USA Zekeh and President Obama Cut-Out A Harvard Handshake and Obamænon My First Vote as a US Citizen Madeleine and Zekeh Attend the 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball: A Tribute to President Obama Miss USA Delegation Member and Zekeh at the 2013 Inaugural Ball The 2013Ambassadors Inaugural Ball VIP Area My Official 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball Photo Zekeh Stands in Front of Luxor Hotel Sphinx and Pyramid

Appendix B Photographs from Canada Fig. B-1 Canadian Flag Fig. B-2 Canadian Provincial Flags Fig. B-3 Zekeh Wears a Canadian Royal Guard Hat Fig. B-4 Madeleine and Zekeh Visit the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa Fig. B-5 CN Tower/La Tour CN in Toronto, Ontario Fig. B-6 Niagara Horseshoe Falls at Niagara-on-the-Lake Fig. B-7 Negro Burial Ground in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Fig. B-8 Welcome to African Lion Safari! (Sign) Fig. B-9 Giraffes and an Eland at African Lion Safari Fig. B-10 North American Elk at Omega Park, Québec Fig. B-11 Zekeh Feeds a Fawn at Omega Park Fig. B-12 Arctic Wolves at Omega Park Photographs from Mexico Fig. B-13 Zekeh Visits El Piramide del Sol in Teotihuacan Fig. B-14 My First Day of a Spanish Course at Kukulcan, Cuernavaca Fig. B-15 Madeleine, Zekeh, and Mexican Host Family Enjoy Appetizers at Cuernavaca’s La Mañanita Restaurant

Photographs from Martinique Fig. B-16 Zekeh Waves from Aimé Césaire International Airport

Global Safari Fig. B-17

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A. Césaire Speaks to the 2003 Colloquium Participants in Fort-de-France Fig. B-18 Césaire Hugs and Thanks Zekeh Fig. B-19 Césaire Autographs His Book for Zekeh Photographs from Barbados Fig. B-20 Zekeh Waves from the Blue Horizon Hotel Fig. B-21 A Historic Reunion of Congolese Scholars in the Caribbean Fig. B-22 Harvard Prof. Abiola Irele and Zekeh Enjoy a PostColloquium Tour of Barbados Photographs from the Royal Caribeean Cruise to the Bahamas Fig. B-23 My Artistic Passport Photograph from the Bahamas Fig. B-24 Atlantis Resort Fig. B-25 Zekeh Enjoys the Royal Caribbean Cruise Fig. B-26 A Spectacular Dinner During the Royal Caribbean Cruise Fig. B-27 The Royal Caribbean Cruise Reception Dinner Fig. B-28 Nassau Market, Bahamas Photographs from China Fig. B-29 A Travel Nightmare at Dulles Washington International Airport Fig. B-30 Nihao! Welcome to Beijing Capital Airport Fig. B-31 Zekeh Stands Behind a Statue of Chairman Mao Zedong in Wuhan Fig. B-32 A Statue of Mao Zedong in Wuhan Fig. B-33 Chairman Mao’s Writing Fig. B-34 Dr. Gbotokuma and Hubei University’s Professor Toast at a Reception Dinner in Wuhan Fig. B-35 Handshake at Wuhan’s Buddhist Temple Fig. B-36 A Statue of Buddha at the Buddhist Temple Garden in Wuhan Fig. B-37 Zekeh and Co-Presenters at the World Forum for Axiology Conference in Xi’an Fig. B-38 Zekeh Speaks at the World Forum for Axiology Conference in Xi’an Fig. B-39 Yin Yang Fig. B-40 Zekeh and Chinese Visitors in Xian Fig. B-41 Chinese Dragons Fig. B-42 Terracotta Army in Xi’an Fig. B-43 Chinese Teatime Ritual Fig. B-44 Zekeh Visits the Forbidden City in Beijing Fig. B-45 The Forbidden City Is No Longer Forbidden Fig. B-46 NIHAO! Zekeh Waves from the Tian An Men Square, Beijing Fig. B-47 Tian An Men Square Fig. B-48 Climbing China’s Great Wall Fig. B-49 Chinese Warriors Play with Zekeh Near the Great Wall Fig. B-50 My Great Wall Climbing Certificate

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List of Figures

Fig. B-51 Fun Ride with a Chinese Child in a Beijing Park Fig. B-52 Go Beijing! Go Olympics! Fig. B-53 Beijing 2008 Olympics Sign Fig. B-54 A Chinese Woman Walks in the Forbidden City Fig. B-55 A Chinese Female Fashionista Walks in a Beijing Park Fig. B-56 A Chinese Newly Wed Couple Walk in a Beijing Park Fig. B-57 Mexican Hatmania in Beijing Fig. B-58 A Chinese Child with Beijing 2008 Olympic Tattoo Fig. B-59 Zekeh Meets Beijing 2008 Volunteers Fig. B-60 Good-Bye Beijing! Photographs from South Korea Fig. B-61 Welcome to Korea! Fig. B-62 Zekeh Waves from the Vicinity of Seoul Tower Fig. B-63 Zekeh Participates in the XXII World Congress of Philosophy in Seoul Fig. B-64 WON: The South Korean Currency Fig. B-65 Korean Yin Yang Fig. B-66 My First Breakfast at Sofitel Seoul Fig. B-67 Eating Lunch à la Koreana Fig. B-68 Zekeh Visits a Love Padlocks Site Near Seoul Tower Fig. B-69 Seoul Tower Fig. B-70 Namsangol Hanok Village, Seoul Fig. B-71 Zekeh Comingles with Korean Visitors at Namsangol Hanok Village Fig. B-72 Good-Bye Seoul! Fig. B-73 Last Good-Bye and Handshake at Seoul Airport Fig. B-74 Enjoying a Meal on a Korean Airlines Plane During the Seoul-Shanghai Flight Fig. B-75 Flying from Seoul to Beijing via Shanghai

FOREWORD

ANYONE WHO KNOWS OR HAS MET THE AUTHOR OF THIS WELL-WRITTEN AND INTERESTING BOOK knows he is quite an intelligent, well-spoken, excellent writer, and ambitious man. Dr. Gbotokuma has authored two books including Obamænon: The Gospel of Glocal Change, Hope, Understanding and Leadership for a Networking World. He has also edited and co-edited several books including A PanAfrican Encyclopedia (2003). I met Zekeh S. Gbotokuma in Rome, Italy in 1982 while he was studying philosophy at the Gregorian University and I was studying medicine at Catholic University. As young African students, we strived to make a difference in Italy for all African students. Together, Dr. Gbotokuma and I formed Rome’s first African student organization, called the African Students Association in Rome (ASAR). Dr. Gbotokuma and I led delegations to represent African students at numerous political and social gatherings. His ability to speak and write French, Italian, English, and German made him very popular in the African student community as well as enabling him to present issues confronting the African community to leaders of various credible organizations. I am proud to be selected amongst his friends to write the foreword for this book. Global Safari reveals the hardship Africans experience while traveling, studying, and working in Europe and in the USA. Being away from the motherland and close family puts one in a depressed state of mind when financial needs are not met. It reminds me of the struggles I encountered as a student in Rome. Relating to Dr. Gbotokuma’s life, I left my parents and close family in Liberia and traveled to Italy to become a medical doctor. Before entering the university, I had to live in Perugia, Italy to learn Italian and become fluent in the language. I felt depressed but had to struggle to continue my studies because I wanted to become somebody one day! Global Safari tells of the struggles he experienced while trying to study to eventually become a Roman Catholic priest. He speaks about his close contact with Pope John Paul II while serving as an acolyte during one of the Easter masses. Battling over whether or not to become a priest after studying as a seminarian and return to his native land, Zaïre, now called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was one of the most

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Foreword

difficult decisions he had to make. He reveals his love for the opposite sex and wondered if he could sustain a life of celibacy and chastity in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church. This book should be read by anyone who leaves his or her motherland and travels to other parts of the world to seek something they must have – be it for education, earning money, increasing one’s skillset to learn a trade, or any other purpose. It should also be read by others to understand both why people from developing countries travel to Europe or the United States of America and the struggles they encounter while trying to make a living or to obtain a better education in order to contribute to society. In conclusion, Global Safari will help Westerners understand that Africans are just like all other nationals and should be given the respect that they deserve. The book should also serve as a reminder to all African and developing countries’ students that people from a modest background or limited opportunity can become great philosophers, educators, doctors, and lawyers later in their lives. Determination is the key! People who migrate to an unknown land to seek better educational and work opportunities should be seen as heroes and heroines or cosmopolitan citizens because of the risks they take to fulfill their dreams, while yearning for international understanding, to contribute to a global society. Global Safari demonstrates the resilience and strong-will of Africans living in the diaspora. Therefore, I strongly encourage everyone to read this book. Dr. Gbotokuma’s accomplishments illustrate a good example of a “cosmopolitan citizen.” Dr. Mohammed S. Sheriff Ambassador of the Republic of Liberia to Italy & Permanent Representative to FAO, WFP & IFAD

PREFACE

Global Village THIS BOOK IS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. IT IS ALSO A TESTIMONY. It can be read from three perspectives. First of all, it is the history of a life; secondly, it is a description of the process of an education, that is, an inscription in a system of values. And, finally, it witnesses to the patience of a search for meaning and its imperatives. One might alternatively view the book from two angles, one semiological and the other hermeneutical. These two adjectives should be transparent. In effect, they assume an autobiographical narrative that can be understood from a classical understanding of two intellectual domains. Using a definition from the Order of Things by Michel Foucault, by semiology, one would understand the capacity that allows one to describe critically social signs, and by hermeneutics, the knowledge that permits one to read and comprehend meanings. These two definitions come to illustrate evidence. When critical, ethnocentrism is not a disease. Instead, as a discourse on a cultural distinction, it might become a semiological and a hermeneutical interrogation about oneself in time and in space. As demonstrated here, the book contributes to a statement in our time. Here, the history of an exceptional life doubles as a self-analysis of inscriptions that led the author to become Mr. Global. There is, first, an exceptional story. It begins with the passage, apparently innocuous, from a small village in an equatorial region of Central Africa to a Catholic seminary in the Congo. And then, from minor to major seminary, leading the young intellectual into prestigious Catholic universities in Rome. He would serve as an acolyte to Pope John Paul II during an Easter ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica. This symbolic role became the object of significant reflection for this young adult. This is to say that the book confesses to the difficult conflict between a vocation for priesthood and the human demands of love and their occasional paradoxes. The symbolism of such a tension led the author to a lay intellectual education and a demanding life in Europe, including indeed, Italy, England, France, and Germany. And, finally, a brilliant career in the United States that transformed him into a professor of social sciences and a director of a

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leading international center. Life’s designs for this village boy have come to qualify him truly as a Mr. Global. To read this book is to recognise a very talented person. The narrative testifies to inscriptions. There is, first, the assumption of Christianity from early in life; and then there is, secondly, the grammar of a severe education in seminaries; there is, thirdly, a progressive mastering of Western classics at prestigious universities in Rome, and an acquaintance with the best trends in philosophy and theology. In sum, the young African boy has had an aristocratic education. It is paralleled by a different sort of education: work in Italy and in Germany, and classes in England, France, and the USA. Inscription means access to the values of a cultural past. In this case, these values are those of the best avenues in Judaeo-Christian history. They led the author into becoming, after years of specialization and responsibilities, as the title of this book states from an intercultural perspective, a Mr. Global. Recognition of such implies sentiments and virtues: sentiments of the speaker and, also, admiration of the reader of the author’s will to knowledge and, in an exemplary manner, a will to intercultural explorations and dialogues. There is, also remarkable, the fascinating history of the exceptional parcours itself that reflects an election which coincides with the narrative itself. Unsettling somehow, this success story could be characterized from other traces which would bring about vibrant features of a picture in the complementarity of an exceptional education, spiritual challenges, an intellectual vocation, and a search for meaning in an increasingly globalized world. The language of the book, in the articulation of propositions, decomposes conflicting, yet mastered orders. The foundation is a vision supported by moral presuppositions and precepts. One has here both an order of visible commitments and that of an examination of concrete choices. The level of knowledge testifies to the politics of globalization in three ways. There is, first, a distinction in analysis of doctrines and policies. It transcends nationalities and territories, languages and geographies. It is also a testimony about the administration of diversity in today’s world and it manifests ways of transcending cultural traditions and ideologies. This book, in sum, is about the dynamics of a life and its interrogations, and mirrors demanding activities. One can read it from a classical grid that we have come to banalize. It resolves the tensions between the possibilities of transcultural discourses versus political trends from conflicting histories of ideas. Briefly, it opens three points of entry and it is possible to accent the following. One, the

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volume of the discourse of a life assumes the representation of an ideal which is a vocation; a meditation on the complementarity of multiple organizations and programs, it describes tasks in the sacred as well as in the profane; it pays attention to everyday life as well as to the languages of the sciences. Two, the story translates the development of a progression in multiple challenges. And, three, this account emerges from the work and the achievements of a scholar. The book is a figure and, in sum, it is an eloquent painting in our time. V.Y. Mudimbe Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences Duke University Durham, North Carolina, USA Berkeley May 8, 2014

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IF IT IS TRUE, AS AN AFRICAN PROVERB PUTS IT, THAT “IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD,” then it is equally and certainly true that it takes a global village to raise a cosmocitizen or global citizen. It has taken a global village to assist me in crossing so many rivers, oceans, and borders, and to climb so many rocky and snowy mountains, from the Congo River to the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; from Congolese hills to Italy’s Monte Terminillo, Normandy’s Mont Saint Michel, Mexico’s Pyramid of the Sun (El Piramide del Sol, in Spanish), and China’s Great Wall. Yes, it has taken a global village to raise and educate me. It has taken my family, extended and adoptive families, friends and dedicated teachers to help me through the pains and pleasures of the K-12 education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), my native country, from Bogwabe elementary school to Bobutu and Gbosasa elementary schools; from Bominenge’s middle school to Bolongo’s Notre Dame de Grâce Minor Seminary and high school; from the Equateur’s Grand Séminarire Régional in Bamanya to Rome’s Pontifical Urban University, Gregorian University, and Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale (SIOI); from St. Luke’s Priory School of Wincanton, England to the Goethe Institute Boppard, Germany; from the Institut d’Etudes Françaises de Touraine of Tours, France to Liechtenstein’s International Academy of Philosophy; from the University of California at Berkeley Extension to Yale University’s PIER African Studies and Kukulcan Spanish School of Cuernavaca, Mexico, and so on. This long list of institutions of learning is the reason why I stated at the beginning that it has taken a global village to raise and educate the cosmocitizen I have become today. I do not remember all my teachers and educators by name. Some of them may even think that I have forgotten them. However, I am constantly reminded of, and grateful for their good work and even their sacrifices for me. To all and each one of them I give Thanks! Merci! Danke! Grazie! Gracias! Obrigado! Asanti! Botondi! Xie xie! Arigato! Gamsa hamnida! I am particularly grateful to the following persons and institutions for their special contributions to my global safari. THANK YOU to: H.E. Mgr. Joseph Bolangi Egwanga, former Bishop of Budjala Diocese, DRC,

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for giving me the opportunity to study in Rome. I wish I could meet his expectations and pastorally serve the diocese and the Catholic Church. H.E. Mgr. Joseph Mbimba Kumuondala, my high school and major seminary rector, for raising no objection to Mgr. Bolangi’s decision to send me to Rome. Their decisions and recommendations were the starting point of my long and amazing journey. Prof. François Evain, S.J., for accepting to direct my Licentia dissertation on “Amour et Personne dans la Pensée de Karol Wojtyla” (Love and Person in Karol Wojtyla’s Thought) at Gregorian University. Prof. Nico Sprokel, S.J., for accepting to direct my doctoral dissertation entitled, “Le Concept Heideggerien de ‘Mitsein’ et la Situation Internationale: Contributions à une Philosophie du Dialogue Nord-Sud” (Heidegger’s Concept of “Mitsein” and the International Situation) at Gregorian University, 1987. One member of the dissertation committee was skeptical about my ability to tackle complex, international, and economic development problems, given my predominantly philosophical and theological backgrounds. However, this major and original work was reminiscent of a virtual cosmocitizen’s global thinking in a spider’s weblike and shrinking world. Fr. N. Fumagalli (RIP!), former rector of Collegio Urbano, for kindly assisting me in finding affordable housing at Centro Internazionale Giovanni XXIII, thereby making my transition from the seminary and religious life to the secular life much easier. Don Remigio Musaragno (RIP!), former president of the Ufficio Centrale Studenti Esteri in Italia (UCSEI) and director of Centro Giovanni XXIII. Through him and with him, I was able to familiarize myself with Italian and European international development nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Through him and UCSEI activities, I became more interested in the North-South dialogue and underdevelopment issues. Last, but not least, I believe that I owe my writing skills in the Italian language to my membership on the editorial board of the AMICIZIA journal, over which Don Remigio presided. He encouraged international students from developing countries to think and write about international affairs, especially international aid problems. The German embassy to the Holy See and DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst): Their generous scholarship to study German at the prestigious Goethe Institute Boppard opened other windows and doors to life-saving summer employment opportunities in Germany. I don’t know how I would have survived financially without those jobs, which paid much better wages than the black labor, or lavoro nero in Italy. I am particularly grateful to Mrs. Sabbatini of the German Labor

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Commission in Rome. She was the one who handled all labor-related logistics, from job interviews to lodging arrangements in Germany. I am grateful to all the German factories that made me offers I could not refuse. Villeroi & Boch (V&B) of Mettlach hired me for two consecutive summers. They were followed by Daimler Benz AG of Sindelfingen, my favorite employer who paid the highest wages. I am grateful to the Kassela Company of Frankfurt, the Kalk Chemical Industry of Cologne, and SKF GmbH of Schweinfurt. Not only did my summer job allow me to earn a living, but they also gave me the opportunity to socialize with ordinary German working class people as well as to learn something about the life of foreign workers in Germany, many of whom were also from Italy. I am very grateful to Mrs. and Mr. Zimmerman of Cologne who surprisingly hosted me for three months for free. That was amazing. And I am grateful to Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Nyssen of the University Parish of Cologne for the unforgettable housing and hospitality at Cologne’s Studentenheim during the summer of 1984. During our conversations, he understood some of my struggles and managed to provide me with “partial” yet generous financial aid from Germany. I am grateful to the Cultural Service of the Embassy of France in Rome. It was through this service that I was granted scholarship for a fourweek summer study at the Institut d’Etudes Françaises de Touraine, in Tours, France, 1980. I am grateful to St. Luke’s Priory School of Wincanton, England and to my host family, namely Mrs. Gudrun. As a high school student in DRC, I had dreamed about the opportunity to study English in England. That dream came true with my four-week summer course there. Back then, I did not even know that I was going to end up in the USA and use English on a daily basis. I am grateful to several European families that treated me almost as an adopted son. I particularly think, among others, of the Parere family in Magliano dei Marsi in Italy. I also think of the Schwärzler and Feuerstein families in Lingenau and Schwarzenberg zur Egg, Austria. I am infinitely grateful to my Californian host family, friends as well as businesses, and institutions of learning. Their hospitality, friendship, and professionalism made my immigration to the USA and early days in the country really wonderful and memorable experiences. The short part-time employment/internship with Media Culture and Terry Helbush’s legal assistance were crucial in successfully making the case for my H-1 Visa status. Guest lectures at African International University, a challenging educational project led by the Nigerian-born Dr. Adebisi of Oakland; at

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Holy Names University, Oakland; guest lectures on Heidegger and on the “Morality of African Development” at Carleton and Macalester Colleges in Minnesota were professionally important. They were wonderful and relevant fora for my original and challenging speaking engagements using Shakespeare’s language. My one-year appointment as Assistant Professor at Kansas State University (KSU), or K-State in Manhattan, Kansas (1992-1993) and The James L. Hagerty Lectures 1992 on “Afrosophia: Revelations from the Black-Out” at Saint Mary’s College, Moraga, California, were golden opportunities for my professional development. They gave me the kind of teaching experience that was missing from my curriculum vitae. A big Thank You to K-State and Saint Mary’s College Departments of Philosophy! Thank you to Morgan State University (MSU), where I have been teaching for more than two decades. My additional appointment and tenure as the original director of its Center for Global Studies (CGS 19992009) allowed me to get some administrative practice. Directing the Center was also an opportunity to rehearse for cosmocitizenship through International Education Week (IEW) events as well as through domestic and international travels. I was moved and humbled by, and grateful for the University’s decision to select me as the recipient of the Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II International Award 2008. Thank you to NAFSA – The Association of International Educators. I have enormously benefited from my membership of this organization. It was through NAFSA that I found about the IEW, which became the most important activity during my tenure as Director of the CGS at MSU. It was also through NAFSA that I had the opportunity to learn something about the US Congress by participating in the Congressional Advocacy Day in Washington, DC. Through NAFSA, I attended three United Nations’ NGOs/Department of Public Information (DPI) Annual International Conferences on “Human Dignity and Security,” “Millennium Development Goals” (MDGs), and “Climate Change.” It was also through NAFSA that I participated in USA-EDUESPAÑA 2005, a seven-day trade mission to Spain during which NAFSAns met with Spanish educational institutions, and discussed partnership opportunities relative to student exchange as well as language and cultural immersion. These events were opportunities for global learning and thinking as well as for professional and personal development. They have definitely affected my teaching and research. Thank you to the following persons and organizations for their assistance – hospitality, transportation, etc. – prior to and during my homecoming trip to DRC (November 2009-January 2010): Dr. Jacques

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Kongawi of the Gemena-based American Leprosy Mission (ALM), whose assistance was crucial in the building of my parents’ new house; DRC Senator José Masikini; Maître Jean Bosco Kotongo; Dr. Mbembo Nyamowala of Memisa; Capuchin missionaries of Gemena Parish; Bogwabe’s Red Cross or Croix Rouge, in French; Mrs. and Dr. Ntanda Nkere; the late Mr. Bangabutu, former Director of SCIBE Karawa; Mrs. Catherine Boury and Mr. Christophe Boury, Mayor of Thenailles, France. Special thanks to Hervé Passard, my original Breton French friend, for making my first summer vacation in Europe a marvelous and inexpensive experience. I have kept excellent memories of, and precious souvenirs from our tours of historically meaningful places and monuments, including, but not limited to Les Champs-Élysées, l’Arc de Triomphe, le Centre Georges Pompidou, le Louvres, la Place de la Concorde and fireworks on Bastille Day (July 14, 1979), le Château de Versailles, Normandy’s Mont Saint-Michel, “La Merveille de l’Occident,” and the World War II D-Day landing beaches of Bayeux. A Big Thank You to Dr. Danielle Georges of Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). She proofread and edited several chapters of this memoir. Her pertinent comments, questions, and knowledge of both French and English were very useful and necessary for making some of my sentences and/or Frenglish more intelligible. Another Big Thank You goes to my colleague and friend Dr. Anita Pandey, Professor of Applied Linguistics at MSU. She also proofread several chapters. My biggest thank you goes to John Jacobs, a professional proofreader from England. He proofread the whole manuscript, or the “mammoth undertaking,” as he calls it. He definitely transformed some of my ‘Frenglish’ and ‘Globish’ sentences into the Queen’s English. Going over his meticulous corrections was a positive experience in my continuing learning and practice of Shakespeare’s language. Recommendation letters are almost always important attachments to job, tenure and promotion applications. I am grateful to all those persons who unconditionally and wholeheartedly accepted to write and rewrite them on my behalf. The list includes, but is not limited to: Dr. Arthur K. Bierman, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California (USA). Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Director, William E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). Dr. Vincent Yves Mudimbe, the Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (USA). Happy retirement!

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Dr. John Murungi, Professor of Philosophy, Towson University, Towson, Maryland (USA). The late Don Remigio Musaragno of UCSEI and Centro Giovanni XXIII. Ms. Bernadette van Houten, Director, Consultants Interculturele Communicatie (CIC), Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I have enormously benefited from CIC’s one-week seminar on intercultural communication in June 2001. I also thank Ms. Van Houten for inviting me back as a CIC seminar speaker in 2005. Thank You to my numerous intercontinental colleagues, co-workers, friends, classmates, and roommates, many of whom have shared some of my global safari experiences. A Special Thank You to San Francisco, California friends, Media Culture, and Terry Helbush, Esq., for effectively assisting me in the lengthy and costly process of immigration and naturalization. A big Thank You and Mille Grazie to Drs. Carla Mauro, Nzumbu LoAmbetima, and Dr. Mohammed S. Sheriff for their hospitality and VIPlike transportation and escort services during my summer 2013 and spring 2014 visits to Rome for the dual canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. Thank You to my Congolese and US families and relatives; and my wife Madeleine, who also proofread several chapters. Thank you also to my stepdaughters Jennifer and Jessica, who gave me the opportunity to learn something about the daunting task of step-parenting.

PROLOGUE FROM MY VILLAGE TO OUR GLOBAL VILLAGE: ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME AND BEYOND

IN SWAHILI, A BANTU LANGUAGE AND LINGUA FRANCA SPOKEN IN EAST AFRICA, especially Kenya and Tanzania, and in Central Africa, especially in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the term safari simply means journey, travel, expedition. But for some reason and for many people, especially Westerners, the meaning of the term has been almost exclusively reduced to adventuresome expeditions to such places as Kilimanjaro, the Serengeti National Park, or the world renowned national park and wildlife refuge in north-central Tanzania. Global Safari is a travelogue-memoir based on my international travel, education, friendships, cultural immersions, and work experiences. My journey started as a religious and spiritual quest, almost like a pilgrimage, so to speak. As a matter of fact, everything was set in motion by a generous scholarship from the Vatican to study theology at the Pontifical Urban University, or Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, in Latin. It was as a seminarian and theology student that I had the rare opportunity to serve as an acolyte or altar boy for the late Pope John Paul II on the Good Friday of 1980 in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope John Paul II is now referred to as St. John Paul II. I thought studying in Rome and serving His Holiness and Sovereign Pontiff as a seminarian were my free tickets to some bright future in the Roman Catholic Church, in the Curia Romana, possibly as a bishop, a cardinal, or maybe and why not, as the first black pope. With my decision to leave the seminary, what began as a religious journey to Rome and training at the headquarters of Catholicism ended as a long, secular, and melodramatic tour du monde, or a trans-Atlantic passage and a trans-Pacific adventure, including but not limited to a tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing, Peoples’ Republic of China. Besides Kilimanjaro and Serengeti, there are numerous non-African destinations that are worth exploring. For example, the Roman Colosseum; the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square; Athens’ Acropolis and Parthenon; France’s Mont Saint Michel in Normandy and Versailles

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Palace; Mexico’s Piramide del Sol, or the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan; the Great Wall of China; South Korea’s Namsangol Hanok Village in Seoul; USA’s Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Hollywood in California; and Canada’s African Lion Safari in Hamilton-Cambridge, Ontario. These places and many others are wonderful safari destinations. They have been parts of my global safari adventures. Many Africans – including myself – do dream of, and enjoy their eventful travels to the western hemisphere as much as Westerners dream of, enjoy, and fantasize about their going “On Safari” to Africa. Usually, it is much easier for Westerners to be issued a travel visa for their African safari than it is for Africans to be issued a travel visa to the Western countries. Money matters and, believe it or not, race matters. Global safari or international travel is mostly a “dollarocracy” and “Eurocracy,” so to speak. Westerners, many of whom were colonial and conquering powers, continue to enjoy the status of those who bring more “civilization” and desperately needed foreign currencies – especially the U.S. dollar and the European Union Euro – to Africa and elsewhere. Consequently, they are usually welcome to Africa, unless someone is suspected, as it sometimes happens, of being a CIA or a (former) Russian KGB spy. But African travelers to the Western world usually get a cold reception, rejection, and discriminatory treatment. Fifty years after the March on Washington, twenty years after the dismantlement of apartheid in South Africa, and six years after the election of the first black president of the USA, much progress has been made in terms of global racial relations in general. However, the fact that Oprah Winfrey, the owner of Oprah Winfrey Network television (OWN) and one of the wealthiest and most famous black Americans, was not really free even to ask how much a fancy purse cost at a Swiss elitist store in August 2013, shows that we still have a long way to go. When the news about that humiliating episode broke out, I was visiting friends in Rome, Italy. I must confess that I did not feel comfortable during my short and modest shopping tour at Rome’s new mall prior to my return to the United States. Fortunately, I did not experience anything humiliating even when I spoke Italian to salespersons, thereby refraining from using my US citizenship, which is sometimes a great asset. During my stay in Rome in the 1980s, I had the opportunity to attend and speak at numerous conferences and symposia on immigrants’ conditions in Italy and Europe. I heard many Italians saying that they were not racist on the grounds that they knew something about emigration. As a matter of fact, as a Werkstudent or student worker for seven summers in Germany, I had the opportunity to meet and work with numerous Italian immigrants. Moreover, in Baltimore, Maryland, and elsewhere in the

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United States, “Little Italies,” or Italian neighborhoods are common phenomena. So yes, Italy has traditionally been “an emigration country,” or “un paese di emigrazione,” in Italian. But it doesn’t mean that Italy is free from racism. I had the opportunity to address that claim in some of my invited lectures, articles, and occasional Radio and TV appearances on Radio Radicale and TG3 in Rome. Moreover, there were many people and organizations who frequently denounced racism and xenophobia in many ways, including anti-apartheid and anti-racism demonstrations. However, very often, especially during hard economic times, African travelers and immigrants are seen as burdensome to Western societies. They are also seen as the ones who “steal” jobs, even when they tend to simply accept the most menial, undesirable, and underpaid jobs. Many immigrants, legal and illegal, perform those jobs out of necessity, for survival in strange lands, and as the alternative to returning to their homelands, many of which are war-torn, poverty-stricken, or underdeveloped countries. The year 2009 was and will remain one of the most memorable times of my life. It was the year of my very first return to my native country, DRC, after thirty-one years. It should be noted, however, that this wasn’t my first visit back to the African continent. As a matter of fact, in 2002 and 2005, I had the opportunities to travel to Dakar, Senegal and to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These were my first returns to Africa since exiting the continent in September 1978. Despite the relative proximity to DRC, I didn’t seize those opportunities to also travel there. All of those visits were business-related. Their purposes were to attend and present papers at professional conferences and to discuss the possibility of academic partnerships with the University of Dar es Salaam. No “safari.” No riding aboard a 4x4 Land Rover in the Serengeti National Park. No climbing or hiking on Mount Kilimanjaro. But I enjoyed my one-day visit to the world renowned Gorée Island. I videotaped and took a lot of photographs, especially of the famous House of Slaves, or la Maison des Esclaves, in French and its “Door of No Return,” or Porte du Non-Retour, or Porte du sans Retour, in French. The House was closed that day and I unsuccessfully begged a site staff member to open it. Right in front of the closed House of Slaves door and on the back, facing the ocean, I had my photograph taken. I made a promise or rather a wish, i.e., I will return, not necessarily to the Gorée Island, but to Africa, hopefully and preferably to my native DRC. That wish became a reality in 2009. From the Door of No Return, let’s remember, thousands or even millions of African slaves embarked on slave boats for their unwanted transatlantic safari, or the Middle Passage; but they never returned. The great number of slaves who started their Middle Passage from Gorée led the Canadian poet Jean-Louis

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Royer to treat the Senegalese island as a “Continent of spirit” when he stated, “Anybody who told you that Gorée is an island, that person was a liar. This island is not [just] an island. It is a continent of spirit.” (Celui qui vous a dit, Gorée est une île; celui-là a menti. Cette île n’est pas une île. Elle est continent de l’esprit, in French). By the way, an impressive boatshaped house was built in the proximity of the Door of No Return to commemorate those slave boats. Some African slaves had made it to their respective destinations; but many others had died during the journey. For millions of people of African descent living in the Diaspora, “Back to Africa”1 has forever been a dream that never comes true. While in Dakar, I joined Senegalese in rejoicing and celebrating the victory of their national soccer team (Les Lions) over the French team (Les Bleus) during the FIFA World Cup 2002, which took place in Germany. That victory was particularly important for three reasons. First, it was a former colony’s victory against its former colonial power. Secondly, it was a victory against a team that was the 1998 FIFA World Cup champion. Thirdly and more importantly, the victory gave Senegal the hope of becoming the world champion. But that did not happen. Italy’s team (Gli Azzurri) was the world champion. I also enjoyed my twenty-four hour visit to Zanzibar,2 especially the Spice Tour during which I saw a really tall coconut tree climbing demonstration. The climber’s song contained, among other words, the phrase “Hakuna Matata,” meaning “no problem,” in Swahili. At the end of the tour, the climber offered me fresh coconut juice, which he jokingly called “the Zanzibar Coca-Cola.” It wasn’t my first time drinking coconut juice. I used to drink it when I was an elementary school pupil in Gbosasa, DRC. Our school had several coconut trees. For the kids that we were at that time, those trees were so tall that it took heroism to 1

“Back to Africa” was a slogan and a Black Nationalist movement attributed to Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The movement sought, among other things, to build in Africa a black-governed nation. 2 Zanzibar is a 637 sq. mi. (1,651 sq. km) island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of east-central Africa. In 1964, Zanzibar, together with Pemba Island and some other smaller islands, joined with Tanganyika on the mainland to form the United Republic of Tanzania (URT). Arabs had the deepest influence on Zanzibar, because the island’s position made it a perfect entrepôt for Arabs mounting slave expeditions into Africa and conducting oceangoing commerce (see Britannica, Micropædia Ready Reference, 12, fifteenth edition, 1994, 895-896). The Arab influence on Zanzibar is also apparent in the islands’ highly Arabicized Swahili, and in the fact that many Zanzibarians claim some sort of Arab ancestry. My tour guide – Mr. Tembo – told me that he also had Persian ancestry. It’s the way to claim biracial identity in Zanzibar and, believe it or not, it’s a status symbol.

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climb them. Most of us collected the fruits after they had fallen off the trees. However, there were some audacious and impatient classmates who used to climb the coconut trees to pick the fruits which, like the Garden of Eve’s apples, were treated like forbidden fruits. It was forbidden to climb the trees and whoever was caught doing it was severely punished. Anyway, at the end of the Spice Tour in Zanzibar I also received a bag, a hat, a tie, and sort of eye glasses, all of which were artistically and expeditiously made of coconut tree leaves under my watchful eyes and video recorder. I brought the Spice Tour souvenirs back to the United States and used them as office decorations for several years. The Spice Tour souvenirs also included, among other things, ginger roots. In Zanzibar, they are boiled and drunk like tea. However, they are believed to be even better than tea, because, as the tour guide put it, they are “African Viagra.” I also visited historic slave trade sites, including the house of Tippo Tib, the most famous and perhaps the most powerful of the AfroArab slave traders. Global Safari is also a story about a promise made and kept. It is about keeping the promise that I made on June 17, 2002 in front of the Door of No Return at Gorée Island, Senegal, when I solemnly and with great hope stated, “I will return.” This was a way of remembering millions of fellow Africans’ painful Middle Passage while at the same time reminding myself of the fact that my long journey from Congo-Zaïre to the Americas was not a Middle Passage, regardless of any return. On January 30, 2012, I became a US citizen after twenty-one years in the USA. Since I don’t plan on embarking on another long expedition to another foreign country and becoming its citizen, Global Safari is also a story about my pursuit of the increasingly difficult American dream, professional challenges, my path to US citizenship, international competency, world wisdoms, and if at all possible, happiness. So, “All roads lead to Rome.” My road led to Rome, “the Eternal City,” and beyond. It was a long road to, and through Rome and the Vatican as a place of prolonged transit. From Rome – the headquarters of Roman Catholicism and religious universalism – I started developing a taste for international travel; I started gaining a better understanding of universal humanity and feeling the need for, and possibility of cosmocitizenship or global citizenship. My road was a Columbus-like road that led me to rediscover the Americas, to walk through Beijing’s Forbidden City and climb the Great Wall of China, to contribute to the historic re-election of the first black President of the United States of America, to participate in one of the gatherings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963-2013) at the Washington Mall,

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and to keep the Dream alive. My road started from Congo’s unpaved, muddy and dusty roads, from the bleeding “Heart of Darkness” (Conrad 1899), so to speak, to the paved roads, highways, railways, super highways, and skyways of the enlightened western hemisphere and our amazingly globalized village. On that classroom-like road I learned world languages and cultures as I have continued to wonder, cross the color and other lines, break cultural taboos, rehearse for cosmocitizenship, and participate in humanity, one and indivisible. Yes, “All roads lead to Rome.” My road has led to Rome and beyond. Global Safari is a long and circular journey on a flat and round world. It is my story as a globetrotter, from my village to Rome and our global village, through transits, transitions, and translations. The Safari continues, because, as the English playwright John Heywood reminded us in A Dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue, c. 1538), “Rome was not built in one day.” Or, to quote from a medieval French phrase, “Rome ne fut pas faite toute en un jour” (Le Proverbe au Vilain, 1190).

PART I: GROWING UP IN CONGO-ZAIRE

CHAPTER ONE FAMILY AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND

I. Early Childhood I WAS BORN IN KARAWA (KW), WHICH IS LOCATED IN THE NORTH UBANGI DISTRICT. The District is located in the norther part of the Equateur Province, in what is known today as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), or République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), in French, formerly Zaïre or République du Zaïre. The year was 1956, or four years prior to the country’s independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. However, my identity documents show Bogwabe – also spelled Boguabe (Bgu) – as my birth place simply because of a traditional attachment to, and pride for my father and grandfather’s birth place, which was Bogwabe (about 40 km or 25 miles from KW). Another reason is the fact that I don’t have any childhood memory of Karawa. In the 1950s my parents were living in Karawa, because my paternal grandparents moved there. My grandfather, Jules Gon, who died in 1974, was a magazinier or shopkeeper and manager for a Portuguese company. The store sold items such as clothes, shoes, salt, canned foods (sardines, milk), soap, bicycles, and so on. My grandparents had seven children, all of whom were male and none of whom were connected to Bogwabe, my grandfather’s birthplace. It is my understanding that he was concerned with the idea of having no son living in his native village. So he decided or rather suggested that my father – his oldest son – move there. At that time my father was a young tailor and Bogwabe villagers definitely needed his skills and service. That was how I ended up (kind of) growing up in Bgu, so to speak. Before moving to Bogwabe, my parents also spent some time in Mokaria, where my father was briefly employed at the region’s largest hevea plantation. At that time, like many Congolese, he had two wives. But for religious reasons, he divorced the other wife, whom I never knew and with whom he had had three children, all of whom are/were older than I, namely, the late Sebastien, my older half-brother (d. Sept. 2010); and my older half-sisters, the late Francisca (d. Feb 2010) and Christine. Francisca and Christine grew up with my paternal grandmother and great-aunt, whereas my elder brother grew up in the family. I was the third child of

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my mother, Lucia. However, I did not know my first two brothers, both of whom passed away before I was born. Except for Pius Pasika, my immediate younger brother who died in 1979 at age 19 in a work-related tractor accident in Gbadolite, the capital city of the North Ubangi District, all my other younger brothers and sisters passed away by their third birthdays. Pius was a very smart pupil who unfortunately dropped out of elementary school. He was also an excellent soccer player who didn’t have the opportunity to develop his skills to his full potential. Infant mortality was our family’s greatest tragedy and it continues to be a big problem in developing countries like DRC. It is a preventable phenomenon. But the country’s worsening health and socio-economic conditions make many things difficult. In DRC’s case, endless rebellions have contributed to the worsening of medical and health infrastructures, especially in rural areas. That is why I personally commend the United Nations for its difficult peacekeeping operations in DRC and for paying special attention to infant mortality as a part of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the fourth of which is, “to reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five.”1 So I am a survivor; I mean I am the only surviving son of my mother who, by the way, died of rheumatism in Karawa on December 21, 2013 at the age of 83. My father passed away in Karawa on July 1, 2009 at the age of 81. The cause of death was cerebral vascular anemia (anémie vasculaire cérébrale (AVC), in French). May they all rest in peace! I was able and lucky enough to see my mother in December 2009, when I returned for the first time after thirty-one years. The last time I saw my father was in August 1978. I left Congo-Zaire for Rome, Italy, in September 1978. I will say more about this in the next chapter and in the chapter relating the return to my native land. Unlike most Bogwabe kids, I did not fully grow up there. As a matter of fact, after the first four years of elementary school in Bogwabe and Bobutu, about three miles away, walking back and forth, and occasionally staying with relatives or sharing a house with other pupils from Bogwabe, 1

The eight MDGs adopted by 189 UN member states during the Millennium session in 2000 are to (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (2) achieve universal primary education (3) promote gender equality and empower women (4) reduce child mortality rates (5) improve maternal health (combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (7) ensure environmental sustainability and (8) develop a global partnership for development in the least developed countries. DRC’s infant mortality rate is 74.87 deaths/1,000 births (2013 est. by CIA World Factbook). For further information about MDGs, please refer to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals Report 2013.

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I moved to Gbosasa, where I attended the fifth and sixth grades at the Gbosasa Catholic School. It was a boarding school, where at that young age – I was eleven or twelve years old – schoolmates and I took care of ourselves, of course, with some supervision from our principal, Oscar Magbia, some of our teachers, and to some extent, parish priests. We walked home only every other week. Gbosasa Catholic Elementary School was about seven miles away from home. But for me, it was far away, I mean it was not close enough for a daily walk to and from school. Of course, there was no such thing as public or private means of transportation. Many of my classmates walked to school every day, six days per week. For some of them, the walk would take a whole hour one way, which meant a two-hour walk every school day, mostly barefoot, since most people reserved their shoes for special occasions. They had to leave home by 6:30 a.m., since classes started at 7:30 a.m., very often with gymnastics or gasisi, in Lingala and Ngbaka. Moreover, punctuality was important and there were punishments for showing up late, including but not limited to spanking, which would be a good reason for lawsuits in the USA. In this country, spanking = child abuse. From the Gbosasa Elementary School I moved to Bominenge Catholic Mission to attend Catholic Middle School, also known as Cycle d’Orientation (CO), in French. Bominenge was also referred to as “Gbele,” nicknamed after the local little river where we went swimming and bathing. We did not have bathrooms at our dormitories. I was selected and sent there along with three other classmates from Gbosasa. The three main selection criteria were moral character, age, and scholastic performance based on the Examen Sélectif, or Selective Examination, which was a national standard examination for elementary schools’ final year. Surprisingly, the top student from our class was not among the four pupils who were selected to attend Bominenge CO. He did not meet the age criterion. He was believed to be too old, meaning he was more than fifteen years old. The exclusion of students of a certain age was at odds with a Congolese continuing education slogan according to which “Learning has no time (age) limit,” or “Koyekola ezali na ntango te,” in Lingala. This slogan was usually used to promote literacy among adults who, for whatever reason, did not go to school when they were young. The Bominenge Middle School accepted students, mostly from the Budjala diocese’s Catholic elementary schools, namely from the following parishes or missions: Bolumbe, Bobadi, Bominenge, Likimi, Gbosasa, Mbaya, and Takaya. Bominenge was even further away from home, that is, about 60 km, or approximately 37 miles. It was also a boarding school. We went home only twice a year, for Christmas and New Year holidays and at the

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end of the school year in July. Bullying of the first year students – called Bagoloti or Bangabo in the local Lingala jargon – was a common practice that also affected academic performance and retention. Bullying consisted in many things. For example, CO-2 students who referred to themselves as “Ministers,” would have Bagoloti eat their soup with forks; they also made them sing self-denigrating songs, and songs justifying the bullying according to Mr. Gozo, the founder of the bullying practice in Bominenge. In addition to bullying, there was a scary scholastic test at the end of the first month for the first year students. It was called Éliminatoire, in French, or the elimination exam. Students who failed that exam were dismissed. For many students who were in this predicament, this could mean the end of schooling and a better future. Others went to less prestigious and illmanaged schools, which were even more scarce and/or too far away in those years (1960s-70s). I lost two of my classmates and friends from the Gbosasa Elementary School to the Eliminatoire. The two of us who survived this exam had to study much harder, since we represented not only our families, but also our elementary school. At the end of the first year, there was the Proclamation during the all-school convocation. Students’ examination results were publicly announced, from the top students to the failing ones. The CO-1 or first year class was divided into two sections, A and B, or Première A and Première B. I was Première B’s top student and I also received an award for earning the highest score in French. The award was a pocket French-Lingala dictionary. Being my class’s top student was a very big deal. It was also, to some extent, breaking news, first in Bominenge and then later in my village, and of course, at Gbosasa Elementary School, which was proud of my achievement and took credit for supposedly being the best Catholic elementary school in the Budjala Diocese, at least for that year. Some of my classmates superstitiously attributed my outstanding performance to some sort of magic. That reaction was not surprising in the context of African cultures, in which fetishism and the belief in witchcraft are still very widespread. Success and failure or misfortune are commonly attributed to supernatural forces. As a matter of fact, during our trip from Gbosasa to Bominenge at the beginning of the school year, we walked through the Lakaabonua Forest, one of the shortcuts between Karawa and Bominenge. In that forest, we met a hunter who sold to all of us (four or five kids) a supposedly magic animal hair. The supposedly mysterious or mystical animal from which the hair came was called moduku, in Ngbaka. There is no known translation for this in other languages. The hunter advised us to insert the hair in our pens for academic success. The problem with the magic hair was that it did not work for two of my classmates who

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even failed the Eliminatoire and were dismissed from school. I always remember this story, which is just one out of numerous DRC superstitions. I graduated from Bominenge CO as the third top student, not the first. Was it because I lost my moduku hair? Maybe. But the fact that some of the magic hair users did not excel at all was a strong argument against its magic power.

II. Teenage and High School Years From Bominenge I went to Bolongo Minor Seminary along with two other classmates, one of whom, by the way, was the Première A top student. Like me, he was also believed to use magic. He had a pocket prayer book which he used for his daily prayers. He was the only pupil to possess such a book. Many pupils believed in the supposedly magical power of that “special prayer book.” His name was Roger Vincelli, later renamed Masikini Mombole due to President Mobutu’s Authenticité. Both Mombole and I ended up in the USA. Sadly he passed away in Dallas, Texas, in 2009. May he rest in peace! In Bolongo I attended high school at the prestigious Petit Séminaire Notre Dame de Grâce, or Our Lady of Grace Minor Seminary (19711975). Bolongo is 8 km (about 5 miles) from Lisala, President Mobutu’s birth place and the capital city of the Mongala District, in the Equateur Province, and about 200 km (about 124 miles) from home. Lisala is a port city that had several excellent high schools. But for many people from the Bogwabe and Karawa area, Lisala was mostly known as the place where serious criminals were prosecuted and incarcerated. Some Bogwabe villagers had spent some time there for that reason. So many people knew Lisala more for its famous penitentiary institution than for its wonderful secondary educational institutions. Moreover, back then only a very few people went to high school, and those who went almost never completed it. One of my uncles went to Boyange Teachers Institute in the proximity of Lisala, but he never completed the program. He returned from there and was lucky enough to get a job as a magazinier for another Portuguese company, just like my grandfather. This fact was our family’s confirmation of the old proverb, “Like father, like son,” or “Qualis pater talis filius,” in Latin. Bolongo Minor Seminary was also a boarding school. It was also a much disciplined institution, which was among the most selective schools in the country. The school’s famous discipline was apparent in the fact that it was also referred to as “Bolongo Molongo.” In Lingala, molongo means order. What’s more, one of the school’s favorite Latin quotes and slogans

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was, “Ordo ducit ad Dominum,” or “Order leads to the Lord.” Most students came from the Equateur Province. However, several students also came from the Oriental Province and even from Kinshasa. As a minor seminary, the school’s main purpose was to prepare students for the major seminary and priesthood. However, many parents also sent their kids there simply to get a wonderful and elitist education. Bolongo’s excellence in high school education was apparent in the fact virtually all of its graduating seniors passed the Examen d’Etat (Exétat), the State Exam, or DRC’s national standardized test that determined who may and who may not go to college or university. As at Bominenge CO, we also went home only twice a year. Daily activities started and ended with prayers and/or mass. We prayed and sang in Lingala, French, and Latin. Classes were followed by various afternoon activities such as swimming, gardening, and sports, especially soccer, DRC and the world’s most popular sport, also called “the beautiful game.” Our school had its soccer team. It played against the military soccer team of Angenga Base as well as against Lisala City’s school soccer teams. Our school also had basketball and volleyball teams. Most students played soccer, whether or not they were on the school team. We also occasionally went on short fishing expeditions, especially at the Likuba fishing ponds, about twenty miles away, where we spent several days. Bolongo high school had a song titled, “Oh Likuba.” It told stories about the school’s fishing expeditions. It started in French and ended in Lingala. The French initial part was as follows: Oh Likuba, oh Likuba (Oh Likuba, Oh Likuba) Jamais, jamais nous ne pouvons t’oublier (Never, never can we forget you) Nous ne pouvons te chanter comme il faut (We cannot sing for you in the right way) Ni t’exprimer combien nous te sommes enchantés (Nor can we express how much we are enchanted)

We were fed very well compared to many other schools. There were three meals every day. Beans (madesu, in Lingala), dry and salted fish (makayabo, in Lingala), rice (loso, in Lingala), cassava leaves (mpondu, or pondu in Lingala), and cassava bread (chikwangue or kwanga, in Congolese French jargon and Lingala, respectively), were important parts of daily menus. Some of the vegetables came from our garden. We also had pigs. Pork was reserved for special occasions (Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc.). Gardening and pig rearing were important parts of the school’s self-investment (auto-investissement, in French). They allowed the school to lower the tuition fees. As at any other private and boarding school, we paid annual school tuition/fees. In 1971, when I first started,

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the tuition was 20 Zaïre’s, or about $ 40 (forty US dollars), based on that year’s exchange rate. For Zairians, that was a lot of money and many people could not afford to pay it. As a minor seminary, or ecclesiastical institution, the school also received financial support from the Vatican. This Vatican connection gave the school a great deal of autonomy vis-à-vis the Zairian government, especially in the 1970s when President Mobutu had zairianized (zairianisé, in French), or nationalized most of the country’s economy and was almost worshiped like Zaire’s new Messiah. This was also the time when he came up with his new Authenticité politics, a part of which consisted of getting rid of Christian names. He set the example by changing his name from Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to “Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga.” Théobald – my original first or Christian name – was replaced with “Zeke,” also subsequently spelled “Zekeh.” The Late Cardinal Joseph Malula (19171989), Zaire’s original native prelate and Archbishop of Kinshasa, was opposed to some of President Mobutu’s perceived anti-clerical attitudes and excès de zèle. That was why Malula was forced into exile in Rome. He was an advocate of the “Africanization” of church hierarchy and liturgy, including what was also known as the Zairian Rite of Mass, or le rite zairois de la messe, in French. It integrated dancing and the use of African musical instruments into mass. So the cardinal was, to some extent and mutatis mutandis, a proponent of, and open to Mobutu’s Authenticité. But his exile sent a clear warning message; that is, if President Mobubtu could have the audacity to punish Zaire’s most respected prelate by forcing him into exile to Rome, then he could do anything to anybody who messed with his “revolutionary” policies. This situation led the regime to become suspicious of the Catholic Church and schools, whose activities became increasingly monitored, and our school was no exception to the rule. To that end, for example, Mr. Mokubo, a Lisala City-based leader of JMPR (Jeunesse Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution), came to our school for a special visit. The purpose of his visit was to talk about “Mobutuism” or the Mobutu Doctrine, which was elaborated in the N’Sele Manifesto. This political document was issued on May 20, 1967 after a political meeting of the Binza Group,2 the Corps des Volontaires de la République (CVR)3 and 2

The Binza Group included Cyrille Adoula, Justin-Marie Bomboko, Cléophas Kamitatu, and Victor Nendaka. It was an association of young Congolese intelligentsia considered close to Mobutu. The Group was created in the years prior to Mobutu’s 1965 coup d’état. The Group was critical of President Joseph Kasavubu, the country’s first head of state. Some of them served in the College of Commissioners that replaced the parliament for six months in 1960-61. This was

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many other regime leaders and thinkers. They played a crucial role in the elaboration of Mobutu’s Movement Populaire de la Révolution, which became Zaire’s state party and reinforced Mobutu’s authoritarianism. Anyway, one of the most memorable things from Mr. Mokubo’s talk to our school was the warning statement that, “before teaching students about how the pope is doing at the Vatican, you must teach them first and foremost how Mobutu is doing in the Republic of Zaire.” He also warned against “anti-revolutionary ecclesiastic meetings,” that is, masses and homilies aimed at criticizing the nouveau régime. The warning character of his statement was apparent in the fact that he took off his reading glasses in order “to let you see the most revolutionary face.” Mr. Mokubo’s talk was also followed by other JMPR minor leaders coming to teach us the new regime’s slogans, songs, and dances. Some of those dances would be typical examples of what is known in today’s USA as “twerking,” (nyomo, in Lingala jargon), or sexually explicit dancing. The regime called that activity “Animation.” Our rector or principal, who was a Rome-educated priest, did not like the twerking part of the animation. The most memorable slogans were: Hirr ya! Ya. MPR Oye! Oye. (Vivat or Hurrah MPR!) Mobutu Oye! Oye. (Vivat or Hurrah Mobutu!) MPR Miso? Ga! Mobutu Miso? Ga! Mobutu Mokako! Swa! MPR égal? Servir. Se servir? No! in French (MPR Is Equal to Serving (or Service). Self-Serving/Self-Service? No!).4

the period during which Col. Mobutu – the national army commander – “neutralized” the government in an attempt to resolve the political crisis created by the standoff between President Kasavubu and Prime Minister Lumumba. The Group was named after a suburban neighborhood of Kinshasa, mostly inhabited by wealthy Congolese leaders (Bobb 1999, 61). 3 CVR was “a group created on January 9, 1966, to galvanize the people into helping rebuild the Congo after the chaos and deterioration following independence.” The Corps “prepared the way for the formation of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR) and the single-party era” (Bobb 1999, 111). 4 Some of these slogans are very difficult to translate into English. “Mobutu Miso Ga” and “MPR Miso Ga” are simply ways of referring to the president and his party as a vigilant person and organization. In Lingala, miso means eyes (sing. liso). Mokako swa is an expression of best wishes.

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Most popular and memorable songs were, among others, Dia Lelo Tubandila Anka Ye Mulupwe Mobutu, in Tshiluba (in which Mobutu was portrayed as the only and supreme Chief) and the one containing the words, “MPR Iya Mobutu ndo Nzapa Batalo…,” in Ngbandi, President Mobutu’s ethnic group and native language. This song basically asks God to protect Mobutu. Numerous dance troops known in French as animateurs and animatrices were created throughout the country. They wore colorful and beautiful dresses and costumes. They provided free and “authentically Zairian” entertainment during official holidays and political gatherings, including the welcoming and departure ceremonies for the president and other regime dignitaries at airports and river ports. Another interesting thing about the minor seminary education was the fact that our rector opened and read our correspondence prior to handing it to us. Dating was the number one taboo, the violation of which was a good reason for being dismissed from the school. I remember a classmate being dismissed on the ground that his girlfriend had a baby. The letter announcing the news used a code phrase, that is, “your goat has given birth…” (“ntaba ya yo eboti,” in Lingala). Unfortunately, the rector was able to figure out the meaning of the coded statement. In Bolongo high school, just like in Bominenge CO, bullying of the third year students (first year of high school, or ninth graders) was a common phenomenon. Kakabruk (plural bakakabruk) was the jargon used to designate freshmen high school students in Bolongo. I went through additional bullying for three reasons. First, I was a somnambulist or sleep-walker who would wake up other students during the night as I walked, talked, or recited some of my class lessons. This phenomenon was very annoying in a dormitory setting. Second, I was very poorly dressed, especially during my first year. Third, I belonged to the Ngbaka ethnic group, which was one of the socioeconomically disadvantaged groups in the Equateur Province. My financial situation dramatically improved during the last two years of high school, as my family started believing more in my potential. In DRC, just like elsewhere, I suspect, education is seen as a lucrative investment. I graduated from Bolongo High School in 1975. This curriculum vitae, from birth to my eighteenth birthday, is the reason why I stated earlier that I kind of grew up in Bogwabe. In reality, I was gone most of the time and I returned there only for some parts of my vacation time, which was even very limited during the three years following my high school graduation.

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III. Three Years of Adulthood and Early Higher Education in My Native Land I went to the Grand Séminaire Régional de l’Equateur St. Jean Baptiste, which was established in 1974 in Bamanya, in the close proximity of Mbandaka, the capital city of the Equateur Province. I could have chosen to pursue my higher education at the Université Nationale du Zaïre (UNAZA), either in Kinshasa, DRC, or in Lubumbashi, the capital city of the Shaba/Katanga Province, depending on which major I eventually happened to choose. After all I earned a Diplôme d’Etat from Bolongo High School. Half of my high school classmates gave up the idea of pursuing an ecclesiastical career and consequently went to UNAZA. The other half was interested in priesthood, which was supposed to be the main reason for attending a high school that was a minor seminary. Bamanya’s Philosophicum was a three-year philosophy program that I did from 1975 to 1978. Mbandaka was about 500 km (approximately 311 miles) from home. For most parts of the Equateur Province as for DRC in general, where road conditions are very challenging, 500 km is no driving distance. Most people used and still use the boat as the common means of public transportation. The Congo River lends itself to a wonderful navigation. Only a select few can afford the cost of flying. Most Zairian/Congolese bishops were against the idea of allowing their major seminarians to travel by boat. It took two or three days to travel by boat from Akula, our closest river port, to Mbandaka and about a week to Kinshasa. The main reason for the opposition to this idea was the perceived mundane or “sinful” life style on the boat, where there used to be a lot of drinking, dancing, and prostitution. Consequently, seminarians from Budjala Diocese always flew from Gemena to Mbandaka or Kinshasa. The only time we traveled by boat was a one-week excursion from Mbandaka to Akula in 1976. It was organized by our school, meaning Bamanya Major Seminary. As I stated earlier, dating a girl was a good reason for being dismissed from school. That was true not only of the minor seminary, but also of the major seminary. The training for priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church is also supposed to be a rehearsal for celibacy and chastity. But many seminarians and clergymen had girlfriends. One had to simply be as discrete and as hypocritical as possible. It turned out that my relationship with “the second sex” failed the test of discretion and was the central part of my first year annual report that the seminary rector sent to my bishop. Bishop Bolangi drove from Budjala to Gbosasa Parish where I was doing my first year’s pastoral stage or internship. In a nutshell, the report stated that I enjoyed the company of women, which was perceived as something

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negative for a seminarian and for clergymen. I did not receive a copy of the full report. However, it raised doubts about my fitness for religious life in the Roman Catholic Church, in which celibacy and chastity are important requirements. I sincerely told the bishop that if I ever became a priest, I would have to deal with both men and women. Consequently, if I could not interact with women during my formative years, then how was I going to work with them once I became a priest? He found my argument logically cogent. Consequently, he wrote a letter to the rector, thereby allowing me to return to Bamanya and continue my education as a seminarian there. I completed my internship in Gbosasa Parish along with another major seminarian, who was three or four years ahead of me. He was a theology student at the Grand Séminaire Jean XXIII in Kinshasa, from which he was later dismissed, apparently due to dating-related issues. I paid a short visit to my family before returning to Bamanya for the second and third years of philosophy studies. At the end of the second and third years, I was one of six classmates who traveled to Kinshasa to take additional philosophy exams at the Faculté de Théologie Catholique, which was subsequently renamed as Université Catholique de Kinshasa. Those examinations allowed us to earn an officially recognized academic degree. Some of the courses on which we were tested were completely new and different from the ones that we had had in Bamanya. The most challenging thing was the fact that we had a very short preparation time and we did not know the instructors at all. We spent sleepless nights, which was a necessary evil. All exams were oral. Professors met with a group of six students at once. Everybody had his or her question. However, everybody was also expected to pay attention to what the others said. It was a format with which we were not familiar in Bamanya, where most of the examinations were written. I was very happy when I found out that I had passed the first year exams, or Jury du Premier Graduat, in French. Many students had to retake the exams. That was not only embarrassing, but also inconvenient, especially for the additional flights and other financial costs involved for students who were not from Kinshasa, including, among others, some of my classmates from Bamanya. In 1978, at the end of my third and last year in Bamanya, I once again returned to Kinshasa for another round of Deuxième Graduat exams. The results did not really matter, since I was granted scholarship to study theology in Rome. I will come back to this topic in chapter 3. My background information would be incomplete without a few words on my ethnicity or ethnic group, also commonly referred to as tribe.

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IV. My Ethnic Group: The Ngbaka People in a Nutshell According to Fr. Marcel Henrix, the Ngbaka – also referred to as Ngwaka by the Bantu-speaking Congolese due to a pronunciation difficulty5 – constitute a homogeneous ethnic group. They live in the central Ubangi, in the northern part of the Equateur Province, DRC. They occupy an area of about 30,000 sq. km (11,585.064 sq. mi.). The Ngbaka language is a Ubangi or Niger-Congo language, which belongs to the Gbaya-Manza-Ngbaka group. To distinguish itself from the Ngbaka Ma’bo of the Mondjombo-Kpala-Gbanziri linguistic group, they refer to themselves as “Ngbaka Minagende.” There are approximately one million Ngbaka speaking people. According to the Belgian scholar Vedast Maes, the Ngbaka Minagende originate from a mixture of Ngbaka Ma’bo with the Gbaya, Manza, and other ethnic groups. That is why there are some cultural divergences. Until 1830 or so, they used to live in the Central African Republic (CAR), or République Centrafricaine (RCA), in French, especially in the Tomi, Kemo, and Ombela basins. According to the ancient Ngbaka oral tradition, the Ngbaka people had emigrated to escape from attacks perpetrated by Nzange (Yangere), a Banda people who were heading to the west. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Ngbaka people crossed the Ubangi River and established themselves in what is known today as DRC. From 1920, the Ngbaka people were, upon colonial order, to be grouped in one single territory. The Ngbakas’ direct neighbors are the Mbanza people who surround them in the east, south, and west. In the north-east, the Ngbakas are separated from the Ngombe villages of Bosobolo by the ‘Dua Dekere River. Other neighboring Ngombe villages are to the south-east, on the Mbonza-Likimi route. In the north-west, in the Bokada-Kpongbo central region, a few Mono villages are also next to the Ngbaka villages. Culturally, the Ngbaka people have a lot in common with their former CAR neighbors, especially with the Manza and Banda people. Since the Ngbaka people occupy a well delimited region and form a homogeneous group, variations are less differentiated from both linguistic and cultural viewpoints. However, the most important geographical variations are

5

This pronunciation difficulty is apparent, among other things, in music-based phrases such as “Ngwaka Aye,” and “Etumba na Ngwaka,” by Dindo Yogo & Orchestra. Another spelling is Nguaka.

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found in the east and west of Gemena, the capital city of the South Ubangi District.6 Bale! (Hello! in the Ngbaka language)

V. Photographs

Figure 1-1 Gbosasa Catholic Elementary School Building

In 1967-1969 school years, I attended fifth grade (middle door) and sixth grade (right door) in this three-classroom building. My teachers were Maître Constant Emango (5th grade) and Maître Thomas Talaswe (6th grade). Back then, this building was maintained very well and it had electricity for the pupils’ morning and evening study. The electricity was provided by the Gbosasa Catholic Parish. Believe it or not, this was a

6

I owe this useful background information to Fr. Marcel Henrix, a Belgian missionary from the Scheut Congregation, or Missionhurst. He lived among the Ngbaka people from 1954 to 2005. The original information was in French. I retrieved it from the Gent University (or Gent Universiteit), Belgium website www.ngbaka.ugent.be/node/1 (last updated Feb 18, 2012). I am responsible for the English translation.

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luxury that is inexistent today. Broken windows and doors are not repaired properly.

Figure 1-2 Gbosasa Catholic Church

As elementary boarding school pupils, our daily activities began and ended with mass and prayers in this church. We used the Ngbaka language. We sang in Lingala and Ngbaka. As an altar boy, I had to memorize and recite some mass prayers in Latin, especially, the Kyrie and Confiteor.

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Figure 1-3 Boolongo Minor Seminary’s S Chu urch

School Chappel (Center); Classroom/Sttudy Room (R Right); and one of the School Dorm mitories (Leftt). Daily activities began w with morning holy h mass and ended w with evening prayers, p all of which were iin French, Lin ngala, and Latin. The sseminary was founded in 1934 by Mgr. E Egide de Boeeck of the Belgian Schheut Congreggation. The school was ooriginally fou unded in Mankanza (1922-1939). DRC’s firstt two cardinaals were edu ucated at Bolongo’s S Seminary. Schools Gollden Principlees or Mottoes are, a among otthers: Ordo duccit ad Deum, or Order leadss to God Age quodd agis, or Do what you oug ght to do Photo Courttesy: Drs. Carrla Mauro and d Nzumbu Lo--Ambetima. Used U with permission.

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Figure 1-4 Boolongo Minor Seminary’s S Refeectory

Classrooms (Left); Refecttory (Center); and Dormitoories. This wass my high and boardingg school (1971- 1975). Photo Courttesy: Drs. Carrla Mauro and d Nzumbu Lo--Ambetima. Used U with permission. Dr. Nzumbuu and I were classmates inn Bolongo, Bamanya, B DRC and Roome, Italy.

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Figure 1-5 Baamanya Major Seminarians' S Ex xcursion on thee Congo River

Seminarianss from Bamanyya-based Gran nd Séminaire R Régional de l’Equateur and Rector JJoseph Mbimbba (2nd from the right) retuurn to Bamany ya aboard Yakata ship on the Congoo River. This was w a one-weeek (or so) exccursion to Gwaka Cathholic Parish (B Budjala Diocese) via Akula P Port, 1978.

Figure 2-6 B Bamanya Seminnarians' Excursiion to Bikoro. Meal Preparattion: From left to right: K Kingenege, Liosso, and Zekeh.

Faamily and Ethniic Background

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Figure 1-7 Baamanya Seminaarians Group Picture (1976)

From left too right, standding: Father Léon L Mondulaa, Professor of o Sacred Scripture; C Camille Iwew we (now a priest p and faaculty membeer at the Université C Catholique dee Kinshasa); Zekeh; Z Bosonngola; Basile Nzumbu (now MD inn Rome, Italyy); Kingenge (now ( a priest)); Th. Bondim ma (now a priest); Fr. Kisonga (now a bishop);; and Rector J. Mbimba (now an archbishop).. In the front row from leftt to right: Louuis Agwaelom mu (now a priest/pastorr); Kabosani (now a priest?); the latee Fr. Liosso Mangbau (Archdiocesse of Kinshasaa); and the latte Fr. Tarcissee Mogobo, wh ho taught at Bolongoo Minor Sem minary follo owing his sttudy in Rom me. The Philosophicuum of Bamanya was established in 1974 . This group represents r the second generation, thhe class of 1975-1978. Niine out of 12 2 became priests. Fouur out of 12 were sent to t Rome as seminarians to study theology, nnamely, Nzum mbu, Agwaelo omu, Tarciss se, and Zekeeh. Only Agwaelomuu and Tarcissee became prieests. Iwewe, B Bondima, and d Kisonga also studiedd in Rome, buut only after th heir ordinationn. Nzumbu works w as a medical docctor in Rome and a Zekeh is a philosophy pprofessor in th he USA.

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S Original Building Figure 1-8 Baamanya Major Seminary’s

From left too right: Seminnarians and friiends Zekeh oof the Budjalaa Diocese and Kingengge of Basankuusu Diocese. Kingenge K wass ordained prieest in and for Idiofa D Diocese. Theyy stand in fro ont of the orriginal buildin ng of the Major Seminnary.

CHAPTER TWO CONGO-ZAÏRE-CONGO: MY NATIVE LAND AND THE CONGOLESE EXPERIENCE

I. Quick Facts about DRC National Anthem: Debout Congolais [Arise Congolese] – the original national anthem, which President Mobutu replaced with La Zairoise, Mobutu era’s national anthem National Football (Soccer) Team: Les Léopards (The Leopards) Motto: Justice, Paix, Travail (Justice, Peace, Work) Population: 66,764,000 (2012 est.) – 70-75 million (2013 Country Fact – FindTheData.org); 77 million (CIA Factbook 2014 est.) Capital: Kinshasa (the most populous city: ca. 9 million people) Independence Date: June 30, 1960 (from Belgium) Area: 2,344,855 sq. km, or 905,365 sq. miles River: Congo Time Zone: UTC+01 & UTC+02 Country’s Calling Code: +243 Provinces (and Capital Cities): Bandundu (Bandundu); Bas-Congo (Matadi); Equateur (Mbandaka); Kasai Occidental (Kananga); Kasai Oriental (Mbuji-Mayi); Katanga, formerly Shaba (Lubumbashi); Kinshasa (Kinshasa); Maniema (Kindu); North Kivu (Goma); Province Orientale (Kisangani); South Kivu (Bukavu) Head of State: Joseph Kabila (2001 – present) Official Language: French Number of Languages and Dialects: 700 Number of Ethnic Groups: More than 250 Major Ethnic Groups: Luba, Mongo, Kongo, and Mangbetu-Azande (totaling about 45% of DRC population). Precolonial Empires and Kingdoms: Congo Kingdom (King Nzinga Kuwu); (Ba)kuba Kingdom; Luba Empire; Lunda Empire; M’Siri Kingdom; Azande Kingdom; Mangbetu Kingdom, Yeke Kingdom, etc.

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Currency: Congolese Franc (CDF) Exchange Rate 1.00 USD = 923.707 CDF; 1 CDF = 0.00108259 USD (January 10, 2014 Rate) Old Currency (under President Mobutu): Zaïre (Z) 1967-1997. Original exchange rate: 1 Z = 2 USD. 1993: 1 USD = 5 million Zaïres 1993: 1 NZ (Nouveau Zaïre) = 2 USD 1997: 1 USD = 180,000 NZ GDP per Capita: 600 USD Mineral Resources: Cobalt, copper, niobium, tantalum, petroleum, industrial and gem diamonds, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, coal, hydropower, timber NOTE: DRC has 80% of the coltan world reserve. Other coltan-producing countries are Australia (10%), Brazil (5%), and Thailand (5%). That’s why DRC is also referred to as a “geological scandal.” Coltan – short for columbite-tantalite – is a rare resource. It is strategic and essential to the development of new technologies (cell phones, GPS, satellites, Plasma TV, video games consoles, laptops, PDA, MP3 players, MP4 players, space rockets, missiles, digital cameras, electronic games, etc.). Multinational companies (MNCs) that financially benefit from coltan include, among others, NOKIA, NIKON, SAMSUNG, MOTOROLA, SONY ERICSSON, LIFE’S GOOD (LG), RIM-BLACKBERRY, APPLE, DELL, HP, SHARP, ACER, TOSHIBA, NINTENDO, LENOVO, SANDISK, PHILIPS, MICROSOFT, IBM, INTEL, CANON, PANASONIC, and BAYER. According to the UN Security Council’s Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (S/2001/357) and other reliable sources, including but not limited to Alberto Vasquez Figueroa (2009), some of these MNCs are “looters,” or “pillards,” in French, because they finance wars and support corrupt governments to maximize their profits without any concern for the more than five million Congolese who have died by war-related causes. That is why coltan is also referred to as “the new blood diamonds.”7 The UN report also indicated that Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda are involved in illegal exploitation and trafficking of DRC’s coltan. 7 See The DRC-Coltan, the new blood diamond (Resourcesafrica.webstarts.com/ congo1html); http://www.ousferrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2-finalbandeau-; “Afrique, Congo, Guerre, Coltan…et Ton PORTABLE,” a PowerPoint slide show by Comité de la Fédération de Solidarité avec l’Afrique Noire (http://www.umoya.org).

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Climate: Tropical Literacy: 66% Life Expectancy: 56 years Neighboring Countries (and Capitals): Angola (Luanda); Burundi (Bujumbura); Central African Republic (Bangui); Republic of Congo or Congo-Brazzaville (Brazzaville); Rwanda (Kigali); South Sudan (Juba); Tanzania (Dar es Salaam); Uganda (Kampala); and Zambia (Lusaka) SOURCES: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition; Wikipedia; CIA & Cornevin (1989). Congo/Zaire National Anthems Debout Congolais DRC’s National Anthem (1960-1971 and 1997-Present) The Congolese national anthem was first adopted in 1960 upon independence but replaced in 1971 with “La Zaïroise” when the country was renamed Zaïre by President Mobutu. The original hymn was reinstated when Laurent Kabila, who overthrew Mobutu, became president in May, 1997. The words are by Joseph Lutumba and the music is by Simon-Pierre Boka di Mpasi Londi. I sang these anthems in elementary, middle, and high schools in Congo/Zaire. I sang them so many times that I still remember them, just like I remember Pater Noster, or Our Father and Ave Maria, or Hail Mary. CHOIR Debout Congolais, Unis par le sort, Unis dans l'effort pour l'indépendance, Dressons nos fronts longtemps courbés Et pour de bon prenons le plus bel élan, dans la paix, O peuple ardent, par le labeur, nous bâtirons un pays plus beau qu'avant, dans la paix. VERSE Citoyens, entonnez l'hymne sacré de votre solidarité, Fièrement, saluez l'emblème d'or de votre souveraineté, Congo. REFRAIN Don béni (Congo) des aïeux (Congo),

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Chapter Two O pays (Congo) bien aimé (Congo), Nous peuplerons ton sol et nous assurerons ta grandeur. (Trente juin) O doux soleil (trente juin) du trente juin, (Jour sacré) Sois le témoin (jour sacré) de l'immortel serment de liberté Que nous léguons à notre postérité pour toujours.

Debout Congolais: English Translation CHOIR Arise, Congolese, United by fate, United in the struggle for independence, Let us hold up our heads, so long bowed, And now, for good, let us keep moving boldly ahead, in peace. Oh, ardent people, by hard work we shall build, In peace, a country more beautiful than before. VERSE Countrymen, sing the sacred hymn of your solidarity, Proudly salute the golden emblem of your sovereignty, Congo. REFRAIN Blessed gift (Congo) of our forefathers (Congo), Oh beloved (Congo) country, We shall people your soil and ensure your greatness. (30 June) Oh gentle sun (30 June) of 30 June, (Holy day) Be witness (holy day) of the immortal oath of freedom That we pass on to our children forever.

Note: The words in parentheses are to be sung by a choir; the rest are to be sung by soloists. Source: Wikipedia La Zaïroise Zaire’s (DRC) National Hymn (1971-1997) By Joseph Lutumba (Lyrics) and Simon-Pierre Di Mpasi Londi (Music) Zaïrois dans la paix retrouvée, Peuple uni, nous sommes Zaïrois En avant fier et plein de dignité Peuple grand, peuple libre à jamais Tricolore, enflamme nous du feu sacré Pour bâtir notre pays toujours plus beau Autour d'un fleuve Majesté (2×) Tricolore au vent, ravive l'idéal

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Qui nous relie aux aïeux, à nos enfants Paix, justice et travail. (2×)

La Zairoise (English Free Translation) Zairians, experiencing new found peace, United people, we are Zairians; Moving forward, proud and dignified. Great people, a people forever free. Tricolored flag, light in us the sacred flame, In order to always build a better country, Around the majestic river; Around the majestic river. Tricolored flag in the wind, revive the ideal, Which links us to our ancestors and our children, Peace, justice, and work; Peace, justice, and work.

Source: Wikipedia

II. DRC’s Brief History: The Pre-Colonial and Colonial Eras After the Berlin Conference (November 15, 1884-February 26, 1885), which resulted in the Balkanization of Africa, King Leopold II (18351909) of Belgium took possession of Congo Leopoldville, a territory that is more than 80 times the size of Belgium, as vast as Western Europe, and blessed with numerous mineral and natural resources such as diamonds, copper, cobalt, gold, and recently, coltan, which is so vital to today’s information communication technology (ICT) such as cell phones and computer chips. At the conference, King Leopold declared his supposedly humanitarian intentions for the Congo, that is, to put an end to the slave trade perpetrated by the Zanzibar-based Afro-Arabs, the most famous of whom was Tippo-Tib (1837-1905), and to bring civilization to the supposedly savage people of the Congo. However, the king also had a hidden agenda, which quickly became apparent because of the unspeakable human rights violations committed by the Force Publique, or the royal police. They used forced and slave labor, torture, mutilations, and killings in their efforts to maximize the king’s economic benefits from his supposedly civilizing mission in the Congo. Believe it or not, King Leopold II even briefly appointed the slave trader Tippo Tib as governor of Oriental Province! In 2002, I had the opportunity to visit Tippo Tib’s house in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The tour guide explained to me that the

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house’s heavy and luxurious door was reminiscent of the owner’s extraordinary wealth from slave trading and ivory taken in raids. It was clear that colonization was not only a civilizing mission, but also, and above all, a barbarous and econocratic venture. Mark Twain (1835-1910) called Leopold the slayer of 15 million Congolese and a “greedy, grasping, avaricious, cynical, bloodthirsty old goat.” Twain’s satire, King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule was published in pamphlet form by the American Congo Reform Association in September 1905. Moreover, in an article entitled, “Cruelty in the Congo Country,” Booker T. Washington (1904) wrote, “There was never anything in American slavery that could be compared to the barbarous conditions existing today in the Congo Free State.” Leopold’s seemingly philanthropic initial intentions towards the Congo had degenerated into what Arthur C. Doyle called in his book, The Crime of the Congo (1909), “the greatest crime in all history.” Adam Hochschild also explained this royal crime in his bestselling book, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Central Africa (1998). The Belgian King’s criminal behavior in the Congo can also be seen in the Casement Report written in 1904 by the British diplomat Roger Casement (1864-1916). Another credible account about King Leopold’s atrocities in his Congo Free State is CONGO: White King, Red Rubber, Black Death, a documentary film by Peter Bate (2004). After the international community’s outcry over the king’s African holocaust, he generously donated Congo Free State (CFS) to Belgium in 1907 before his death in 1909. The CFS became Belgian Congo. The exploitation of its mineral and other natural resources by Belgians and other Westerners continued until and even after June 30, 1960. It would be fair to attribute Belgium’s prominence within the BENELUX countries – the precursor of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Union (EU) – to its Congo connection.

III. The DRC’s Post-Independence Era A. An Ill-Prepared Independence and Congolization Congo’s independence – like virtually all African countries’ independence – was not a gift from Belgium, the colonial power. It was the result of struggles and a conquest by the Congolese people. However, the Congolese people were ill-prepared to administer their national sovereignty. It was in the colonizers’ self-interest to keep the Congolese ignorant and take advantage of their ignorance. According to the Belgians, the Congolese

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independence was a rushed event. They wanted five to thirty more years to successfully complete their so-called civilizing mission. Cornevin (1989) confirms the idea of Congo’s rushed independence by pointing out that Belgians who had a bourgeois life in Congo were angered by Prof. van Bilsen’s thirty-year independence plan. As a matter of fact, according to this plan, which was made in December 1955, Congo’s independence from Belgium was supposed to occur in 1985. That was why upon the country’s independence on June 30, 1960, it had very few academically and militarily trained people to fill high-level positions in the government, army, and public administration. Most of the Congolese who had a postsecondary education were priests, who were unlikely to have political ambitions. Joseph Kasavubu (1917-1969), the country’s first president, indeed went to the seminary. The patriotic and charismatic leader of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) and the first democratically elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) did not have any post-secondary education. He did not even complete high school. That is why he is also referred to as a self-taught leader. Congo’s experience of democracy was undermined by Belgium and even the United States, whose post-colonial, neo-colonial, and Cold War politics resulted in the brutal assassination of Lumumba on January 17, 1961, supposedly by “angry tribesmen” in the Katanga Province. As a matter of fact, in a meeting held with security advisers in August 1960, President Eisenhower is believed to have ordered the CIA to “eliminate” Lumumba, the “mad dog.” De Witte (2000) quoted a memorandum from Count Harold d’Aspremont Lynden, then Minister of African Affairs, to Belgian officials in the Congo, according to which, “the main aim to pursue in the interests of the Congo, Katanga and Belgium is clearly Lumumba’s definitive elimination.” In November 2002, an all-party commission of inquiry formed by the Belgian government finally released a report acknowledging that Belgium played a role in the murder of the Congolese leader (Vann 2002). 1960-1961 was a period characterized by instability due to the Congolese National Army’s mutiny and Katanga’s secession (July11, 1960-1963). It was led by Moïse Tshombe’s Confédération des Associations Katangaises (CONAKAT), which was unhappy with its minor representation in Patrice Lumumba’s short-lived government. The army’s mutiny was attributed, among other things, to the fact that Congolese soldiers were unhappy with their subordination to foreign/Belgian military officers. Belgium and other Westerners supported Katanga’s secession. They were interested in that region’s mineral resources. This chaotic situation – also known as “Congolization” – had

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necessitated the United Nations’ intervention. Thus, the United Nations Operation in the Congo, or Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (ONUC) was created. The operation quickly became a real battlefield for the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, especially after the assassination of Lumumba, who sought the Soviet Union’s help in a desperate attempt to resolve Congo’s crisis.

B. The Rise and the Fall of Mobutu On November 24, 1965, Mobutu seized political power through a bloodless coup d’État. The CIA is believed to have helped him. He quickly consolidated his hold on power by founding and establishing the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR) as one-party system and state- party, or Parti-État, in French. In 1971, he renamed (or misnamed) the country Zaire.8 This also became the name of the river (Congo) and of the currency. Mobutu replaced the Congolese flag and constitution with new ones. Thus, “the Three Zs,” or “les Trois Z,” in French, namely, the country, the river, and the currency. Through his authenticity politics and Mobutuist ideology, which was like a new religion, Mobutu was worshipped like a Messiah. Like King Leopold or Louis XIV whose absolute authoritarianism was summarized in the famous French statement, “L’État c’est moi” (I am the State), President Mobutu ruled as an absolute king over a corrupt and violent regime. His über-authoritarianism is apparent in the Belgian documentary film, Mobutu, Roi du Zaïre (Mobutu, King of Zaire), directed by Thierry Michel (1999).9 For thirty-two years he exploited his international status as a “friendly dictator” for his personal benefit. He also used his authoritarian powers to funnel the wealth of the country into his own pockets and into his Swiss bank accounts. Only the omniscient God knows exactly how much money the kleptocrat stole. According to reliable sources, Mobutu’s fortune was as much as, or even more than his country’s 8

The history of the misnomer resides in the word nzadi, meaning river in Kikongo, one of DRC’s four national languages. In 1482, the precolonial era, it is reported, the Portuguese explorer Diego Cão wanted to know the name of the country’s biggest river, that is, the Congo River. When he asked a native Congolese, “what is this?” or “what is the name of this river?” the native Congolese answer was, “nzadi”, or “river” instead of giving the name of the river. The Portuguese misunderstood and mispronounced the word as “Zaïre.” Ironically, as a part of Mobutu’s authenticité politics, he changed the country’s name to Zaire, a term that is far from being authentic. 9 See Mobutu, roi du Zaïre (1999) – IMDb at www.imdb.com/title/tt0206944/ Watch clips of the film at http://www.veoh.com/iphone/#_Watch/v630570J7cgsJew

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foreign debt: that is, between $4 and $10 billion. Mobutu was reported to have confirmed this fact in an interview whose details are not available to me at this moment. However, it is one of the most memorable stories about the Zairian leader’s fortune. In that interview a journalist asked President Mobutu the following question: “Is it true that your fortune is equal to, or more than your country’s foreign debt?” The President’s answer was, “Does my country owe that much?” Like many dictators and kleptocratic leaders, Mobutu had palaces and castles both at home (Marble Palace or Palais des Marbres, in Kinshasa and Presidential Palace or Palais présidentiel, in Gbadolite) and abroad, including one on the French Riviera, southern France and, of course, in Switzerland, a country whose banking institutions have housed some of Mobutu’s money. Emmanuel Dungia’s book, Mobutu et l’Argent du Zaïre (1992) contains interesting information about this scandalous fact. On April 24, 1990, President Mobutu gave a major political speech in which he reluctantly announced the end of the one-party system. Unfortunately, that gesture was not sufficient to guarantee his Machiavellian strategy and political longevity. His fall became imminent and inevitable with the April 1992 national conference known in French as Conférence Nationale Souveraine (CNS), followed by Laurent Kabila’s revolutionary war.

C. The Rise of the Kabilas and “Africa’s First World War” The end of the Cold War in 1989 was also the beginning of Mobutu’s fall and loss of friendship with his Western political allies. His deteriorating health due to prostate cancer, the post-Cold War winds of democratization, and a seven-month rebellion (October 1996-May 1997) – led by Laurent Kabila’s Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire, or Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL), in French, and supported by Rwanda and Uganda – put an end to Zaire’s postcolonial king on May 17, 1997. Soon thereafter, he died of prostate cancer and was buried in Rabat, Morocco, where King Hassan II granted him political asylum. Consequently, he was not tried for his alleged crimes and human rights violations in Congo-Zaïre. On May 17, 1997, L.D. Kabila proclaimed himself president and, consistent with the CNS recommendation, renamed the country Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), or République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), in French. In the middle of new internal divisions and intrusions from Rwanda and Uganda, Kabila was assassinated by a bodyguard on January 16, 2001. His 29-year-old son Joseph Kabila replaced him. Pursuant to the Inter-

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Congolese Dialogue (ICD),10 officially opened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 15, 2001, and the Sun City Peace Agreement, president J. Kabila shared the power with four vice-presidents, an interesting cohabitation à la congolaise and a “pentarchy” that was referred to as the “1+4”, meaning one president and four vice-presidents, namely, Azarias Ruberwa of the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD), VP for Policy, Defense, and Security Commission; Arthur Z’ahidi Ngoma; Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi of the Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et le Développement (PPRD), VP for Reconstruction and Development Commission; Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Ugandan-backed Mouvement pour Libération du Congo (MLC), VP for Economic and Financial Commission.11 The Agreement, which was signed in Sun City, South Africa, on April 19, 2002, was witnessed by President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa as well as the presidents of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is worth noting that the Sun City Peace Agreement replaced the failed Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, which was signed in Lusaka, Zambia, on July 10, 1999 by the seven heads of state of Angola, DRC, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, all of whom were more directly involved in the DRC war, also referred to as “the seven-nation war.” The four-vice-presidents rule was a temporary political arrangement that was ended after the adoption of DRC’s new constitution in 2005, followed by the country’s second historic democratic, multiparty, and multicandidate elections on July 30 and October 29, 2006. The first democratic elections took place more than four decades earlier and resulted in the elections of Kasavubu and Lumumba as President and Prime Minister, respectively. On October 29, 2006, a run-off election resulted in Joseph Kabila’s victory over his powerful challenger JeanPierre Bemba, the MLC leader and one of the four Vice-Presidents. According to DRC’s Independent Electoral Commission, or Commission Électorale Indépendante (CEI), or Commission Électorale Nationale Indépendante (CENI), in French, the voter turnout was 80 percent. The importance of these elections was apparent in the fact that the international community donated $460 million to fund them. It also deployed the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping operation known in French as Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du 10 For further critical details about, and critical analysis of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, please refer to “The Inter-Congolese Dialogue: Political Negotiation or Game of Bluff?” Africa Report No. 37, 16 Nov 2001. 11 For further information about this co-habitation, see Marc Lacey, “Hope Glimmering as War Retreats from Congo.” The New York Times, October 21, 2003.

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Congo (MONUC), which subsequently took the name United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en République Démocratique du Congo (MONUSCO), in French.12 The growing tensions between Bemba and Kabila were brought to an end after Bemba was arrested and brought to The Hague’s International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by his soldiers in the neighboring Central African Republic. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda helped various and rival Congolese rebel groups in their attempts to overthrow the Kabilas. They justified their military intervention in DRC on security grounds, that is, to prevent Hutu militias and Ugandan rebels from attacking Rwanda and Uganda from DRC borders. As a matter of fact, after the Rwandan genocide in 1994, thousands of Interhamwe and Impuzamugambi militias fled to eastern DRC, along with 1.2 million Rwandan refugees, whose flight was facilitated by the French-led Opération Turquoise. However, in addition to security concerns, Rwanda and Uganda have also had hidden economic motives. This has become apparent in the United Nations Security Council’s report, “Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” April 2001. For example, in 2001, the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) made at least $250 million over a period of 18 months simply by selling the Congolese coltan. The DRC conflict was so big and so devastating that it has also been referred to as “Africa’s First World War,” “the Seven-Nation War,” and “the forgotten war.” According to the International Red Cross and other reliable sources, the conflict has caused the deaths of at least 5 million people – a phenomenon also referred to as “the African holocaust” – more than 2.25 million internally displaced persons, mostly from mineral-rich areas in eastern DRC, and hundreds of thousands of refugees in the neighboring countries. Other effects and tactics of the conflict include the collapse of public services, torture, executions, looting, and sexual exploitation and violence. At some point, rape as a weapon of war became so widespread that in 2010, Oprah Winfrey and Margot Wallstrom, a UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict, referred to DRC, especially eastern DRC, as “the rape 12

For further details, please refer to the UN Security Council Resolutions 1258 (1999), 1279 (1999), 1291 (2000), and 1493 of 28 July 2003 through which the Security Council authorized the increase of MONUC’s military strength to 10,800 to support the country’s transition efforts. Website: http://monusco.unmissions.org.

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capital of the world.” This phenomenon was confirmed in a report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative according to which “60% of rape victims in South Kivu were gang raped by armed men.” This phenomenon was also apparent in the fact that Dr. Denis Mukwege, the medical director of Bukavu’s Panzi Hospital, who has dedicated his life to helping rape victims, was among the top contenders to win the Nobel Peace Prize 2013. The disgraceful occurrences of war-related rape of women and sexual exploitation are big challenges to, and flagrant violations of the following international resolutions and declarations: First, the UN’s resolution 1325, which calls on all member states to take specific measures to protect women and young girls, especially against rape. Second, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, adopted by the UN’s General Assembly during the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. Third, rape and sexual violence against women are also serious obstacles to DRC’s chances of achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goal number 3, which is “to promote gender equality and empower women.” Of course, these criminal acts against women are also flagrant violations of many articles of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

D. Concluding Notes A story appearing in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper on May 27, 2003 began: “Few places on earth need help more than the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” But does the world care? Nicholas Kristof asked an important question in The New York Times, May 27, 2003: “In Congo…3.3 million people have died because of warfare there in the last five years….That’s half a holocaust in a single country. Our children and grandchildren may fairly ask, ‘So what did you do during the African holocaust?’” RSVP. This story and this question justify the reference to the DRC conflict as “the forgotten war.” In the light of DRC’s past and present, and given the daunting task of facing the future with courage, determination, patriotism, and hope, it makes sense to question the relevance of La Zairoise in times of endless war and to convincingly sing the country’s original national anthem, DEBOUT CONGOLAIS! Or maybe the Congolese should remind themselves of the importance of a true independence through love, unity and peace. To that end, it is also worth singing another patriotic song in Lingala:

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Bangala tokei (Bangala, let’s go) Bakongo tokei (Bakongo, let’s go) Baluba tokei na Baswahili nzela yoko (Baluba, let’s go along with the Swahili people on the same road) Toyokana (Let’s be on good terms with one another) Tolingana (Let’s love one another) Toboya zuwa mpe bonguna o Congo e (Let’s say no to jealousy and enmity in the Congo) …Tozala na litundu mpo ya lipanda (…Let’s be proud of our Independence)13

13

I remember singing this national unity song as a middle and high school student in Congo-Zaïre. But I am not sure this beautiful and patriotic song has survived the Kabilas’ revolution, since the song belonged to the Mobutu era.

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IV. Photographs

Figure 2-1 DRC Map

Congo-Zaïre-Congo: My Native Land and the Congolese Experience

Figure 2-2 DRC Flag DRC Flag (2006-Present) Public Domain

Figure 2-3 Zairian Flag (1971-1997) “Bendele ya Lokumu – Mai ya Mpondu” (National Flag is Green)

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Figure 2-4 Emery Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961) Monument Lumumba Boulevard, Kinshasa.

Lumumba belonged to the Tetela ethnic group. He was DRC’s first democratically elected prime minister, after Congo’s independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. He was the founder of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC), a nationally based political party, which is still in existence today. He was a great orator and nationalist. Prior to moving to Leopoldville (Kinshasa) and becoming prime minister, Lumumba was Stanleyville’s (Kisangani) president of the local club des Évolués, and provincial president of the Association de Personnel Indigène de la Colonie (APIC). In December 1958, he attended the first Pan-African Conference in Accra, Ghana, where he met and developed a relationship with President Kwame Nkrumah, the architect of Pan-Africanism and the original president of Ghana. In January 1960, Lumumba attended the Round Table Conference in Brussels, Belgium to discuss the Congolese independence. During the Katanga Province and the South Kasai region secession, Lumumba requested aid from Soviet-bloc nations. The antagonism between Lumumba and Joseph Désiré Mobutu, then the head of the Congolese armed forces, culminated in Lumumba’s assassination under mysterious circumstances in Elisabethville (Lubumbashi) on January 17, 1961. He is one of DRC’s national heroes. (For more details, see Bobb 1999, 264-266; Nzongola-Ntalaja 2014). My photo.

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Figure 2-5 Artistic Globe in Kinshasa

Figure 2-6 Kinshasa Tower in the Proximity of Lumumba Monument

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Figure 2-7 Zaire Currency (5 Zaiïres)

As soon as Laurent Désiré Kabila overthrew President Mobutu in May 1997, he renamed Zaïre (country) the Democratic Republic of the Congo and he replaced the currency (Zaïre) with the Congolese Franc, thereby putting an end to what was known as “les Trois Z” (3 Zs), referring to the names of the country, the river, and the currency.

Figure 2-8 DRC Currency

500 Congolese Francs: about 45 cents (US)

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DRC War Casualties in Gemena Seeing is believing. One picture is worth one thousand words. For privacy and security reasons, I will not provide any caption for these photographs. Readers will, of course, have some idea about the war devastation and human toll in Gemena City. Government soldiers – also referred to as Kabila soldiers – bombed the city as part of their effort to defeat MLC rebels, led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was from Gemena, in the Equateur Province. I had seen these heartbreaking photographs prior to my visit to DRC. They adequately explain my agony when I found myself in the predicament of fleeing from Bogwabe village to Gemena and Kinshasa. Thank God nothing terribly and equally atrocious happened in that process.

Figure 2-9 Tears Without Cheers in Gemena Photo Courtesy: Jacques K. K. Reproduced with permission.

RIP!

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Looking at a Buurned Body Figure 2-10 L

Figure 2-11 T Teary Crowd Arround a Bombed d House and Wounded Loved Ones

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Figure 2-12 A Mother Cries Next to Her Deead Child’s Boddy

Figure 2-13 A Abandoned Bom mbed and Burneed Out Body

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Figure 2-14 A Devastated Crrowd Rushes to o a Dead Woman an’s Body

Congoo-Zaïre-Congo: My Native Lan nd and the Conggolese Experien nce

R Building Figure 2-15 A Bombed and Ruined

Figure 2-16 D Dr. JKK of the American A Lepro osy Mission andd an Amputee

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Figure 2-17 A ALM Vehicle Sttands Behind an n Overloaded T Truck

PART II: LIVING AND SURVIVING IN EUROPE

CHAPTER THREE PILGRIMAGE OR TOUR DU MONDE? THE GREAT DEPARTURE AND THE SEMINARY EXPERIENCE IN ROME

I. From a Prophetic Nickname and Children’s Song to Omen I LEFT DRC – THEN CALLED ZAÏRE – IN SEPTEMBER 1978. The first destination was Rome, Italy, also referred to in Italian as “Città Eterna,” or “Eternal City.” Believe it or not, the journey to Rome and Europe reminds me of two things. The first thing is a Latin proverb, that is, “Nomen omen,” or “The name is the omen.” My paternal grandmother sometimes enjoyed calling me by the short form of my last name, that is, “Gboto.” But she would add the word “mbati” to it and call me “GbotoMbati” instead of “Gbotokuma.” The Ngbaka term “mbati” means, civilized, modern, Western, European, évolué (in French), emancipated, educated, intellectual, and urban. My grandmother would also add the Ngbaka phrase “Nè Putu” meaning “goes to Europe.” So she would call me “Gboto-Mbati Nè Putu,” or “Gbotokuma, the civilized one, goes to Europe.” For my grandmother and many Congolese of her time and even younger, Putu (Poto) or Europe was synonymous with Belgium, DRC’s former colonial ruler. For some others, Poto also means France, since French has been Congo’s official language. It is also worth adding that for my grandmother, Poto also meant Portugal. That was the case because, as I stated in chapter one, my grandfather worked as a magazinier or shop manager and salesman for a Portuguese company in Karawa. Consequently, my grandparents had more personal and professional contacts with Portuguese than with Belgians and French or Belgian Walloons. Truly and realistically speaking, nobody took my grandmother seriously when, through my nickname – Gboto-Mbati – and the additional phrase, “Nè Poto,” she suggested, or rather wished her grandson go to Europe. Our family could not afford the high cost of my education in Europe. But I kind of liked the name and the omen.

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The second thing that my journey to Rome and Putu reminds me of is a Ngbaka children’s song, which I used to sing. I find the song particularly interesting because of its connection with the aforementioned Latin phrase, “Nomen omen.” The song is about a journey to Europe and a meeting with the pope, all of which happened to be my experience. Here’s the song, titled Wese Matutua, in the Ngbaka language and my English translation: Wese Matutua Wese matutua (The Sun Shines). Zeke mayiyila (The moon shines). Zele zuma beno wagama sodi (Listen to the songs that the children sang). Te lifanda beno wadeso sadi (On the courtyard where the children played). Ne lede yanga ombano kesun (Let us rejoice, all my friends). Le nezi te Putu (We went to Europe); Le ‘da Papa te Roma (The pope’s City is Rome). Le nezi tengo i, le ‘da Maria do Yesu (We went to the sky, the City of Mary and Jesus). Imo imo imo, ne le zoso wa imo (There, there, there! We saw them there) Imo imo imo, ne le zoso wa imo (There, there, there! We saw them there).

As it turned out, the nickname ‘Gboto-Mbati’ and the phrase “ne Putu” turned out to be an omen for me. My grandmother’s dream came true. She was among many family members who saw me off in front of the Gbosasa Parish Church. Like many, she was in tears. She was probably wondering when or if she was going to see me again. Putu was like a mythical place that belonged to the “Mbati.” That place is so far away that one can get there only by plane. A Belgian missionary’s Land Rover was waiting to take me to the Gemena airport, the first part of the long flight to Putu. She tried to delay the departure from Gbosasa with her long blessing hugs and cleansing tears. Then she let me leave and we never saw each other again. She left for her eternal rest before my much procrastinated return. Yes, Putu is too far away, isn’t it? The Bogwabe village children’s song became a song about my personal story, my global safari, a song about my journey to the western world, starting with Rome, or the Vatican City, “the pope’s city.”

II. Leaving My Homeland for the “Eternal City” From Gemena airport, I flew aboard Air Zaïre to Kinshasa, where I spent several weeks finalizing my travel documents. From Kinshasa’s Ndjili International Airport, I flew aboard Alitalia to Rome – the pope’s city – on September 28, 1978. I had a one-way ticket since the return was supposed

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to eventually take place three years later. As a seminarian from the diocese of Budjala, the Province of Equateur, I received – along with another fellow seminarian from the same diocese – a three year scholarship to study theology at the Pontifical Urban University (PUU)1 while staying at Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide, an international residence for seminarians and clergymen attending PUU and other Pontifical universities in Rome. The May 28, 1978 notification letter regarding my admission to the University was sent to Bishop Bolangi of Budjala Diocese. The letter was as follows: Most Reverend Excellency, I am pleased to inform Your Most Reverend Excellency about the “Admissions Committee’s” decision to grant Scholarship to your seminarian Gboto Kuma Zeke.2 The decision was made during the Committee’s meeting on May 25, 1978. The meeting was presided by His Eminence Cardinal Agnelo ROSSI, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation “pro Gentium Evangelizatione seu Propaganda Fide.” The scholarship is for three years and for Theology studies at the Pontifical Urban University. Pursuant to the Instructions of the Sacred Congregation for Peoples’ Evangelization Regarding Students’ Admission to The Urban College of February 25, 1976, after three years of Theology studies, this seminarian must return to his Diocese for one Pastoral Year. During this time, he will be ordained deacon and priest. Upon the Ordinary’s judgment, the same person will then be sent again to Rome for specialization courses (Instruction no. 9). Your Seminarian will stay at: Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide Via Urbano VIII, 16

00165 – ROME (Italy)

Your seminarian is invited to show up at the above mentioned College on September 10, 1977 [1978] to take an Italian language course prior to the start of the academic year 1978-1979 [i.e., mid October, 1978]. Please be advised that if this seminarian arrives in Rome prior to September 10, then Your Excellency will have to personally make lodging 1

The official name is Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, in Latin, or Pontificia Università Urbaniana, in Italian. 2 By the way, my first and last names went through different spellings, such as, Gbotokuma, Gboto Kuma, Gboto-Kuma; Zeke, Zekeh.

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arrangements at another Institution, because our College remains closed from July 10 to September 10, and we don’t receive students during that period. Pursuant to the same Instructions, I would like to draw your attention to the following points: The Scholarship covers lodging and meals; medical and pharmaceutical expenses as well as school fees. All other expenses (clothing, textbooks, summer vacations, etc.) are covered by the Ordinaries. In order to avoid false interpretations by students and embarrassment to the Rector, we ask every Ordinary to agree with his seminarians prior to their arrival in Rome, on the amount that he intends to give to them and on the method of payment each year. It is important to take into account the cost of living in Europe. This is particularly of utmost importance regarding the cost of textbooks. To facilitate things, once students’ annual amount has been decided on, Ordinaries will authorize the Rector to deduct it from the annual subsidy, which the S. Congregation sends to their Diocese (Instruction no. 10). Upon arrival in Rome, the student will have to hand to the College Rector transcripts issued by the Seminary where he attended Philosophy courses. This document is indispensable for the admission to the Urban University. Your seminarian should also possess a high school document allowing him to be admitted to a public university in his country of origin (Instr. 13). I gladly seize this opportunity to invite Your Most Reverend Excellency to accept my distinguished and respectfully devoted sentiments. Yours sincerely, P. N. Fumagalli, Rector Rome, 28-5-78

Mgr. Bolangi gave me a copy of the notification letter along with a July 31, 1978 declaration by which he agreed to send me to Rome to pursue theological studies and by which he authorized the Diocese to take care of the round trip airfare. I was informed about the bishop’s decision only three or four months prior to the departure date. Like other fellow seminarians, I was supposed to pursue my theological studies at the Grand Séminaire Jean XXIII in Kinshasa, the favorite study destination for most Congolese. But, of course, Rome-Vatican sounded a much better

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destination, especially for theology studies and eventual priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church.

III. Tales from Pontifical Institutions and the Vatican A. Life at Pontifical Collegio Urbano and Urbaniana University I had a good time at the Urban University and at the Collegio Urbano, where my global education started. I studied and lived with students, clergymen and nuns from different nationalities and races coming from all over the world. This is worth mentioning because in DRC, except for some of my European professors, none of my classmates was an international student. What was particularly interesting and challenging from the very beginning of my education in Rome was the fact that most of my fellow seminarians who resided at Collegio Urbano had only four weeks or so to learn the Italian language prior to the start of the academic year. With reference to my own predicament, I only had two weeks of Italian lessons because of a travel delay from Kinshasa. Public universities in Italy required at least eight weeks of language. But I survived, mostly and fortunately because of my knowledge of Latin and because of the similarity between Italian and French, both of which are Latin-based or romance languages. Moreover, some textbooks were also available in French and in virtually all Rome-based pontifical universities, international students could take some oral exams in several other European languages (English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish), unless a professor didn’t know any of these languages. This was an embarrassment, since most professors at these institutions were multilingual. During the first year, I took most of my examinations in French, except for my oral examination in church law, or Diritto Canonico, in Italian. The octogenarian professor didn’t know French and so he gave me the choice between Italian and Latin. Latin happened to be the key subject matter in my high school. However, we never learned that dead language in such a way that we could also speak it fluently, let alone take an oral examination in church law, which, by the way, was taught in Italian. Fortunately, I successfully took that agonizing test in Italian. During my first fall semester as a seminarian at Collegio Urbano and as a theology student at the Urban University, I had the opportunity to participate in the viewing of the late Pope John Paul I’s body, which was exposed in St. Peter’s Basilica’s Sistine Chapel. Like all humans, popes are also mortal. However, I never thought that I would ever have the opportunity to view a pontifical body. Pope John Paul I – the former

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Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice – suddenly passed away, from a heart attack, after only thirty days in office. It was one of those moments when I once again had to irrefutably believe in, and accept mortality as an inescapable human fate.

B. Guessing Who Is Going to Be the Next Pope On October 16, 1978, I was among the crowd of the faithful, pilgrims, and tourists who gathered in St. Peter’s Square waiting for the Fumata Bianca or white smoke from the Sistine Chapel announcing the successful election of the new pope by the conclave. I went there along with some of my fellow seminarians from DRC and from other countries to witness that big event. The Square was packed with thousands of people from around the world. In the Roman Catholic Church, there is only one pope at a time. His election in a closed-doors gathering of cardinals is a rare event. And the announcement of the election result, which is preceded by the Fumata Bianca, is worth witnessing. The announcement has always been made in Latin and it contains the famous phrase, “Habemus Papam!” (We have a pope!). My fellow seminarians and I held a copy of the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s official newspaper. It had photographs and bio sketches of cardinals participating in the conclave from which the new Sovereign Pontiff was going to be elected. We had a lot of fun guessing which cardinal was going to be elected pope. The best possible thing to do in this guessing game was – given long Roman Catholic Church tradition – to focus on Italian cardinals. For a very long time, virtually everybody believed that being an Italian cardinal was a key requirement to become pope. After all, the pope is also referred to as “the Bishop of Rome,” which is also the capital city of Italy. I happened, surprisingly, to be right in guessing Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Cracow, Poland, as the new pope, i.e., Pope John Paul II. My guess was based on the use of my Ngbaka ethnic group’s guessing method through the song, Moko Banda.3 This is the equivalent of the English, “Eenie Meenie Miney Mo.”4 I felt like I passed a difficult test, or won a difficult bet, like the Italian Totocalcio (football pools). In this popular soccer games lottery, one wins 3 The method consists of moving a finger on the list of choices while singing a song with the following Ngbaka words: “Moko moko moko banda, banda kpo gbalia kpo aliwa. Kala komo dengo mozi mbili mbili. Mbili mbili wio mbili Kalawa. Gbagbali gboke gono fele nzabele zebian ngolo ngolo wala tilie gba” (I am afraid I can’t adequately translate it). The final choice is determined by where your finger points when you utter the last word of the song, which is ‘gba’. 4 See Urban Dictionary.com for a version of “Eenie meenie miney mo.”

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by correctly guessing the victorious team from each of the thirteen games of the day.

C. Incredible Encounters with Pope John Paul II At Collegio Urbano we also had a visit from the late Pope John Paul II with whom we had the opportunity to share a memorable lunch. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I realized that the sovereign pontiff was sitting two tables away from where I was sitting. This event was followed by another golden opportunity for me to meet with the Holy Father. At Collegio Urbano, I was the Master of Ceremony or Capo Cerimoniere, in Italian, for the daily liturgy. In this capacity, I was in charge of scheduling daily mass readers, acolytes or altar boys, and so on. During the Holy Week or the week leading to Easter Sunday, our vice-rector Father Pierre Tot of Vietnam received a telephone call from the Vatican. They needed three seminarians to serve as the pope’s acolytes for the Good Friday, April 4, 1980 liturgical service in St. Peter’s Basilica. Since I was the Collegio’s Cerimoniere, Father Tot asked me to select and give him the names of the three seminarians. I was one of them. During the Good Friday liturgy, my role was to hold the prayer book from which Pope John Paul II read. I couldn’t believe I was serving as a pontifical altar boy in St. Peter’s Basilica. That Good Friday was the best Friday and definitely one of the most memorable days of my one-decade stay in Rome. The service was followed by a brief meeting with the pope during which he thanked and shook hands with acolytes and other clergy members who participated in the ceremony. Of course, the Vatican’s photographers were there to take pictures of everyone who met with the pope as a memento. Photographs with His Holiness are some of the most lucrative businesses at the Vatican. For me, those photographs with Pope J.P. II were like my Certificate of Pontifical Service at the Vatican, so to speak. I thought that those photographs were the best pieces of information in my curriculum vitae and possibly for my future ecclesiastical career advancement in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1983, I also wrote my philosophy Licentia or master’s thesis based on one of Karol Wojtyla’s books, Love and Responsibility (1978). The thsis title was, “Amour et Personne dans la Pensée de Karol Wojtyla,” in French (Love and Person in Karol Wojtyla’s Thought). I donated a copy of the thesis to Pope John Paul II. I received a letter from the Vatican’s Secretary of State’s office acknowledging receipt of, and thanking me for the work. In the December 13, 1983 letter N. 122.190 to me on behalf of the pope, Mgr. G.B. Re, Assessor of the Secretary of State wrote:

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On behalf of Pope John Paul II, The Office of the Secretary of State thanks you for the copy of your Licentia Thesis in Philosophy, which you gave and dedicated to him on October 14, 1983. Wishing that you always work for the authentic promotion of human persons to the best of your ability, either through your writings, or through your direct action, the Holy Father whole-heartedly grants you his Apostolic Blessing (My translation from the original French).

I was glad to receive that letter, which I have kept with the original copy of my Licentia thesis. During my years as a doctoral student at the Pontifical Gregorian University, I met Msgr. Emery Kabongo, a fellow Congolese who for several years served as Pope John Paul II’s personal secretary. He was very supportive of the African Students Association of Rome, of which I had the honor of serving as Secretary-General (19841986). On January 6, 1988, Pope John Paul II consecrated Msgr. Kabongo and appointed him as the Archbishop of Luebo, DRC. His episcopal ordination was followed by a huge reception at the Vatican. I was delighted to attend that joyful gathering. Bishop Emeritus Kabongo currently serves as St. Peter’s Basilica’s canon, or Canonico, in Italian, at the Vatican. In 1987, I completed a post-doctoral work in international studies at the Italian Society for International Organization. Hoping to eventually work as a diplomat for my country, I occasionally hung out with Congolese diplomats in Rome. That network gave me the opportunity to join the diplomatic corps in attending a special Eucharist celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica in 1988. I was seated in the special area where I had the opportunity to receive the Holy Communion from Pope John Paul II. That was my third and last opportunity to socialize with the Polish pope, so to speak. I wish my late grandmother had the opportunity to hear the story, “Gboto-Mbati’s story in Putu. I had a good reason to return back home in 1979 for a death in the family. Indeed, as I mentioned earlier, while I was attending a summer course of English at St. Luke’s Priory in Wincanton, England, I received the news about the death of my 19-year old little brother, Pius Pascal, also called Pasika. He got killed in a tractor accident, while working in Gbadolite City in the Equateur Province. RIP! I couldn’t go for the funeral and family mourning for financial reasons. My scholarship from the Vatican did not include that kind of eventuality. So I discreetly mourned while doing my best to complete my summer program. I was able to return for a visit to DRC only three decades later. I will talk about that procrastinated visit in another chapter.

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I left Rome for the USA in 1990 and it took the canonization ceremony in 2014 to participate in an even greater event related to the 264th Sovereign Pontiff.

D. Witnessing the Canonization Ceremony of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II As someone who happened to personally witness the papal election day of Card. Karol Wojtyla and as one who also met and served the Polish pope, I was deeply saddened by his death on April 2, 2005. The breaking news was announced while I was returning to the United States from an international conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with a two-day stop in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I had a speaking engagement at a seminar organized by the Amsterdam-based Consultants Interculturele Communicatie (CIC). I was tempted to change my itinerary and fly to Rome and attend Pope John Paul II’s funeral. Unfortunately, such a change was going to be outrageously expensive. Moreover, I was not on vacation and I had to return to the USA for work. It is worth reminding of the fact that some mourners who participated in John Paul II’s funeral rites – which were celebrated by Card. Joseph Ratzinger – held banners carrying the words, “Saint, Straight Away,” or “Santo Subito,” in Italian. Undoubtedly, Card. Ratzinger, who succeeded John Paul II as Pope Benedict XVI, took that popular request seriously. So he expeditiously and successfully acted on his beatification and canonization procedures. I was thrilled and honored to attend the dual canonization ceremony of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square on the Second Easter Sunday, April 27, 2014. The ceremony was presided over by Pope Francis and copresided by his immediate predecessor and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI as well as numerous cardinals, bishops, priests, and deacons. This was my first time to see two living popes simultaneously. I left Baltimore, Maryland on Friday afternoon, April 25, 2014. I drove to IAD Washington Dulles, DC, from where I flew aboard Brussels Airlines to Rome via Brussels, Belgium. I arrived in Rome on Saturday, April 26, 2014. The Liberian embassy’s chauffeur picked me from the Fiumicino Airport and took me to friends of mine in Rome. As students in the 1980s in Rome, Dr. M. Stan Sheriff – the Liberian Ambassador to Italy and the Holy See – were leaders of the African Students Association, or Associazione degli Studenti Africani di Roma (ASAR). He served as president and I served as secretary-general. He managed to obtain a special canonization ceremony ticket for me to attend the event as a guest member of the Liberian delegation. On Sunday, April 27, 2014 at 7:00 a.m., the

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Liberian delegation members gathered at the embassy of Liberia, located in Piazzale delle Medaglie d’Oro, 7. The delegation consisted of the ambassador, a Liberian minister, three other Liberians, the embassy staff, and me. The embassy made available two CD-labeled cars for transportation, one Mercedes Benz and one Lexus. At 7:15 a.m., consistent with the protocol of the day, two Italian police officers from the Guardia di Finanza arrived at the embassy and dignifiedly escorted us to the Vatican. The thirty-minute ride to the Vatican was relaxing and enjoyable due to security-related traffic restrictions; only authorized vehicles were allowed on most roads around the city’s historic area and the Vatican. The escort services stopped at one of the heavily guarded Vatican gates. After a quick identification check, we were escorted by the Vatican protocol and security services through ARCO CAMPANE to St. Peter’s Square, the venue of the canonization ceremony. Access to the square through Arco Campane was private and restricted to distinguished guests holding special tickets issued by the Holy See. Two Swiss Guards standing at, and protecting the Arco greeted us. Each ticket was sealed by the Vatican and contained the Italian words, “STATO DELLA CITTÀ DEL VATICANO–GOVERNATORATO–CORPO DELLA GENDARMERIA-ARCO CAMPANE,”

or City-State of the Vatican–Governing Branch–Police Corps–Bells Arc. Campane is the Italian word for bells. The designation “Arco Campane” is due to its location right under St. Peter’s Basilica’s gigantic bells. We were seated in the special VIP section reserved for foreign diplomats and other dignitaries. A long wooden fence separated the section from the general audience area. The only things that separated the VIP section from the canonization ceremony altar and the higher-ranking dignitaries – heads of states and governments, etc. – were the famous white and red-carpeted papal car, or Popemobile, or Papamobile, in Italian, and beautiful floral decorations. On every VIP seat there were copies of L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, the Vatican’s daily newspaper, Anno CLIV n. 95 (46.637) and IL MESSAGGERO, the Italian government’s official newspaper, both of which were dedicated to the saints of the day. Of course, both special editions had John Paul II and John XXIII photos on the front covers. Another document that was placed on the seat was the canonization ceremony program. The Cappella Papale or Papal Chapel-approved booklet was entitled,

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Chapter Three II DOMENICA DI PASQUA O DELLA DIVINA MISERICORDIA RITO DELLA CANONIZZAZIONE E CELEBRAZIONE EUCARISTICA, PRESIEDUTI DAL SANTO PADRE FRANCESCO, PIAZZA SAN PIETRO, 27 APRILE 2014, in Italian (Second Sunday of Easter or [Sunday] of Mercy Canonization Ceremony and Eucharist Celebration Presided Over by Holy Father Francis, St. Peter’s Square, 27th April 2014)

The program was multilingual (Italian, English, Spanish, Polish, and of course, Latin). It consisted of three main parts, that is, the two new saints’ biographic profiles, a Three-Moment Preparation for the Celebration, and the Canonization Ceremony and Eucharist Celebration. The program started at 10:00 a.m. In the Roman Catholic Church, canonization ceremonies are rare phenomena and the canonization of two popes, presided over by two living popes is a much rarer phenomenon still and a truly historical event. This was my first time to ever witness a canonization ceremony. I do not intend to document every minute of it. One ought to be there to really and fully feel it. Like many people in attendance, I selectively took some photographs and recorded portions of the program. I have shared some of them via email, Google, Facebook, and YouTube. But there are still some other aspects that I would want to share, especially the introductory rites relative to the three petitions and the canonization formula. The rites began with the Litany of Supplication, or Litaniae Sanctorum, in Latin, followed by the petitions and the canonization formula. Card. Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Saints Causes, was in charge of reading the petitions through which he asked the Holy Father (Pope Francis) to proceed with the Canonization of Blessed Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. He was accompanied by the Canonization Postulators. Below are the English versions of the three petitions, which the cardinal read in Latin, and the Holy Father’s responses, also in Latin. First Petition Most Holy Father, Holy Mother Church earnestly beseeches Your Holiness to enroll Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II Among the Saints, that they may be invoked as such by all the Christian faithful. Holy Father, Dear brothers, Let us lift up our prayers to God the Father Almighty through Jesus Christ, That through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all his saints He may sustain with his grace the act which we now solemnly undertake.

Pilgrimage or Tour du Monde? Second Petition Most Holy Father, Strengthened by unanimous prayer, Holy Church more earnestly beseeches Your Holiness to enroll there, her children, among the Saints. Let us, then, invoke the Holy Spirit, the Giver of life, That he may enlighten our minds And that Christ the Lord may not permit his Church to err in a matter of such importance. Holy Father Come, Holy Ghost, Creator, Come from thy bright heavenly throne; Come, take possession of our souls, And make them all thine own. Third Petition Most Holy Father, Holy Church, trusting in the Lord’s promise to send upon her the Spirit of Truth, Who in every age keeps the supreme Magisterium immune from error, Most earnestly beseeches Your Holiness to enroll these, her elect, among the Saints. Formula of Canonization [Canonizationis Formula, in Latin], read by the Holy Father Ad honorem Sanctae et individuae Trinitatis Ad exhaltationem fidei catholicae Et vitae christianae incrementum, Auctoritatae Domini nostri Iesus Christi, Beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli ac Nostra, Matura deliberatione praehabita Et divina ope saepius implorata, Ac de plurimorum Fratrum Nostrorum consilio, Beatos Ioannem XXIII et Ioannem Paulum II Sanctos esse decernimus et definimus, Ac Sanctorum Catalogo adscribimus, Statuentes eos in universa Ecclesia Inter Sanctos pia devotione recoli debere. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. English Translation For the honour of the Blessed Trinity, The exaltation of the Catholic Church faith and

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Chapter Three The increase of the Christian life, by the authority Of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our own, after due deliberation and frequent prayer for divine assistance, and having sought the counsel of many of our brother Bishops, we declare and define Blessed John XXIII and John Paul II Be Saints and we enroll them among the Saints, Decreeing that they are to be venerated as such by the whole Church, In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.5

We all shouted Amen and joyfully applauded. At this point the new saints’ relics were placed next to the altar and the deacon incensed them. The ceremony ended around 12:00 noon. We stuck around for another hour or so, as we chatted, took final photographs, and waited for Pope Francis’ ride aboard the Popemobile, hoping to catch a few seconds of papal handshakes, all under the watchful eyes of security services. I even fell as I tried to stand on a chair to take the best possible photographs of the Holy Father’s ride. I was fine, except for two bruises on my left arm and on one finger. These were my Canonization Ceremony Tattooes, so to speak. Keeping our Arco Campane tickets handy, we easily exited St. Peter’s Square. The same Guardia di Finanza officers escorted us to the Liberian embassy from where we had started our memorable day. I was delighted to witness such a historic event. I was proud and grateful for the opportunity to be escorted by the Italian Police, thereby making my third homecoming to “the Eternal City” an unforgettable experience. More importantly, I was delighted and proud, not only for being in the number of that global crowd of about one million people, but also and above all, for having served as an altar boy to Pope John Paul II on Good Friday 1980. My four-day transatlantic journey was worth it. It was a short and needed break from my daily routine, especially toward the conclusion of a particularly stressful and challenging academic year. Moreover, attending the canonization ceremony provided me with an interesting final episode to my seemingly epic connections with a Sovereign Pontiff to whom the Roman Catholic Church refers now as SAINT JOHN PAUL II, or SANTO GIOVANNI PAOLO II, in Italian. This is incredible but it is true. It is definitely the single most important part of my global safari.

5

This formula and the three petitions were printed in Latin, Italian, and English in the Canonization Ceremony booklet, p 64-73. Reprinted with permission from Mons. Guido Marini, The Vatican’s Master of Pontifical Liturigical Celebrations.

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IV. Changing My Mind: Perspectives on Priestly Celibacy and Hope for Reform I completed my BA in theology in 1981. In May 1981, (the now late) Fr. N. Fumagalli, the Collegio Urbano rector, wrote to my bishop regarding my return to the diocese by July 10, 1981. I do not have a copy of that letter, but I have a copy of my bishop’s March 3, 1981 reply. Below is my translated version of what he wrote in French: Reverend Father Rector, I have just received your January 20, 1981 letter in which you raise the issue of Abbé Gboto-Kuma’s return to the Diocese of Budjala. I sincerely thank you for your letter. Before sending the seminarian Gboto-Kuma to Rome, I clearly told him that after three years he had to return to the Diocese. Consequently, the Diocese is waiting for him impatiently. Since the Propaganda College can no longer take care of him from July 10 on, he should make necessary arrangements to leave Rome before July 10. I request that you punctually assist him with the shipment of his belongings to the address of Procure de Gwaka in the Diocese of Budjala. You will also pay for his return ticket from the Diocese Account. Moreover, he should purchase whatever is needed for the ordination: Chalice and Paten, sacred oils case, mass ornament, etc. I very sincerely thank you in advance, Reverend Father Rector, for the education that he received at the Propaganda. I hope that he will live up to that education through his conduct and work. I hope that I clearly answered your question. I ask you to accept, Reverend Father Rector, the expression of my fully devoted sentiments in Our Lord. Bolangi Egwanga Bishop of Budjala

Unfortunately, I did not return according to the original plan for the Pastoral Year, during which seminarians learn dos and don’ts, of priesthood. It is usually during this period that one is ordained deacon, and then priest, unless the candidate changes his mind, or unless the bishop is against the candidate’s ordination for whatever reason. I didn’t return because I was no longer interested in becoming a priest. I didn’t make this decision overnight. It was the result of a prolonged struggle over how I

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wanted to live my life. I was not sure I could successfully handle the celibacy and chastity required by the Catholic Church. To some extent, my agonizing decision was reminiscent of the famous Italian saying, “Roma veduta, fede perduta,” literally meaning, “Rome seen, faith lost.” I don’t think I lost faith in God. I watched Catholic priests’ and dignitaries’ struggles with chastity-celibacy and I couldn’t convince myself of being any different. I had seriously and honestly doubted my ability and willingness to consistently observe certain human rules that ignore some basic human needs. In the same year, 1981, three other seminarians from the same diocese decided to leave, thereby causing the diocese of Budjala to lose four Rome-educated seminarians. All of them moved to Romebased Catholic University “Gemelli,” where they studied Medicine. Today all of them are medical doctors working in Italy and in DRC. In June 2001, I traveled back to Rome for the first time since leaving in 1990. My host and friend – also a former fellow seminarian – asked for my comments regarding the Zambian archbishop Emmanuel Milingo’s wedding in the USA. My first reactions were shock and disbelief. I did not know anything about it. The prelate and former Vatican official mysteriously disappeared from Rome in 2001. He subsequently married Maria Sung, a South Korean acupuncturist, during a mass wedding conducted in New York City in May 2001 by the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church.6 He unsuccessfully tried to reach reconciliation with the Vatican. He has been an advocate for married priests through his Reformed Catholic Churches, a schismatic movement in Africa, whose membership is estimated at 300,000 followers.7 Of course, he was excommunicated by the late Pope John Paul II. I knew Archbishop Milingo very well. He was a dynamic spiritual leader, and a generous pan-Africanist. As a matter of fact, during my tenure as the Secretary-General of the Association of African Students in Rome (198486), Milingo was the main source of funding for our activities. That’s why I was interested in his new journey, which was more about honesty than scandal. Many priests and leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are certainly aware of the fact that celibacy has been a big problem for the organization. That is why there is a growing advocacy for priests’ marriage. For example, in addition to the married priests’ movement spearheaded by Archbishop Milingo, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, head of the Catholic Church of Scotland since 1985, recently called for priestly 6

See BBC News, “Moonie Archbishop Rocks Vatican.” Last updated Thursday, July 13, 2006. 7 See “Excommunicated Archbishop Milingo Continues to Build Schismatic Movement in Africa.” Catholic World News, August 14, 2013.

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marriage on the grounds that the requirement for priestly celibacy was “not of divine origin,” nor is it one of the Catholic Church’s “basic dogmatic beliefs.” In other words, the 75-year-old prelate told BBC Scotland, “the celibacy of the clergy, whether priests should marry – Jesus didn’t say that.”8 These supposedly controversial statements were made by a Roman Catholic cardinal at two particularly critical moments. First, they coincided with a moment when 115 cardinals were getting ready for the March 12-13, 2013 conclave to elect a new pope to succeed Pope Benedict XVI. On February 11, 2013, the pope caught everybody by surprise when he announced his resignation, effective February 28, 2013 due to age and health issues. He is the first sovereign pontiff to voluntarily resign since Pope Gregory VII (1415), i.e., 598 years ago. Of course, Cardinal O’Brien and many Roman Catholics were looking forward to having a new pope who would be willing to reform the Church and resolve the celibacy issue. Secondly, the Scottish cardinal’s controversy also coincided with a time during which four priests accused him of committing “inappropriate acts” of a sexual nature.9 These accusations of sexual misconduct – which he later acknowledged – forced him to submit his resignation to then resigning Pope Benedict XVI, thereby missing the opportunity to participate in the conclave and vote for the change he has sought through his controversies. Alex Gibney’s documentary film, Mea Maxima Culpa (2012), in Latin, or “Through My Grievous Fault” came out at a perfect time. It is a story about the Roman Catholic Church at a critical moment and in need of reform. The film reveals details about the first known outrage and protest against clerical sex abuse in the United States. It could help one understand some Catholics’ concerns with their faith community, their call for action, and their hope for reform by the new pope. The two-day conclave resulted in the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, who assumed the new name of Francis. While the election of the first Jesuit pope, first non-European pope, and first Latin American pope of Italian descent is widely seen as a big change, Pope Francis’ real change remains to be seen. Unless one believes in the Western tabooistic superstitions surrounding the number “13”, Pope Francis’ election on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 (3/13/13) should not be interpreted by horoscope experts as a sign of bad luck and continued hopelessness for a hope-thirsty Roman Catholic Church. Au contraire, the fact that, to paraphrase the new pope in English, his brother 8

See “Let Priests Marry, Cardinal Says.” Quoted by the Associated Press in The New York Times, Saturday, February 23, 2013, A5. 9 See John Burns, “Top British Cardinal Faces Accusations of Committing ‘Inappropriate Acts’.” The New York Times, Monday, February 25, 2013, A6.

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cardinals had gone “to the end of the earth”10 to find the new Bishop of Rome during today’s critical time seems to have given 1.2 billion faithful the audacity to hope again. As the leader of Argentina’s Jesuits and as prelate of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio was vehemently opposed to the liberation theology movement – many of the founding members were his fellow Jesuits – because of its connection to Marxism. He was accused of quietism for supposedly failing to protect people, including Jesuit priests, from Argentina’s Dirty War-related human rights violations in the 1970s. However, according to Sergio Rubin (2010), Pope Francis’ official biographer, “the Jesuit leader” [Jorge Bergoglio] – who had never been charged of any wrongdoing – “took extraordinary, behind-the-scenes action to save them.”11 Cardinal Bergoglio was opposed to Argentina’s same-sex law. He saw it as, a “destructive pretension against the plan of God.” However, according to Sergio Rubin, he also acted as a “bridge-builder” (pontiff, or pontifex, in Latin), by offering – in opposition to conservative Bishops – the civil union compromise as “the lesser of two evils,” thereby “wagering on a position of greater dialogue with society.”12 For a church widely seen as “out of touch,” and whose members overwhelmingly support the progressive notions of letting priests get married and letting women become priests,13 Pope Francis may be the answer. But will the first Jesuit sovereign pontiff ever allow women to be ordained priests? Will he ever allow priests to get married? How will he deal with sex and other scandals? These are some of the tough questions waiting for answers by the new Vatican leader. While we don’t know enough about, but can only guess his views regarding women’s priesthood, we know, however, that Pope Francis included two women and a Muslim among twelve persons whose feet he washed and kissed on Holy Thursday, March 28, 2013. It seems that the Jesuit pope is the first sovereign pontiff to show this kind of inclusiveness. Is this a sign of more 10

This phrase is reminiscent of Pope John Paul II’s first address right after his election when he stated, “Lo hanno chiamato da un paese lontano […]” (They called him from a far away country) 11 See “Vatican Denies Dirty War Allegations Against Pope.” BBC News, 15 March, 2013. 12 See Simon Schmall, “Pope’s Old Colleagues Recall a Stalwart With a Pragmatic Streak.” The New York Times, March 20, 2013, A1 and A12. 13 According to The New York Times/CBS News Poll of American Catholics and the Church, 59% vs 39% believe that the Church is “Out of Touch.” 69% is for letting priests get married as well as letting women become priests (See “US Catholics in Poll See a Church Out of Touch,” The New York Times, March 6, 2013, A3. www.nytimes.com/polls.

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change to come? And will such a change include the ordination of women priests? Pope Francis shares “the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity.” However, he is unlikely to be the first pope condoning priesthood for women. In his own words, “The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to discussion” (Pope Francis 2013, 83, #104). Moreover, we also know that “for now,” and prior to becoming pope, Cardinal Bergoglio was and maybe still is for priestly celibacy. Translation: no to marriage for Catholic priests, because, “for now the discipline of celibacy remains firm,” he (Card. Bergoglio) told Rabbi Abraham Skorka in a 2010 interview. “Some say, with a certain pragmatism, we’re losing manpower. If, hypothetically, Western Catholicism revises the issue of celibacy, I think it would for cultural reasons (… in the East, for example), not [to be] as universal option. For the moment, I am in favor of maintaining celibacy, with the pros and cons it has, because there are 10 centuries of good experiences rather than failures.”14 Hopefully, the new Pontifex will use his pragmatism to do something about the Church’s out-of-touchness through common sense reforms, including, but not limited to priestly celibacy, since, as his brother Cardinal O’Brien from Scotland reminded us during his resignation process and right before the March 2013 conclave, “Jesus didn’t say that.” The pope’s position regarding priestly celibacy is clear. However, it might not be the final position for a pragmatic pope who is hinting at necessary reform. As a matter of fact, on September 14, 2014, the pope married 20 couples at the St. Peter’s Basilica. What was special about that mass wedding was the fact that, “one bride was already a mother, some of the couples had already been living together, and others had previously been married.”15 This papal understanding and flexibility suggests that he might also become the first pope to eventually allow and/or preside over the wedding of Catholic priests. The post-October 2014 Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will tell us more about Pope Francis’ audacity to reform. The Synod’s topic is, “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” Some Catholic priests are willing to legally and officially be “fathers” in both senses of the word. 14

Qtd by Peter Manseau, “In Praise of Priestly marriage.” The New York Times OP-ED, Thursday, March 21, 2013, A23. It should be noted that for the Jesuit Pope who seems to be open to change, priestly marriage may not be completely out of question. 15 See “Pope Francis Hints at Reform With Mass Wedding in Rome.” TIME, September 29, 2014, 10.

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Moreover, some Catholics would become priests if and only if they were allowed to be married. The Catholic Church’s necessary reforms are so big and so urgent that the sovereign pontiff will have to act more collegially than ever before and as “Primus inter pares,” or “First among equals.” His April 13, 2013 appointment of an eight-member advisory board signaled the new Vatican CEO’s commitment to more collegiality. The March 22, 2014 appointment of another eight-member commission to handle the clerical sexual abuse cases is another positive sign and a meaningful way of celebrating Pope Francis’ first anniversary. The gender balance of this special commission, which consists of four men and four women, is particularly interesting for a traditionally male-dominated institution.16 Moreover, and more importantly, this new commitment is consistent with the “more horizontal government” that the Second Vatican Council sought.17 As a final note on the new pope, it is worth stating that his selection as the TIME Magazine “PERSON OF THE YEAR”18 is a testament to Pope Francis’ initial and unambiguous move toward rescuing the Catholic Church from its out-oftouchness. He has signified this commitment, among other things, through his original apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, or The Joy of the Gospel,19 in which, like President Obama’s “Renewed Nationalism” 16

The eight members of the commission are: Females: Marie Collins of Ireland; Dr. Catherine Bonnet of France; Sheila Hollins of Britain; and Hanna Suchocka of Poland; Males: Card. Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston; Claudio Papale of Italy; Rev. Humberto Miguel Yañez of Argentina; and Rev. Hans Zollner of Germany. See Laurie Goodstein and Jim Yardley, “Pope Names Members of Anti-Abuse Group.” The New York Times, Sunday, March 23, 2014, 8. It is also worth noting the fact that on July 7, 2014, Pope Francis met with six victims of sexual abuse and humbly asked for forgiveness. 17 See Gaia Pianigiani and Rachel Donadio, “Pope Names an Advisory Panel of Cardinals.” The New York Times, Sunday, April 14, 2013, 10. The Advisory Panel is made of Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodrigues Maradiaga of Honduras; Card. Giuseppe Bertello of the Vatican City; Card. Francisco Javier Errazuris Ossa of Chile; Card Oswald Gracias of India; Card. Reinhard Marx of Germany; Card. Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of DRC; Card. Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston; and Card. George Pell of Australia. This body is truly global. However, there is no woman, because so far the Catholic Church is opposed to women’s priesthood. 18 See TIME, December 23, 2013. 19 Evangelii Gaudium is the “Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World.” This document, especially chapter 2 – “Amid the Crisis of Communal Commitment” – is reminiscent of President Obama’s “Renewed Nationalism” speech (Osawatomie, Kansas, December 6, 2011). Both leaders share their critiques and rejection of trickledown economics. No wonder

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speech, the pope denounces trickle-down economic theories and makes the poor, the sick, the elderly, and immigrants the focus of his pontificate.

V. Photographs from the Vatican Quick Facts Name: The Vatican City, or “Status Civitatis Vaticanae” (SCV), In Latin; Stato Citta’ Del Vaticano, In Italian (Scv) State Of the Vatican City/The Holy See Vatican Flag: Adopted on June 7, 1929 after Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy. The Treaty granted to the Vatican the status of an independent state governed by the Holy See. Pontifical Anthem/Inno e Marcia Pontificale: Dominus Mihi Adjutor (in Latin), or God Is My Help Population: 798 (National Geographic, 2012) Area: 0.4 sq. km (0.2 sq. miles Official Language(s): Latin, Italian, French…. Capital: Vatican City; Currency: Euro Head of State: His Holiness Pope Francis (Card. Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina) March 13, 2013-Present

President Obama is impressed by Pope Francis’s statement on “shrinking the gap between rich and poor” (See Kathleen Hennessey, “Obama Allies Himself with Pope.” The Baltimore Sun, Friday, December 27, 2013, 6).

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Figure 3-1 Gaate of Pontificioo Collegio Urbaano de Propagaanda Fide, Rome

This gate w was locked aroound 8:00 p.m m. or so. Sem minarians did not have keys to the gate. Right in i front of the gate is a faamous lovers’’ meeting place calledd “Piazza d’A Amore,” or “Love “ Squaree,” something g to lead seminarians and priests innto temptation n.

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Figure 3-2 Zeekeh in Clericall Uniform

A view of S St. Peter’s Bassilica from Co ollegio Urbanoo. Seminarian n Zekeh – second yearr theology stuudent at Urbaan University – stands on Collegio Urbano’s terrrace. The Vattican City is in n the backgrouund, 1979.

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Figure 3-3 Poope John Paul III Shakes Handss with Altar Boyy Zekeh. Photo Courttesy: Arturo Mari, M L’OSSE ERVATORE RO OMANO, CIT TTA DEL VATICANO. Copyright © 1980 Servizio o Fotografico ddel Vaticano. Used U with permission.

Pope John P Paul II (now referred r to as St. John Paull II) shakes haands with and thanks sseminarian annd theology stu udent Zekeh G Gbotokuma fo or serving as an acolyyte or altar booy during thee Good Fridaay 1980 liturgy in St. Peter’s Basiilica. Next to Zekeh are otther acolytes and theology y students from Ugandda and Vietnam m, and a prieest. Card. Karrol Wojtyla off Cracow, Poland was elected popee in October 1978. I wass among thou usands of people gatheered and waitting for the White W Smoke, or Fumata Bianca, B in Italian, annnouncing the successful election e of thhe new popee. I also happened too be right inn guessing Caard. Wojtyla as the new sovereign s pontiff. Lastt but not leastt, my Licentia or master’s ddegree dissertaation was entitled, “Am mour et Persoonne dans la Pensée P de Karool Wojtyla,” (Love and Person in K Karol Wojtyla’s Thought) written w in Frennch. On May 13, 1981, he was shot and woundedd by Ali Agca of Turkey in St. Peter’s Sq quare, but he survivedd. The pope’s health staarted deteriorrating soon after his assassinationn attempt. Hee passed away y in April 20005 after a lon ng illness. He was cannonized along with Pope Jo ohn XXIII duuring a cerem mony over which Popee Francis pressided in Rom me’s St. Peterr’s Square on n Sunday, April 27, 22014. I was delighted to attend that cceremony, alo ong with approximateely one millionn people from m the four cornners of the glo obe.

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Figure 3-4 Goood Friday 1980 Liturgy with Pope John Paull II. Photo Courttesy: Arturo Mari, M L’OSSE ERVATORE RO OMANO, CIT TTA DEL VATICANO. Copyright © 1980 Servizio o Fotografico ddel Vaticano. Used U with permission. Vatican/Romee, April 4, 19800

Pope John P Paul II (middlle) is flanked by two cardiinals. Behind are three acolytes (alttar boys), including Zekeh G. (3rd from m the left, righ ht behind the pope).

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Figure 3-5 A Special Holy Mass M Celebration at Collegio U Urbano. M L’OSSE ERVATORE RO OMANO, CIT TTA DEL Photo Courttesy: Arturo Mari, VATICANO. Copyright © 1980 Servizio o Fotografico ddel Vaticano. Used U with permission.

From left too right, H. E. Laurent Mon nsengwo, the A Archbishop of Inongo, DRC; seminnarian and theeology studentt Zekeh servinng as an acoly yte; three prelates andd a priest, 19800.

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Figure 3-6 Poope John Paul II Gives the Ho oly Communioon to Zekeh in St. Peter’s Baslica, 19888. Photo Courttesy: Arturo Mari, M L’OSSERVATORE RO OMANO, CIT TTÀ DEL VATICANO. Copyright © 1988 Servizio o Fotografico ddel Vaticano. Used U with permission.

This was thee second timee I received th he Communionn from Pope John J Paul II. The occcasion was a liturgical serrvice to whicch the Vatican invited members off the diplomatiic corps accredited to the H Holy See. At th hat time a friend of m mine was first counselor att Zaire’s emb assy to the Holy H See. That’s how I managed to receive th he invitation aand sit in th he special section desiggnated to receeive the Holy y Communion from the Holly Father. This was aalso the timee when I waas consideringg a diplomattic career following m my post-doctorral training at the Italian Soociety for Inteernational Organizationn.

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Figure 3-7 Zeekeh Takes a Walk W to a Crowdeed St. Peter’s S Square, 1980.

The proxim mity of Colleggio Urbano to o St. Peter’s S Square and St. S Peter’s Basilica maade this place a frequent an nd favorite w walk destinatio on for me and fellow sseminarians.

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Figure 3-8 Zeekeh Stands in Front F of Colleg gio Urbano de P Propaganda Fidee, 1980.

Behind are fellow seminnarians dressed d in clerical uuniform, usuaally worn on Sundays and other speecial religiouss occasions. T The Pontifical Collegio Urbano “Dee Propagandaa Fide” is a luxurious l resiidency for sem minarians and priests cconveniently located on the Gianicolo, jjust about threee blocks away from S St. Peter’s Baasilica and Sq quare. It was eestablished in Rome in 1622. Its puurpose is first, to train missiionaries and too send them across a the whole worldd to spread thee Catholic faitth – that is thee meaning of the Latin phrase, “de ppropaganda fiide”; and seco ond, to study tthe customs/cu ultures of other peoplles through new geograp phical discovveries, especcially the Oriental areaa (my translattion from the Italian text in Wikipedia, “P Pontificio

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Collegio Urbano”). The Urban Pontifical University, or Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana, in Latin, where I did my undergraduate study in theology, was within a short walking distance. At the Collegio, daily activities began with morning prayers and/or holy mass and ended with evening prayers and/or mass, usually right before dinner. There were also daily mid-day prayers right before lunch. Italian was the official language. However, as a pontifical institution in Rome and in the proximity of the Vatican City, Latin was the second language, at least for many prayers and songs (Gloria, Credo, Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Salve Regina, etc.). We also sang in some other world languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Lingala, Swahili, etc.).

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Figure 3-9 C Congolese (Zairrian) Seminariaans and Theoloogy Students in i Clerical Uniform, Colllegio Urbano, 1980 1

First row froom left to righht: Lubukai (leeft seminary aand currently lives l with his family inn Belgium); J.C. Akenda (o ordained priesst and currentlly teaches Philosophy aat Kinshasa’s Catholic Univ versity); Tarciisse Mogobo (ordained ( priest in Lissala Diocese. He taught for fo several yeears at Bolong go Minor Seminary pprior to his premature p deaath a few yeaars ago. RIP P!); Louis Agwaelomuu (ordained prriest in Lisalaa Diocese butt no longer a Catholic priest); and Zekeh G. Seecond row fro om the left to the right: Mukanyimi Bolomba (ord (ordained prriest); Nzuzi (ordained priiest); Simon B dained in Budjala Diiocese and currently liv ving in Sarrdinia, Italy);; Joseph Manfisango (ordained prriest in Inong go Diocese an and currently living in Southern Itaaly); Laurentt Kapanda (o ordained priesst in Luebo Diocese); D Nzumbu Lo-Ambetima (ccurrently a meedical doctor iin Rome).

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Figure 3-10 Collegio Urbbano’s Soccer Team, T 1980/19881

Figure 3-11 M My Original Muusic Show

From left too right: Fellow w Zairian and d seminarian Laurent Kapanda and Zekeh Singing, “Si J’étaais Riche,” in n French (If I was Rich), Collegio Urbano, 19880. That was my m first song composed c andd sung publiclly. I had a tape of the eevent, but I loost it due to my m move to thhe USA. The first lines are as follow ws: Si j’étais riche, j’aimeraais vivre cent an ns et profiter de la vie Mais comme c oids insupportabble…(If I were rich, I je suis paauvre, la vie est un calvaire, po would likke to live one huundred years an nd enjoy life. Buut because I am m poor, life is a C Calvary and an unsupportable u cross…) c

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Figure 3-12 Z Zekeh and Col. Mbelenga at a Vatican V Recepttion in 1988

Col. Mbelennga was Zairee’s military attaché in Italyy. The occasion was a Vatican recception celebbrating the ordination oof Mgr. Kab bongo as Archbishop of Luebo. Foor several years, Mgr. Kabbongo served d as Pope John Paul III’s personal secretary. s Col.. Mbelenga ppassed away soon s after President M Mobutu’s fall annd death. RIP!

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Figure 3-13 P Pontificia Univversitas Gregorriana (PUG) – My Alma Maater (19811987) Motto: Religioni ac Boonis Artibus (in n Latin), or “Forr Religion and Culture” C

PUG is locaated at Piazzaa della Pilottaa, near Fontaana dei Trevi and only about three bblocks from Piazza P Veneziaa. After my BA A in theology y from the Urban Univversity, I moveed to PUG, wh here I earned my MA and doctorate in philosophhy. The Pontiffical Gregorian n University iis an Ivy Leag gue Jesuit institution oof higher learrning. It was originally fouunded as the Collegio Romano or the Roman College C in 15 551 by St. Ign gnatius of Loy yola. The University w was named aft fter Pope Greg gory XIII. Thee following faacts speak as to the im mportance of the t Gregorian num. For exam mple, PUG haas one of the largest aand most distinnguished theo ology departm ments in the wo orld, with over 1600 sttudents from over o 130 coun ntries. PUG’s nnotable alumn ni include seventeen ppopes, includiing Pope Greegory XV, Poope Urban VIII, V Pope Innocent XII, Pope Leo XIII, X Pope Pius XII, Pope P Paul VI, and Pope P John Paul I. Eighht of the last eleven popes were PUG aalumni. Pope Emeritus Benedict XV VI was a visitting professorr in the Facullty of Theolog gy (19721973). The German Jessuit Christop pher Clavius, the invento or of the Gregorian C Calendar, was an alumnus of the Gregorrianum, and so s the list goes on. (Soource: Wikipeddia, “Pontificaal Gregorian U University”)

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Figure 3-14 G Greetings from St. Peter’s Squaare

Heading to tthe Vatican, Zeekeh waves fro om St. Peter’ss Square, Rom me/Vatican, August 12, 2013. The finnal destination n was the Phhotographic Service or Servizio Footografico, inn Italian and d L’Osservattore Romano o Office. L’Osservatoore Romano iss the Vatican’ss official newsspaper. The pu urpose of the visit waas to request permission p to use some off my photograaphs with Pope John P Paul II.

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Figure 3-15 H Handshake withh a Swiss Guard d

Zekeh Shakkes Hands wiith a Swiss Guard G at the End of a Vissit to the Vatican’s Ossservatore Rom mano Office, August 12, 20013. The Swisss Guards – or Guardiia Svizzera Poontificia, in Italian – are aarmed forces that have faithfully seerved the papacy since Jan nuary 22, 15006. It is a 110 0-member body whosee Latin mottoo is, Acriter et e Fideliter, oor “With Cou urage and Fidelity.” Itts colors are blue, red, an nd orange. Foor further deetails, see www.swissgguard.va

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Figure 3-16 S St. John Paul II’’s Canonization n Poster

I took this pphotograph froom a poster placed in frontt of St. Peter’ss Basilica on the Canoonization Day, Sunday, Apriil 27, 2014.

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Figure 3-17 P Pope Francis Inccenses Around the Altar in St. Peter’s Square

Surrounded by Clergymenn, Pope Franccis incenses w while presiding g over the Canonizatioon Ceremony of o Popes John n XXIII and Joohn Paul II. Numerous N prelates, prieests and deacoons concelebrrated. The altaar was set righ ht in front of St. Peter’s Basilica.

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Figure 3-18 H Handshake at thhe Dual Canonizzation Ceremonny

St. Peter’s S Square, Rome,, Sunday, Apriil 27, 2014 Standing in the VIP secction of the square, Zekehh shakes hand ds with a Portuguese ddignitary/dipllomat right beefore the cerem mony. We werre among one millionn people from m all cornerss of the globbe attending the dual Canonizatioon Ceremony of o Popes John n XXIII and Joohn Paul II.

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Figure 3-19 W Witnessing a Duual Canonizatio on Ceremony att the Vatican

St. Peter’s S Square, Rome,, Sunday, Apriil 27, 2014 Zekeh wavees from the VIP V section of o the squaree reserved fo or foreign diplomats annd dignitariess. Believe it orr not, I was allso present at this very place on October 16, 1978 to witness th he election daay of Card. K.. Wojtyla, who assumeed the name off Pope John Paul II.

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Figure 3-20 D Documenting thhe Canonization n Ceremony in S St. Peter’s Squaare

Virtually evverybody actted like paparazzi takingg photograph hs and/or recording thhe historic eveent.

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Figure 3-21 P Popemobile, or Papamobile, in n Italian

St. Peter’s S Square, Rome,, Sunday, Apriil 27, 2014. Zekeh standds behind the white, open--roof, and redd-carpeted Po opemobile prior to Poppe Francis’ ridde at the end of o the Canonizzation Ceremo ony. I am afraid my V VIP ticket did not n include a free ride withh the sovereig gn pontiff. However, juust standing thhere and bein ng allowed to touch the Po opemobile was a great privilege. The vehicle nam me is self-expllanatory. It is specially designed forr the pope’s use u during ou utdoor public appearances. After the Ali Agca aassassination attempt agaainst Pope JJP II in 198 80, some Popemobiles have had buulletproof glaass to enclosee and protect the pope. Pope Francis prefers ann open air Po opemobile; it allows him to enjoy handshakes..

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Figure 3-22 A Friendly Diploomatic Handshake in Rome

H.E. Amabaasador Moham mmed S. Sheriff of Liberia shakes handss with Dr. Zekeh Gbottokuma at thee Liberian em mbassy in Rom me, Italy. Thee meeting took place rright before La L Guardia di d Finanza (Ittalian Security y Police) escorted us to the Vaticaan to attend th he dual canonnization of Po opes John XXIII and John Paul II, April A 27, 2014.

CHAPTER FOUR DEVELOPING NORTH-SOUTH DIALOGUE AWARENESS

I. Participating in International Development-Related Activities IN 1981, I MOVED FROM THE URBANIANA UNIVERSITY TO THE GREGORIAN UNIVERSITY, or Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana (PUG), in Latin, the most prestigious or Ivy League Pontifical University administered by Jesuits, also known as Societas Jesus (SJ), or the Society of Jesus. PUG’s former name was the Roman College, or Collegio Romano, in Italian. It was from this institution that I earned my MA and doctoral degrees in philosophy in 1983 and 1987, respectively. I stayed at Centro Internazionale Giovanni XXIII, or John XXIII International Center, directed by the late Don Remigio Musaragno. The Centro is a building donated by the Vatican/Diocese of Rome in an attempt to solve lodging problems for students from developing countries. It is conveniently located by the Tiber River, or Tevere in Italian, more precisely in front of Ponte Sisto, and within walking distance from the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia, the Vatican/St. Peter’s Basilica, and Gregorian University. The Centro was also a place where students received cultural, spiritual, and international development-related education through numerous activities organized by the Ufficio Centrale Studenti Esteri in Italia (UCSEI), or Central Office for Foreign Students in Italy. UCSEI was established in the 1960s. It was also directed by Don Remigio Musaragno. Through this office, I participated in many international education and development-related activities (seminars, conferences, computer literacy) sponsored by Italian and European nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). I was also an editorial board member and a contributing editor of AMICIZIA, UCSEI’s monthly journal. By the way, it was through this publication that I developed and improved my writing skills in Dante Alighieri’s language, i.e., Italian. As a columnist and contributing editor, I had to solicit and/or write articles about international cooperation and aid.

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UCSEI’s most memorable slogan and/or conference theme was, “STUDENTI ESTERI: Soggetti Strategici dello Sviluppo,” or FOREIGN STUDENTS: Strategic Subjects/Agents of Development. The Italian government had recognized UCSEI as an international development NGO. That recognition allowed UCSEI and other Italian NGOs to receive international cooperation-related funding from the Italian government, particularly from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Unlike many Italian international development NGOs, UCSEI did not operate in loco, that is, in developing countries. However, it understood and acted based on the Chinese proverb according to which: If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests (K’Uan-Tzu, 551-479 B.C.)

For more than 50 years, UCSEI has been committed to developing extracurricular activities focusing on international development education. It understood and did its best to act on the saying that if you give a fish to hungry people, you will feed them for a day; but if you teach them how to fish, they will feed themselves for a long time. In order to effectively realize development projects, cultural understanding of the world beyond one’s borders is of utmost importance. That is one of the best possible ways to avoid constructing “cathedrals in the desert.” This phrase refers to mega development projects that do not necessarily benefit needy populations. The phrase was also used to refer to Côte d’Ivoire’s Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, or Basilique Notre Dame de la Paix, in French, which is believed to be larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The construction of this multi-million dollar mega church – between 1985 and 1989 – was supposedly fully funded by the late President Félix Houphouët Boigny (1905-1993). It was consecrated in 1990 by Pope John Paul II. It is called the Cathedral in the Desert because the majority of Ivorians are not Catholics (ca. 20%), but Muslims. Cultural understanding of the world beyond our borders is also the best possible way to avoid acting like the monkey in the fable of the Monkey and the Little Fish: Once upon a time, there was a monkey who went out of the jungle for the first time. He arrived at a stream bank where he saw a little fish swimming in the limpid water. “My poor little fish!” said the monkey, “he must be suffering in that strange element, and brr! He must be cold there." So the monkey caught the little fish and put it between his feet. “Come on! Come

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Chapter Four on! Relax! Now you are safe,” said the monkey. After a while, of course, the little fish stopped fighting and died. “Oh! I am sorry!” said the monkey. “But at least the poor little fish died on this good and warm earth rather than in that strange and cold place from which I saved him.” (My English translation from an Italian version)

This fable points to the negative impact of intercultural illiteracy and cultural imperialism which have characterized colonization and some international aid programs. Like the little fish, developing countries’ problems have also been caused by goodwill practices as well as by mechanisms of political and economic domination and exploitation. Many international development NGOs have provided cultural training to their volunteers and employees prior to sending them to developing countries. That practice was laudable. But UCSEI thought these NGOs could and should do much more. For example, UCSEI believed and proposed that international graduate students should be integrated into NGOs’ development staff, thereby enhancing their cultural understanding. This proposal, if acted upon, was also a way of encouraging and supporting the brain return, or the return of Western-educated immigrants to their native countries. In other words, it was a viable solution to the brain drain that also accounts for underdevelopment in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. UCSEI believed that education was a human right. That is why it advocated that giving scholarships to, and admitting more international students from developing countries to Italian and other Western universities should be part of international cooperation or aid. That is also why not only did UCSEI provide scholarships, but it also occasionally provided financial assistance to international students for their return home. I was a recipient of a doctoral dissertation scholarship from UCSEI. During and after my graduate and postgraduate studies, I was very involved with UCSEI’s activities. For example, besides my editorial work for AMICIZIA, I participated in, and spoke at numerous conferences; and as a public relations officer, I represented the office at various events locally (in Rome), nationally, and internationally. I traveled, for example, to Milan, Florence, Venice, Perugia, Naples, Bari, Enna, Liechtenstein, and Paris. Among some of my most memorable activities immediately prior to leaving Rome for, supposedly, a two-month vacation in San Francisco, California, I should mention a 1987 congress on the theme, AFRICA: Valori, Problemi, Speranza, or “AFRICA: Values, Problems and Hope,” organized by Manitese, a Milan-based NGO in Florence, Italy, 14-15 November. At that event, I had the opportunity to meet and listen to the late Professor Joseph Ki-Zerbo (1922-2006) of Burkina Faso, a famous

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historian of Africa, who also taught at Sorbonne University in Paris. He was the congress keynote speaker. My short speech at that meeting was so well received and applauded that Mr. Tony Hill, director of the Genevabased United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) approached me and invited me to contribute a chapter for his program’s forthcoming book. Within a week, Mr. Hill had sent me a formal follow-up letter from Geneva to officially confirm his request. In his November 18, 1987 letter to me, which is worth reproducing here because of its relevance to this chapter’s title, he wrote: Dear Gbotokuma, Pursuant to our meeting at The Mani Tesi Congress on Africa, I am writing to you to inform you about our work in progress. Its title is, Parole à l’Afrique or Voices from Africa. First and foremost, allow me to say a few words about NGLS. It was established twelve years ago as a United Nations’ project. It collaborates with NGOs in the area of development education. Its five-member team deals with the edition, the organization of meetings between NGOs and UN institutions, etc. We publish an information Bulletin (Go-Between/Le Messager) and a few repertories. Moreover, we work on themes such as development aid, debt crisis, NorthSouth exchanges (dialogue), and development crisis in Africa. I am attaching additional information, which will give you a better understanding of our service and activities. The Parole à l’Afrique/Voices from Africa project purpose is to contribute filling a fundamental gap, i.e., the absence of African voices in debates on Africa’s crisis. To that end, we have decided to prepare a book entirely written by African authors who will express their viewpoints and perspectives on the crisis. The book has an Anglophone co-editor in Nairobi [Kenya] and a Francophone co-editor in Dakar [Senegal]. So far we received chapters dealing with education, women, environment, an itinerant folk-theatre in Tanzania, population, nutrition, debt crisis, and structural adjustment. Each chapter will be 7-10 pages long. The book will be co-edited by the NGLS and two African NGOs and will be published in French and English. We wish we could also have a Swahili edition. The book will be distributed in Africa, Europe, North America, etc. I am writing to you because I was very interested in your speech on the crisis of African values and I wondered whether it could serve as the basis for a chapter in Parole à l’Afrique/Voices from Africa. Unfortunately we don’t have any Zairian author. Of course, your view points are welcome in writing a chapter. We suggest that the chapter answers the following questions: What are traditional African values? What do we mean by “African values crisis?” How did it happen? (The role of colonialism and

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government since independence, etc.). What are the implications of the crisis on the socio-economic development models adopted by Africa? Have these models failed because they were based on foreign values? What should be done to restore Africa’s authentic values? What kinds of politics/policies, models, or development paradigms are necessary? (community-centered, in symbiosis with nature and environment, etc.). So the discussion shouldn’t be limited to linguistic factors. It should present a much greater range of cultural factors. Knowing now who we are and the objectives of Parole à l’Afrique/Voices from Africa, will you be interested in contributing that kind of chapter? … If you decide on collaborating with us, then please send us a short description of your proposed chapter. I look forward to receiving your response and I thank you for your consideration. Yours sincerely, Tony Hill

To some extent, the letter gave me the opportunity to be, to use UCSEI’s memorable phrase, a “Soggetto Strategico dello Sviluppo,” or a Strategic Agent of Development. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I didn’t expect the honorarium that came with it, but I gladly accepted it. I wrote the book chapter in French. It was titled, “Crise d’Identité Culturelle et Sous-Développement en Afrique Sub-Saharienne.” It was translated into English as “Cultural Identity and Under-Development in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Gbotokuma, 1992). My experience with UCSEI had a great impact not only on the writing of this book chapter, but also on my doctoral dissertation at Gregorian University. My dissertation was titled, “Le Concept Heideggerien de ‘Mitsein’ et la Situation Internationale: Contributions à une Philosophie du Dialogue Nord-Sud,” in French (“Heidegger’s Concept of ‘Mitsein’ and International Situation: Contributions to a Philosophy of North-South Dialogue,” Gbotokuma 1987). While my knowledge of the Italian language was good enough to write the dissertation in Italian, I chose to write it in French because French is the official language of DRC and I wanted the work to be available and accessible without translation. What’s more, at Gregorian University, where many professors were multilingual, students were allowed to write their dissertations in other major European languages, that is, English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and of course, Italian.

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II. Promoting Interculturalism and African Perspectives The UCSEI experience also led me to act as an intercultural ambassador, so to speak. Through UCSEI, I was able to promote African cultures and perspectives through, among other things, guest lectures at Rome’s middle and high schools and elsewhere. The sub-Saharan African identity crisis is apparent in native languages. Many African intellectuals are encouraging the decline and/or lack of interest in African languages. Many international development NGOs believe that knowledge of colonial languages is enough for their work in Africa. But the fact of the matter is that many villagers don’t speak English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish. Consequently, despite the fact that French is the official language of DRC, Italian aid workers in that country, for example, would be more effective with a basic knowledge of DRC’s national languages (Lingala, Kiswahili, Kikongo, and Tshiluba). So I followed up my contribution to Voices from Africa with Dizionario Italiano-Lingala/Lingala-Italiano (Gbotokuma 1990), a book that I completed right before leaving for the USA. I planned on possibly developing educational activities around the dictionary, especially the linguistic and cultural preparation for Italian NGO volunteers getting ready to work in DRC. The country’s official language is French. However, knowledge of Lingala is highly desirable. This is the case because Lingala is a lingua franca in the two Congos, i.e., CongoKinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville. It is the most popular of DRC’s four national languages spoken in the Equateur Province as well as in Kinshasa, the nation’s capital and the most populous city. I didn’t have the opportunity to carry out my plan because I migrated to the United States. However, I kept working on Africa-related issues and dictionaries (Gbotokuma 2010, 2009, 2007, 2003, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995), all of which are part of my virtual returns to the continent.1 The Manitese congress in Florence was followed by another one on the theme, Dalla Parte dell’Africa or “On the Side of Africa.” It took place in Milan on October 8-9, 1988. During that congress, I had the opportunity to briefly meet with, and have my photographs taken with two of the conference’s invited guests and VIPs, Ms. Kerry Kennedy and her brother. It was a big deal and it was encouraging to realize that some of this famous US family’s members were also interested in international cooperation issues. Another activity or event was UCSEI’s participation in the Settimana dei Popoli, or Peoples’ Week, an international and 1

See chapter 14, “Virtual Returns: Keeping in Touch with Family and Friends in Congo.” I use the phrase “virtual returns” as the opposite of, and alternative to, real or physical returns.

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multicultural festival organized by the Regione Lazio and the City of Rome in collaboration with international organizations and communities of Rome. It was during this event that I had the opportunity to meet my American girlfriend, who then was a catalyst for my travel and permanent move to the USA. In this sense and in my case, the Regione Lazio’s People’s Week became a bridge that connected two participants from two countries (DRC and USA), two continents (Africa and America), and two races (black and white). Last, but not least, it is worth mentioning my participation at the founding meeting of the Council of African Communities in Europe, or Conseil des Communautés Africaines en Europe (CCAE), in French. The three-day meeting took place in Paris, France, in mid-December 1989. The meeting dates coincided with my girlfriend’s return itinerary. She had to fly from Rome to the USA via Paris’ Charles de Gaulle International Airport. So we were able to travel together by train from Rome to Paris. In 1989, as one might recall, communism collapsed in the former Soviet Union and the two Germanys were unified soon thereafter. Western European countries saw in this historic event a golden opportunity for new markets in eastern European countries and in the Commonwealth of Independent States. This designation refers to the newly sovereign countries (Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.), which broke up from the former Soviet Union. To some extent, this new international order dealt a fatal blow to the North-South Dialogue, especially to Cold War-related international development aid. Russia and many Western countries drastically cut their traditional development funding to focus on new postCold War era realities. Consequently, African and other developing countries’ immigrants in Western Europe had to compete with new immigrants from eastern European countries. The European Union (EU) was still a work in progress. The new international order was going to have a negative impact on the African communities in Europe. The end of the Cold War was a phenomenon that helped the global South better understand the meaning of the African proverb, “When two elephants fight, the grass suffers; when they make love, the grass suffers, too.” There was an urgent need for organizations like CCAE to become Africa’s new voices from the diaspora. They were and should be voices for the defense of universal human rights and voices for the affirmation of common humanity. These voices needed to be heard before, during, and after the unification of Europe under the aegis of the EU. Powerful voices from Africa are needed for the continent’s sustainable development and for the improvement of its image, which continues to be negatively depicted,

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among others, by Hollywood. I will return to this issue in Part IV.2 Believe it or not, better socio-economic and living conditions for Africans in the diaspora have a positive impact on the continent’s development. This is apparent, among other things, in the impact of remittances and Africanoriented businesses established by the Africans of the diaspora. As an international student in Rome, I didn’t want to limit my European experience to the Vatican and Italy. Consequently, in addition to learning the Italian language and culture in Italy, I was also interested in, and committed to learning and maintaining other European languages through meaningful cultural immersion in the neighboring countries. Of course, my original multilingual experience served as a springboard. That was how I also ended up discovering and enjoying the economic benefits of world languages and multilingualism, the focus of chapter 5.

2

See chapter 15, “Hollywood’s Unholy Africa and Eurocentrism.”

CHAPTER FIVE FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF MULTILINGUALISM: STUDYING IN ITALY AND WORKING IN GERMANY

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Ja! Parlez-vous français? Oui. Parla Italiano? Si. ¿Habla Español? Si. Oyebi Lingala? Iyo.

I. From the Goethe Institute to German Factories AS I EXPLAINED EARLIER, I WENT TO ROME ON A FULL SCHOLARSHIP FROM THE VATICAN. However, when I gave up the idea of becoming a Catholic priest, I was on my own and I had to figure out ways to support myself financially. I used my meagre savings to start with. I had enough money to meet my basic needs for about a year. I moved to Centro Giovanni XXIII, thanks to a recommendation letter from Fr. N. Fumagalli, my rector at Collegio Urbano. The cost of living was made affordable due to the relatively low housing cost. In the academic year 1981-1982, my monthly payment for a shared bedroom was thirtyfive thousand Italian lire (approximately $30).1 We ate at the University of Rome’s mensa (canteen) and/or cooked our own meals. The biggest problem with cooking and handling our own food was the lack of refrigerators at the Centro. In addition to my modest starting funds, I had the opportunity to work as a Werkstudent or student worker during the summer of 1981 at Villeroy & Boch in Mettlach, Germany. For many international students whose employment was very limited in Italy, the German job connection was a golden opportunity. By the way, this program is similar to the guestworker programs (H-2 program) that the US 1 The Euro as a currency did not exist yet, since the European Union was still a dream or a work in progress.

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has for Mexicans and South Americans. It all began in the summer of 1980. I applied for, and was granted a two-month scholarship to study German at the Goethe Institute in Boppard am Rhein, Germany. This scholarship was granted by the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland). The program was administered through its embassy to the Holy See (Vatican) in Rome. It was part of the German cultural services, through which Pontifical Universities’ students were given the opportunity to spend their summers in Germany, learning German and/or working as Werkstudenten. When I went to the Goethe Institute, I thought that the knowledge of German was required for academic and cultural purposes only. Being able to speak and read scholarly works in German or in any world language, for that matter, is definitely a tremendous advantage for research. When I was at the Urban University, one of the frequently told jokes was that German scholars publish original works and other scholars, i.e., Italians, French, and others translate them. In other words, knowledge of German gives you access to primary sources. It turned out that a working knowledge of German also had economic benefits. Of course, the benefits of foreign languages go beyond economics. This is apparent in the following facts.

II. Foreign Language Facts Children who study another language score higher on basic skills such as reading and math (Rafferty 1986). Students who learn another language score significantly higher on US [tests known as] SATs and ACT (Educational Testing Service 1981; Angoff and Schrader 1981). People who are competent in more than one language consistently outscore monolinguals on tests of verbal and nonverbal intelligence (Tucker 1974, Hakuta 1986). Foreign language learnershave better listening skills and sharper memories than their monolingual peers (Lapkin et al 1990). Learning a second language at an earlier age leaves students with more flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language and a better ear to listening (Center for Applied Linguistics 2004). Learning a second language at an earlier age opens the door to other cultures and helps a child understand and appreciate people from other countries (CAL 2004).

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Chapter Five The benefits to society are many. Americans fluent in other languages improve global communication, enhance our economic competitiveness abroad, and maintain our political and security interest (CAL 2004; Gbotokuma 2008). Foreign language learners are more tolerant of the difference among people (Carpenter and Torney 1974, 14-24). Study of other languages and cultures upgrades cognitive skills and fosters adaptability in new situations (Foster and Reeves 1989). Studying other languages improves students’ ability to use their own language and heightens their sensitivity to their own culture (Masciantonio 1977). The integrated curriculum of foreign language education reinforces content from social studies, fine arts, math, science, language arts, and health/PE (Rafferty 1986; Masciantonio 1977). Students who study another language satisfy college requirements and receive college credit for their high school work. Career opportunities: knowledge of another language is essential in over 60 occupations, from law enforcement to healthcare, from education to business, from vocational to technological fields. Students who study other languages and cultures gain competence in working with diversity found in everything from the local neighborhood to the worldwide web (Landry 1974; Baker 1988/1990). Ability to use other languages allows students to communicate directly with speakers and writers of other languages. Researchers at York University, the Rotman Research Institute, and Dalhousie University have found that bilinguals show better control at multitasking, storing and processing information, and offsetting age-related declines in mental performance (Qtd in Washington Post, June 12, 2004, A07). A study conducted by neuroscientist Andrea Michelli at University College, London, claims that learning a foreign language may develop and improve the ability of the brain. The study discovered that the grey matter in the left inferior parietal cortex was larger in bilinguals than in monolinguals. The study was published in the journal Science (qtd by Reuters, October 13, 2004).

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Sources: http://www.oths.k12.il.us/foreignl/langfact.html Center for Applied Linguistics 2004: Why, How, and When Should My Child Learn a Second Language? http://www.cal.org/resources/pubs/whyhowwhen_brochure.pdf

As far as the financial benefits are concerned, in my particular case, I had to demonstrate that I was sufficiently proficient in German to be hired for my first summer job in Mettlach. The hiring was done through the German Commission on Labor (Deutsche Kommission für Arbeit, in German) in Rome. Part of the process consisted of job interviews conducted by the Commission’s representatives. They were sent directly from Germany to Rome. The interviews were conducted in German. I couldn’t be happier and prouder of myself when I was informed of the interviews’ positive results. I had to go through these interviews several times from 1981 to 1987. Virtually everything went very well except for the summer of 1985. I was hired by Villeroy & Boch twice, for the summers of 1981 and 1982, respectively. In the summer of 1983, I was fortunate to be offered a dream summer job by Daimler Benz AG in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. It was the most lucrative of my summer jobs in Germany. I earned more money than ever before. I was even tempted to buy a preowned Mercedes. After all it was much cheaper in Sindelfingen than in Italy and elsewhere. Most of my coworkers at Daimler Benz owned a Mercedes, which they traded for a new one every other year or so. But such a purchase was likely to have negative consequences on my financial situation. Firstly, Italian customs were pretty expensive for imported luxury cars. Secondly, insurance, maintenance services, and repair costs were exorbitant. That was usually the case for virtually all imported cars, not only in Italy, but also elsewhere. I knew that reality from personal experience. I already owned a regular French car, a preowned Renault 16 (R-16). Thirdly, and more importantly, it would have been odd to drive a Mercedes while staying at Centro Giovanni, which was also intended to provide needy students with affordable housing. I remembered what other students used to say about a Gabonese student who stayed at the Centro and had a Mercedes. It was a preowned one, but it didn’t matter; it was a Mercedes. Fourthly, my girlfriend needed some financial assistance, especially with the high tuition fees at her private school. She traveled with me to Sindelfingen, hoping to find summer employment there. Unfortunately, she didn’t succeed, because she didn’t have the proper work permit. Another reason for my temptation to buy a preowned Mercedes in Germany was to eventually resell it and make a profit in Rome. I knew some people who did exactly the same thing. But what if I couldn’t find a buyer as soon as I hoped? For all these reasons, I

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decided to give up the idea of buying a preowned Mercedes. In 1984, I worked for Kassela in Frankfurt, Germany. The only supposedly fancy thing I bought at the end of my summer job there was a stereo which, like most electronic equipment, was cheaper in Germany than in Italy. Unfortunately, jobwise I was not lucky in 1985. I didn’t receive any summer job offer in Germany that year, in part because the Commission wanted to provide the job opportunity to some other students. I spent the summer of that year in Italy, where the job situation was extremely challenging, especially for foreigners. My only way out was lavoro nero, or black labor, where one was scandalously exploited or blaxploited, especially when one was a black African.

III. Financial Hardships and 48 Hours in Villa Literno I tried to work in Villa Literno in the Province of Caserta, southern Italy, picking tomatoes for ridiculously low pay and living in abandoned houses or buildings under construction without running water and without bathrooms. These were the conditions under which many Africans worked in southern Italy. Ignorance and racial prejudice toward Africans prevented Villa Literno farmers from housing black workers. I had the opportunity to converse with a local farmer about this problem. His perspective reminded me of the predicament of the Afro-Dalits or “untouchables” in India. Villa Literno farmers didn’t want to share their houses with black Africans simply because for many of them, Africans were like the Indian untouchables, so to speak. There were no hotels and motels in Villa Literno and even if there were some, nobody would afford them with their low wages. In a conversation, I told a Villa Literno man that I had an Italian girlfriend and asked him what he thought about interracial relationships. He could not believe his ears when he heard that. He thought there was “something wrong with that woman.” Our conversation did not seem to be wonderful. Anyway, I appreciated the opportunity to inform him that his parochial way and beliefs were not the only ones. Anyway, I disliked Villa Literno’s work conditions, probably because I was spoiled by, and used to the much better working conditions in Germany. Perhaps I had such a high self-esteem and believed so much in our common humanity that I couldn’t stand that town’s dehumanizing treatment of foreign workers, most of whom were Africans. I was not prepared to stay for additional days and be the missionary of universal humanity, preaching the gospel of brotherhood and sisterhood. That could be a dangerous mission. I could jeopardize farmers’ profits, which were predicated on blaxploitation and their obsolete belief in blacks’ sub-humanity and second

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class citizenship. Last, but not least, I didn’t want to be the cause of unemployment for numerous fellow immigrants, many of whom didn’t have other options. So I quietly quit my job after only two days. After all, I wasn’t bound by any contract. There were no such things as employment contracts for tomato pickers in Villa Literno. That is the real meaning of lavoro nero. I wrote an article on that experience titled, “48 Ore a Villa Literno” (48 Hours in Villa Literno).2 My short experience became a useful testimonial and reference in my subsequent talks and writings on immigration and racism in Italy. In 1986 and 1987, I was lucky enough to work in Germany again. I worked for SKF, a chemical industry in Cologne and for a company that made airplane spare parts in Schweinfurt, near Würzburg. I completed and defended my doctoral dissertation in June 1986. So, technically I was no longer a student. However, I was able to convince my interviewers of my need for money as I started thinking about returning to my country. In 1987, I also got a job for the same reason. Additionally, I was enrolled at the Italian Society for International Organization for my postdoctoral work in international studies. Despite my well-paying summer job at Daimler Benz AG in 1983, because I had to financially help my girlfriend, I experienced some financial hardships during the 1984-1985 academic year. Having a car (not a Mercedes, just a preowned R-16) also contributed to my financial problems. I had two missed payments on the room rent at Centro Giovanni. The Center’s director wrote me a tough letter reminding me of the missed payments. The letter suggested that I was able but unwilling to pay the rent so that I could sustain my supposedly luxurious life style. Many people had a false perception about me. Many people thought that I was a rich student who was not entitled to reside at a place that was meant to help financially disadvantaged students. As a matter of fact, at the Centro, there were some students who came from rich families and there were students who had substantial government scholarships that would qualify them as “rich.” I didn’t belong to either category. In my January 1, 1985 reply to the Centro’s director, I clarified my situation as follows:3 Dear Director, I received your letter in which you urged me to take care of my missed rent payments for December [1984] and January 1985. In truth, I was ashamed. I also felt a great pain and sadness after reading the letter. As a matter of fact, I am not pleased at all to be reminded of fulfilling the clearly 2 3

See AMICIZIA, 1985:10-11. My original letter was in Italian.

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Chapter Five understood obligation to pay my monthly rent. If I didn’t pay it, or whenever I delay the payment, it is simply because I don’t always have secure economic means to be used for every circumstance. I create my means; I generate them by working throughout my entire summer vacations. Unfortunately, this time, I was unlucky. I was unable to find a decent job in order to use money earned over the summer during the academic year. I have documents to prove the truth of what I am telling you. I also create my means through occasional black employment (lavoro nero, in Italian), whenever I happen to get it. Indeed, I have had a lavoro nero since the beginning of this academic year. Unfortunately it didn’t last. The inhumanity of my boss put an end to my employment.4 He wanted to deny the humanity and rights of the supposedly “black slave” whom he wanted to exploit. From December on, I have been desperately looking for another lavoro nero, which would allow me, not only to pay my rent, but also to survive and study. For many people, all that I am saying would be a lie, cheating, will to exploit, etc., because, someone says or may say, Zeke is very rich (!); he has a car. Here I have to explain something, i.e., with that famous car – the Renault 16 – I also intended to be able to create my means of subsistence. That was what some students did [occasionally using their cars as a taxi]. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be lucrative at all. Moreover, I realized that it was a risky business.5 Some other people said or would say, Zeke[h] is always elegant, etc. All those statements about me were true. However, I am not rich. If I were really rich, I would never have chosen to stay at the Centro to “exploit” the poor and enrich myself even more.

4

It was some construction work in Rome. My boss was a retired Italian admiral who invested in real estate. I quit that job, because, among other reasons, I was paid less than my American and Italian co-workers. Last, but not least, I felt seriously offended when, in a conversation with his girlfriend, my boss used the phrase, “ho lavorato come un negro” (“I worked like a Negro”). He was referring to some of his past experiences of working hard. 5 I remember competing and clashing with unofficial Italian taxi drivers at the Fiumicino International Airport. I drove there with my R-16 to pick up arriving visitors from Africa, thereby earning some money. One Italian “taxi driver” warned me against doing that work, on the ground that I was a “straniero” or foreigner. I told him that I was a diplomat and I was there to protect my fellow citizens from being exploited by unofficial cab drivers. I picked-up Nigerian businesspersons and took them to Porta Portese market in Rome. Then I drove them back to the airport just to find out that they didn’t have money to pay for my service. Instead, they gave me trousers! There was nothing I could do. From that day on, I stopped that kind of occasional self-employment. I was afraid of being targeted and hurt by Italian “taxi drivers,” as a “straniero.”

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I hope that my state of indigence – the cause of my missed rent payments and many other things – doesn’t remain in saecula saeculorum [for ever and ever, in Latin]. I also hope that you will take my word into consideration in the examination of my case. I am terribly sorry for the delayed payments, which I hope to resolve as soon as possible. I count on your understanding and patience. I wish you a serene new year and the good health to carry out your welcome activity on behalf of foreign students. Yours sincerely, Zeke S. GBOTOKUMA

IV. From Centro to Parioli: Overcoming Financial Hardships I was afraid I was going to get in trouble with the Centro’s director on account of the letter regarding my overdue rent. But that was not the case at all. I was able to resolve my rent problem. As an active participant in UCSEI activities and as a member of the AMICIZIA editorial board, the director asked me to live at UCSEI’s headquarters located in one of Rome’s upper class residential areas, i.e., the Monti Parioli area. There are also many embassies in that area. The US ambassador’s highly gated and guarded residence was only a few blocks away. UCSEI’s national headquarters and my new residence, which some people referred to as villetta or little villa, was located on Via dei Monti Parioli. What was most helpful was the fact that I didn’t have to pay rent any more. Something peculiar about the Parioli area was the fact that blacks and other “colored people” who resided there were mostly maids and so whenever I told somebody that I lived in Monti Parioli, the assumption was that I was some fat cat’s servant or COLF.6 After I earned my doctoral degree from the Gregorian University, my business cards identified me as Dott. Zeke S. Gbotokuma (or Dr. Zeke S. Gbotokuma). That made some people think twice before they assumed that I was a COLF, even though there were many African Dott. or PhDs. doing all kinds of menial work, given the legal restrictions imposed on the stranieri extracomunitari or “extra

6

In Italy, and especially in Rome, COLF or Collaboratori Familiari (Family/Domestic Collaborators) was the term (abbreviation) used to designate foreign domestic workers, most of whom came from Cape Verde and the Philippines.

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community foreigners.”7 I felt very happy when one day, during a walk in the Parioli area, an old Italian man asked me, “Are you Sidney Poitier?” Of course, I am not S. Poitier. Many people have told me that I look like him. At least that Italian man did not assume that every black man or Philippino walking in the Parioli area must be a COLF. Despite my modest financial means, I was fortunate enough to live relatively well in some of the best locations in Rome. I was able to overcome hardships through activism, intercultural competence, friendship, and networking.

V. Photographs ITALY - ITALIA - LA REPUBBLICA ITALIANA Quick Facts Italian Flag: La Bandiera Italiana, also referred to as Il Tricolore, because it has three colors, i.e., green, white, and red. National Anthem: Inno di Mameli/Canto degli Italiani (Mameli’s Hymn/Song of the Italians) Population: 58,742,000 Area: 301,333 sq. km (116,345 sq. miles) Official Language: Italiano/Italian; Others: German, French, Slovene Capital: Rome Currency: Euro (prior to EU: Lira/Lire) Head of State: Giorgio Napolitano (2006 – present) Source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition NOTE on Prime Minister (Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri, in Italian) Enrico Letta (2013-2014): For the first time in Italy’s political history, Letta’s center-left government appointed a black African, Dr. Cécile Kyenge, a Congolese-born ophthalmologist as Minister of Integration, spurring debate on racism in Italy. But this historic political phenomenon did not last long (approximately one year) as Letta’s government was quickly replaced by Matteo Renzi’s in February 2014

7

The Italian term extracomunitari (sing. extracomunitario or extracomunitaria) refers to foreigners or stranieri, in Italian, from countries that are not members of the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Community (EEC), the precursor of the EU.

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Figure 5-1 AS SAR: Zekeh and Stan

Figure 5-2 Arrchbishop Milinngo & Nigerian n ambassador att ASAR Meeting

Activities off the African Students S Association in Rom me (ASAR) Top: Zekehh (ASAR Seecretary-General) and Staan Sheriff off Liberia (President) speak at an event. Bottom m: From leftt to right: Arrchbishop Emmanuel M Milingo of Zambia; Z Nigerrian ambassaddor to Italy; Romanus Nwaereka oof Nigeria, AS SAR VP; and Zekeh. Milinngo was ASAR R’s major spiritual andd financial suupporter. He was w excommuunicated by Pope P John Paul II beccause he marrried a South h Korean wooman during a Mooni wedding cerremony in New York City, 2001. Dr. Stann Sheriff has served as the Liberiann ambassador to t Italy since 2010. 2

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Figure 5-3 Feerrari Show/Tesst

Zekeh and a Kenyan studdent sit in a Ferrari F race caar, almost read dy to test drive. But thhe experience was a very sh hort lived one . The occasion n was the company’s ccar show in Vicenza, V Italy, 1985. It coinccided with UC CSEI and Centro Giovvanni-sponsorred cultural im mmersion tourr of the Venetto region. Ferrari S.p.A A. is an Italiian sports carr manufactureer based in Maranello, M northern Itally. It was founnded by Enzo Ferrari in 19229 as Scuderiaa Ferrari.

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Figure 5-4 M My Italian Work Permit Mod. 28 8

This docum ment was issueed by the Italian Ministry oof Labor on September 22, 1989. Inn addition to information i reegarding my pplace and datee of birth, there were also entry lines l for my education leevel and pro ofessional qualificationn, that is, “D Dottore in Fillosopfia” andd for foreign language skills, excluuding motherr tongue, thaat is, “Franceese, Inglese, Italiano, Tedesco” (French, Englishh, Italian, Gerrman). Despitte my educatio onal level and professsional qualifi fication, work king as an unskilled wo orker, or manovale coomune, in Itaalian, was my fate, pursuannt to Legge (L Law/Bill) 943 of December 30, 1986, unlesss UCSEI maanaged to ex xtend my temporary pprofessional em mployment co ontract into a regular full-tiime work contract. Buut I left Italy foor the USA in June 1990.

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Figure 5-5 Z Zekeh Delivers the Occasion Speech at thee 1984 Internaational Art Exhibit Inaugguration

mong Dignitariees Attending thhe 1984 Internaational Art Figure 5-6 Card. Gantin Am Exhibit Inaugguration at Centtro Giovanni XX XIII

From left too right, front row: r Ms. Marria Carlucci, C Centro’s Vice Director; Late Card. B B. Gantin of thhe Vatican Cu uria; Zekeh; annd Don R. Mu usaragno, Centro’s Dirrector and UC CSEI President. Internationaal art shows were w some of the actiivities sponsoored by the Centro andd UCSEI to promote interculturallism and to acknowledge a immigrants’ i ccontributions to Italian society.

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Figure 5-7 Caard. Rossi Speaaks to Centro Giiovanni XXIII S Students in 198 85

Card. Agnello Rossi was the Vatican’s Prefect of thee Sacred Congregation for Evangelization. Next to him is Zek keh G., a Cenntro student committee member. Thhe Centro was a gift from th he Vatican.

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Figure 5-8 M Meeting with Arcchbishop Frederric Etsou of Kinnshasa, 1988

Several Conngolese from m the Equateu ur Province m meet with Arrchbishop Etsou at UC CEI’s headquuarters in Ro ome. From leeft to right: Fr. F Mole; Nzumbu L Lo-Ambetima; Card. Etso ou; and Zekkeh (the ho ost). The archbishop w was also from m the Equateur Province. Poope John Pau ul II made him a cardinnal in 1991. He H passed away y in 2007. Alll of us share a common denominatorr, that is, wee all attended d Bolongo M Minor Seminaary (high school).

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Figure 5-9 Baarrio Latino – Centro C Giovanni’s Latin Ameriican Dance Troop

This photo w was taken afteer a 1985 holid day event. It w was directed by b Alvaro of Panama ((first from thee left), and hosted by Zekehh (first from the t right), who is applaauding and invviting the audience to do thhe same.

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Figure 5-10 D Dialogue on Raccism at the University of Bari

Bari, Southeern Italy, Marcch 21, 1986. From left to right: a studeent from the University U of B Bari; Zekeh (speaking); Gaston Tchhinde of Caameroon; and two repreesentatives from f the University. T Tchinde and Zekeh Z joined this t event thannks to Fr. Zan notelli, an Italian Com mbonian missioonary and outtspoken advoccate of the an nti-racism movement inn Italy. He waas the keynotee speaker.

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Show in Rome Figure 5-11 Innternational Litteracy Day 1989 Antique Car S

Photo of thee Day – coverr page of the Italian I newspaaper L’Unità, Monday, September 11, 1989, feaaturing Dr. Zekeh Gbotokuuma of UCSEI and a British Jourrnalist. An intternational NG GO conferencce on global illiteracy was followeed by an antiqque car show riding r from Stt. Peter’s Square to the Quirinnale oor the Italian president’s office. o We dellivered the co onference declaration tto President Sandro S Pertinii to draw attenntion to the prroblem of illiteracy inn the world. On O Novembeer 17, 1965, UNESCO prroclaimed September 8 Internationnal Literacy Day. Septeember 8 is also the incorporatioon date of myy organization, that is, Poolyglots in Action A for Diversity, Innc. (PAD).

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Figure 5-12 A ANC's Benny Nato N Talks Abou ut Apartheid at C Centro Giovann ni, 1988

Benny Natoo (center), the African Natio onal Congresss (ANC) repreesentative to Italy, talkks about Southh Africa’s apaartheid system m and ANC’s struggles to internatioonal students from Centro o Giovanni X XXIII, many of o whom were from A Africa. He is flanked fl by Dr. Zekeh Gbotookuma of UCS SEI (left), talk moderattor, and a Niggerian student and interpreteer. The talk occcurred at a time chharacterized by b numerou us anti-racism m and anti--apartheid demonstratioons in Italy.. ANC’s stru uggles and international pressure resulted inn Nelson Mandela’s M releease from hhis 27-year political imprisonmennt on April 111, 1990, his Nobel N Peace P Prize in 1993, which he jointly wonn with Presiddent F.W. de Klerk, and most importaantly, his inaugurationn as post-aparrtheid South Africa’s A first democraticallly elected president onn May 10, 1994, 1 following the April 27, 1994 ellection. I personally hhanded Centroo Giovanni XXIII’s X talk innvitation to Mr. M Nato, whose officee was unofficially provided d by Italy’s Coommunist Parrty, which was unambiguously againnst apartheid. At A that time, tthe Italian gov vernment, like most Euuropean goverrnments, had diplomatic d andd commerciall relations with South A Africa’s apartheid regime. Consequently C y, it could not officially deal with thee ANC, whichh was banned by the South A African goverrnment.

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Figure 5-13 M Meeting Two Keennedys in Milan

From left tto right: Kerrry Kennedy (former wifee of New York Y Gov. Cuomo); Zeekeh; and Kerrry’s brother. The occasionn was an inteernational developmennt meeting hossted by Milan--based NGO M Manitese, 1988.

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Figure 5-14 S Settimana dei Poopoli 1989

Lazio Regioon Councilor Troia (right) chats with Zeekeh at UCSE EI’s Stand at the Settim mana dei Poppoli, July 1989 9. Settimana ddei Popoli orr Peoples’ Week was a one-week long internattional festivaal. It allowed d Rome’s immigrants to showcase their diverse and rich cultuures. It was sponsored s by Regione Lazio, whichh is representeed in this pictu ture by Assesssor Troia. The event w was part of thee city leaders’ efforts to proomote cultural diversity and tolerancce, thereby figghting xenopho obia and racissm.

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Figure 5-15 Z Zekeh and a Pannoramic View of o Foro Romanoo from Campidoglio

In June 20001 I traveled back b to Romee for the first time since leaving the city in June 1990. This iss a panoramic view of the F Foro Romano from the porch of la S Sala della Proomoteca in Campidoglio. Thhe occasion was w a oneday conferennce on the theeme, “The Am mbiguity of Hoospitality: A Survey S of Assistance aand Social Prootection of Fo oreign Womenn and Minors Reduced to Sexual S Slavery (L’AM MBIGUITA DE ELL’ACCOGL LIENZA: Un Percorso di Assistenzaa e Protezionee Sociale per Donne e Minnori Stranieri Ridotti R in Schiavitù SSessuale, in Italian). I It was w organizedd by Ora d’’Aria, an association for rights annd liberties; Istituto Galliicano; Presid denza del Consiglio ddei Ministri – Dipartimen nto Pari Oppoortunità; and Regione Lazio, June 22, 2001.

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Figure 5-16 Z Zekeh’s Homecooming Talk at Centro C Giovannni XXIII

Zekeh speaaks to the Ceentro Giovanni XXIII intternational stu udents in Rome, Junee 21, 2001. On his left are the center’s director Don Remigio Musaragno (RIP!) and thhe students’ prresident. Zekeeh stayed at th he Centro from 1981 tto 1985 prior to moving to,, and workingg for UCSEI’ss office in Via dei Monnti Parioli, a chhic and bourg geois area of thhe city (1985--1990).

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Figure 5-17 T The Wolf Statuee Ride at Hilton n Hotel Garden, Rome, June 20 001

My first retuurn to Rome inn June 2001 had h an unhapppy end due to a re-entry visa problem m. My new Coongolese passp port did not coontain any pro oof of my original entrry to the USA A. I spent threee additional daays at the Hilton Hotel to solve thee visa problem m at the US Embassy. E Thee wolf had su upposedly played an im mportant role in the legend dary foundatioon of Rome in n 753 BC by Romuluss, who was abbandoned alon ng with his bbrother Remuss by their mother and saved by a wolf. w But will this t wolf ridee rescue me 27 754 years after the fouundation of Roome?

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Figure 5-18 Z Zekeh Stands inn front of Centro o Giovanni, Roome, August 12,, 2013

Zekeh Standds on Ponte Sisto S over thee Tiber Riverr, or Tevere, in i Italian. This was myy second visitt to Rome sincce my departuure for the US S in 1990. Behind is tthe building that houses,, inter alia, Centro Intern nazionale Giovanni XX XIII students. The Centro is located on L Lungotevere dei d Vallati Number 1, rright in front of the Tiber River. As a sstudent, I stay yed at the Centro from m October 1981 to 1985. I th hen moved to the Parioli areea, where I lived until June 1990.

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Figure 5-19 Z Zekeh Stands inn Front of Piazza Venezia, Rom me, August 11, 2013. 2

Piazza Veneezia or Venicce Square is,, like the neeighboring Co olosseum, another poppular tourist atttraction. It iss “the central hub of Romee. It takes its name from Venice (Venezia in Italian), after tthe Venetian cardinal, Pietro Barboo (later Pope Paul II) who had built Palaazzo Venezia,, a palace set next to tthe nearby chhurch of Sain nt Mark, the ppatron saint of o Venice. Palazzo Vennezia was the former embassy of … the Republic of Venice V to Rome” (Wikkipedia, “Piazzza Venezia.”) By the wayy, the Societtà Italiana peer l’Organizzzazione Intern nazionale (SIOI), wheere I earned a postdoctoraal diploma inn internationaal studies (1987), wass located in Palazzetto di Venezia, rigght in front of o Piazza Venezia. Moreover, Greggorian University, my alm ma mater, is less than three blockss away.

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Figure 5-20 Z Zekeh Revisits the t Colosseum, August 2013

A UNESCO O World Herittage Site. Thiss was my secoond trip to Ro ome since leaving in Juune 1990. Thiis historic amp phitheater wass built and mo odified in 70-80 and 881-96 AD unnder the Rom man Emperors Vespasian, Titus, T and Domitian (F Flavian Dynassty). It is also known as Flaavian Amphittheater, or Amphitheatrrum Flavium, in Latin, or Anfiteatro F Flavio, in Itallian. It is believed to be the worldd’s largest amp phitheater. Thhe structure co ould hold about 50,0000-80,000 specctators. It was used for glladiatorial con ntests and public specttacles such ass mock sea battles, animal hunts, execu utions, reenactments oof famous batttles, and dram mas based on cllassical mytho ology. It is an iconic sym mbol of imperrial Rome. It is one of Romee’s most popu ular tourist attractions aand has close connections with w the Romaan Catholic Church, C as each Good Friday, the pope leads a torchlight “Way of the Cross” procession that starts inn the area around the C Colosseum (W Wikipedia, “Colosseum m,” accessed Juuly 2014).

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Figure 5-21 V Visiting Friendss in Rome, April 28, 2014

Nzumbu’s F Family: From m left to rig ght: Emmanuuel (second son), s Dr. Nzumbu Loo-Ambetima, Zekeh, Z Dr. Caarla Mauro (N Nzumbu’s wiffe), Anna Sabina (thirrd and last chhild), and Maaurice (oldestt son). Nzum mbu and I attended thee same high scchool in DRC, the same maajor seminaries in DRC and in Romee, Italy.

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Photographs from England, United Kingdom (UK) Quick Facts Full Name: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Flag (Union Jack or Union Flag): “A white fimbriated symmetric red cross on a blue field with a white –fimbriated counterchanged saltire of red and white.” Adopted 1 January 1801 (Wikipedia). National Anthem: God Save the Queen Population: 63,395,574 (World Atlas, 2013) Area: 242,910 square kilometers (93,788 square miles) Official Language: English. Others: Welsh, Scots Capital: London Currency: British Pound (GBP) Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II (1952-present) Source: Wikipedia

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Figure 5-22 O On the Boat to and a from the UK K

Top: Leavinng Wincantonn for France after a a four-w week summer course at St. Luke’s P Priory of Winncanton. Botto om: Zekeh E Embarks from France’s Cherbourg pport for Wincaanton, UK, Jun ne 30, 1979.

Figure 5-23 Z Zekeh and English Classmates in Wincanton, UK

My Englishh Classmates at St. Luke’ss Priory, Winncanton, Englaand, July 1979. From Left to Right: Zekeh; Stan (Teacher); annd classmates.

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Figure 5-24 Z Zekeh and Classsmates’ Tour off London

On a July 19979 rainy day (“English weeather”), Zekehh and Classm mates from St. Luke’s P Priory Touringg London, UK K. We were hhappy to stop and take photographss whenever it stopped rainin ng.

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Tour of London: Big Ben and London L Bridge Figure 5-25 T

Big Ben refe fers to the Greeat Bell of the clock at the nnorth end of th he Palace of Westminsster in Londonn, UK. It is th he common deesignation of the clock and the “Cloock Tower.” Since S 2012, th he tower has been officiallly known as the Elizabeth Tower.. It was renaamed after Q Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate heer diamond jubbilee. The tow wer was comppleted in 1858 8. It holds the largest ffour-faced chiiming clock in i the world. It is no longeer among the top threee tallest free standing s clock k tower. Dubaai’s Burj Khallifa in the United Arabb Emirates haas been the world’s w tallesst building sin nce 2010 (height: 8299.8 m or 2,7222 ft). The second tallest tow wer since 2012 has been Tokyo Skyttree (634 m or o 2,080 ft); and the thirdd since 2014 has been Shanghai Toower (632 m or 2,073 ft). London Briidge crosses the t River Thames in C Central Londoon. It is 269 m or 882 ft longg; 32 m or 105 5 ft wide. Source: Wikkipedia, “Big Ben” B http://en n.m.wikipediaa.org/wiki/Big_ _Ben. Edited by M McGeddon, Seppt 24, 2014. Th his summary aand the photog graphs are mine.

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Figure 5-26 Z Zekeh Plays andd Snacks with British B Childrenn

Playing andd Snacking with British Children in My Host’s Yard in Wincanton. I spent my first week inn St. Luke’s Priory P dormitoory. That arraangement was not connducive to lannguage and cu ultural immerssion. I was glaad to stay with a Britiish family annd comingle with Ms. Guudrun’s neigh hbors and friends.

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Figure 5-27 P Playing with Mrrs. Gudrun’s Caat

Mrs. Gudruun’s Cat, Guest, and Zekeh h in Wincantoon. This cat was w Mrs. Gudrun’s “ddarling.” She proudly told me that she spent more money m to feed her cat than for her own o food.

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Teatime: A Britiish Sacred Trad dition Figure 5-28 T

Zekeh Holds a Child C During Teeatime Figure 5-29 Z

Zekeh Holdds a British Child C chez Mrrs. and Mr. Peellet, Sommerset, UK, August 19799. The familyy is related to o my host fam mily in Wincaanton. We drove there for tea time, a typical Britissh tradition.

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Photographs from Germany DEUTSCHLAND THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND Quick Facts Flag Colors: Black, Red, and Gold National Anthems: Das Deutschlandlied Population: 81.5 million (2011) Area: 357,021 sq. km, or 137,847 sq. miles Official Language: German/Deutsch Capital: Berlin Currency: Euro (Prior to EU: Deutsche mark or DM) Head of State: Joachim Gauch Chancellor/Prime Minister: Angela Merkel NOTE: The German National Soccer Team was the 2014 FIFA World Cup Champion, June 12-July 13, beating the Brazilian team in the semi-final game by 7-1, and beating Argentina 1-0 in the final game on Sunday, July 13. The Cup took place in Brazil. Source: World Travel Guide

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Figure 5-30 S Schnaps Time: The T Goethe Institute Way

Boppard am m Rhein, Germ many, July-Aug gust 1980 Sum mmer Course. Participants of the summ mer course of German as a Foreign Lang guage, or Deutsch alss Fremdspracche and teach hers participaate in extra-ccurricular activities inttended to imm merse particip pants in the G German cultu ure. Other immersion aactivities weree sightseeing, soccer gamess with the loccal soccer team, etc. F From left to the, bottom: Frau Sabine – teacher – prepares Schnapps foor the studentts. From left to t right, top: Tarcisse, Frau u Sabine, Zekeh, Ms.. Lange (teaacher), and others. o Somee of the parrticipants, including m myself, were beneficiaries b of o DAAD. I w was one of a very few applicants sselected baseed on an wrritten admissiion test takeen at the embassy of Germany to the t Holy See in Rome, Italyy. After two months m of intensive coourse at the second s level or Grundstufffe II, I was able and confident too handle basiic conversatio on in Germann. I was also o able to successfullyy handle the orriginal job interview a yearr later and several other interviews tthat allowed me m to work as a student worrker or Werksstudent in Germany (summer 1981--1987). Summ mer job intervviews took plaace at the

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office of R Rome-based Deutsche D Ko ommission fürr Arbeit, or German Commissionn on Labor. Obviously, this was thee financial benefit of knowing a fforeign languaage/German. The Goethe Institute is a Federal Repu ublic of Germa many cultural institution operating w worldwide. It is i the leading g institution ffor the teachin ng of the German langguage. Ten Reasonns to learn German: G business; globall career; tourrism and hospitality industry; science and research; r com mmunication; cultural understandinng; travel; enjjoyment of litterature, musiic, art, and ph hilosophy; opportunity to study/workk in Germany y; opportunityy for exchangee (source: Goethe Instiitute home pagge). On a personnal level, know wledge of Germ man allowed m me to get sum mmer jobs in Germany and pay for my m education in i Italy.

Figure 5-31 Z Zekeh Works ass “Werkstudent”” at V & B Mett ttlach

Zekeh workks as an internnational studen nt worker or Wekstudent att Villeroy & Boch (V& &B), Mettlachh, Germany. For F two conseccutive summeers (19811982), I worrked as a Hilfs fschlosser or assistant mechaanic.

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An Auf Wiederssehen Toast on the t Last Day off Work at V&B Figure 5-32 A

Mettlach, G Germany, September 198 82 - On thee last day of o work, Werkstudentt or student worker w Zekeh – second froom left – and d German coworkers hhave an Auf Wiedersehen W Toast. T I had ttwo consecutiive threemonth summ mer job contrracts with Villleroy & Bochh, 1981 and 1982. The ceramics inddustry was foounded in Lorraine, Holy Rooman Empiree, in 1748 by François Boch and Niicolas Villeroy y. It is headquuartered in Meettlach. It produces cuutlery, bathrooom ceramiccs, etc. My job title th here was Hilfschlosseer or assistant mechanic.

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Figure 5-33 R Renault 16 or R16: R My First Frrench Car Bougght in Germany y

This was m my original ussed car. I purcchased it in 11982 from a V&B V coworker in M Mettlach and drove it all th he way to Roome, Italy. Priice: 2000 DM. It wass my major and a internation nal driving teest after obtaaining my driver’s liceense in 1980 in i Rome. I to ook this photoo during a tesst drive. I was locked oout and rescueed by a Germaan police officcer (Polizei)

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Figure 5-34 Z Zekeh (Rt) and Landlord L in Sin ndelfingen, Gerrmany

During the ssummer of 19983, I worked as a Werkstuddent for Daim mler Benz AG. The moonthly rent waas 300 DM, orr 900 DM for tthree months.

Figure 5-35 Z Zekeh (Middle) and Spanish Amigos in Sindeelfingen

On a Sunnyy September 1983 Afternoo on, Zekeh – M Middle – Visitss Spanish Amigos in S Sindelfingen. They T are from m Barcelona. T The man is a co-worker c at Daimler B Benz AG.

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Figure 5-36 Mercedes Beenz C300: Rem membering Myy Werkstudentt Days at Daimler Benzz AG in Sindelffingen, German ny

My work hhistory as ann international student woorker (Werkstu udent, in German) inn Germany inncludes one summer’s em mployment at Daimler Benz AG inn Sindelfingenn, Germany, July-Septembber 1983. Pho otographs from the acttual workplace are not avaiilable. I was a Karosserie (ccar body) worker. It w was a tough jobb. The first weeek was, in paarticular, much h tougher. However, it was the mostt lucrative of my summer jjobs in Germaany. Most Daimler Bennz regular worrkers owned a Mercedes, w which they trad ded every two years or so for a new w one. I was impressed. I was sorely teempted to purchase a ccheap used onne to possibly y resell in Rom me. But I did dn’t and I am glad I didn’t. I wouldd have been perceived p as aan opulent student who didn’t deserrve to live att Centro Giovanni XXIII in Rome, which was meant to heelp needy inteernational stud dents. I had tto wait two decades to afford a certtified used onne in the USA, thanks to a ggenerous car financing system, which allows onne to spread the paymentts over severral years. Daimler Benz AG is a German G multiinational autoomotive corpo oration. It was founded by Gottliebb Daimler an nd Wilhelm M Maybach/Karl Benz in 1926 and iit is headquaartered in Stu uttgart. This is, in a nutsshell, my connection with the company c and its worldd renowned product.

CHAPTER SIX RECEIVING A HELPING HAND THROUGH NETWORKING AND FRIENDSHIP

Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics)

I. A Helping Hand from Cologne MY FINANCIAL PROBLEMS WERE ALLEVIATED THROUGH FINANCIAL AID OR PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIPS obtained through my German connections. In 1984, my summer employment with Kassela A.G. in Frankfurt, Germany, lasted just two months. I managed to find additional part-time employment in Cologne, Germany, where I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Wilhelm Nyssen, professor at the University of Cologne and university parish priest. He was doing something comparable to what Mgr. Musaragno was doing in Rome, i.e., organizing student housing and financial aid for students in need. One day, after a Sunday service, he noticed that I was a guest in the university parish. I introduced myself to him and shared what brought me to Cologne. It was clear that I was a foreign student from a developing country and in need. I was exactly the kind of student he sometimes managed to assist. He told me that help was on the way. It couldn’t be a full scholarship, because I was studying in Italy. The full scholarships could be given only to qualified candidates studying in Germany. The offered amount was 600 DM or so per month for two years. Not bad at all, since I had the opportunity to earn additional income through my summer employment. Additional financial assistance from Cologne came from Mrs. and Mr. Zimmermann. Whenever I had a summer job offer in Germany, the Romebased German Commission on Labor and the German employer made the necessary housing arrangements for me. In May 1986, I received a letter from the Commission regarding my lodging. I was told that I was going to

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stay with the Zimmermanns during my summer employment in Cologne. The monthly rent was supposed to be 300 DM, or 900 DM for the three months. When I arrived in Cologne, I was happily surprised when Mrs. and Mr. Zimmermann told me that my housing was free. For me, that meant 900 DM saved! They told me that it was their way of contributing to the education of somebody from the third world, or “die dritte Welt,” in German. I stayed in an elegant basement bedroom, formerly occupied by the Zimmermanns’ two grown up daughters. They had moved out a year or so earlier and lived in Cologne. In addition to the free rent, I also benefited from free dinners.

II. A Helping Hand from Austria The Zimmermanns’ charitable action was reminiscent of some even greater and lasting assistance from Austria. When I was a seminarian at Collegio Urbano in Rome, every seminarian from developing countries had a benefactor from Austria. Everything was coordinated by the Vatican through Mgr. Holenstein of Bregenz, Austria. In 1979, my second year at Collegio Urbano, our vice rector Father Pierre Tot informed me about my benefactor from Lingenau, Austria. Her name was Maria Schwärzler. The Schwärzlers were farmers and an ordinary Austrian family. They were devout Catholics with actionable faith. For three years they provided me with a modest yet badly needed extra source of financial aid. Like the Zimmermanns, Maria Schwärzler was committed to helping a third world seminarian studying in Rome. My friendship with the family continued even after I told them in 1981 that I was no longer interested in the priesthood. I visited them whenever I could, especially on my way to and/or from Germany, where I frequently had summer employment. The friendship became much stronger between me and Herma, the Schwärzlers’ elder daughter and her husband Albert Feuerstein. They had one daughter, Natalia. They lived in Schwarzenberg zur Egg, Austria. Herma was an elementary school teacher and Albert was a Sparkasse (savings bank) employee. Having noticed my taste for fashion, Herma occasionally gave me some of the nice suits and ties that Albert was not wearing anymore. I still wear one of them today. I received that threepiece blue suit in 1982 (thirty-two years ago). Back then, it looked kind of big on me. But it fits me perfectly now and I still love it. That’s why I keep having it resized and/or repaired whenever necessary. I remember wearing it once in one of my first graduate classes at Gregorian University. I showed up earlier than everybody, including the professor. When a classmate showed up, he asked me if I was the professor. Perhaps to him I

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didn’t look old enough to be a professor. However, I suppose that suit made me look like one, courtesy of my Austrian friends. Danke schön Albert und Herma! My relationship with them was so good that I was once tempted, upon their suggestion, to transfer to Austria for my graduate studies. I visited the University of Innsbruck on my way to Rome from summer employment in Germany. One of Herma’s younger brothers worked as an architect in Innsbruck. There, I met with some admissions officers. They were very friendly and welcoming. After a short conversation with them, they told me that my German was good enough and I wouldn’t have to go through the whole language course required of foreign students. Even better, they were going to make an exception and allow me to start taking regular courses while taking whatever additional German courses were necessary to improve my language proficiency. Wunderbar! (Wonderful! in German). Much better still, they also told me that as an African student, I was going to be exempted from some fees as part of the Austrian government’s international aid to developing countries’ students. It was also a part of the university’s diversity and internationalization agenda. It all sounded great. Unfortunately, I didn’t get too crazy about the idea of starting over right when I was becoming comfortable in Rome and acting almost like a Roman, so to speak. Additionally, I didn’t like the weather there. It was much colder than in Rome, windy, and of course, very snowy in winter. I remembered my first visit to the Schwärzlers in Lingenau, Austria, during the wintertime. The whole town was covered with snow and of course, it was freezing. So I continued studying in Rome. I wished I’d had the same offer and had received the same or similar treatment from admissions officers when I’d visited the Université de Paris, Sorbonne in France, two years or so earlier. I definitely would have relocated there. In that case, I would not have had to deal with the language problem, since I know French, which is the official language of DRC, my native country.

III. My Abruzzi Connections and a Cultural Misunderstanding In Magliano dei Marsi, located in the Italian region of Abruzzi, Mrs. and Mr. Renato Parere were very good friends. They were like a family to me. I met them through Father Antonio, their parish priest and director of the Carità diocesana or Diocese Charity. I met him through Rodrigo Hidalgo, a Peruvian friend of mine and a fellow editorial board member of AMICIZIA, the UCSEI publication. The occasion was an Easter Sunday mass in 1984 or 1985. Father Antonio asked Rodrigo to bring some other

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friends from different countries. The purpose was to have an international Easter Sunday celebration and to show hospitality toward foreigners. The Parere family was my host for the long Easter weekend. But our relationship continued thereafter. The Pareres didn’t have any children and they treated me like an adopted son. Mr. Parere, who was self-employed as a mason, died of heart disease a year later. May he rest in peace! I continued visiting Mrs. Elsa Parere, especially during major holidays, which were also opportunities for gathering with her other family members and relatives, including her younger sister and her husband who lived next door and had a son and two daughters. One holiday weekend I visited Mrs. Parere. She asked me to bring my African girlfriend and I did. Unfortunately, the visit turned ugly and was cut short for her because of a cultural misunderstanding. So what happened? Well, Mrs. Parere made two separate beds for me and my girlfriend. That sleeping arrangement was based on her traditional Catholic belief. In her view, we shouldn’t share the same bed, since we were not married. It was very cold that night. The house didn’t have a heating system beside firewood being burned in the fireplace. My girlfriend made sure Mrs. Parere understood her disagreement over the two-bed situation. According to my girlfriend, the whole thing was part of Mrs. Parere’s plan to separate us, and she was doing it maybe because I was supposedly interested in her sister’s daughter, who by the way, was not even eighteen years old. My girlfriend left in anger the day after. I stayed another day or two, trying to explain her perspective and to apologize for what had happened. Our relationship continued to fall apart soon thereafter. She was ready for marriage. But I was not. We finally broke up and I started dating an Italian girl from the Puglia region, whom I met during my lecture tour in southern Italy. This new dating proved that there was nothing between me and the teen age girl from Magliano dei Marsi.

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IV. Photographs from Austria AUSTRIA / ÖSTERREICH Quick Facts Flag: A horizontal triband of red (top and bottom) and white. Adopted in 1230. National Anthem: Land der Berge Population: ca. 8.2 million (UN, 2006) Area: 32,383 sq. miles (83,871 sq. km) Official Language: German/Deutsch Capital: Vienna/Wien Currency: Euro (Prior to Euro: Austrian Shilling) Head of State: Heinz Fischer (2006-present) Life Expectancy: 76 years (men); 82 years (women) Sources: Wikipedia and Visions of Austria

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Figure 6-1 M Mrs. Maria Schw wärzler of Lingeenau, Austria, 19979

She was myy benefactor when w I was a seminarian at Urban Univ versity. At Collegio Urrbano where I stayed as a seminarian, eevery theology student was connectted to an Ausstrian Catholicc family, whicch provided additional a financial asssistance.

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Figure 6-2 M My Austrian Frieends Herma and d Albert

From left to right: Mrrs. Herma Feuerstein, F thhe Schwärzleers’ elder daughter; Zekeh; and Albbert Feuersteiin. The Feuerrsteins live in the little town of Schhwarzenberg zur z Egg. We arre like family.

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Figure 6-3 Ennjoying Nature with My Austriian Friends

Top: Hermaa and Zekeh; Bottom: Zekeeh and two A Austrian childrren at the Schwärzlerss’ Farm in Linngenau, Septem mber 1982.

CHAPTER SEVEN BREAKING AN INTERRACIAL DATING TABOO: MY RELATIONSHIPS WITH CELIA AND PINA

I. Dialogue on Racism in Italy and Meeting Celia I MET CELIA1 IN 1985 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BARI, where Mr. Gaston Tchinde, a fellow African student from Cameroon and I were invited as guest speakers to talk about racism in Italy. The talk was part of a lecture series on the same topic in southern Italy. The event was organized by Father Zanotelli, an outspoken and charismatic Combonian missionary priest. In the 1980s, talks about racism were mostly about condemning the apartheid system in South Africa. As I stated in the Prologue, Italians frequently and proudly referred to themselves as nonracist people because of their long experience with emigration. But the fact of the matter was that with a growing immigrant population, xenophobia and racism became an Italian reality. Immigrants were blamed for the growing unemployment in Italy. They were perceived as those who “stole jobs” from Italians. So there was a need to address the problem through immigrant eyes.

II. Genesis and Evolution of a Problematic Relationship The Bari lecture was followed by an informal meeting with students who had further questions and/or comments. Celia was one of them. The postlecture exchange slowly developed into friendship through phone calls, letters, poetry, and visits. I happen to keep a copy of a piece of poetry dedicated and handed to me. Its title is, “CHI È ZEKE” or WHO IS ZEKE? Below is my translation from its original Italian.

1

Celia is a pseudonym that I have used throughout this chapter for privacy’s sake.

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WHO IS ZEKE? A sun that shines and dances in the morning light A well of fresh water that I found while walking in the desert The deep ocean that keeps its mystery A drop of dew The hug of a rainbow My favorite music The song of a shoot The perfume of the moon The precious pearl in the palm of my hands There are no adequate words for you How to explain the colors of your face?

I had no formal training in the hermeneutics of implicit romantic uses of Dante Alighieri’s language, i.e., Italian. However, as a novice professional philosopher who also wrote something about love,2 I suspected that some of Celia’s writings were subtle and indirect declarations of love and I was not mistaken. After all, I kind of expected something like that and I gladly accepted it. It was interesting that a lecture on racism gave birth to an interracial friendship and long distance dating. I lived in Rome and she lived near Bari, a four-hour journey by train. But it didn’t matter. As things between the two of us looked serious, as evidenced by Celia’s trips to Rome, her mother, who was a widow, strongly disapproved of the direction that we were taking on the ground that we would not have a happy life due to our racial and national differences. To some extent, she may have been right, given the foreigners’ employment situation, which drastically limited me to working only as a “Manovale Comune” or “Unskilled Worker,” thereby earning very little money. But that wasn’t part of her reasoning. Celia had a twin sister studying medicine at the University of Bari. She didn’t seem to be concerned with her sister’s relationship with me at all. It was relatively much easier and more convenient for Celia to meet me in Rome than for me to meet her at her mother’s house or even in her town, where interracial dating was a quasi-impossible and strange phenomenon. It was like a taboo, a really big one. One day, on the occasion of Celia’s birthday, she dared to invite me to her mother’s house for the celebration. Of course, when I went there, we didn’t share the same bedroom for obvious reasons. I’d been through this traditional and moralistic sleeping arrangement before. Strangely but not surprisingly, Celia looked sad and was in tears 2

My Licentia thesis was entitled, “Amour et Personne dans la Pensée de Karol Wojtyla” (Love and Person in Karol Wojtyla’s Thought). Pontificuia Universitas Gregoriana, 1983.

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most of the time I was there. She explained her struggles to me. It sounded like we were breaking an important taboo, the interracial dating or a newly added 11th Commandment, so to speak: “Thou shalt not date anybody outside thine own ethnic group.” Her mother was afraid our relationship might develop into an interracial marriage. When I returned to Rome, I was so concerned about the whole thing that I decided to write to Celia’s mother and I did. If I am not mistaken, this was my very first letter to a girlfriend’s mother. Truly speaking, I didn’t know how to approach and handle the dramatic situation in an interculturally agreeable fashion. I wish I’d sought advice from some cultural anthropologists and/or sociologists. Here’s my own translation of what I wrote in Italian on March 30, 1987: Dear Signora [Madam], For a long time I thought of writing this letter to you. I would like to meet with you at your house to discuss a very important subject, i.e., my relationship with your beloved daughter Celia. In truth, during our twelve-month friendship, I have discovered highly human and especially moral qualities in your daughter. This is indubitably the fruit of a good upbringing that she received from you. So please allow me to officially declare to you, her mother, my admiration, my ever growing love for Celia, and therefore, my intention to deepen a serious and lasting relationship with her. I am convinced that she and I could live a happy life together despite our cultural differences… So it is my ardent desire to have a dialogue with you and make everything clear, thereby continuing our relationship in a normal, serene, and confident way. I am willing to meet with you at your house on any Sunday in April to discuss this matter with you. I look forward to receiving a positive response from you. I thank you in advance and I send you my cordial greetings. Yours sincerely, Zeke S. GBOTOKUMA

I never received any response to my request. There was no room for compromise. Celia and I met for the last time in Bari in October 1987. I traveled there after my last summer employment in Germany. Things looked sort of ok under the circumstances. I went back to Bari for a threeday national conference on immigration. I called and informed her about my presence in the area. But she didn’t show up and that was the end of

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our three-year relationship. It was a painful experience for both of us. However, we also had some good time together and that was also important. I was not completely caught by surprise. We knew from the start that we were trying to do something that was culturally challenging. We were breaking a taboo, so to speak. Moreover, it was not my first time to have that kind of problem with a woman from southern Italy, where women’s independence or freedom seemed to be very conditioned, limited, and therefore very restricted compared to central and northern Italian women. I am not suggesting that everything always worked wonderfully in Rome or in Milan. I had friends and fellow Africans who went through experiences that were analogous to mine. But the truth is that there are more taboos around interracial dating and marriage in southern Italy than in central and northern Italy.

III. A Short-Term Relationship with Pina As a matter of fact, I spent a part of my first summer vacation in Lourdes, southern France, where I volunteered for three weeks as, among other things, a tour guide for Italian pilgrims at the Cité Secours St. Pierre. During that time I met Pina, an Italian female pilgrim. We instantly fell in love. I was a twenty three-year old seminarian. I was not supposed to fall in love with any woman. As a seminarian, I was trained to avoid that kind of thing or temptation for the Kingdom of Heaven and for God’s greater glory (propter magnam gloriam Dei, in Latin). It was at odds with priestly chastity and celibacy. But it happened. No big deal. It’s normal. It’s human. She was a thirty year-old, blue-eyed, and beautiful Italian lady recovering from a failed relationship in her country and trying to find a new love. She seemed open to, and interested in a foreigner like myself. She was willing to break “the taboo.” But I was a seminarian studying in Rome. She lived in Brindisi, where she had to return before the end of July. So we had very limited time to spend together in Lourdes. Moreover, I had to continue my summer vacation in Wincanton, England, where I was going to study English for four weeks at St. Luke’s Priory School. When I returned to Rome, Pina and I kept in touch via telephone and correspondence. In 1980, she invited me to visit her in Brindisi, where she still lived with her parents. I traveled there for three days, spending the nights at a nearby hotel, which she arranged for me. We spent the days at her parents’ house, touring neighboring places, and visiting other people whom I had also met in Lourdes. Her dad was very strangely vigilant. He closely and ridiculously watched all our moves. He told Pina exactly how much time she had to spend whenever she drove me to the hotel at the end

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of the day. She told me that in their southern Italian culture, adult women like her were always treated like children, as long as they were singles and lived with their parents. Of course, the intensity of her dad’s control doubled due to our racial difference. Racially diverse people are not supposed to date, right? My visit there was the first and the last one. I found everything so ridiculous that it wasn’t worth pursuing our relationship. Additionally, I realized that she was seeing somebody who was very concerned by my visit there. There were some nasty demonstrations of jealousy. I felt unsafe and left a day early. The good thing in this case was that it was a short lived experience that took place when I was not really ready for a lasting relationship. It was my second year in Italy and Europe and, therefore, it was an important part of my cultural immersion. I enjoyed the initial dating in France. It was my first time to experience interracial dating. It also served as a helpful rehearsal for understanding my subsequent and aforementioned relationship with Celia. Last but not least, my short lived friendship with Pina coincided with the beginning of my radical questioning of priestly celibacy and the subsequent vocation crisis.

IV. Concluding Notes: My European Experience and the Next Move In conclusion, my twelve-year stay in Europe was, to a great extent, an excellent rehearsal for the next chapter of my global safari, i.e., my journey to, and living in the United States of America. The US is a Western country par excellence where, in the words of Cornel West (1993), “Race Matters.” In the United States, despite great progress in racial relations or in the “advancement of colored peoples,”3 “the color line,”4 in the words of William Du Bois (1903/1969), continues to characterize the daily lives of many citizens. The color line in the United States was what would lead Senator Barack Obama, when candidate for the US presidency, to give a memorable speech on race.5 During my stay in Europe, not only did I study theology at the Urban University; philosophy at Gregorian University; and international studies at the Italian 3

Reference is to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a US civil rights movement founded in New York City on February 12, 1909. 4 Reference is to W.E.B. Du Bois’ famous statement, “The problem of the twentieth century is the color line, the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and islands of the sea” (Du Bois 1969, 19). 5 See “We the People, in Order to Form a More Perfect Union,” Philadelphia, PA, March 18, 2008.

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Society for the International Organization (SIOI); but I also extended my experience of study abroad to continued learning through a variety of academic programs and cultural immersion activities in different European countries. These activities and programs varied from Rome-based cultural and educational activities with UCSEI and ASAR (Associazione degli Studenti Africani di Roma/Association of African Students of Rome) to language training in England, France, Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein as well as summer employment in Germany. The summer English course in Wincanton, England, and the philosophy seminar in Liechtenstein were particularly of utmost importance to my American journey. As a Congolese-born citizen, I grew up as a Francophone, among other “phones.” Italian became the official language for most of my university education. German was the daily survival language during my stays in Germany. So English was never a daily means of communication for me. The English classes at the middle and high schools in DRC had provided me with basic knowledge of grammar, but they were never conversational. Taking classes of English in England and living with a British family made a big difference. During my summer study at St. Luke’s Priory in Wincanton, I lived with an octogenarian British widow. Her name was Ms. Gudrun. As a young man from DRC, I was shocked when I realized that she could still drive. She occasionally gave me a ride. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. After all, I didn’t have any driver’s license yet, which could also seem strange to Europeans, most of whom obtain their driver’s license by, or soon after their eighteenth birthday. In my country, except for upper class people, driving used to be a profession. And even among upper class folks, there used to be few women drivers. So I never saw an eighty-year-old woman drive in my country. I enjoyed Ms. Gudrun’s rides. However, I was a little bit nervous the first time she gave me one. She did a good job. Ms. Gudrun showed me how much she loved her cat, her only company prior to my arrival and short stay with her. She proudly told me that she spent more money on her cat’s food than on her own food. She called that cat “my darling.” This was another cultural shock, because I never heard anybody call their pet “darling” before. Anyway, my short course and immersion in England helped me to handle a three-week philosophy seminar at the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein during the summer of 1988. The course was taught in English by an American professor and a famous British moralist from Oxford University. It was my very first philosophy course taught entirely in English. It was a very useful exercise in Shakespeare’s language. I didn’t even know back then that two years later I was going to end up being part of the American melting pot, living and teaching in the United

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States, in English. That’s why I feel that my stay in Europe was a terrific rehearsal for my American experience. This is the case, not only because of the quality exposure to the English language in England and in Liechtenstein; but also because of the exposure to diversity in Europe, where I was exposed to Australian, British, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Latin American peoples, languages, and cultures. Americans talk a lot about diversity, even though they seem to care less about multilingualism. I do believe, however, that it is important to have a multicultural background and be able to speak several languages in such a diverse society as the United States. That is why I have advocated, through research and in other ways, bridging the global world language divide in the United States (Gbotokuma 2008), where monolingualism raises security and global leadership problems. That was the case especially in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. My interest in, and commitment to promoting knowledge of world languages are based on my personal interest and experiences. Moreover, many studies have shown that it pays to learn and speak more than one language.6 It is precisely these kinds of study and facts that justify the need for organizations such as NAFSA – the Association of International Educators (NAFSA); the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL); and of course, my own new organization, Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. (PAD). PAD’s mission is to promote diversity, cosmocitizenship, development, and peace through multilingualism and interculturalism. It is an international non-profit organization, which was incorporated in Baltimore, Maryland in September 2005.

6

See chapter five, “Financial Benefits of Multilingualism,” esp. the section on Foreign Language Facts.

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V. Additional Photographs from My European Experience France / La Républiqe Française Quick Facts Flag Colors: Blue, White, and Red National Anthems: La Marseillaise Motto: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité Population: 60,742,000 Area: 543,965 sq. km, or 210,026 sq. miles Official Language: Français/French Capital: Paris Currency: Euro (Prior to EU: French Franc) Head of State: François Hollande (2012-) Source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition

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Figure 7-1 Eiffel Tower, Octtober 2004

Location: Chhamp de Marss, Paris. Heigh ht: 986 ft (3011 m). Gustave Eifffel’s companyy built the tow wer for the 1 889 World’s Fair. The tower has become Paris’ most reco ognizable mo nument. It serves s an important roole in televission and radiio broadcasts . What is more, it is considered, “an architecttural wonder and attracts m more visitors than any other paid tourist attracction in the world” w (Wikiipedia, Septem mber 28, 2014). Whenever I travelled to Paris, I tried to go too the top of the t tower. But every tim me I gave up because b of thee long line of visitors.

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Figure 7-2 Heervé and Zekehh Enjoy a Meal on L’avenue ddes Champs-Ély ysées, June 28 1979

The Avenuee des Champss-Élysées is lo ocated in the 8th arrondisssement of Paris, Francce. Hervé andd I met in Rome R in 19799 and have beeen good friends ever since. He waas also a semin narian studyinng in Caen. He became a priest in the diocese of o Coutance. He also spennt some timee in West Africa. Thiss was my firstt visit and vaccation in Frannce. It was followed by several otheer vacations and a visits to Mont Saint Michel in No ormandy; Caen, Picauuville; the D-D Day landing beach b at Bayeuux; etc. With L’Arc de Triomphe oon the Avenuee des Champs- Élysées, annd the Élyséees Palace nearby, thiss place is thee most famou us street in P Paris. It has beautiful cinemas, caffés, hotels, resstaurants, luxu ury shops, andd chestnut treees.

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Figure 7-3 Zeekeh Takes a Toour Break next to t the Arc de Trriomphe

Rue des Chaamps- Élyséess, Paris, July 1979 1 In 1806, the French Empeeror Napoleon n Bonaparte orrdered the con nstruction of the Arc dde Triomphe to t honor the Grande G Arméée, or the Fren nch army. The construcction was com mpleted in 183 36, long after tthe Emperor’ss death in 1821. Napooleon’s army was w believed to be invinciible. It had conquered c most of Eurrope. After thhe Austerlitz victory in 18805, Napoleon n told his soldiers, “Yoou will return home through h triumphal arrches.” Source: “Faccts About Thee Arc de Triom mphe.” www.arcdettriompheparis..com/history/ffacts

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Figure 7-4 Zeekeh Enjoys Parris from Pont Alexandre A

Paris, July 11979 – Pont Alexandre A III is a very ornatte bridge erectted on La Seine. This French “Monnument classiq que” connectss Les Champss- Élysées quarter and tthe Invalides and Eiffel Tow wer quarter.

Figure 7-5 A Spectacular Firrecracker Show

The show ttook place neear the Georges Pompidouu Center in Paris, July 1979.

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Figure 7-6 Veersailles Gate

Zekeh and Hervé Passarrd of the Brettagne Regionn Stand at thee Gate of Versailles Paalace, Versaillles, France, Su ummer 1980.

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Quick Facts about Château de Versailles (Palace of Versailles) Location: Versailles, within Ile-de-France, approx. 20 km from Paris Symbol of French absolute monarchy under King Louis XIV (1643-1715), “The Sun King” or “Le Roi-Soleil,” in French. Former home of French kings from Louis XIV to Louis XVI The Court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682 to 1789 (French Revolution) UNESCO World Heritage Site (Since 1979) Floor Area: 67,000 sq. meters Number of Windows: 2,153 Number of Rooms: 2,300 Staircases: 67 Paintings in the Museum’s Collection: 6,123 Drawings in the Museum Collection: 1,500 Engravings: 15,034 Sculptures: 2,101 Pieces of Furniture and Objets d’Art: 5,210 Sources: Wikipedia and National Geographic (retrieved September 2014). Note: Versailles is also known for the Treaty of Versailles, or Traité de Versailles, in French. It was the treaty of peace between the Allied (USA, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan) and Associated Powers and Germany. It was signed on June 28, 1919. The treaty put an end to World War I. (For further details, see Treaty of Versailles at Wikisource.)

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Figure 7-7 Insstitut d'Etudes Françaises F de Touraine, T Tours,, France, Septem mber 1980

Top: Zekeh and Mrs. Odeette Roux Eatt “La guérinieere” or Outdo oor Lunch in Veretz, inn the vicinity of Tours; Miiddle: Mrs. annd Mr. Roux;; Bottom: Internationaal Students annd Participan nts in Summeer Courses at a Institut d’Études Frrançaises de Touraine, T Tou urs, Septembeer 1980. From m left to right: Fala Mamona (D DRC); Catheriine (Nigeria) ; Hervé Passsard (my French friennd who went there t to visit me); and Zekkeh. I spent a weekend with Mrs. annd Mr. Roux as part of the Institute’s Am mitié Internatiionale, or Internationaal Friendship.. French fam milies affiliatted with the institute occasionallyy hosted studeents for culturaal immersion ppurposes.

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Figure 7-8 M My First Driving Lesson in Fran nce, Normandy,, July 1979

During my ffirst summer vacation v in Frrance, my Frennch friend Heervé and I drove to manny places. Hee did 99.9% off the driving, bbecause I didn n’t have a driver’s liceense and I did not know how w to drive. Thhat was un-Frrench and un-Europeann, since I wass old enough to drive. So H Hervé gave me m a short driving lessoon with his old o car. We alll got nervous whenever wee saw the police. I sollved my driviing problem by b officially taking driving lessons and getting a driver’s liceense in Rome in i 1980.

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Figure 7-9 Viisiting Le Montt Saint-Michel, Le Mont Saint--Michel, June 1979.

A UNESCO O World Herittage Site and one of Francce’s most reco ognizable landmarks, Le Mont Sainnt-Michel is located in thee Manche dep partment, Lower Norm mandy, Francee. Elevation: 55-80 m (16-260 ft.) Land Area: 00.97 sq. km (00.37 sq. mi) Population: 42 (2008) Since the 8tth century AD D the island has h been the seat of the monastery m from whhich it draws itts name. Statistics Soource: Wikipeddia (retrieved October 10, 22014).

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Figure 7-10 Z Zekeh Speaks ass a Tour Guide at Cité Secourss Saint-Pierre

Lourdes, Haautes-Pyrénéees Departmentt, South-westeern France, Ju uly 1979. Zekeh, holdding a loudspeeaker, guides pilgrims p from m Italy, July 19 979. This was an exccellent way to t practice th he Italian lannguage, especcially for someone w who has been in Italy for only ten moonths. Practicce makes perfect. Whhenever there were no neeeds for an Itaalian-speaking g guide, I spent my tiime assisting ailing pilgrims, serving tthem at the cafeteria, making theiir beds, and so on. Many y patients – some of wh hom were terminally illl – traveled to t Lourdes ho oping for miraaculous healin ng. There are success stories about patients’ pilgrrimages to Loourdes. The water w from the grotto is usually a sacred com mmodity and precious souvenir. I remember m mixing my glaass of table wine w with som me water that a veteran French co-vvolunteer brouught from the grotto. “No,” he piously an nd almost angrily shouuted at me, “yyou have to drink d it pure; this water is from the grotto.” To some extent,, my most meaningful relaationship with h Italians began in Lourdes. Durinng my twelv ve-year stay iin Europe, I basically studied and lived in Italyy during the fall, f winter, an and spring. Bu ut I spent virtually all my summer vacations in other Europeean countries,, working and/or learnning languagess. Lourdes is a famous pilggrimage centerr. It owes its fame to the Marian apparitions a off Our Lady oof Lourdes – or Notre Dame de Loourdes, in Frennch – to Bernaadette Soubiroous in 1858.

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Figure 7-11 C Cité Secours Volunteers Share a Meal

Cité Secourss St. Pierre’s Volunteers V Share a Meal, Loourdes, July 1979. 1

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Figure 7-12 A Amélie and Zekkeh Visit Champ pagne Headquar arters in Reims.

Zekeh and Amélie Booury in Fron nt of Champpagne Pomm mery, the Headquarterrs of the Worrld Renowned d Champagne Wine, Reimss, France, November 11, 2009. Curreently, Amélie is i an award-w winning winem maker and Director off Oenology at a Château des d Charmes, Niagara-on-tthe-Lake, Ontario, Caanada. As a high h school student s in Veervins, Francee, Amélie traveled withh her school mates m to Baltim more as part oof a cultural im mmersion program. It was coordinatted by Horizo on du Monde aand Global Frriendship, Inc. My wife fe and I servedd as her host faamily.

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Figure 7-13 D Dinner Chez Mayor M Christophe Boury’s Parrents, Agnicourrt, France, Nov 2, 2009

This gatheriing is the resuult of Global Friendship, Innc.’s program m, through which my faamily hosted Amélie, A the Bo ourys’ daughtter in 2001.

Figure 7-14 A White Cow att Ferme Du Bois, Thenailles, F France

This is my F French host family’s f farm.. It was my vvery first timee seeing a farm where all the cows were w white.

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Liechtensteein / The Principality of Liechttenstein Fürrstentum Liechtensteein Flag Established by the Holy Roman R Empiree in 1719 National Annthem: Oben am a jungen Rheein (Up on thee Young Rhinee) Population: 37,009 (2013) Area: 160 Sq. Km (62 sq.. mi) Official Lannguage: Germaan / Deutsch Capital: Vadduz Currency: Swiss Franc (C CHF) Head of Statte: Prince Hanns-Adam II Sources: CIA A, The World Factbook, an nd Wikipedia

Figure 7-15 Z Zekeh and Claassmates at thee International A Academy of Philosophy, P Schaan, Liechhtenstein, July-A August 1988

Zekeh – Seccond from thee Left – and Co-Participant C nts in the Ethiccs ThreeWeek Seminnar Organizeed by the Inteernational Accademy of Ph hilosophy (IAP) in Schhaan, Liechtennstein, July-A August 1988. P Participants were w from Colombia, C Congo-Zaire, Ethiopia, Itally, Nigeria, T The Netherlands, USA, etc. The Seminar courses were taugh ht by philosopphers from Cambridge University, UK and from m the USA. Besides my summer courrse in St.

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Luke’s Priory in Wincanton, England (1979), this seminar was my very first opportunity to attend a full course taught in English. The International Academy of Philosophy in the Principality of Liechtenstein was established in 1986. It is “dedicated to serve in its own modest way, what Baldwin Schwarz, interpreting Plato’s famous line in the Phaedo about the second voyage, called the seventh voyage: an attempt to reground philosophy in the whole rigor of its method and in a way that encompasses its whole scope, breadth, and depth, and to overcome its sixth and biggest crisis yet, that gave rise…to a radical relativism, negation of freedom, soul, objective values, and human dignity, all objective moral standards and of God.” (http://www.iap.li)

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The Netherrlands / Hollaand

Figure 7-16 W When in Amsterrdam, Ride a Biike

Just about everybody in Amsterdam A ow wns a bike. Inn June 2001, I attended a one-week international seminar on intercultural i ccommunicatio on. It was organized by Consultaants Intercullturele Com mmunicatie (C CIC) of Amsterdam..

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Spain/Espaaña Quick Factss

Figure 7-17 S Spanish Flag

National Annthems: Marchha Real (Royaal March) and Viva España or Y Viva España oor Que Viva España E Population: 42.27 millionn (2012) Area: 505,9888 sq. km, or 195,363 sq. miles m Official Lannguage: Spannish/Español – Others: C Catalan, Galiccian, and Basque Capital: Maddrid Head of Staate: King Feliipe VI (June 2014-), succeeeding his fatther King Juan Carrlos de Borbonn y Borbon (1975-2014) Source: CIA A Web Site

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Figure 7-18 P Palacio Real de Madrid

Palacio Reall de Madrid/R Royal Palace of o Madrid, Spaain, June 11, 2005 2 This is the oofficial resideence of the Sp panish royal ffamily. In reallity, King Felipe VI aand the Royal Family livee in Palacio dde la Zarzuella on the outskirts of Madrid. Palaacio Real is only o used for state ceremon nies. The 135,000 sq. meter (1,4500,000 sq ft), 3,418-room baaroque style palace is a national moonument and “Spanish Prroperty of Cuultural Intereest.” It is owned by thhe Spanish staate and administered by thee Patrimonio Nacional. N The palace’ss constructionn started on April A 7, 1738 uunder the lead dership of architect Filippo Juvarra and a many otheers. Source: Wikkipedia, “Royaal Palace of Madrid.” M Sept. 29, 2014 http://en.m.w wikipedia.org//wiki/Royal_P Palace_of_Maadrid (My summaary and photo))

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Figure 7-19 Z Zekeh (Middle) and Real Betiss Soccer Team F Fans in Madrid

Prior to a biig championshhip game on June J 12, 2005 , Real Betis fans f had a pre-game exxtravaganza att Husa Moncloa, a Madrid four-star hoteel where I stayed for thhe USA-EDUE ESPAÑA 2005 Trade Missiion. The Spanishh National Socccer Team – La L Roja or thee Red [One] – won the 2010 FIFA W World Cup, which w took plaace in South A Africa. The vicctory was its first one.

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USA-EDUE ESPAÑA Trad de Mission 20 005

Figure 7-20 U USA-EDUESPA AÑA 2005 Trad de Mission Meeeting

Dr. Zekeh G Gbotokuma (leeft), Director of o Morgan Staate University y’s Center for Global Studies shakkes hands witth Ms. Carm men, Represen ntative of ENFOREX,, at the beginnning of a meeting in Madridd, Spain, June 6, 2005.

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Figure 7-21 U USA-EDUESPA AÑA 2005 Traade Mission Reeception, Madriid, June 6, 2005

The receptioon took placee at the Arroceria Gala Resstaurant. It was hosted by ENFORE EX, Madrid.

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Paella Cooking Demonstration at Malaca Instiitute Figure 7-22 P

Malaga, Spaain, June 10, 2005 2 During a sitee visit at the Malaca M Institu uto, Malaga, S Southern Spain n, the US EDUESPAÑ ÑA delegationn watches a paella p cookinng demonstrattion by a Spanish cheef, while enjoyying a local ap péritif. This w was also our lu unch. The Chef explainned every phase of the wo ork en Españool. It was a wonderful w cultural expeerience. Paella is a typical Spanissh dish and is trraditionally coooked in a paelleera – a round flaat pan with twoo handles – which is then puut on the tablee. It is normally made using sheellfish but can also a be made w with chicken or rabbit. In many Spanish villagges, especially in coastal areeas, they use a giant paellera tto cook paellaa on festival days d which is big enough to o feed everybodyy.” For more information i about Paella ingrredients, prepaaration, and recipees, see http://ww ww.lingolex.co om/spanishfood/ d/paella.html

Malaca Insttituto was onne of the Spaanish teachinng institutionss that we visited durinng our seven-dday tour. Part of the Costa del Sol region n, Malaga is a port cityy on the Meditterranean Sea..

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Figure 7-23 A An Impressive Mermaid Statu ue at Marbella Beach, Marbeella, Spain, June 8, 2005

Photo taken during EDUE ESPAÑA Trad de Mission Tou our of Southern n Spain.

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Figure 7-24 A Spanish Wom man in Traditional Dress

A Spanish w woman in a traditional t red d dress at Maarbella Annuall Festival 2005.

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Greece/Thee Hellenic Rep public/Hellass/Ellas/Elladaa

Greek Flag at thhe Parthenon, Athens A Figure 7-25 G

Quick Factss National Annthems: Hymn to Liberty Ym mnos eis tin Elleftherian, in Greek G Greek Mottoo: “Freedom or o Death” (Eleeftheria i Thannatos, in Greek k) Population: 10,787,690 (22011 Greek Census) Area: 50,9499 sq. miles, orr 131,958 sq. km k Official Lannguage: Greekk (one of the oldest languagees in Europe) Capital: Athhens (6 millioon inhabitantss) – “The birt rthplace of deemocracy, Western philosophy (starting with w the pre--Socratic ph hilosopher Anaximaander 610-5466 B.C.), the Olympic O Gam mes (the first of which took place in 776 B.C.), poliitical sciencee, Western literature, l historioggraphy, major mathematicall principles (ssee Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimeedes…), and Western W theoriies of tragedy and comedy.”” Head of Statte: Karolos Paapoulias GDP per Caapita: $24,300 (2012 est.) Currency: E Euro (since 20002, replacing the Drachma)) Literacy: 955% or more Life Expectaancy: ca. 79 years y (82 yearss for women aand 77 for men n) Religion: Thhe Greek Orthhodox Church h (Minority Reeligions: Islam m, Roman Catholicism, Jehovah’’s Witnesses and a Protestantiism) Sources RA ANDOM FA ACTS: 85 Interesting I F Facts About Greece ( Posted A April 19, 20099); Maps of thee World; CIA World Factb book (The Photograaph is mine).

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University of Atthens, Zografoss Campus Figure 7-26 U

Athens, Greeece, August 4, 4 2013 - The purpose of m my visit to Grreece was to attend annd present a paper p at the 23rd 2 World Coongress of Ph hilosophy (WCP) on tthe theme, “P Philosophy As A Inquiry annd Way Of Life.” The Congress toook place at the Universsity of Athenns, Zografos Campus, tradition, 4-1 Athens, the birth place off the Western philosophical p 10 August 2013. The WCP is orgganized every y five years by the Inteernational Federation oof Philosophiccal Societies (IFPS), ( or Féddération Internationale des Sociétéss Philosophiquues (FISP), in French. I pre sented a paper entitled, “Diplobamaacy and the Obama O Doctrine: Democraccy, Demograp phics and Cosmocitizeenship,” (see XXIII World Congress off Philosophy Abstracts, A 69: Politicall Philosophy, p. p 229). For historical h reasoons, the one-w week stay in Athens w was a wonderfful complemen nt to my morre than ten-yeaar stay in Rome, Italyy, another ancient-moder a n city. Unlikke Latin – a “dead language,” tthe official laanguage of th he Catholic C Church, and a classical language in which I am proudly literate, Greek is a classical as a well as modern laanguage. Unnfortunately, despite m my commitm ment to multilinguallism, my knoowledge of Greek G is limitted to an intrroductory course in N New Testam ment Greek grammar g at the Pontificaal Urban University iin Rome. I am m afraid I eveen lost most of my readin ng skill in Greek and cconsequently, I felt like an illiterate in A Athens. Thank God, the status of E English as thee de facto gllobal lingua franca was somehow s helpful; andd thank God,, many congrress participaants were pollyglots. I enjoyed the opportunity to communicaate in several w world languag ges. I also enjoyed my short heritagee walks and rides in Athenss.

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Figure 7-27 U University of Atthens Aula Zekeh and a Fellow Philosoopher from Ukrraine in the maiin Aula of the University U of Athens, Zoographos Campuus, August 4, 2013.

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Figure 7-28 Z Zekeh “Wonderrs” at the Odeon n of Herodes A Atticus, Athens, August 4, 2013

Zekeh and the Atheniann audience await a an evenning concert and the Official Opeening Ceremoony of the XXIIII World Conngress of Philo osophy at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, A Augu ust 4, 2013. The Odeon is i on the southern sloope of the Acroopolis. It is deedicated to thee dramatic artss. “Herodess Atticus, the immensely wealthy w bankerr and friend of o the [Roman] Emperor Haddrian [A.D. 117-138], had thhe 5000-seat Odeon R carved innto the rock inn 161 A.D. ass a memorial to his wife Regilla. Expertly restored, it prrovides a supeerb setting for the annual Su ummer D (ATHE ENS: Ancient – Byzantine – Modern M Festival oof Music and Drama” City: Musseums Acropoliis by Editions G. G Gouvoussis, nn.d.). Tour Brocchure.

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The Acropolis and a Parthenon Figure 7-29 T

A brief storry of the Accropolis and Parthenon, P thhe “Shrine to Western Civilization..” A natural fortress [or citaadel], the only accessible apprroaches from th he west 1 feet were prottected by Cycloopean ramparts of huge rough blocks, up to 13 thick, in tthe Mycenaeann period.…Peisistratus began tthe transformattion of the fortifiications into a sanctuary s by breeaching the trem mendous walls with a monumenntal gate leadiing to a temp ple of Artemiss, Protectress of o the Fortress, and a hundreed-foot temple of Athena, aall destroyed by b the p howevver, an opportunity to Persians iin 480 B.C. This catastrophe provided extend thhe gabled-shapped rock by the addition of strong baastions. Themistoocles included the t broken stattues and colum mns in the reveetment and wallss, so that the preservation p off the unique aarchaic statues in the Acropoliss Museum is due to his haste in refortiifying the citaadel.… Plunderedd by Byzantinne emperors and a barbarian invaders alik ke, the Acropoliss served successsively as resid dence for the O Orthodox archbiishops, the Frankkish dukes, and a the Turkissh commanderrs till the exttensive destructioons in the siege of 1827.” The Parthenon (or ““place of Partheenons” is a “tempple of the Virgiin Athena, the Goddess G of Wissdom.” It was erected e by Periclees. It is situated on the highest platform of tthe Acropolis. It was completedd in 438 B.C. and it is believ ved to be “the m most perfect work w of

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Dionysus Theateer, Athens, Aug gust 6, 2013 Figure 7-30 D With the opening of thee huge Theatre of Dionysus bby Peisistratus in 534 B.C., a new art form waas born. Abovee the comfortabble high-backed d front seats reseerved for the litterary jury and the throne of D Dionysus’ high priest, 13,000 citizens crowdedd the 67 tiers du uring the Dionyysia spring festiv vals to listen to the immortal works of Aeschylus, Sophoocles, Euripidees and Aristophaanes, three tragic t and five fi comic ppoets each year.… y [Subsequently] the theeatre was converted for glaadiatorial specctacles. (ATHENSS: Ancient – Byzantine B – Modern M City: Museums Acro opolis, Editions G G. Gouvoussis, n.d.)

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Figure 7-31 A Athens Panathennaic Stadium, Athens, A August 6, 2013

The Site of the Games of o the Olympiad I of the M Modern Era, 6-15 April 1896. The 2004 gaames’ motto was, w “Welcom me Home.” Thhe motto is rem miniscent of the fact thhat Greece is the birthplacee of the Olym mpic Games, th he first of which took place in 7766 B.C. It wass the first tim me since 1896 6 that the Olympics haad been held in Greece. Jaccques Rogge – the IOC preesident at that time – hailed the 2004 2 summerr games as, “unforgettablle, dream games.”

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Figure 7-32 Z Zekeh at the Tem mple of Zeus, Athens, A August 6, 2013 [The Rom man Emperor] Hadrian complleted the templle of Olympian n Zeus [also knoown in the Heellenic world as a Poseidon] abbout 700 yearss after Peisistratuus had raised the t first immen nse columns – 7 feet 10 incches in diameter. The 104 Coriinthian marble columns of thhe Roman san nctuary were a thhird smaller, thoough still the laargest in Europpe, as was the temple t itself, 3544 by 135 feet. The T Roman gen neral Sulla remooved the pillars of the interveninng Hellenistic temple t to Romee in the first cenntury B.C.; Gen novese and Veneetians did likeewise with Haadrian’s marblees, so that on nly 16 columns now remain, 13 1 standing tog gether under thheir architravess. It is believed that Greeks ussed to sacrificee one hundred bulls to Zeus during every Olyympics. (ATHE ENS: Ancient – Byzantine B – Moodern City: Mu useums Acropoliss, Editions G. Gouvoussis, G n.d..).

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Figure 7-33 Z Zekeh Waves from f the Propy ylaea, the Monnumental Gatew way of the Acropolis, Atthens, August 6, 2013

Figure 7-34 A Panoramic View of Athens frrom the Acropoolis

PART III: MY AMERICAN JOURNEY

CHAPTER EIGHT MY USA SAFARI: A DREAM VACATION OR EVACUATION?

We shall be inclined to pronounce the voyage that led to the way to this New World as the most epoch-making event of all that have occurred since the birth of Christ. (John Fiske)

IN 1990, I SERIOUSLY THOUGHT OF RETURNING TO DRC, then called Zaire. I thought that with twelve years in Europe, postdoctoral diploma in international studies from the Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale (SIOI), or Italian Society for International Organization, knowledge of French – the official language of DRC – and Italian, and an ok fluency in English and German based on a summer school in Wincanton, England, and seven summers in Germany – learning German at the Goethe Institute Boppard and working as a Werkstudent or student worker in several companies, I was multiculturally competent to work as a diplomat. Believe it or not, I also thought that my association with Rome’s socio-political elite, coupled with my Vatican and pontifical connections were big advantages. After all, I thought, how many Zairian/Congolese diplomats had been invited guests for a reception dinner with the Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti at his residence, or how many people had had the honor and privilege to serve as popes’ altar boys prior to their diplomatic mission to Rome and the Vatican? In 1989, I met my American girlfriend. This new situation changed my return plan which, as I stated earlier, had become very serious. It was cool to date an American girl and it was cool to proudly tell friends, well, you know what? I would spend my next summer vacation with my girlfriend in the USA. As an international student in Italy, I had always spent my summer vacations in other European countries. Now I had the opportunity to diversify my experience through a transatlantic flight and a dream vacation in the New World. It was something like following in the path of the legendary Cristoforo Colombo of Genoa, who discovered the Americas five centuries earlier. That was exactly what I did. But what exactly was involved in my travel planning? Who did what and when?

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I. Planning My U.S. Travel As a Congolese citizen and foreigner in Italy, traveling within Europe was never easy and it wasn’t going to be easy to travel to the USA either. I had to convincingly explain the purpose of the travel to the US embassy in Rome. I had to show that I was going to return to Italy or to my country of origin. To that end, the following documents were required: an invitation letter from my American host family, proof of employment in Rome, round trip tickets, Italian Stay Permit, or Permesso di Soggiorno, in Italian, Re-entry Permit, or Permesso di Reingresso, in Italian, and of course, a valid passport. But having all these documents was no guarantee for being issued a US travel visa. US embassy officials can deny anybody a visa for any other reason. Prior to my visa interview with the embassy officials, I made sure nothing was missing: first and foremost, an invitation letter from my American hosts, which was an important part of the US visa application. In addition to the invitation letter, Mgr. Remigio Musaragno, my boss at UCSEI, wrote two additional letters. One was addressed to Dr. Fabrizio Gallotti, Director of Ufficio Stranieri at the Questura di Roma. The purpose of his June 14, 1990 letter was to support my request for a Re-entry Visa after my planned visit to the United States. The letter to Dr. Gallotti was a follow-up to a telephone call that Mgr. Musaragno had previously made to Dr. Marchese of the Italian Ministry of Interior regarding my travel document. Dr. Marchese was Dr. Gallotti’s boss. I should note, en passant, that in the past, Dr. Marchese’s intervention had been crucial in obtaining another re-entry visa for a visit to another European country. Of course, Dr. Gallotti helped expedite the issuance of the requested document. This was just one of the instances where “whom you know” was important. I bet things could have been much slower without those connections. I knew African refugees in Rome whose final destination was the United States. However, for some of them, it took several years to finally be issued a US visa. The second letter from Mgr. Musaragno was addressed to the Embassy of the United States in Rome. It was dated June 1, 1990 and it was identified as “Ns.rif.: 2780 Prot. N.: 1263.” Here’s my English translation of that letter, which was originally written in Italian: Subject: Recommendation of a foreign citizen planning to travel to the USA Dear Sirs, I am pleased to recommend Dr. GBOTOKUMA ZEKE SUA, a Zairian citizen, holder of passport N. Z […], valid until March 25, 1991, and

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holder of the Stay Permit issued by the Questura di Roma and valid until April 1992. Dr. Gbotokuma is a collaborator of this Office [UCSEI] for cultural affairs: the monthly Journal AMICIZIA and Professional Courses. After his planned stay in the USA, he will return to Italy to continue his collaboration with UCSEI. I thank you for your attention and consideration and I ask you to accept my cordial greetings. Yours sincerely, Mgr. Remigio Musaragno, UCSEI President

I brought the two letters and other required documents to the US embassy for my tough June 15, 1990 interview. I had all required documents, including round trip tickets with departure on June 29, 1990, flight number PA 67. I definitely looked professional, personable, but nervous. I knew many people who had unsuccessfully applied for a US visa. Thank God everything went well and bingo! The NONIMMIGRANT Visa No. 201270 was issued on page 27 of my green REPUBLIQUE DU ZAÏRE passport.

II. A Change of Plan and the Search for Opportunity Originally, it was supposed to be a two-month vacation in San Francisco, California, but here again, plans went through another change. I decided to stay, thereby solving long distance relationship problems and pursuing the American Dream. My decision was based on my host family’s fabulous hospitality, encouragement, and a US tourism-friendly policy, which automatically extended my stay to six months. Prior to my travel to the United States, I had a temporary work contract with ENAIP – Ente Nazionale ACLI Istruzione Professionale. I was the coordinator of computer literacy courses at Centro Giovanni XXIII from February 5 to June 30, 1990. The total compensation for that job was 4,000,000 Italian Lire (ca. $2,500). There was no formal contract for me after June 30. There was talk of permanent employment with UCSEI with which I had a wonderful relation. But the offer was subject to funding from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Department of International Cooperation. However, the funding to Italian NGOs was in doubt due to the government’s interest in new markets in Eastern Europe following the

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collapse of Communism in the former Soviet Union. My best and perhaps only chance for a decent job was with UCSEI. Otherwise the only official job I was allowed to have, if I could find it, was as “Unskilled Worker,” or “MANOVALE COMUNE.” Yes, that was my qualification according to my April 17, 1987 registration No. GBT ZKS 56504 K 3000 with the Italian Ministero del Lavoro e della Previdenza Sociale (Ministry of Labor and Social Security). According to a new amnesty bill approved by the Italian Parliament (Legge 943, 30 December, 1986), foreigners residing in Italy – regardless of their level of education – were allowed to take only jobs for which no Italian citizen was qualified and/or willing to do. So it was almost impossible to find a job based on one’s educational level. Believe it or not, many Italian news media specializing in amnesty praised the new bill as one of the most advanced immigration laws in Europe, because it was an anti-exploitation law, one that established equal rights to foreign and Italian workers. According to G. Tassello, for example, with the new law, welcoming the foreigner becomes “the most peaceful way of dealing with the North-South problem.”1 I was not convinced by those nice words. I didn’t like the idea of limiting my work opportunities to being a manovale comune. I didn’t like being stared at with a great deal of wonder by fellow Italian work seekers even when I was just trying to get a job as a manovale comune. That was also why I gladly welcomed the move to the USA, “the land of opportunity,” where highly educated people and even manovali comuni or unskilled workers can hope for, and dream of something much better, I mean something based on the content of their character, rather than on their skin color and nationality of origin. Maybe my journey to the USA was going to open the windows and doors of opportunity for non-manovale comune only employments. From then on, it was clear that what had begun as a dream vacation had become a real evacuation, so to speak.

III. Living and Surviving in the USA: Friendship and Networking Matter I ARRIVED IN SAN FRANCISCO VIA NEW YORK ON JUNE 29, 1990 after a 14-hour flight from Rome. This was my longest flight time thus far. My host family received me very well. We had a wonderful summertime. We traveled to New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and many more places. I attended the American Philosophical Association (APA) 1 See G. Tassello, “La lunga marcia dell’uguaglianza” (The Long March Toward Equality), Dossier Europa Emigrazione XII, 3 March, 1987, 4.

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conferences in Boston, Chicago, and New York. At the conference hotel in Boston, I surprisingly came across Max, a Californian guy with whom I had participated in a three-week summer seminar at the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein in 1988. He was attending Law School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He invited me to dinner with his wife. Unfortunately, I lost his contact information. There was so little I could do, because I remembered him by first name only.

A. Applying for a Job: A Sample Letter I sent out approximately one hundred letters of application, mostly for teaching positions at university level. I was greatly assisted by my host family and friends, who made sure that I spoke about myself in a professionally interesting fashion and in proper American English. Below is a sample of a typical application letter, dated May 6, 1992, and addressed to Dr. Brenton Steele, Dean of Student Life, University of New Orleans, Louisiana: Dear Dr. Steele: Your job description for Director, Office of International Students and Scholars appears virtually identical to the position I held in Rome for three years. I served as Public Relations Representative for UCSEI – the Central Office of Foreign Students in Italy, offering counselling, education and support to students from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Americas. Foreign students in Italy face and share many common issues with international and multicultural students in the United States – as I have learned since I emigrated here a year and a half ago. I am very interested in this position at the University of New Orleans, and believe I hold unusual qualifications for it, which I ask you to consider. After my undergraduate study in Philosophy in Zaire, I studied for nine years in Europe, thus acquiring first-hand experience not only as a foreign student, but as an African in predominantly [white] European universities, communities, and cultures. My doctorate in Philosophy was followed by a year’s post-doctoral work in International Relations/Studies. As a graduate student, I was Secretary-General of African Students Association of Rome, or Associazione degli Studenti Africani di Roma (ASAR), in Italian. In this position, I coorganized many cultural and extracurricular activities, many of which were intended to help African students interact with Roman urban communities.

My USA Safari: A Dream Vacation or Evacuation? On completing my education, my work at UCSEI (with even more diverse student group) offered me the opportunity to organize local and international seminars and cultural events, and to develop lively discourse among the international and Italian participants. I have published numerous articles on Third World social, cultural, and political concerns such as race, gender, identity, and autonomy. My fluency in six languages – two African languages, plus French, Italian, German, and English – was a distinct asset, as I interfaced with officials of various governments, religions, NGOs and other multicultural groups. In the United States, I accepted a part-time job as consultant for Media Culture, an educational software company for which I am currently developing an interactive program for teaching African Philosophy and cultures at middle-school level and above. Engaging as this project is, however, I miss working with students, and would like to return to academic life. On April 6-8 [1992], I was guest speaker at Carlton and Macalester Colleges in Minnesota, addressing students in the Philosophy and International Relations Departments. My topics included Martin Heidegger and his Nazi sympathies; African Philosophy; multiculturalism and academic freedom; and post-Cold War development in Third World nations. I have also lectured at the Bay Area, and have visited other campuses throughout the country, where I have enjoyed meeting and talking with the American students and staff. Last summer I participated in a conference on “Teaching in a Multicultural Context” (San Jose State University) and another on “Critical Thinking and Educational Reform” (Sonoma State). I have also audited college courses in African-American history and culture. I want to work with students toward the goal of achieving all the benefits I am convinced derive from intercultural understanding and mutual respect. I believe that my unique background, education, and experience afford unusual perspectives that will enhance my efforts. My curriculum vitae, transcripts, letters of reference, and publications list are enclosed. I am eager to discuss international and Multicultural Students’ concerns with you. In addition to the duties outlined for the Director, I would welcome the opportunity to teach an occasional class in African Philosophy, International Cooperation – as time allows. I look forward to hearing from you soon and I thank you for considering my application. Yours truly, Zekeh S Gbotokuma, Ph.D.

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B. Sample Recommendation Letters The letters of recommendation came from Msgr. Remigio Musaragno of the UCSEI, Rome; Prof. Arthur K. Bierman of San Francisco State University; and Prof. Wilhelm Nyssen of Cologne, Germany. Below are Musaragno’s and Bierman’s letters. Musaragno’s letter was written in French and what follows is my English translation. Rome, 24 October 1990 Letter of Recommendation To Whom It May Concern I am pleased to commend to you Zekeh Gbotokuma, a Zairian citizen, who studied here in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned his doctorate in Philosophy. Dr. Gbotokuma coordinated cultural activities of UCSEI – Central Office for Foreign Students in Italy – for three years. His chief responsibility was the organization of conferences and seminars. Last year, for example, the conference and seminar themes were, “Cultural Cooperation for International Development” and “Women’s Welfare in Developing Nations and Industrialized Countries.” Dr. Gbotokuma made an invaluable contribution to AMICIZIA Studenti Esteri, UCSEI’s monthly journal, writing numerous articles of varied interest, from philosophical to social, anthropological, and political. Dr. Gbotokuma is also the author of an original Italian-Lingala/LingalaItalian Dictionary, published by Armando Curcio in Rome this year. He also coordinated, in recent years, the Educational Program for International Cooperation and Development for Italian public schools – a middle school curriculum which he developed in collaboration with experts on developing countries in Italy. This program was sponsored by the Regione Lazio, the Rome-based local government. I am also pleased to inform you that Zekeh has a long and deep experience concerning the problems relative to the conditions of the immigrants from developing countries living in Italy. He is also knowledgeable of international assistance issues, because for several years he was UCSEI’s representative to the Italian Non-Governmental Organizations Conference. As a matter of fact, UCSEI is an NGO recognized by the Italian Foreign Ministry for its activities focusing on international assistance in the education and professional training fields.

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I confirm this declaration to be true and I send you my greetings. Yours faithfully, Msgr. Remigio Musaragno, President Ufficio Centrale Studenti Esteri in Italia

Prof. Bierman’s letter was crucial because I needed to also have a local or domestic reference. I met him as a result of professional networking in San Francisco. As a newly retired Philosophy Professor, he was my first truly professional reference. In his November 11, 1991 letter of recommendation, he wrote: I’m sure it’s not often that someone from Africa, Zaire, in particular, applies for a position with you. Having little knowledge of academics from that area makes your task of assessing Dr. Zeke Gbotokuma’s application more uncertain than usual, especially because a good bit of his work and his recommenders are European, and, so, unknown to you. I can be of some help with respect to the Gregorian University. I live in Rome several months of each year and have had some contact with faculty at the Pontifical University. It’s the preeminent Catholic university in the world; its entrance requirements are among the stiffest in the world; its language requirement alone is daunting. (Note that Dr. Gbotokuma authored an original Italian-Lingala Dictionary.) Gregorian’s graduates are expected to become major figures in the church hierarchy. Although Dr. Gbotokuma had intended originally to get a theology degree, his interests, as you may note from his Ph.D. dissertation topic, turned to philosophy. I met Dr. Gbotokuma in this country last year. My first impression was highly favorable. He is courteous, dignified, gentle, a kind of person we seldom see here in America unless they come from the Old World. But he is also of excellent humor and has an enthusiasm for philosophy, social, and political issues, and anthropology and the application of this wide learning to human problems to which he is especially sensitive coming as he does from a Third World country that suffers acutely from them. As a philosopher, I know that he is professionally competent and will make unusual contributions to philosophy. He has an excellent, quick mind. His philosophical orientation and background are African and European, unlike mine. Consequently, I can’t give you a definitive statement about his knowledge of the philosophical areas of his expertise. Like many philosophers before him – Locke, Hume, Dewey, Leibniz – he does not confine himself to prevailing academic, analytical conventions so prevalent in the United States. I take this as a positive factor.

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There is no question in my mind that he will be an engaging lecturer and will offer students and colleagues welcome light from another world and other traditions. Sincerely yours, Arthur K. Bierman, Professor of Philosophy San Francisco State University

C. Negative Responses, the Breakup, and the H-1B Visa Two months following my application for the position of Director, Office of International Students and Scholars at the University of New Orleans, Louisiana, I received an unfavorable response from Dean Steele. After sending out so many application letters, I was used and immune to the pains of negative responses. The short response letter was as follows: Dear Dr. Gbotokuma: The search for the Director, Office of International Students and Scholars has been completed. Mr. Mark Hallett of Indiana University’s International Student Office has accepted the position. I want to thank you for your interest in the University of New Orleans and the position. Good luck in your future endeavors. Very truly yours, Brenton H. Steele, Dean of Student Life

This response, like numerous others, suggests, among other things, that my diverse background and transcontinental experience were great. However, a Ph.D. wasn’t required for the position. Additionally, according to the job description, the ideal candidate was supposed to have 2-3 years of experience in international education and familiarity with immigration regulations, especially F, J, and H visas. I was an international student in Europe for many years and I was a holder of an H-1B visa. However, all that did not make me the best candidate. The preference was for someone with US academic experience. Of course, a PhD made me look overqualified. The salary, which wasn’t revealed, may have been truly competitive for candidates with master’s degrees, but not for candidates holding a PhD like myself. But it didn’t matter, as long as I wasn’t to be employed as a Manovale Comune or unskilled worker. I didn’t want to be

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so demanding that I had to be unemployed for too long. I didn’t want to abuse my host family’s hospitality, which was arranged by my girlfriend. After spending a full summer together, we were once again back to a long distance relationship. She was studying on the east coast, but I was staying on the west coast. “Out of sight, out of mind.” Of course, this situation didn’t help at all. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, and of course, because of the long distance predicament, our relationship ended six months after my arrival in the United States. I was also interested in working for NGOs. I got some job interviews. I missed some job opportunities because I was not fluent enough in English. I told some of my interviewers that on average, every five years or so I had to learn and function in a new foreign language and so I could also do the same with English, which I thought I knew well enough. I made this argument, among others, during my job interview with Vassar College hiring committee. This highly selective college was the first institution to interview me for an academic position. Most of my interviewers were pragmatic people who did not buy my argument. They just needed somebody who could be fully prepared for the job immediately. Americans are mostly monolinguals and they are impatient with foreigners who speak English with foreign accents, unless it is a British accent or “the Queen’s English.” I took classes of English and Effective Written and Spoken Communications at UC Berkeley, UC Extension in San Francisco, and at San Francisco State University. I gave several talks and lectures in the San Francisco Bay area. I got a job offer with Media Culture as a consultant specializing in African Philosophy and Culture’s key concepts. This job offer was sufficient to change my tourist visa to an H1-B visa, renewable every three years. The US Department of Justice’s Immigration and Naturalization Service defines H-1B as, “an alien coming temporarily to perform services in a specialty occupation. A specialty occupation is one which requires the theoretical and practical knowledge to fully perform the occupation and requires completion of a specific course of education culminating in a baccalaureate degree in a specific occupational specialty…” (Form I-129, 12/11/91 N, p. 2). Obviously, as a doctoral degree holder, I was an excellent candidate for the H-1B visa. I was assisted in this process by an immigration lawyer, my host family, and some other friends. This was one of those times when I understood the meaning of true friendship, soft-heartedness, and humility. After the end of my relationship with my former girlfriend, I did my best to avoid being too devastated by the pains of the breakup. We had wonderful times together in Italy. I kept positive memories of the black-tie reception and dinner at Palazzo Chigi, the office of the Italian prime

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minister, or Presidente del Consiglio, as he or she is called in Italian. The reception was the initiative of Hon. Giulio Andreotti, a prominent figure of the Democrazia Cristiana party and one of the longest serving Italian prime ministers. It was one of those moments when I dreamed of being anything but a manovale comune. I thought and believed that any respectable Italian employer would have been embarrassed to hire me as a manovale comune, if they happened to see wonderful photographs from some of my social network with the Roman and Vatican high society, from serving as Pope John Paul II’s Good Friday altar boy in St. Peter’s Basilica and having lunch with the Sovereign Pontiff at Collegio Urbano to that fabulous Palazzo Chigi reception and an event at the Quirinnale, the office of the Italian president; from radio and TV appearances to invited lectures and speaking at national and international conferences. I respect brothers and sisters of all races and nations who render useful service to humanity as manovali comuni. I didn’t mind being one of them. As a matter of fact, for seven consecutive summers I was employed as a Werkstudent in Germany. I also spent two weeks or so working on a construction site in Rome and two days picking tomatoes in Villa Literno, Southern Italy. Back then I was lucky to even have those job opportunities. I was grateful for having them as a temporary and necessary condition. But I didn’t expect that condition to be perpetuated after my doctorate and postdoctoral studies from Gregorian University and SIOI, respectively. Maybe I forgot the reality of “the color line” in twentieth-century Italy and its impact on a colored straniero extracomunitario from Congo-Zaire. Maybe I forgot my work qualification as clearly defined and stipulated in the Italian Legge (Bill) 943 of 30 December 1986 on which, by the way, I wrote and commented in Italian journals and magazines.2 Or maybe I trusted the Italian saying that, “La legge si applica ai nemici; ma si interpreta agli amici” (The law is applied to enemies; but it is interpreted for friends). I was ill-prepared to accept mediocrity and be treated as an Afro-Dalit or Indian untouchable and outcast, whose life is fatally and strangely determined by karma. I am not aware of any wrongdoing in my previous life, if any, for which I have to be punished in my present life by working as a manovale comune.

2

See Dott. Zeke S. Gbotokuma, “Al di là della Sanatoria” (Beyond Amnesty). AMICIZIA No. 6-7, Giugno-Luglio 1987:4; “Da Paese di Emigrazione a Paese di Immigrazione: Impressioni sulla I Conferenza Nazionale sull’Immigrazione” (From Emigration Country to Immigration Country: Impressions on the 1st National Conference on Immigration). LAZIO NEL MONDO, Dossier Immigrazione No. 3, Luglio-Settembre 1988: 43-44.

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By the way, the phenomenon of the African and other highly educated third world people doing mostly blue color work is not just an Italian reality; it is also pretty common in many other Western countries. That is also why it’s very hard for many Africans of the diaspora to return even for vacation. Some of those who return are ashamed or embarrassed to say exactly what they do for a living in Europe or abroad. Like many immigrants in the United States, both legal and illegal, I happened to occasionally work as a manovale comune, occasionally helping with mowing the grass and gardening. This was right before moving to Manhattan, Kansas. My compensation with Media Culture was subject to whatever final products I could make. I spent a lot of time learning about hyper card using an Apple computer. I was also traveling from time to time to attend professional conferences and interviewing. I wasn’t earning any income yet. The Kansas State University’s offer came at the right time, before I could finalize any product for Media Culture, to which I am extremely grateful. Believe it or not, the original project with Media Culture was a catalyst for my future research and publication of A PanAfrican Encyclopedia (Gbotokuma 2003). It took several years of teaching and investigations before understanding its relevance to the struggle for diversity in US higher education.

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IV. Phootographs from f Califoornia

Figure 8-1 Saan Francisco Caable Car Ride

San Franciscco, Californiaa, November 1990 Zekeh smiliingly gets on San Francisco o’s Cable Carr for a ride thrrough the Californian city in 19900. San Francissco Cable Caars are owned d by San Francisco M Municipal Traansportation Agency. A “Thee San Francisco Cable Car system iis the world’s last manually y operated cabble car system m [and] an icon of Sann Francisco, California.” C Th he operation began in 187 78 for the California S Street line; 1888 for Powell-Mason line;; and 1952 for PowellHyde line. Source: Wikkipedia, San Francisco F Cablle Car System m http://en.m,w wikipedia.org//wiki/San_Fraancisco_cablee_car_system Last edited S September 28, 2014 The photogrraph is mine

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Figure 8-2 Yoosemite Nationaal Park

Zekeh and S San Franciscoo friends visit Yosemite Naational Park, Yosemite, Y California, JJanuary 1991. Yosemite Naational Park w was originally protected in 1864. It ccovers an areaa of 1,200 sq. mi. It is best known for itss amazing waterfalls.

CHAPTER NINE SAYING GOOD-BYE TO SAN FRANCISCO AND FLYING WITH MY OWN WINGS

I. Moving to Manhattan, Kansas IN MAY 1992, I RECEIVED A LETTER FROM KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY’S (K-State) Department of Philosophy making me an offer I couldn’t refuse. That May 14, 1992 letter was as follows: Dear Dr. Gbotokuma: This letter is to confirm my verbal offer to you of a position as Assistant Professor (Temporary) in the Department of Philosophy for the 1992-93 academic year. An official offer of contract will be sent to you in a few days from the Office of the Provost. As we discussed, the terms of the appointment will be as follows: (1) your appointment will run from August 18, 1992, to May 17, 1993, at a salary of $27,000; (2) to assist with your moving expenses, we will also give you an additional week’s salary ($750) for the period August 11-17; (3) your teaching assignment will be three courses each semester. For the fall semester, your schedule will be as follows: PHILO-300 History of Ancient Philosophy T-Th 9:30-10:45 PHILO-130 Introduction to Ethics

T-Thu 11:05-12:20

PHILO-130 Introduction to Ethics

T-Th 2:05-3:20

I would appreciate having your textbook selections at your earliest convenience, so that we can get them ordered. I have enclosed a catalogue and some additional information about the University and the Department. A new catalogue is due to be published shortly; I will send one as soon as they are available.

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We are very pleased that you have accepted our offer, and we welcome you to Kansas State. Please do not hesitate to call or write me if we can be of any assistance with your relocation. Sincerely, Robin Smith, Professor and Department Head

I was very excited about the news. It was my first full time job with full benefits in the United States. My original part-time employment with Media didn’t include benefits. However, the K-State job was a temporary one-year position to replace another professor who was on sabbatical leave. One of the reasons why I did not get hired earlier was the lack of teaching experience. But how does one get that experience if one is not given the opportunity? So now is the time to get that experience and use it for future job interviews. The job offer letter was soon thereafter followed by another letter from Ms. Terry Helbush, my San Francisco-based Immigration Attorney. She was the same lawyer who worked on my original H-1B petition. She was simply informing me that she had received notice that the H-1 petition, which Kansas State University filed on my behalf, was approved, thereby authorizing me to stay and work until August 1, 1993. She also attached a copy of the Approval Notice from the US Department of Justice’s Immigration and Naturalization Service. The one-page I-129 Petition or PETITION FOR A NONIMMIGRANT WORKER of July 7, 1992 stated, among other things: The above petition has been approved, and is valid for the period shown above [i.e., from 08/01/92 to 08/01/93]. The employment is concurrent to previously authorized employment in this classification. The named worker(s) are authorized to be employed for this concurrent employment for this period pursuant to the terms and conditions of the petition. Any change in employment requires a new I-129 petition. ….Make a copy of this notice for each foreign worker named above. He or she must keep the copy with his or her Form I-94, Arrival-Departure Document, and must present it when requested by INS. However, the copy does not need to be turned in when he or she leaves the United States.

I moved from San Francisco to Manhattan, Kansas, in June 1992. I spent three days with a Zambian graduate student, whose Canadian wife was a K-State Philosophy Professor. I had met her at an American Philosophical Association meeting somewhere in the Midwest. She was definitely supportive of, and committed to diversity in the Department of Philosophy and so she played a key role in my employment there.

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Networking matters. What one knows is what counts the most when one is looking for a job. However, who one knows is a plus. After finding a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan, I flew to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and spent several days with friends, whom I met in California. They helped me purchase a used Ford car for the price of $3,500. I didn’t want to buy a better car, because I was financially challenged and I wasn’t sure of my future job prospects after my temporary job at K-State. They made the full payment to the dealer, because I didn’t have sufficient credit history yet. I reimbursed my friends in seven installments of $500 per month, which was more than the monthly rent for my one-bedroom furnished apartment, i.e., $350. They also took me to yard sale places where I bought dishes, pots, plates, silver wear, etc. From Cedar Rapids I drove back to Manhattan, Kansas at the beginning of July and started teaching in August 1992.

II. Linguistic Challenge and the Manhattan Experience: Teaching in English What I Learned in French and Italian The first semester of teaching in English was a challenging experience, because in Congo-Zaire and Italy the languages of daily communication and instruction were Ngbaka (my native language), Lingala (one of DRC’s four national languages), French (DRC’s official language), and Italian for my university education in Rome. I didn’t use Shakespeare’s language on a daily basis, except during my four-week summer course in Wincanton, England (1979), and during my three-week summer seminar at Liechtenstein’s International Academy of Philosophy in 1988. Many participants in that seminar came from Italy and a few came from the United States. Consequently, I spoke Italian with Italophones and I spoke English with my American classmates. I had a hard time understanding some of them. They spoke American English and they did so very fast. I guess they never learned how to speak to non-native speakers. They couldn’t put themselves in my shoes. Now I have to teach in English what I mostly learned in French and Italian. I taught an introductory course on ethics and in political and social philosophy using completely new textbooks that I had examined several weeks prior to the beginning of the fall semester of 1992. It was like studying for a test. It reminded me of my first semester experience with the Italian language in Rome. However, back then I had been a student and now I was a professor. I used the English-French dictionary a lot. It also reminded me of my early days in Europe, when Italian-French, French-English, and German-French pocket dictionaries were as necessary as my daily bread. So this K-State

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experience was not completely new. At K-State, I used to dress up; I mean dress professionally, just like my professors in Europe. Most of my colleagues were pretty casual in their way of dressing. I had to sometimes answer the question from some of my students, “What are you dressed up for?” Truly speaking, when I was a student, be it in Congo-Zaire or in Europe, it never occurred to me to ask a well-dressed professor, “What are you dressed up for?” Actually it was pretty abnormal to see my professors showing up to classes in very casual dress. I should add that my late dad was a tailor who made a living by helping other people dress up. But he did not really dress me up when I was a child. So I tried to catch up with that childhood experience as soon as I was able to personally decide on, and pay for my clothes. I did so throughout my college years in Congo and especially in Europe, where I learned that a well-dressed black African was more likely to be respected than an ill-dressed one. So, to some extent, I don’t agree with the French saying that, “l’habit ne fait pas le moine” or “it’s not the cowl that makes the monk.” It was in Manhattan that I met Madeleine, whom I met at an African students’ party and whom I married six years later. Initially I was particularly interested in her because she spoke French, being originally from Québec, Canada. I had some preference for a bilingual girlfriend. I wanted to be in the company of someone with whom I could also speak and keep up other languages skills, be they French, Italian, German, Ngbaka, or Lingala. Of course, in Manhattan, Kansas, my choices were extremely limited with respect to the speakers of Ngbaka and Lingala. I was definitely the only Ngbaka-speaking person there. While teaching at K-State, I kept applying for jobs elsewhere, because it was a one-year position and there seemed to be no chance for renewal. And even if there was such a chance, a non-tenure track position wasn’t the ideal situation for me. I needed to settle down and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with a permanent position. I also kept hoping for the possibility of a renewal and/or a permanent position at K-State, even though I was not too crazy about the idea of a permanent stay in Manhattan, Kansas, which was, as some people put it, “in the middle of nowhere.” The idea of returning to my homeland didn’t cross my mind during that time. After all, many of my Congolese friends living in Europe and at home wished they were in my shoes. So why would I want to be in their shoes? And if I were to travel home, even for a short vacation, would I be able to save enough money for my round trip? What about gifts and financial assistance to relatives and friends? Would they not have been fantasizing about my potential wealth and fortunes in the land of opportunity? Did I really want to go there and deceive them? No way. Moreover, it was risky to travel

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due to restrictions imposed by my H1-B visa status. What’s more, despite the transition from the one-party system to a multi-party system under the late president Mobutu following the Conférence Nationale Souveraine of 1992, the social, economic, and political conditions in Congo-Zaire were not reassuring. So I was in the USA to stay, work, and why not, pursue the American Dream in the land of opportunity, whatever that meant. I did not think my nine-month salary of $ 27,000 was the American Dream come true. But I thought it might be the beginning of it; and if it didn’t happen, then at least the teaching experience that I earned at K-State was something positive for my next job interviews, be they in the United States, or in some other countries. I occasionally thought that having some work experience in the United States could eventually open windows and doors of opportunity even in places where otherwise I wouldn’t have any chance. I bet my one-year teaching experience was an important factor in my job offer at Morgan State University (MSU).

CHAPTER TEN MOVING FROM MANHATTAN, KANSAS TO BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

I. My Employment at Morgan State University IN DECEMBER 1992, I ATTENDED THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION’s (APA) eastern division meeting in Washington, DC, where I had a job interview with Dr. Otto Begus and Dr. Cliff DuRand of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Morgan State University (MSU). That interview was supposed to be followed by another one on the MSU campus. But due to the university’s financial constraints, the on-campus visit and interview were replaced with a telephone interview. The conversation with Dr. Begus, the Philosophy Department chairman, was mostly about making me an offer I could not refuse. I was hired for the tenure-track job as an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. The annual or nine-and-a-half-month salary for the position was $40,000, based on our telephone conversation. However, for whatever reason, this amount was reduced to $38,000. I thought I should accept it for two reasons. First, it would have been unwise to refuse that offer and start hunting for a job again, which could easily take a whole semester or even a whole academic year, since we were already in August and most hiring decisions for the fall semester were already made. Secondly, the annual salary at MSU was about $10,000 more than my annual salary at K-State. Of course, the cost of living in Baltimore is higher than in “the Little Apple,” i.e., Manhattan, KS. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” I opted for a bird in the hand. On August 9, 1993, I received an official appointment letter from Morgan State University’s Office of the President: Dear Dr. Gbotokuma: I am pleased to offer you an appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective August 18, 1993. Your 9 ½-month salary for the 1993-1994 academic year will be $38,000.

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If you accept this offer, please sign the enclosed contract as indicated by the mark “X” and return it to this office at your earliest convenience. Dr. Burney J. Hollis, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will work with you on your specific assignments. I look forward to your joining our faculty and academic community. Sincerely, Earl S. Richardson, President

Of course, I was fired up and ready to move on, so I signed the contract without delay and returned it to the Office of the President. I ignored the salary negotiation advice that I received from K-State’s Director of Human Resources. In a conversation that I had with him after looking at my CV, he said, “Brother, if I had a PhD and could speak five languages, I wouldn’t accept any job that pays less than $75,000 a year.” But if that was universally true, then why didn’t K-State pay me that kind of salary? Or even half of it? Maybe that was true only for HR Directors who were not H1-B visa holders. It took me many years to earn that kind of monthly salary. After all, we are living in a new world order in which philosophers are no longer kings. I moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in early August 1993. My used Ford Escort, which I’d bought a year earlier in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, broke down in the proximity of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I planned on spending the night visiting my Iowan friends on my way to Baltimore. Once again, as they did a year earlier, they took me to a local car dealer where I traded my old car for a relatively new Ford Taurus. With great peace of mind I drove from Cedar Rapids to Baltimore in a day. I started working at Morgan in mid-August 1993. MSU is one of more than one hundred historically black US colleges and universities (HBCUs), which were established between the end of the Civil War and 1870 to meet the dire need of freed Blacks for an education. Morgan’s history began in 1867. The Centenary Biblical Institute (18671890), the first epoch, was established by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to train young Black men as ministers for their congregations. Morgan College (1890-1939), the second important phase in the institution’s development, signaled a broadening of the mission to educate men and women for careers other than the ministry. Morgan College’s mission became, “To prepare Black persons of good moral standing for careers in public school teaching and other careers.” Morgan College remained private and church-controlled, but its governing

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board was expanded to include prominent citizens in the community. Morgan State College (1939-1975) was created when the institution was purchased from the Methodist Episcopal Church by the State of Maryland. A state-supported college, Morgan’s governance passed to an independent board of trustees (from 1939 to 1967) and to the State Board of Trustees of State Colleges (from 1967 to 1975). Morgan State University (1975present) is the fourth stage in the institution’s development. The university’s missions are derived from the Maryland State Commission on Higher Education, that is, “Morgan will have three primary missions: teaching, research and service. These missions will be based on Morgan’s dual emphasis on the undergraduate liberal arts programs and urbanoriented graduate programs. Morgan will develop into the State’s primary public institution dealing with programs that address specific social, political and economic concerns of urban areas. Major program emphasis will include transportation systems, urban and regional planning and design, economic development and programs addressing special problems of the cities.” The University consists of nine major academic units: the College of Liberal Arts, the School of Architecture and Planning, the School of Business and Management, the School of Community Health and Policy, the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, the School of Education and Urban Studies, the School of Engineering, and the School of Global Journalism and Communication, and the School of Graduate Studies.3 After twelve years in Europe, studying in some of the most global institutions, working and networking with diverse population groups, and after a one-year temporary teaching job at K-State, a historically white institution located in the mid-western part of the United States, I was sufficiently prepared, fired up, and ready to work in any diverse environment. Diversity has been a quintessential part of my intercontinental experience. I did not apply to MSU because it was an HBCU. Morgan simply happened to be the first university that made me an offer that I could not refuse. Moreover, I did not have the financial means and the time to keep hunting for the dream job. Moreover, the employment at Morgan has something special about it. As a matter of fact, with about 95% of students that I have taught every year being African American, I sometimes feel almost like I am in DRC or in another African country. Except for my typically and authentically African last name, so to speak, I do not always feel like a minority in an alien nation. In other words, I 3

This basic information about Morgan’s founding was printed in the Founders Day Convocation 2008 program. For complete profiles of the United States and South African HBCUs, see Low & Clift, Encyclopedia of Black America, 1984.

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sometimes see my employment at an HBCU as one of many possible ways in which I have been paying my brain drain debt to Africa. That is certainly the case also because some of Morgan’s international students come from African countries, including a very few from DRC. And that is why my thinking and scholarly work also include an Africana focus or perspective as demonstrated, for example, by my two-volume reference work, A Pan-African Encyclopedia (Edwin Mellen Press, 2003).

II. Visa Issues From 1991 to 2000, I worked on the basis of having an H1-B visa, which was renewable every three years, subject to proof of employment. There were limitations on how many times the visa could be renewed. My immigration lawyer from San Francisco explained those limitations in a November 8, 1993 letter to Morgan State University: Dear Dr. Hollis, I appreciated your assistance in processing Dr. Gbotokuma’s application for H-1B visa status. As you know, the H-1B visa category is a temporary category, only allowing Dr. Gbotokuma to remain in the United States for a total period of six years. Because he first obtained H-1B status in June 1991, his six-year period will expire in June 1997. Unless he becomes a permanent resident, he will have to depart the United States at that time. However, he can qualify for permanent resident status through Morgan State University’s sponsorship. I am writing to you again to request your assistance in processing an application for residency for Dr. Gbotokuma. I am enclosing a Memorandum setting forth the procedures to file for the labor certification under the Labor Department’s special handling procedures for university professors. I would assist you in preparing the statements and documentation required to be filed by the employer sponsor. Dr. Gbotokuma will be responsible for my legal fees. I would hope that you would have time in the next few weeks to look over the Memorandum. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me. Very truly yours, Terry J. Helbush

The enclosed Memorandum was as follows:

Moving from Manhattan, Kansas to Baltimore, Maryland MEMORANDUM REGARDING SPECIAL RULES FOR LABOR CERTIFICATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS/RESEARCHERS & PERMANENT RESIDENCE APPLICATIONS Persons who have offers of positions with a university as a Professor can qualify for permanent residency through the labor certification process in a “special handling” category. Details of the procedure are set forth as below: For university professors, the Labor Department regulations provide for “special handling” of labor certifications. The procedure is for the university and the immigrant to file the usual labor certification forms which set forth the job description, job requirements, salary and the immigrant’s education and work experience. In addition to these usual forms, the university submits the documentation to demonstrate that the university “selected the immigrant for the job opportunity pursuant to a competitive recruitment and selective process, through which the immigrant was found to be more qualified than any of the United States workers who applied for the job.” The application for labor certification must be filed within 18 months of the selection of the immigrant. The documentation required to be submitted is as follows: Statement signed by the university official responsible for hiring outlining the recruitment procedure. The statement should list each applicant who was rejected and give the specific, job-related reasons why each applicant was found to be less qualified than the immigrant. The statement also should include a summary of the final report of the selection committee making the recommendation or selection of the immigrant; A copy of at least one advertisement of the job opportunity in a national professional journal; Evidence of all recruitment sources utilized; A written statement attesting to the degree of the immigrant’s educational or professional qualifications and academic achievements. Once the labor certification is approved, the university takes the next step of filing the visa petition with the Immigration Service for classification in the Advanced Degree (Employment-2) category. For this category, the petition is pretty much a formality. Once it is approved, the immigrant is eligible to file with the Immigration Service an application to change status from non-immigrant to lawful permanent resident status.

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The university and I started the process. But things didn’t move as fast as possible. We got stuck some time during the application process due to some missing documents required by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). They wanted proofs that I was hired because I was better qualified than any US candidate who applied for that position, amongst other things. I was assisted not only by my immigration lawyer from San Francisco, but also by another one from Baltimore. As is expected in this situation, I spent a lot of money on the legal fees of the immigration lawyers. In 1998, I was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. But I was still working with an H-1B visa that either had expired, or was about to expire. Moreover, my labor certification could no longer be processed under the “Special Handling” category for university positions, because my application was not filed within 18 months of my being selected for the job. I got impatient and took another route, i.e., through marriage. My wife Madeleine, a Canadian citizen who was a permanent resident, became a US citizen in 2000. Through our marriage, I applied for, and I received a Green Card in 2001. Having a Green Card gave me additional peace of mind, especially for international travel with which I’d had bad experiences. As a matter of fact, in June 2001, only a few months before being granted the permanent resident status (Green Card), I traveled to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, for a one-week seminar on Intercultural Communication organized by Interculturele Communicatie. After the seminar I traveled to Rome, Italy, to visit friends, whom I haven’t seen for eleven years. I happily spent another week with them. Unfortunately, at the Fiumicino Airport, I was told that I couldn’t return to the US on the ground that I didn’t have the proper re-entry visa. I had a valid Zairian passport issued by the Embassy of Zaire in Washington, DC. I also had my I-94 document proving that I was legally employed at MSU. Prior to leaving Baltimore for Amsterdam, I went to the INS office to ensure that these two documents were sufficient for the international travel. The INS officers told me that I had the proper documents to travel and to return to the United States. But they were dead wrong and I paid a dear price for their mistake. The problem was that I had a new Zairian passport and the US visa, which I’d received eleven years earlier from the US Embassy in Rome, was stamped in the old passport. It took me four days to solve the problem at the Embassy. I was supposed to fly back to Baltimore and then drive to Clifton Forge, Virginia, and to Orlando, Florida, for a seven-day vacation with my two stepdaughters and my wife’s entire family. It was a big family reunion and a big deal for the children, all of whom looked forward to having their Disney World wowing experiences. I lost four days of that vacation time. Everybody else

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left for Orlando without me. I had to change my return itinerary from Baltimore to Orlando, where I joined the extended family for a shortened summer vacation. I couldn’t enjoy a full week of vacation with the family. Moreover, I had to spend additional personal money on the new visa and lodging at two separate Hilton hotels in Rome and at the Fiumicino Airport. I didn’t want to disturb my friends who, by the way, had their own vacation planned in Italy. I wouldn’t have had that problem, if I’d had a Green Card. During that time, my A Pan-African Encyclopedia was near completion. It cost me about $ 10,000 to produce it. I also paid some of the publication costs with my credit cards. This was also a time when I was sending relatively substantial remittances to my family in DRC for a new house’s construction. My wife was still looking for a landscape architecture job after her graduation from K-State in 2000. No wonder a few years later we were on the brink of bankruptcy. As a matter of fact, a financial counsellor suggested that we file for bankruptcy in 2005, but we refused. During that time, I had to travel to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for professional engagements. Filing for bankruptcy would have made it difficult to use my credit cards when I needed them the most. I thought that royalties from the book would allow me to travel to DRC. Unfortunately, those royalties have been too slow to reach my bank account. In the meantime, my wife and I have been living as wisely and as modestly as possible.

CHAPTER ELEVEN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE

I. Engagement, Wedding, and a New Life AFTER FIVE YEARS OF DATING, MADELEINE AND I GOT ENGAGED AT A FRIENDS’ HOUSE IN WASHINGTON, DC in December 1997. At that time she was back in Virginia from Manhattan, Kansas, with her two daughters Jennifer and Jessica. They were living in, and taking care of her younger brother’s house in Clifton Forge, Virginia, while the brother – Martin – was working in Brussels, Belgium. We got married in Baltimore County Court House on February 20, 1998. It was a simple civil wedding attended by Madeleine’s parents, her two daughters, and close friends. The simplicity of the whole thing was apparent in the reception, which took place in my Essex two-bedroom rental apartment rather than at some fancy and spacious venue. We personally drove to and from the Towson Court House. We thought of possibly having a bigger, religious wedding later, but it didn’t happen. I felt pretty sick the day before the wedding. Fortunately I felt relatively well on the wedding day. Truly speaking, I was worried about marrying a divorced woman with two children. I was worried about the possibility of having no children given her circumstances. She was about forty and I was forty-two and childless. She could conceive only through surgery to reverse a previous procedure which was meant to prevent her from conceiving. We bought a house in Baltimore City in March of the same year. Madeleine and her two daughters joined me in Baltimore soon thereafter. She continued working on her dissertation in landscape architecture, which she successfully defended at K-State University in 2000. We temporarily enrolled the kids in a neighboring public elementary school, two blocks away from home. They spent only four months there, i.e., from March to June 1998, just to finish the school year. Then Madeleine decided to move them to a private school, Saint Anthony’s Catholic School, also only two blocks away from home, where they completed elementary and middle schools.

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II. Dealing with Step-Parenting, Prejudice, and Conjugal Issues From St. Anthony’s Middle School, Jennifer and Jessica went to Mercy High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Baltimore. The school was far away, about a twenty-minute drive. At the beginning they took the bus to get there. But they didn’t like taking the bus on the ground that they were harassed by some black boys. Mercy High School is a private school and like virtually all private schools in Baltimore, it didn’t have any school bus. Most of the girls were from relatively wealthy families and they were driven to school and picked up by their parents or somebody. Obviously, taking a bus to go to school was seen as indicative of being from a poor family and that was probably the main reason why Jessica and Jennifer didn’t like it. So for four years or so we were the designated drivers, not only for driving them to and from school, but also for driving them to soccer games, etc. I was a soccer stepdad. I know something about the pleasures and pains of parenting, especially the pain of parenting stepchildren who occasionally didn’t hesitate to remind me, whenever it was convenient – i.e., whenever I set tough rules – of who I really was or who I wasn’t. Kids are kids and they do say many stupid things to their parents and stepparents. The most painful thing with which I had to deal and with which I had to show patience, self-control, and understanding was when, for example, Jennifer, the older stepdaughter, unapologetically told me, “You don’t have children of your own and you tell our mom how to raise her children.” She made that statement after I opposed her plan of doing something that I deemed unwise for her age. She was invited to go on vacation in the Cayman Islands with her teenage boyfriend and his divorced dad. The relatively conservative side of me felt – contrary to my wife’s favorable opinion – that she wasn’t old enough for that kind of adventure. It was one of those times when I almost cried and regretted my marriage circumstances. When I moved to Baltimore, Madeleine and I had a long distance relationship for five years. But two years prior to our wedding, I seriously thought of breaking up with her for several reasons. First, as a Catholic I had mixed feelings about marrying a divorced woman. Second, the fact that her chances of conceiving had been drastically reduced by a conscious decision made during her previous marriage was of a great concern to me. Third, I’d witnessed some of the ugly custody fights between her and her ex-husband and I didn’t want to be caught in the middle of them. Fourth, it was easy to break up with

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someone with whom I was in a long distance relationship. Fifth, I was uncomfortable with racist views that started manifesting themselves in her family. As a matter of fact, one brother-in-law of hers warned in clear terms that he didn’t want his kids around me simply because I am black. His feeling was not based on something he knew about me, since we didn’t really socialize and his knowledge of me was limited to occasional family gatherings around holidays. His feeling led Madeleine and me not to show up to one of the Christmas gatherings, thereby allowing the racist brother-in-law to be comfortable and happy. This was not a serious reason to break up with Madeleine. But it would be a reason for concern to anybody. I reconsidered my decision to break up after I was informed of her exhusband’s suicide. One evening, during a telephone conversation with her while she was still a graduate student in Manhattan, Kansas, the kids picked up the phone as they tended to do. They made a request. One of them – I don’t know whom it was – asked me a question, “Will you marry my mom? And before I said anything, both of them said together and simultaneously, “please!” Then they gave a reason for their request. “Our dad passed away and we want to have a dad. This was a defining moment in my difficult decision, which went the way the kids wanted. It should be noted, en passant, that the kids have never called me “dad.” They’ve always called me by my first name, Zekeh. This is apparent in Jennifer’s letter referred to below. I still remember how happy they looked on our wedding day and whenever we got together in Kansas, Virginia, and Maryland during our six-year long-distance relationship. I am still childless sixteen years after our marriage. We have realized that modern medical science and technologies have limitations. Medical gynaecologists from Johns Hopkins Hospital – the best medical institution in the United States – were unable to reverse the surgery that caused my wife’s infertility. We also unsuccessfully tried in vitro fertilization (IVF). My childlessness is, to some extent, the highest price I have paid for some of my wife’s decisions prior to our marriage. In the United States and in many Western countries, after having the desired number of children, many families choose or force women to undergo surgeries that prevent them from becoming pregnant again. It was very painful to be told, as Jennifer childishly did, that I don’t have children of my own and therefore, I have no right to tell her mom how to raise her children. One of the differences between Jessica and Jennifer is that the former was quick to apologize for misbehaving; the latter was often unlikely to apologize, unless she was forced to do so. But one day, Jennifer became aware of her disrespectful attitude toward me and decided to apologize in writing. I

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found that letter so consoling and peculiar that I have kept it. In a letter, which I received on Sunday, October 19, 2003, she wrote: Zekeh, I was just writing mom a letter and it made me start thinking about your idea of our relationship. I have pretty much no idea where we stand besides on two truce lines where we have stayed with very little conflict, recently. I know in the past things were never that way. I could never imagine falling in love with someone with kids, then marrying them, but more than anything, never complaining. I know I’ve been ungrateful and cruel for as long as I can remember, but I am really willing to change that and I want to more than anything. With maturity comes understanding and I am sorry it took so long, but I am just beginning to realize what an amazing person you are. I know your heart has for ever been in the right place, and I’m sorry it took so long for mine to get there too. I really do love you and appreciate everything you’ve ever done for me, whether it’s drive me around, give me money, or most importantly love my mom and keep her so incredibly happy. All I want everything to come down to is that I really am, sorry for what an awful person I have been to someone so kind. How ungrateful I was and how you just kept giving. But most of all thank you. Thank you for letting me learn things from you that no one else will understand. Thank you for being so good to a woman with bratty kids and loving them even when I was the brattiest. And because of all this God has shown me one incredible gift that I have in my life and something that I should’ve been taking advantage of and realizing you had it hard too. And I love you. I always have and always will, no matter how poorly in the past I’ve shown it (and I know I did). I love you forever and for always, Jennie

My marriage to Madeleine has been my first conjugal experience. I had no particular training in parenting stepchildren. Therefore, I had no idea about what to expect from them, nor have I been the best stepdad that I could be. This letter, written by a sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, doesn’t and cannot say everything about our family. However, it sheds some light on some of the common issues facing stepparents and stepchildren. I know some people whose remarriage fell apart very quickly due, among other

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things, to their inability and/or unwillingness to deal with stepchildren’s issues. Jessica – the youngest stepdaughter – was unable to graduate from Mercy because of some troublesome teenage choices. This was the first and most tragic moment of our family life. As a matter of fact, from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where I was attending a conference in April 2005, I received a message from my wife regarding Jessica’s disappearance from home. After she was found, it was determined that she needed some time away from Baltimore for counselling and therapy in Oregon. Everything worked well and she was able to graduate from high school in a small town in Virginia, where she lived with her grandparents, thereby being away from big city troubles. She also attended one year of Community College there before returning to Baltimore and deciding that a college education was not for her, at least so far. In 2005, Jennifer graduated from Mercy High School. Soon after her graduation, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where she spent one year attending a Community College, hoping to eventually transfer to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But she decided to move to New York City, New York with a boyfriend whom she met in Greensboro. In New York, she received training in, and worked for real estate businesses for a while prior to working as a waitress in a French Restaurant while studying at Hunter College. There, she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in December 2012. Like Jessica and many other young people, Jennifer also went through her own critical moments, which are part of growing up. However, she was an adult and was independent, so to speak. But overall, she has always proven that she knew exactly what she wanted out of life. I think and hope she will be all right. In the meantime, my wife and I continue living our lives and carrying out our duties in the education field.

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IIII. Family Ph hotographss

Figure 11-1 W Wedding Day

Madeleine & Zekeh on Wedding W Day in Baltimoree County Court House, Towson, Maaryland, Februuary 20, 1998..

Figure 11-2 F Family Photograaph

From the lefft to the right: Madeleine, Zekeh, Z Jessica & Jennifer Flashback P Photos, Ocean City, Marylan nd.

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Figure 11-3 Z Zekeh & Step--Daughters Jenn nifer & Jessicaa Visiting my Parents-inP Law in Cliftoon Forge, Virginnia.

Figure 11-4 F From the Left too the Right: Zeekeh & Madeleiine; Jennifer & Jessica at Home in Balttimore.

CHAPTER TWELVE PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES

I. Applying for Promotion and Tenure A. Granted! A Successful Application IN 1997, I APPLIED FOR TENURE AND PROMOTION TO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR. News from colleagues who applied and reapplied before me was not encouraging. But I trusted my APT dossier, which, according to Dean Burney Hollis of the College of Arts and Sciences – now renamed College of Liberal Arts – was “impressive.” Fortunately, in May 1998, I was notified through a certified letter from Dr. Earl S. Richardson, Morgan State University’s President, that I was granted both tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. The letter read: Dear Dr. Gbotokuma: Consistent with the recommendation of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Clara I. Adams, I am pleased to promote you to the rank of Associate Professor and to award you tenure in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies effective August 19, 1998. Thank you for the contributions that you have made to Morgan State University. I encourage you to continue your achievements in the areas of teaching, research, and service. Sincerely, Earl S. Richardson, President

Consistent with this encougement, I relentlessly worked on the completion of A PAN AFRICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA, which was accepted for publication by the Edwin Mellen Press. In addition to my teaching duties, I also served as MSU’s Center for Global Studies director until 2009. I will come back to this service in the next chapter.

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B. Denied! The Struggle for Full Professorship In September 2005 or seven years after my tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, I thought it was time to seek another promotion. So I applied for promotion to Full Professor of Philosophy. In April 2006, I received the bad news from the Office of the President denying me the promotion. I appealed the President’s decision. But even my appeal was rejected on the ground that the Office of the Provost and Academic Affairs didn’t receive it in a timely way. I gave up fighting, mainly because, it seemed, there were no substantial financial benefits attached to promotions. Moreover, I didn’t want anybody to think that I was desperate for promotion and was terribly hurt by the unfavorable decision. In September 2011, or five years later, I reapplied for promotion. I organized my APT dossier in a five-inch, three-ring binder. I made four copies of the dossier, three of which I submitted to the new Philosophy Department Chairperson. My application submission date and time were September 19, 2011 and 5:00 P.M., respectively. I kept one copy for my record. Each binder contained, among other things, the APT Application form; Table of Contents; Executive Summary; Statement; Curriculum Vitae; Credentials; Letters of Recommendation; and attachments relevant to the three key areas of assessment, i.e., Teaching; Research; and Service. In my application’s three-page statement entitled, “I Came; I Taught; I Published; and I Served,” I wrote: I came to MSU in August 1993 and so this is my eighteenth year of contribution to “Growing the Future – Leading the World,” MSU’s new motto. I taught various Philosophy and Religious Studies courses to more than 2000 students. I taught in classrooms on MSU’s campus as well as offcampus – domestically and internationally – through guest lectures and presentations at professional fora, from Baltimore, Maryland to Fairbank, Alaska; New York City; Washington, DC; Dakar, Senegal; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Fort-de-France, Martinique; Cave Hill, Barbados; Xi’an, China; Seoul, South Korea; etc. I researched, wrote, and published. Consistent with, and aware of the importance of interdisciplinary research for the humanities, my publications are not only philosophical, but also interdisciplinary. I published not only domestically, but also internationally. My publications are multilingual. I published in English as well as in French, Italian, and Lingala. I wrote about Western Philosophy as well as Asian Philosophy. I wrote about African Philosophy and cultures, Negritude, Pan-Africanism,

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and my most recent book is about the Obama ‘phenom’ (Gbotokuma 2011). I served the University, the Baltimore City and County communities, the State of Maryland, the national and international communities. I was humbled, proud, and grateful to MSU for acknowledging my service to the global community by granting me the Sandye Jean McIntyre II International Award 2008. Discovering & Assuming Hidden and New Identities Abroad I am originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In 1990, I came to the USA after twelve years of study and other experiences in Europe. My European stay allowed me to be culturally and linguistically immersed through numerous interactions with Italians, French, Germans, Austrians, and Latinos. It was precisely in Europe that I (re)discovered my most obvious identity and facticity, i.e., my blackness, coloredness, and Africanness. For those who didn’t know me by name, and for those who couldn’t remember or pronounce my exotic name, “Black,” “Colored,” and “African” became my first, middle, and family names, so to speak. My Congolese nationality/identity has, to some extent, faded; it has been hidden behind the veil of blackness, coloredness, and Africanness. My newly assumed identity is deeply rooted into my African origin, which is no longer “the Heart of Darkness.” It has been enhanced by my European and American experiences. My new and transcontinental identity has permeated my thinking, teaching, research, and service. I have joined the club of those who are committed to thinking globally and acting locally. In Europe, most of my speaking engagements on the North-South Dialogue had a curiously black and alien accent. In the United States and at Morgan, I have found a fertile ground on which I have cultivated and grown soul food for thought. Here too, I have enjoyed my new identity. This is mainly because in the US, it is ok to question Eurocentrism. Diversity or multiculturalism has become the new gospel, not only among Afrocentrists, but also among liberal and progressive scholars. A close look at my presentations and scholarship from 1991 to present suggests that I have made a substantial modification to my research focus. So for example, from my original interest in continental philosophy – with a thesis on Martin Heidegger’s concept of “Mitsein” – I have become, in Professor Mudimbe’s phrase, “a cosmopolitan universalist” and “one of the leaders in multicultural issues.”4 Unarguably, my interest in, and commitment to intercultural, international, and interdisciplinary approach 4

See V.Y. Mudimbe’s September 6, 2005 Letter of Recommendation to MSU’s APT Committee, also reprinted in this chapter, section II, “Recommendation Letter.”

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Chapter Twelve to knowledge are the end results of my eclectic educational background. That interest and commitment have also been strengthened by my active participation in specialized conferences, faculty institutes, and professional development activities such as: The United Nations’ Department of Public Information/Nongovernmental Organizations (DPI/NGO) Annual Conferences on “Human Security and Dignity” (2003); “Millennium Development Goals” (2004); and “Climate Change” (2006). Summer 2001 Seminar on “Intercultural Communication,” organized by Interculturele Communicatie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Summer 1999 Faculty Institute on, “The Teaching of Africa,” organized by the Yale University’s PIER African Studies Program. The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs’ Faculty Development Seminars on, “The Politics and Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention,” New York, June 1997; “Ethical Issues in the Use of Military Power,” Annapolis, June 2000. Moreover, my connection and/or membership into such associations as NAFSA and European Association for International Education have been instrumental in shaping my teaching, research, and service. My appointment as the Center for Global Studies Director (2000-2009) was based on my international experience. Impact on Research/Scholarship The rediscovery of my plural identities has reoriented my research toward Afrosophia, interculturalism, and globalism. This is apparent in such publications as, Césaire, Cesairology, and Universal Humanism (2007); A PAN-AFRICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA (2003); OBAMÆNON (2011); “Negritude Meets Daoism;” etc. My “cosmopolitan universalism” is apparent in many of my presentation titles. For example, “Globalization and Africa;” “Senghoritude: Le Credo Senghorien Comme Défi à la Mondialisation;” “Afrosophia: The Task of Thinking in Africa at the End of the Black-Out;” etc. My appointment as Director of Morgan’s CGS served as a catalyst for interest in developing and/or teaching new courses such as “Global Ethical Issues,” etc. It also allowed me to take new approaches to teaching and develop a new education philosophy called Cosmoportism. Unarguably, the decision by the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) Television to broadcast/cablecast my Maryland Humanities Council Lecture on “Globalization & Africa” has been encouraging. It has also contributed to the dissemination of my research and Weltanschauung to a wider audience. TEACHING: Cosmoportism Is My Philosophy of Education

Professional Challenges As CGS Director for ten years, I founded and edited a newsletter, which I called COSMOPORT, from which comes “Cosmoportism” or my philosophy of internationalization. This neologism comes from the Greek word cosmos (țȠıȝȠȢ), meaning “universe” or world, and from the second part of the word “passport.” COSMOPORT is based on my belief that international education is the 21st-Century’s passport and global positioning system (GPS), so to speak, to comfortably navigate the global village. It is the key to global competitiveness. Therefore, nobody should be allowed to graduate from any university today without becoming globally competent. Cosmoportism is based on the understanding of the logical and natural link between “universe-ity” and “globality.” It can be summarized in three key points, i.e., (1) UNIVERSITY, WORLD-READINESS, AND “COSMOCITIZENSHIP”: Global citizenship must be the main goal of any authentic university education. University is a microcosm, where one learns to “think globally and act locally.” (2) GLOCAL INTEREST, SECURITY & LEADERSHIP: National interest, security, and global leadership require international competence, which, according to Green and Olson (2005), consists of three key elements or attributes: knowledge, attitudes, and skills. (3) COSMOCITIZENSHIP must be taught theoretically through curricular activities and practically through global education projects entailing immersion and interaction between native and international students and faculties on and off-campus. COSMOPORTISM is a way of living in the global village. That way must be based on a vested interest in, and commitment to worldwide learning and understanding (Gbotokuma 2010 23-31). SERVICE Consistent with Morgan’s mission as a public urban university committed to the internationalization of the curriculum, my service has included outreach activities in Baltimore City Hall, Baltimore County, Area colleges and universities, the Washington Diplomatic Corps, on the US Capitol Hill, in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. At Morgan, I have been the Phi Sigma Tau Adviser, facilitating the initiation of qualified students into this International Honor Society in Philosophy. I served on several committees, including, inter alia, departmental and interdepartmental APT Committees; Latin American and Caribbean Studies Core Faculty; doctoral and MA Dissertation and Capital Campaign Committees. I chaired the University Council’s Academic and Student Affairs Committee, etc. I founded and edited COSMOPORT. This Newsletter was distributed not only at Morgan, but also to many historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), area colleges and MSU’s international partners. Under my editorship, the CGS also

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published an INTERNATIONAL CALENDAR. I also helped establish the International Education Week (IEW) celebration and Global Literacy Lectures Series. I helped organize Faculty Development Workshops and networked domestically and internationally. The most recent travel was to Hubei University (HU) in Wuhan, China in July 2008, where we discussed the need to revitalize the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between MSU and HU. In Baltimore and in Maryland I served as a member of the Mayor Immigrant Service Working Group (MISWG), 2004-2006. As a member of NAFSA – The Association of International Educators – and as NAFSA Region VIII Minority Representative for two years, I cosponsored the organization’s letter requesting Gov. Bob Ehrlich to issue the International Education Week (IEW) 2006 Proclamation. I represented my country (DRC) and carried its flag at the International Festival 2005 Parade of Nations. I represented Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. and held the organization’s first Pan-Urban Dialogue on the Foreign Language Divide at the International Festival 2005. I have served on Maryland Humanities Council as Lecturer and one of my lectures has been aired by the CCBC Essex Educational TV Channels. On the National Level I served on the Institute of International Education (IIE) National Panel for the selection of Benjamin Gilman International Scholarship Awards in Houston, Texas. I participated in NAFSA Congressional Advocacy Day 2004, 2005, 2006 on Capitol Hill. My Service and Outreach to the International Community include, inter alia: Hosting French high school exchange students (6 students from 2000 to 2011) through Global Friendship, Inc.; bringing foreign ambassadors and diplomats to speak at Morgan’s IEW; successfully serving as Country Expert Witness in the deportation case of a Congolese student/refugee; meeting with the Vice Chancellor of the University of Dar es Salaam (2002 and 2005) to discuss MOU. At our April 2005 meeting I donated two copies of my A PAN-AFRICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA to the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) library.

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I Came; I Taught; I Published; and I Served. Pursuant to my eighteen years of teaching, research, and service to the University, I believe I have done my best. Consequently, I hereby ask for promotion to the rank of Full Professor of Philosophy. My global safari or travel from DRC to USA via Europe has entailed crossing many rivers and oceans, climbing many rocky mountains, and overcoming numerous anthropogenic obstacles, including, but not limited to the color line and xenophobia. Thank God I have also benefited from a great deal of philanthropy. I am grateful for the opportunity to work for Morgan and for my tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 1998. I look forward to contributing to “Growing the Future – Leading the World” at MSU. Yes, We Can! Si, Se Puede! Oui, Nous le Pouvons! Iyo, Tokokoka! Hakuna Matata! (No Problem, in Swahili) Thanks! Merci! Gracias! Grazie! Danke schön! Xie xie! Arigato! Asanti Sana! Botondi!

I resubmitted the same recommendation letters from the 2005 APT Application. They were written by some of the top scholars from the Ivy League institutions of higher learning in the United States, namely Professor Henry L. Gates, Jr. of Harvard University’s Department of African and African American Studies; Prof. V.Y. Mudimbe of Duke University’s Literature Program; Retired Morgan Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Clifford DuRand; and Professor John Murungi of Towson University’s Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. I am reproducing three of them below because they are different and equally important ways of telling my global safari stories and introducing me to my readership.

II. Recommendation Letters from Ivy League Gurus and Denials A. Recommendation Letter Number 1: From Professor Henry L. Gates, Jr. In his November 2, 2005 letter to the Department of Philosophy’s APT Committee, Prof. Gates, Jr. wrote: I write to commend to you the application for promotion to Full Professor of Philosophy of Dr. Zekeh S. Gbotokuma. I met Dr. Gbotokuma in the fall of 2003 at a lecture I gave in Baltimore, and I was immediately impressed by his intensity and his commitment to

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the field of African and African American Studies. At our meeting, he gave me a copy of the August 2003 newsletter of the Center for Global Studies, which was devoted to the career of the magnificent Aimé Césaire. His studies of universal humanism in the works of Césaire are among the most thorough and comprehensive I have seen. At least as important as scholarly contribution was his A Pan-African Encyclopedia, which is a truly wonderful resource for students and scholars of Africa. In all candor, I do not know Dr. Gbotokuma personally, but I do know that he has been a remarkably productive scholar over the past ten years despite a heavy teaching load with, as I understand it, no sabbaticals. Promotion within the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies would recognize his talents as a scholar and teacher and also his substantial contributions to the university and the field. I support the promotion of Dr. Zekeh S. Gbotokuma to the position of Full Professor with great enthusiasm. Sincerely, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

B. Recommendation Letter Number 2: From Prof. V.Y. Mudimbe In his September 6, 2005 letter to the Department of Philosophy’s APT Committee, Prof. Mudimbe wrote: I have known Professor Gbotokuma for a number of years. In 2003, he invited me to write a preface for his two-volume A PAN-AFRICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA. This invitation led me to a close reading of his publications, particularly in the fields of Philosophy and African Studies. At conferences, we have, since then, formally and informally discussed a host of issues concerning his interests in these fields. As a result, I believe I know Professor Gbotokuma very well. Professor Gbotokuma seems a personable person who wears his erudition with brilliance. In terms of scope of scholarly knowledge, he is a cosmopolitan humanist [my Italics] with the type of intellectual breadth that Roman Pontifical universities produce. In effect, and this should be emphasized, Dr. Gbotokuma made most of his training in Roman Catholic institutions of higher education in Africa, France, and Germany before completing it with MA in Philosophy (magna cum laude) and a doctoral degree, also in Philosophy, at the prestigious Gregorian University in Rome [my Italics].

Professional Challenges The scholastic background of Professor Gbotokuma is solid; the quality of his academic education, impressive [my Italics]; his professional activities, as contained in his vita, quite diverse and really remarkable in their scope and significance. He has extensively traveled for academic interventions in Africa, Europe, and the United States [as well as in the Caribbean and Asia]; and no one could deny that he is, in his own right, one of the leaders in multicultural issues as discussed at the most pertinent international levels [my Italics]. Professor Gbotokuma is not a cloistered academic. Theoretical principles seem to serve him when regarding social programs. This perspective enriches tremendously his research and public interventions. This is an assessment that one finds in evaluations coming from officials and participants in frontline conferences he participates in. But let me emphasize the significance of his commitments to our discipline. It seems to me that Dr. Gbotokuma has been working hard to make a contribution to a new, and confused space, called intercultural philosophy. This domain, theoretically instituted by a German colleague, Heinz Kimmerle, who retired a few years ago, is a challenging space. It wants to transcend cultural antinomies and bring into dialogue contributions coming from different historical horizons determined by, indeed, relatively original yet different presuppositions. This means that the contribution of a student, or any student, is somehow marked by the impact of the conflict that his or her own reading brings about. And Professor Gbotokuma has been trying to suggest ways of translating African lines and wisdoms into what one might qualify as universal philosophical propositions. This is risky business and one has to admire the courage of people who involve themselves in these innovative explorations. Some of Professor Gbotokuma’s philosophical contributions to this field were published in a highly respectable journal, The American Bulletin of French Philosophy, and having served as one of its editors, I can affirm that they were excellent and welcome. One could add to this the numerous other journals to which Gbotokuma had been submitting papers and articles since the late 1980s. In brief, I personally know many people who have been working with Professor Gbotokuma, and I have been attentive to his academic work, and thus I can affirm that he is held in great esteem, considered as a dependable person who is establishing a good reputation for himself. I recommend him enthusiastically. Sincerely, V.Y. Mudimbe

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Newman Ivey White Professor of Literature in Trinity College of Arts and Science , Duke University

C. Recommendation Letter Number 3: From Prof. Clifford DuRand As a confirmation of the aforementioned opinions about me and my work, Professor DuRand also supported my application for full professorship. He was on the Search Committee that hired me in 1993. He also chaired the APT Committee for my tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 1998. So to some extent, he knows me even better than Professors Gates and Mudimbe. In his September 19, 2005 letter he wrote: Dear Dean Hollis, I write in support of Dr. Zekeh Gbotokuma’s application for promotion to Full Professor. As a member of Morgan’s Faculty for 12 years, now in his 7th year at the rank of Associate Professor, Dr. Gbotokuma has amply demonstrated his commitment to scholarship, while also conscientiously fulfilling his administrative responsibilities as Director of the Center for Global Studies. Much of his work has been cross-cultural, particularly making African cultures available to speakers of European languages, thereby fully utilizing his command of several languages. His published articles have ranged from negritude and issues of underdevelopment to Heidegger and international education. He is a man who can move comfortably through many of the cultures of this globalizing world and is thus an important asset to this University. It is a credit to Morgan to have him on its Faculty where his contributions should be recognized through this promotion. Sincerely, Dr. Cliff DuRand Research Associate, Center for Global Justice San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

III. Waiting for the University’s Notifications Morgan State University’s officials were supposed to inform APT candidates about their final decision regarding their applications in March 2012. I didn’t know anything about the recommendation written by the Chairperson of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, nor

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did I know the APT Committee’s final vote and recommendation. I knew, however, that the APT Committee had a positive evaluation of my teaching. I didn’t know anything regarding the School Committee’s decision and the Dean’s recommendations to the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Monday, January 23, 2012 was an important date in this process because, according to Morgan State University’s 2011-2012 Schedule for Review and recommendation of Promotion and Tenure, this is the date when, eventually, the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs shall review the recommendations of the Dean and forward a recommendation to the President. If a recommendation is negative, the Vice President shall advise the candidate of the recommendation and inform the individual of his right to appeal to the President in accordance with Section IV (B) of the “Policies and Procedures on Appointment, Promotion and Tenure.”

As of Monday, March 29, 2012, I hadn’t received any correspondence from the provost or from the president. Should I take this as no news, good news? Maybe. I kept looking forward to receiving the certified mail regarding the final decision. March 12, 2012 was, according to the above mentioned schedule, the date when, “the President shall inform the candidate, chair, Dean and the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs of his decision.” Unfortunately, the notification letters from the provost and from the president came two months later. I received both letters on the same day, that is, on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. I was coming home from my Thursday evening course/seminar on global ethical issues. I didn’t open them that evening. I opened them the morning after. Of course, I was nervous. Bad news! For the second time, my application for promotion to full professor was denied. Once again, I considered appealing the decision. However, before doing so, I sent an email to the philosophy department head, in an attempt to see if it was worth proceding with my intention to appeal. For some reason I did not receive any response for such a timesensitive letter. But Faculty members were given only seven days to appeal. So I made an appointment and briefly met with MSU’s provost on May 18, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. In a two or three-minute meeting, the provost informed me that my APT application received negative recommendations from both the Philosophy department’s chair and from the College of Liberal Arts’ dean. I immediately returned to my office, where I finalized my appeal letter and handed it to the provost’s office in the afternoon of the same day, which was the due date.

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On Friday, August 3, 2012, I received another piece of certified mail from the MSU president rejecting my appeal. In his short July 24, 2012 letter, he wrote, “[…] The Appointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee met and reviewed your appeal. The committee recommended denial of your appeal. Therefore, my decision to deny you promotion to the rank of Professor stands. […].” In September 2012, I resubmitted my APT Application. Unfortunately, the Philosophy department’s chairperson rejected it on the ground that it was one day late. I unsuccessfully appealed this rejection, which, I believe, was due to the application of the university’s policy relative to submission deadlines. “Dura lex, sed lex,” (Tough law, but it is the law, in Latin). But there would be no wonder if eventually other factors might also have played an important role in the rigid application of the law. I perfectly understood my predicament under what I perceived and denounced as hostile work environment. I found comfort in Publius Terence’s wonderful Latin statement, “homo sum, et nihil humani alienum a me puto” (I am a human being, and I think nothing that is human is foreign to me). My APT dossier was ready for resubmission in September 2013. But I did not resubmit it for three reasons. First, I wanted to improve my dossier through additional publications, including a revised edition of OBAMÆNON (Gbotokuma 2011). Second, I did not want to go through another rejection by resubmitting a dossier that did not meet the expected standards. Third and more importantly, I was deeply focused on writing this memoir. In conclusion, any professional life has challenges. I have been able to successfully meet some of my professional challenges and I have failed to meet others. The successful application for tenure was professionally the most important thing. It has given me the confidence and peace of mind that come with job security, especially during tough USA-originated global financial crisis. Failures under any circumstance are humbling and humiliating. However, they can also be a wake up call and a catalyst for much harder work and eventually a greater success. I am proud of, and grateful for the international and world-ready education that had prepared me to live, survive, and function beyond borders. The recognition of this fact was apparent in my appointment to face another professional challenge as director of MSU’s Center for Global Studies (CGS). My diverse background and experiences at the Center would allow me to develop cosmoportism, or my philosophy of international education.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN COSMOPORTISM: DIRECTING THE CENTER FOR GLOBAL STUDIES AT MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

I. Cosmoportism: Advocating for International Education through NAFSA MY TENURE AND PROMOTION TO THE RANK OF ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR was followed, one year later, by my appointment as director of the newly established and Title III-funded Center for Global Studies (CGS) at MSU. I worked in that capacity from January 2000 to August 2009. As the CGS director and through my membership into NAFSA, the US-based Association of International Educators, I had the opportunity to travel domestically and internationally. I enjoyed attending the organization’s annual conferences in such wonderful places as Los Angeles, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; San Diego, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Montreal, Canada. Through NAFSA, I was able to visit congressional offices in Washington, DC and advocate, along with my fellow NAFSAns, for international education. I also attended three United Nations conferences in New York City, namely, the United Nations 56th Annual DPI/NGO Conference on Human Security and Dignity (September 8-10, 2004); the United Nations 57th Annual DPI/NGO Conference on Millennium Development Goals (September 8-10, 2005); and the United Nations 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference on Climate Change (September 5-7, 2007). These experiences and my own educational background led me to come up with my own philosophy of international education known as Cosmoportism.5 As a NAFSA member, I participated in the 2005 EDUESPAÑA-sponsored seven-day trade mission in Spain. I 5

See above, Chapter Twelve, “Professional Challenges,” Section I.B., the paragraph entitled, TEACHING: Cosmoportism is My Philosophy of Education, p. 224-225.

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have shared some of my experiences elsewhere6 and I think it is equally relevant to share it here again, with some modifications wherever it is appropriate.

II. The 2005 USA-EDUESPAÑA: A Trade Mission to Spain On June 4-12, 2005, I had the opportunity to participate in an international education-related trade mission in Spain. I was one of fifteen US international program officers, whom the Institute for Foreign Exchange (ICEX), the Trade Commission of the Embassy of Spain (based in Miami, Florida) and EDUESPAÑA had invited to meet with Spanish public and private educational institutions, especially those specialized in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. The purpose of the mission was to learn about study abroad and Spanish language opportunities in Spain. The invitation covered a round trip airfare, local transportation in Spain, lodging, and most of the meals. I left from the Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) via Philadelphia on Saturday, June 4 and I arrived in Madrid on Sunday, June 5, 2005. I enthusiastically accepted to participate in the mission for five main reasons. First and foremost, I was the director of the Center for Global Studies at MSU. CGS was established to internationalize the curriculum and to promote global literacy and competency through international programs. Such programs include, inter alia, study abroad, student and faculty exchanges, etc., none of which can be effectively implemented without site visits abroad. If taken seriously, the CGS will contribute to bridging the global educational divide, which, like the digital and NorthSouth divides, has followed the color line. Morgan’s success in the Fulbright program has been an important contribution to these internationalization efforts. However, the Fulbright benefits affect only a very small number of the student population. Therefore, there must be other alternatives. A top quality education for the 21st century’s generations ought to include a significant dose of international competency. Today, there is an increasing number of US and European institutions of higher learning that have included successful international programs as one of the criteria for assessing a top quality education. It is 6

See USA-EDUESPAÑA 2005 – ¿HABLA ESPAÑOL? A Photo report on MY Trade Mission to Spain (unpublished), available at the CGS at Morgan. What I am reproducing here is my introduction to that report.

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quasi impossible to graduate from an accredited European university or even high school without having gone through a study abroad program and/or without being really proficient in one or more foreign languages. Foreign language skills are useful, not only for “Euro-citizenship,” but also for cosmocitizenship or global citizenship and leadership. I was impressed, but not surprised, by the level of proficiency in English that Norwegian high school students showed during my interaction with them. I met them in Seville, Spain, where they were spending their summer vacation learning and/or improving their proficiency in Spanish through immersion programs. It’s worth mentioning, en passant, that in Europe, Scandinavian countries are leaders in terms of foreign language skills. Second, foreign language skills are required to better compete in today’s global market. They are also required for US global leadership in the post-Cold War and post-September 11 era. That leadership should come from US institutions of learning, which have to take foreign languages seriously. The knowledge of foreign languages is crucial, not only to the universal rendezvous of cultures and civilizations, but also, in the particular case of the United States, to its national security. Of course, US national security is also tied to global security. This is a logical consequence and one of the duties of the US in its global leadership. As a matter of fact, during the January 16, 2002 Briefing on Language and National Security in Washington, D.C., sponsored by The National Foreign Language Center and the National Security Education Program (NSEP), Robert Slater, NSEP Director, stated, the events of September 11th brought renewed national attention to America’s lack of language readiness as a threat to our national security. In retrospect, however, the September 11th tragedy revitalized, but perhaps only temporarily, the recognition that our continued ignorance of world cultures and world languages represents a threat, not only to our safety at home, but also to our role as a world leader.

NSEP was established by the 1991 National Security Education Act. This program is a necessity for a mostly monolingual country that is still expected to play a leading role in a multilingual and multicultural world. With US armed forces stationed in many nations, deficiency in foreign languages is a critical national security problem. US success in its war against Al Qaeda and global terrorism will depend not only on smart bombs and drones, but also on soft power, human intelligence, public or people to people diplomacy, and of course, foreign language skills. Just because English has become “the de facto global lingua franca” does not mean that monolingualism should become a key defining term for being

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an American. Moreover, at the briefing referred to above, Everette Jordan of the US Department of Defense disagreed with the assumption that, The world speaks English, so therefore if there’s anything that’s important that needs to be said, it will be said in English. In national security matters where it involves threats to U.S. citizens at home and abroad, this is seldom the case. In the case of adversaries, when someone is planning to do bad things to the American people and English is not their first language, they will not be using English. We shouldn’t expect to hear phrases like, “The bomb is planted under the bus” in clear, concise English.

Foreign languages are a key ingredient at virtually all points of the intelligence cycle. Reliance on interpreters is not always a good idea, because something is usually lost in translation. Moreover, some interpreters could turn out to be double agents working not only for the United States, but also for foreign countries. So it is to the intelligence community’s benefit to be able to deal with people and information in their native language. Through my membership activities with NAFSA and, most recently, with the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD), I have learned that public diplomacy and soft power are necessary to improve the US image in the world. As a matter of fact, I had the opportunity to attend and present a paper at the ICD 2012 International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy on the theme, “Cultural Diplomacy, National Security, and Global Risks,” Washington, DC, June 26-28, 2012. Most of the symposium’s distinguished scholars, diplomats, and military leaders stressed ad nauseam the crucial role of languages and cultural understanding in public diplomacy. I was delighted and proud to learn that Sen. John Kerry, the new US secretary of state and the American chief diplomat, was a multilingual person. During his first trip to Europe as secretary of state, Kerry is reported to have spoken in French, German, and Italian. His European hosts must have appreciated this display of cultural skills. However, and strangely, despite the acknowledgement of the importance of foreign language skills in the post-September 11, 2001 era, some US conservatives perceived the chief diplomat’s multilingualism as “unpatriotic.”7 One should wonder on which planet they live anyway. Undoubtedly, public diplomacy is a part of national security and it can also be carried out through international educational programs. The trade mission to Spain and its follow-up activities, if any, should also be about enhancing such programs. 7

See Paul Richter, “With New Gig, Kerry’s Free to Embrace His Inner Europhile.” The Baltimore Sun, Sunday, March 3, 2013, 18.

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Third, as the founder of Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. (PAD), I have to promote and advocate for multilingualism, interculturalism and “cosmocitizenship.” I plan to globalize PAD and consequently, the Spanish language-based mission was also a good opportunity to network with Spanish institutions and individuals, most of whom are multilingual and whose activities contribute to some of PAD’s objectives. Fourth, there are some facts about Spain, the Spanish language, culture, and people that shouldn’t be overlooked. Facts about Spain, the Spanish Language, Culture, and People According to Instituto Cervantes (Facts #1, 2, 3, 4),8 La Vanguardia (5-6), and The Economist (7-9): Spanish is the second world language as a vehicle of international communication and the third as an international language of politics, economics and culture. About 330 million people in the world speak Spanish as their first language. The demand for Spanish courses has doubled worldwide in ten years. Spanish is the official language in 21 countries. Approximately another 100 million people speak Spanish as a second language. [It follows that there are approx. 450 million Spanish speaking people in the world]. In the United States 13% of the population speak Spanish as their first language. Additionally, the proximity of Mexico to the U.S. and the growing number of the Latino population in the U.S. make the knowledge of Spanish and/or ‘Spanglish’ a useful skill for interculturalism and diversity in this country. In the United States and Canada, Spanish is the most popular foreign language to learn. The Latin-American countries are experiencing constant economic growth and because of that, are becoming more important as trading partners. A number of large Latin-American countries are on the verge of signing the

8

See El Instituto Cervantes, “El español: una lengua viva.” Informe 2012. http://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/anuario/anuario_12_cervantes/p01.htm Access date: September 29, 2014.

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NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), set up by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Spain is a very popular holiday destination.9 Spain rose from a world ranking of 11 to 3 in only one decade, as one of the best countries in which to live.10

Fifth and finally, the travel was free and I love continuing and lifelong education through traveling. Moreover, I do not know how I could effectively convince students, colleagues, or anybody about the benefits of multilingualism, study, and research abroad without showing them that I have done it and that I love it. I loved the trade mission to Spain despite the luggage nightmare upon arrival in Madrid.

III. Baggage Mishandling and Spanish Hospitality In a nutshell, EDUESPAÑA 2005 was a wonderful experience. However, upon arrival at Madrid Airport, my transfer to the Husa Moncloa hotel was delayed because US Airways mishandled my luggage. We spent about four hours trying to figure out what had happened to my luggage. I filed a claim with Iberia, the Spanish airline company. An agent told me that my luggage was found and it was going to arrive the day after, that is, on June 6. He also told me that an Iberia employee was going to deliver the luggage to me at Madrid’s Husa Moncloa Hotel where I stayed. I received an apology letter from US Airways. It was written in both Spanish and English. Below is the English version. Dear customer Please accept our sincere apologies for the luggage mishandling you have experienced. We are aware that you may be inconvenienced and we are making every effort to resolve the situation with prompt individual attention. Once you have settled in your hotel or at your final destination, our Baggage Services Department will call you and confirm with you your 9

According to Random Facts, “In 2006 [one year after EDUESPAÑA 2005], 58 million tourists visited Spain and its islands.…. Spain is the second most visited country in the world after France” (79 Interesting Facts about Spain, Fact number 8). Posted September 21, 2012. 10 This ranking, however, may have been changed due to the current Spanish financial crisis. Spain is one of the PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) that have been severely hit by the USA-originated global financial crisis, which started in 2007-2008.

Cosmoportism file reference number [MADUS21498/05JUN05/0909GMI] and your baggage delivery time. Please retain all original interim purchase receipts and send them along with the copy of your claim and comments to one of the following addresses. Thank you U.S. Airways, Servicio de Equipajes, T1 Aeropuerto de Madrid 28042 – España Or U.S. Airways, Baggage Services Department PO Box 12346, PIT-110 Pittsburgh International Airport, Pittsburgh, PA 15231-9989-USA

A Baggage Services Department employee delivered my luggage to the hotel on June 6, 2005 in the afternoon. The inconvenience from the baggage mishandling was minimized by the fact that I was prepared for this eventuality due to past and similar experiences in Rome, Italy, and in Manhattan, Kansas, USA. My carry-on luggage contained whatever I would absolutely need to survive for at least two days. So I was able to show up to my June 6 professional meetings as if I had not lost my luggage. Moreover, the pain from my arrival misfortune was relieved by the legendary hospitality. As a matter of fact, ENFOREX, one of the Spanish educational institutions, welcomed US Eduespaña participants with a bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. They placed a beautifully wrapped bottle in every participant’s bedroom at the Husa Moncloa Hotel. The welcome letter was as follows: Madrid 2005 Dear Zekeh S. Gbotokuma, Welcome to Spain! ENFOREX is very happy to count on your presence in our country and wants to thank you with a very special gift, a typical product of Spain: a magnificent bottle of the best selection of Spain Olive Oil. Olive oil is as ancient as our Spanish Culture. Although there is no doubt of its influence on the alimentary habits of the different civilizations that have lived in the Mediterranean basin, a certain mysticism has always surrounded olive oil. It has been associated with religious concepts, ornamentals and even used as money.

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Chapter Thirteen ENFOREX has bottled this “Gift of God” as Aristotle would define it, this gift for the senses, which, according to the Greek mythology, the Goddess Palas Athena bestowed on the city of Athens, for our partners. A really good Extra Virgin Olive Oil, chosen from the best Cordovan olives with just the right level of acidity, quoting Antonio Machado, to “have a siesta on our palate.” A luxury item for the health and palate selected by ENFOREX for the best partners and friends. We hope you enjoy it! Serving suggestions: use our olive oil as a salad dressing or simply dip in white bread to taste its real flavor.” ENFOREX Spanish in the Spanish World!

I was so impressed and fascinated by ENFOREX’s gift and culturally enlightening letter that I reproduced it in my USA-Eduespaña 2005 diary entry and report. I titled it, “Oil Hospitality and Diplomacy: ENFOREX Lubricates the Engine of EDUESPAÑA 2005 Partnerships with a Bottle of Extra Virgin Oil.” It should be noted, en passant, that Spain is the number one producer of olive oil with 44% of the world’s olive production.”11

IV. Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk A. Learning Spanish at Kukulcan Whenever I talk about PAD and my own multilingual skills, especially to American youths and college students, many of whom have almost given up the idea of a second or world language literacy on the ground that it is very difficult, I have to always let them know that traveling and cultural immersion are key factors in the acquisition of foreign language proficiency. One ought to believe in the sayings that “practice makes perfect,” or “C’est en forgeant qu’on devient forgeron,” in French; or “Übung macht den Meister,” in German. These sayings are true about many things, including languages. Obviously, the choice of the place and time for such practice can be a determining factor in the resulting perfection, and/or even in the rate of perfection. I remember learning more German in eight intensive weeks at the Goethe Institute Boppard in Germany than in a whole year in Rome, Italy. As far as the Spanish language is concerned, Spain and its accredited Spanish language schools 11 See Don Quixote – Spanish Language Learning, “Fun Facts about Spain.” Published on the institution’s web site in celebration of its 25 years (1989-2014).

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for foreigners are undoubtedly some of the best possible places to learn and practice Spanish. I like the saying that “he or she who knows more than one language is worth more than one person.” In his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein states that, “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” In today’s world, which has become a global village, with a global market, the limits of one’s foreign language skills will also mean one’s limits in the globalization era. Indeed, as far as my own international education is concerned, one of the greatest things of which I am proud is my multilingual ability, which allows me to live and work in “Afrophone,” Anglophone, Francophone, Italophone, Germanophone, and possibly “Latinophone” countries. (Sorry, no hablo Español! Pero comprendo un poquito, porque hablo italiano y tengo dos semanas de cursos de español en Cuernavaca, México). The importance of foreign language skills in a diverse society and in today’s global market is apparent in the aforementioned contract negotiation tip from K-State’s human resource director. The point I am trying to make is that extra skills beyond one’s professional training can be helpful in today’s competitive job market and global village. Mindful of the facts and benefits of world languages referred to earlier, I have always wanted to add Spanish to the list of foreign languages that I speak. After all, my knowledge of Latin, French, and Italian is a big advantage for learning Spanish. I started teaching myself Spanish through educational audio tapes such as Teresa Mendez-Faith and Beverly Mayne Kienzle’s ¿HABLA ESPANOL? and TV educational programs in Spanish. I never took formal classes of Spanish. But my participation in the 2005 trade mission in Spain was a veritable catalyst not only for the incorporation of Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland, but also for my decision to travel to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where I took my first formal 56 hours of Spanish classes at Kukulcan in August 2006. From that course I received a Diploma of Español Intermedio I, which I have framed and used as one of my favored home and office decorations. The choice of Kukulcan was the result of winning a partial scholarship during draws that took place at a reception organized by the Mexican embassy in the US as a part of the ACTFL 2005 conference events in Baltimore. Ms. Leticia Becerrill – the Kukulcan Director – visited MSU twice in an effort to recruit students who were interested in studying Spanish in Mexico. I had only two weeks for this wonderful experience, but that was all right. I didn’t have a hard time because of the similarity of Spanish to Latin, Italian, and French, all of which are part of my linguistic realities, so to speak. Living with a

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Mexican host family for two weeks was very helpful. We had dinner together. We sometimes went to the grocery store and cooked some of the meals together. I have kept a vivid memory of the cultural and language learning experience that I gained from cooking Spanish tortillas with Mrs. and Mr. Guevara-Montes. I recorded what looked like a cooking show during which I tried hard to also practice Spanish and “Spanglish.” That’s what immersion is all about. That’s the best possible way to learn a foreign language. After the Kukulcan experience, I was and I am still interested in traveling to Spain for several weeks of formal classes. I couldn’t do it in the summers of 2007 and 2008 due to home improvement expenditures and travel to China and South Korea. I couldn’t do it during the summers of 2009 and 2010 because I had to travel to DRC and because I was writing a book during that time, which was also my very first sabbatical leave. I couldn’t do it during the summer of 2011 because my wife and I had decided to once again host French students for three weeks. They were interested in learning and practicing English and discovering the USA. I also had to work on another book during that summer and the next one. Now I understand why many people don’t seem to find quality time to learn and speak another language. There’s always something more important to do. What’s more, learning another language, especially when one is kind of old, isn’t the easiest thing to do. Learning another language is one of those things that challenges many peoples’ commitment to diversity, multiculturalism, and interculturalism. For many Americans, learning another language seems unpatriotic and unAmerican, so to speak. This was apparent in the aforementioned American conservatives’ negative reaction to Secretary Kerry speaking foreign languages overseas. After all, the whole world speaks English or at least “Globish,” i.e., global English or the English language as it is spoken in countries besides England, USA, and other countries whose official language is English. So English is the de facto global lingua franca, right? Maybe. Well, not really. As a matter of fact, in 2008, I presented a paper titled, “Negritude Meets Daoism” to a predominantly Mandarin-speaking audience in Xi’an, China (Gbotokuma 2009). I presented in English. There was an interpreter to help the Chinese audience understand what I was talking about. A talk on Daoism by an African scholar was interesting enough to get their attention. Unfortunately, my talk was followed by no questions, mainly because of language limitations, mine and theirs. No Chinese dared ask me a question, knowing that I didn’t know Mandarin and they would have to preferably ask questions in English. The whole world speaks English, right? Well, not everywhere and not all the time.

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B. Bridging the Global Educational Divide: African American Students in Dar es Salaam In September 2000, the CGS at Morgan sponsored a seminar entitled, “Closing the Global Educational Divide: Opening the Windows of Opportunity in the New Millennium.” The seminar featured speakers from USAID, foreign embassies in Washington, D.C., the UNCF, and others. This event marked the launching of the CGS, which was established in 1999 to promote international educational programs at MSU. The seminar was followed, two years later, by another three-day residential faculty development seminar on the theme, “Global Literacy for Global Connections.” This event took place at R. Morris Inn, Cambridge, Maryland, in September 2002. As an HBCU committed to “Growing the Future [and] Leading the World,”12 by educating urban blacks and other socioeconomically disadvantaged people, MSU has been doing its best – through the Center – to do whatever is in its power to prevent the global educational divide from following class and color lines. Just because a student belongs to an ethnic minority group and/or to a lower class, it does not mean that they should be left behind in terms of becoming globally literate and cross-culturally competent. The reality, however, is that ethnicity and class play a crucial role in determining how much access to global educational opportunities and cross-cultural literacy one may have. My membership into NAFSA and my brief connection with the European Association for International Education (EAIE) has opened my eyes and helped me to see the educational challenges ahead. According to the 2002 White Paper on International Education, jointly published by NAFSA and the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, the major challenges are, among others: declined US competitiveness in the international student market; the extremely low participation of US students in study abroad programs (less than 1%); the critical shortage of Americans’ foreign language skills; and the declining priority given to exchange programs. While the participation of US students in international educational programs is deemed extremely low, it should be noted that minorities’ underrepresentation is more alarming and, therefore, it is worth paying special attention to it. Virtually all young African Americans whom I met during my twelve-year stay in Europe were serving in the US Army. Of course, military service was and is a noble and patriotic occupation during the Cold War and since the September 11th attacks on America. However, 12

MSU’s new motto since Dr. David Wilson’s presidency (2010-present).

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it does not have to be the only global educational or professional opportunity for the majority of African Americans and other minorities. As director of MSU’s Center for Global Studies, I traveled to Africa in June 2002 for two reasons. First, I traveled to Dakar, Senegal, where I participated in the West African Research Association’s (WARA) symposium on “Fieldwork in Africa.” That visit was particularly important because it was my first return to the continent since my departure from DRC in 1978. In Dakar, I was pleased to see the gender, class, and discipline diversity among participants from Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Secondly, I traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to discuss the possibility of an academic cooperation between the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and MSU. I had the opportunity to meet with Prof. Luhanga, then vice chancellor of UDSM. I also met with other university officials. My visit was followed by another one in April 2005. During the first visit’s campus tour, the guide told me that most of the international students at UDSM were from the US, and of these students, the overwhelming majority were white Americans. I was not totally surprised by this kind of information. I was fully aware of minorities’ underrepresentation in international programs in the US. However, since we were in an Anglophone African country, I expected slightly different statistics. The good news is that on the UDSM campus, and precisely at the international research flats where I stayed, there was a group of about ten African American students from Maryland, New York, North Carolina, etc. They were there for some summer programs, which also included learning Swahili, the lingua franca of Tanzania. I sometimes ate with them, and photographed, videotaped, and interviewed them. The most memorable message from them was that they enjoyed being there, having different experiences. More importantly, they invited other students who might be afraid of travelling to get out and discover a different world. My greatest pleasure was in watching and videotaping one of the African American students conversing in Kiswahili with a native speaker. It reminded me of my own experiences with world languages and cultural immersion in Italy, England, Germany, and France. The acquisition of world language skills has become an important part of the United States of America’s national interest and security issue, especially in light of globalization and the postSeptember 11 era. In fact, in his April 19, 2000 Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies Regarding International Education Policy, former President Bill Clinton recognized the importance of foreign languages for US global leadership when he stated, among other things, that, “to continue to compete successfully in the global economy

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and to maintain our role as a world leader, the United States needs to ensure that its citizens develop a broad understanding of the world, proficiency in other languages, and knowledge of other cultures.” In conclusion, my two-week academic safari to Africa has increased my awareness of minorities’ underrepresentation in international educational programs. As a former NAFSA Region VIII diversity representative, former director of Morgan’s CGS, founder of Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc., and former international student in Europe, I hope that in order to meet some of the aforementioned challenges, the US will commit itself to working toward several ambitious goals, including, for example, in NAFSA’s words, “vastly increasing the number of U.S. students studying abroad; promoting ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender diversity in study abroad; and diversifying the locations, languages, and subjects involved in study abroad.” I hope that the global educational divide will not continue to follow class and color lines. To that end, many publicly and privately supported global educational programs are necessary. In February 2006, for example, I was a member of a national committee to select recipients of the Benjamin Gilman Scholarship. The two-day meeting was organized by the Institute for International Education (IIE). It took place in Houston, Texas. The institute received the funding from the US Department of State. Diversity was an important criterion in the selection process. The IIE must be commended for paying special attention to women and minorities in the selection of candidates for the Benjamin Gilman study abroad scholarship. Without a substantial increase in financial aid, scholarships for study abroad, and other global educational programs, many students will be left behind. I am afraid most of them will be African Americans and other minorities.13

13 I published the original version of this section in NAFSA Region VIII Update (Newsletter), Vol. 10, Issue 2, p. 6. The title was, “African American Students in Dar es Salaam: The Global Educational Divide Does Not Have to Follow the Color Line.” It was a part of my report as a NAFSA Region VIII Diversity Representative.

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V. Photog graphs

Figure 13-1 M MSU Professorss Participate in NAFSA Worksshops

MSU’s Facculty Membeers at NAFS SA’s 56th Annnual Conferrence on “Charting N New Visions,”” Baltimore, Maryland, M Maay 23-28, 200 04. From left to right:: Dr. Zekeh Gbotokuma, G Dr. D Gloria Chuukwu (Dept. of o History & Geograpphy), Professsor Yasmin n Fozard (D Dept. of Landscape L Architecturee), and Dr. Donald D Helm (Dept. of Civvil Engineerin ng). They participated in faculty deevelopment workshops w on various aspeccts of the internationalization of thee curriculum.

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Figure 13-2 Innternational Edducation Week (IEW) ( 2002 at M Morgan State University U

Opening Reception in MccMechen’s Bo oard Room MSU’s pressident, Earl Riichardson (cen nter), is surroounded by stud dents and faculty mem mbers attendinng the event. During D my teenure as the director of the Center for Global Sttudies at Morrgan, the IEW W celebration n was the most importtant annual evvent. The US Departments D oof Education and State established IEW in 20000 in responsee to Presidennt Bill Clinto on’s 1999 memorandum m regarding international education. e

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Figure 13-3 B Baltimore Univversities’ Internaational Program m Directors Parrticipate in Congressionaal Advocacy Daay in DC

Washington, DC, March 2003 2 Zekeh Gbottokuma (rightt), director off the Center for Global Studies S at MSU (19999-2009) and Joohns Hopkinss University’s internationall program officers Jennnifer Kerillla and Nich holas Arrinddell visit Maryland’s M Congressionnal offices inn Washington,, DC to advoocate for inteernational education. N NAFSA has established e th he Congressioonal Advocacy y Day to advocate forr the internatioonalization off the curriculum m on Capitol Hill.

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Figure 13-4 Mayor W. R. Bankole-Johnson of Freetown Speaks at Morgan

On November 2, 2005, Mr. Bankole–Johnson was brought to MSU by Mr. David Costello of Baltimore City Hall. The mayor’s talk was a part of the CGS Global Literacy Lectures Series. During that year I was a member of Mayor Martin O’Malley’s Immigration Service Working Group (MISWG). The Freetown mayor was visiting Mayor O’Malley of Baltimore as a part of the city’s international outreach.

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Figure 13-5 Meeting withh Card. Fr. Ettsou at the N National Endow wment for Democracy

The occasioon was the Naational Summ mit on Africa on the themee, “Africa Matters!” Itt was “A Diaalogue and Ceelebration of Africa” spon nsored by grassroots organizationss, academia, the businesss sector, and a faith communities (Constituency for Africa)), Washingtonn, DC, Februaary 16-20, 2000. Card.. Etsou Nzabbi-Bamungwab bi (1930-20077) was the second s of DRC’s postt-independencce archbishopss of Kinshasaa, from 1991 to 2007. His predeceessor war the late Card. Joseph Malulaa and his succcessor is Card. Monssengwo, whoo played a key k role as the chair of Zaire’s Conference Nationale Soouveraine du uring the trannsition from Mobutu’s M regime to K Kabila’s regim me. Card. Etssou’s presencce at this inteernational meeting is a testament too the Catholicc Church in D DRC’s unpaveed road to democracy.

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Figure 13-6 Chatting with Baltimore’s Mayor M O’Malleey Prior to an Open-Air Concert in Seept. 2004

From left to right: Mayor O’Malley, Zeekeh and Maddeleine. During thatt time I was a member off the mayor’ss Immigration n Service Working Grroup (MISWG G). Two years later, O’Mallley became a two-term governor off Maryland (20006-2014). Photo by Jaay L. Baker, Office of thee Mayor, 250 City Hall, Baltimore, B Maryland.

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Figure 13-7 A Amb. C. Stith Siigns a Book forr Zekeh

Washington, DC, Februarry 4, 2015 Amb. Charlles Stith signns a copy off AFRICAN A AMERICANS S IN U.S. FOREIGN SSERVICE duuring a bookssigning at thee U.S, Deparrtment of State. Stith was Ambasssador Extraorrdinary and P Plenipotentiarry or the United Statees to the Unitted Republic of o Tanzania du during the Aug gust 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Sallaam. I atten nded the booksigningg event becauuse I appreciatted some of tthe positive sttatements he made aboout Africa (Seee Above, Chaapter Fifteen, “Hollywood’’s Unholy Africa,” Seection III. B.. Other Initiaatives). Curreently, Stith serves s as Director off the African Presidential Archives andd Research Center C at Boston Univversity in Cam mbridge, Masssachusetts.

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Figure 13-8 M My First US Stuudents at Kansaas State Universsity

Manhattan, K KS, Spring 19993 My first teaaching position was at K-State, where I taught Introd duction to Ethics, Soccial and Poliitical Philoso ophy, and Inttroduction to o African Philosophy, August 1992--July 1993.

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Figure 13-9 Y Yale’s PIER-Afrrican Studies 19 999

Top: Particiipants in the Summer Facculty Institutee on “The teaaching of Africa, orgaanized by the Program in International I Educational Research, R Yale Univerrsity, New Haven, H CT, Ju uly 1999. Durration: Two Weeeks Total Hours: 80. Bottom: Zekeh’s Certificate of Achievement. A M My Participatiion in the PIER-Africaan Studies program p coinccided with a growing in nterest in Africana stuudies. This interest i was apparent, fouur years lateer, in the publication oof A Pan-Afriican Encyclopedia (2003).

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Figure 13-10 United Nationss Headquarters,, NYC

New York, S September 6, 2007 2 Zekeh enjoyys a break at a the United Nations Heaadquarters, Neew York, while attennding the UN N 60th DPI//NGO Confeerence on the theme, “Climate Chhange: How Itt Affects Us All,” A Septembeer 5-7, 2007.

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Figure 13-11 Third Commemoration of Seeptember 11th A Attacks on Gro ound Zero, New York, September 11, 2004 (My Photographs, originally pub blished in COSMOPOR RT Newsletter, Vol. V VI, Fall 2003-Spring 20055, p. 32).

Top: Zekeh (left, waving)) and TV Journ nalist Ray Suaarez Bottom Left ft: Zekeh and Firefighters from f Italy whho joined New w Yorkers and Americcans in comm memorating the Septembber 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, whiich destroyed the World Trade Center aand killed abo out 3,000 people. I joiined the comm memoration after a a three-dday UN confeerence on “Millennium m Developmeent Goals,” organized o byy NGOs and the UN Department of Public Infoormation, Sep ptember 8-10, 2004.

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Figure 13-12 Lunchtime at thhe University of o Dar es Salaam m

Dar es Salaaam, Tanzania, June 21, 2002 2 Zekeh (left), cheerfully shhares lunch with African Am merican studeents at the guest house of the UDSM M, Dar es Salaaam.

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Figure 13-13 Partnership Meeeting and Hand dshake at Hubeei University

Wuhan, China, July 28, 2008 At the end oof a partnershiip meeting at Hubei Univerrsity in Wuhaan, China, Dr. Zekeh G Gbotokuma shhakes hands with, w and receiives a HU T-sshirt from Dean Li of tthe Internationnal Studies Prrogram. Ten yyears earlier, MSU M and HU signedd a memoraandum of understanding u regarding academic collaborationn. In 2010 orr two years after a this meetting, HU sentt his first exchange students to MSU. M They were w followeed by a HU U visiting professor inn 2013. In a nutshell, n betw ween 2008 andd 2013, MSU U and HU have demonnstrated a groowing comm mitment to theeir internation nalization agenda.

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Figure 13-14 Reception Dinnner and Toast at a Hubei Univerrsity

Wuhan, China, July 28, 2008 At the End of a Meetingg with the Staaff of Internatiional Studies at Hubei University, Dr. Zekeh Gbbotokuma (rig ght standing, director of Center C for Global Studdies at Morgann State Univeersity, toasts w with a staff member m of Hubei Univeersity’s Internnational Studiees Program.

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Figure 13-15 The Dr. Sandyye Jean McIntyre, II Internatioonal Award 200 08 Goes to Dr. Zekeh S. Gbotokuma. PHOTO P COUR RTESY: Paul Grreene, MSU’s PR P Office. Used with perrmission.

November 113, 2008 At MSU Founders Dayy Convocation n 2008, Dr. Zekeh S. Gb botokuma (center) receeives from Prresident Earl S. Richardsoon (right) the 2008 Dr. Sandye Jeann McIntyre, III Internationaal Award. Chieef University Marshall Dr. Milford Jeremiah (lefft) assists the president in placing the sash s upon the recipiennt. The awardd was established in 19977. “It is given to that member off the Morggan faculty who demonnstrates extraaordinary commitmentt to global leearning and in nternational uunderstanding and who promotes intternational proograms at Mo organ.”

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Figure 13-16 Dr. Gbotokum ma Wears the Saash of the Dr. S Sandye Jean McIntyre, M II O COURTESY Y: Paul Greene, MSU’s PR Offfice. Used International Award. PHOTO with permissiion.

From left too right, Mr. Daallas E. Evanss, MSU Boardd of Regents Chair; C Dr. Carleen Legggett, Associate Prof. of French and Director of Fulbright Program at MSU; Dr. Zekeh Z Gboto okuma, the 2 008 Dr. Sandye Jean McIntyre, II Internationaal Award Reccipient; Dr. E Earl Richardso on, MSU President (1984-2010); annd a MSU Pro ofessor. The sash woorn by the reccipient was “d designed and ttailored speciffically for this Award [and] is inspirred by the dip plomatic sashh customarily worn for formal occaasions by ambbassadors, con nsuls, and othher dignitaries. It is red satin accenteed with a tradditional rosettee and blue, w white, yellow and a green ribbons, reppresenting thee flags of the United Statees of Americaa, France, Senegal, andd other counttries with whiich Dr. McInttyre had contaact in his diplomatic aand academicc careers. In th he center fronnt of the sash h, there is featured a sppecially comm missioned gold d medal (strucck by Charless Nusinov and Sons) w which featuress a world may y enclosed by laurel wreath hs and the name of the Award.” (Froom MSU’s Fou unders Day prrogram).

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Figure 13-17 The Dr. Sandye Jean MccIntyre, II Internnational Award Plate

Award Figure 13-18 Dr. Sandye Jeaan McIntyre, II International Aw

The Medal w was made by Larry L BECK Company C ©G GL. MED Italy y.

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Figure 13-199 Dr. Zekeh Gbotokuma G 20 0 Years of Seervice to Morrgan State University annd the State of Maryland M (1993 3-2013)

Figure 13-20 Certificate of Service S

Standing in front of MSU U’s Holmes Haall, Zekeh hollds his certificcate of 20 years of servvice.

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Figure 13-21 Global Friendsship in Action and a Au Revoir T Time

Zekeh shakees hands withh, and says good-bye to A Anthony, a hig gh school student from m France, falll 2000. Throu ugh Horizon du Monde an nd Global Friendship, Inc., my wiffe found out about the orrganization’s desperate need for a B Baltimore-Am merican family y to host Anthhony, one of about 40 French highh school stuudents who traveled t to tthe USA forr cultural immersion purposes. Acccording to th he program ccoordinator, American A families weere reluctant to t host the siixteen-year-olld boy becau use of his religion, i.e.., Buddhism. Anthony’s paarents are from m Laos. They y live in a Paris suburbb, where Anthoony was born.

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Figure 13-22 Dr. Zekeh Gbootokuma Is Proffiled in Afrimpaact Magazine

On May 16,, 2013, follow wing an April 2013 2 telephonne interview with w Andy Kalala of A Afrimpact Magazine Ma regarding my peerspective on n the US presidential election 20112, the magaazine posted my profile under u its Leaders/Dirigeants rubricc. The list off profiled leaaders included d, among others, Angelina Jolie, US U actress; Drr. Cécile Kyeenge of DRC;; the first black cabineet member of an Italian Go overnment; ann African miniister. (For further inforrmation, pleasse refer to: http://africim mpactmagazinee.com/leaders_ _dirigeants/dr.-zzekeh-s.-gboto okuma/

PART IV: MY VIRTUAL RETURN TO AFRICA

CHAPTER FOURTEEN VIRTUAL RETURNS: KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN CONGO

DURING MY LONG SEPARATION FROM MY FAMILY MEMBERS, relatives, and friends, and given the state of information communications technology (ICT) in DRC, I have been able to keep in touch with them mostly through correspondence. I have usually written and sent letters through Congolese friends who have occasionally traveled there, because the country’s postal services are almost non-existent. This was the case especially prior to the vulgarization of cell phones. This chapter provides samples of letters through which I realized my virtual returns prior to my November 2009 historic return. I wrote them either in French, or in Lingala. What I reproduce below are my English translations. Some of them are family affairs and therefore, they could be seen as embarrassing dirty laundry. I am fully aware of the sensitivity surrounding some of the private stories confidentially related to me and therefore, I apologize in advance to relatives and friends who might be offended by my decision to publish them. The reproduction of such materials is meant to explain some of my native country’s underdevelopment conditions on the one hand, and some of the common problems that I – and for that matter, many other fellow immigrants – face in the United States and in the Western hemisphere. I have divided the correspondence into two categories, that is, correspondence to my family and relatives, and correspondence from my family, relatives, and friends.

Virtual Returns: Keeping in Touch with Family and Friends in Congo

I. Correspondence to My Family and Relatives A. Letter to My Parents Manhattan, Kansas, July 21, 1993 Dear Parents: I hope you are all doing well despite the fact that I haven’t received your news for a long time. I am aware of your worries and sadness due to our separation since 1978! I have similar feelings. However, given the way things are going in our country, we should all agree that I am better off living in the United States at this moment. I started teaching at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, in August 1992. My one-year contract will end on July 31, 1993. If everything goes well, then I will have a new teaching job at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, near Washington, DC, the capital city of the USA. My American girlfriend and I broke up in 1991. It was a sad event because she was the reason why I came to the United States. But everything will be alright. The good news is that her parents and I get along very well. Believe it or not, they fully supported me during my job hunt. They helped me with the application letters and they lent me whatever money I needed to succeed in my job search. I feel very lucky and I am very grateful to them. I am not married yet, because I am not financially ready to start a family. But I have a new girlfriend, whom I met here in Manhattan. Her name is Madeleine. She is originally from Canada. Her father is from Germany and her mother is a French Canadian from Québec. She is a divorced woman and has two little daughters. We love each other very much. But I am not sure of marrying her. We’ll see. I have sent you some money through Emmanuel Masikini who has traveled to Zaire. He is one of the sons of Louis Vincelli, Bemba Saolona’s agronomist whom you know very well. His oldest son – Jean Roger – and I went to the middle and high schools together in Bominenge and Bolongo, respectively. Emmanuel and his brother Jean Roger live in Texas, one of the USA’s 50 states located in the Midwestern part of the country. I asked Emmanuel to do his best to ensure that you receive the money. Of course, you will receive it in Zaire (the local currency). If for some reason he cannot meet with you, then he will have to give the money either to the priests of the Gbosasa Parish, or to Jean Bosco Kotongo, who is doing his

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law internship in Karawa. Please send me a letter to acknowledge receipt of the money and photographs. Take care! Your son, Zekeh S. Gbotokuma

B. Letter to a Nephew Baltimore, June 6, 1994 Dear nephew Demba: I acknowledge receipt of your December 29, 1994 letter along with the film negatives to be developed. I had the negatives developed, unfortunately, as you will see, many photographs didn’t come out well. I know how challenging it can be when you take photographs for the first time. I hope things will be much better next time. Since the camera has no flash, it would be better to take photographs during the day, when and where there is sufficient light and keep sending me the films for development. I didn’t see all family members in the photographs you sent to me. Next time please make sure that everybody is included. I would like to see five different shots of my parents. I also want to see photographs of brother Seba, sister Francisca and family; cousin Makambo and family, etc. Please tell Mr. Ndatala Libongo that I forwarded his letter regarding scholarship to Mr. Ron Jenanyan, Director of Transcontinental Safari and I am still waiting for his response. I sent two shirts and shorts to little nephew Gbotokuma. Moreover, I sent 1 suit, 1 shirt, 1 tie to my father and some money to my parents. As proofs of receipt of the clothes, please send me photographs of my dad and the little nephew wearing those clothes. You may ask my dad to help you with the school fees and clothing. I was limited in how many things I could give to Emmanuel. He will spend six months in Zaire (DRC). He plans on returning to the U.S. in December 1995 or in January 1996. So if you have something for me, then you may give it to him and I will receive it from him. I wish you all the best at school. If at all possible, please send me copies of your transcripts. Tell me when you plan on finishing the high school. Please transmit my greetings to the whole family and take care! Sincerely, ZSG

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II. Correspondence from My Family, Relatives, and Friends A. Letter from a Cousin Regarding War Impacts on the Population and the Search for Solutions Yakamba, April 7, 2001 Dear big brother Professor Doctor Théoball:1 It is with a great joy in my heart that I seize this opportunity to write this letter to you. Here in my Parish of Mankanza, like in many other places, the war was very devastating. There was no hope for survival. Many people have died. Fortunately, God protected us and we are doing relatively well. I haven’t gone to the village for four years and a half. Generally speaking, the whole family is doing fairly well. But many people have died from the sleeping disease (ndangi). Some medicine has arrived, but the disease still persists. War and diseases have left many orphans, widows and widowers. It is so sad when I meet with, and talk to them. How can one help them? One can spend time teaching them about God, but they also have material needs to be met. Even we ourselves [i.e., priests] are helpless; we don’t receive financial assistance for the mass. Some of us rely on benefactors for survival. Since we don’t have benefactors, we have to survive through farming. Occasionally the Bishop hands us 500 Belgian Francs per month, which is totally inadequate. We are very miserable. This is the summary of our general situation. Now I am in Yakamba Parish. I was sent here to teach at the Catholic Institute where the Minor Seminary is. I hope to be able to pursue additional studies someday. I have been unable to do it because I haven’t received any scholarship. Some fellow priests have been able to pursue their studies in Europe thanks to their relatives and friends. In the past I sent you a letter asking you to help me find a scholarship and get me enrolled in a university. If you happen to help me, the Bishop will be pleased, because he has been trying to help. He will then write a letter to find me an accommodation with an American Catholic parish where you are. So could you possibly assist me in obtaining a scholarship and in getting admitted to a university where you are? I am interested in pursuing 1

My first or Christian name used to be Théobald. The name has gone through different spellings, including, among others, Théoball, Théobar, Teobaldo (in Italian), etc. The name change from Théobald to Zekeh was the consequence of President Mobutu’s Authenticité politics.

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further studies and in receiving additional university education. I am interested in studying economics or business administration. I would like to be able to help the population in their fight against abject poverty. I would like to help orphans, widows and widowers. I would like to help them help themselves. I would like to have a teaching career, specializing in fields that can have a positive impact on our people. I would like to ask you to put me in contact with benefactors or charity organizations to assist with development projects. Can you and your wife introduce me to a group of people who could provide assistance either to the population where I am, or to those in our village? In July or August [2001], I will try to call you from Bangui [Central African Republic]. Please send me your photograph and give my regards to our sister-in-law. I wish you a good work. I look forward to receiving your response. May God protect you and help us meet some day. Yours sincerely, Fr. Jean-Pierre Ngbaka2

B. Letter from Another Cousin Regarding Assistance for Study Abroad Karawa, January 15, 1993 Grand Gbotokuma, I was very pleased to receive the news regarding your appointment to the position of a professor in one of the United States’ universities. I think this is going to alleviate my personal difficulties in our country. I have been out of school for the past three years. If I was somewhere else, for example, in the United States, I would have earned a valid and laudable academic degree. You know that for three years Zaire’s universities have been closed because of all the ongoing political theatre. You are my only hope, big brother. I would like to follow you. I need your intervention to improve my situation. I think that you can easily reach me through Masikini Ziki who brought me this letter. She can give you the address of the American missionaries who 2

Jean-Pierre passed away on December 20, 2013 in Gemena after a long illness. May he rest in peace!

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live here. Through them, I will be able to receive whatever you want to send me. Hoping that things become normal again in our country, I am still here [in Karawa]. I look forward to hearing from you so that I can move, at least for this year. Please send me your current address, because I don’t have it yet. The whole family is doing well. I look forward to reading your letter as soon as possible. Yours sincerely, J. Bosco Kotongo3

C. Letter from a Nephew Regarding Building a House and Starting a Small Business Karawa, October 17, 2003 Hello Uncle [Papa Leki] GBOTOKUMA! Today, God’s mercy allowed me to talk to you through this letter. First of all I would like to greet the whole family. Here we are doing relatively well despite all kinds of sufferings in our country. In your previous letter you asked my grandparents to move either to Karawa, or Gemena. But they don’t like that idea. They prefer to have the new house built in the village (Bogwabe). I would like to suggest that you entrust one of your family members with the construction responsibilities. The designated person will then be the one dealing with other persons involved in various works. Regarding the money you sent to the family lately, Demba selfishly squandered it. This has caused a big conflict within the family and we hope to resolve it when you come here. Grandfather gave me some money to start a small business. I purchased two bags of peanuts and I sent them to Congo Brazzaville to be sold there. 3

I was just starting a career in the United States. I was still on an H1-B visa and struggling to become a permanent resident. So I couldn’t sponsor anybody to come and study in the United States. Moreover, I was financially unable to do it. However, I was able to send some money to J. Bosco to assist him with his move from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa and with some other graduation expenditures. He has been practicing law in Kinshasa for more than ten years and he seems to have some other political ambitions.

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Unfortunately, the whale-boat sank and everything was lost. We were supposed to be reimbursed for the loss, but we’re still waiting. I received the camera very well. Unfortunately, the batteries were dead after using only three films. Moreover, the zoom is not working and so I don’t know what to do and now it’s useless. I was very happy to have it anyway, because it was my first time to ask you for something and receive it. I trust that as my dad,4 you will do something about it without waiting that I ask you again. Grandparents are doing well, but they are suffering from hypertension. May God bless all of you! Yours sincerely, Sua Gon [alias Sua Moke], Bamo’s fils

D. Letter from a Friend Regarding Large Family and Hardships Dear Citizen5 (Mr.) Gbotokuma Théobald: Today I am very pleased to give you our news. I am still alive and I live here in Gemena. I have nine children living with their adoptive mother. In addition to my children, I also house my brother’s son as well as Kotongo Gbedema, one of the sons of our late Primary School Director Kotongo Kpalanga. Both of them are students at the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Médicales (ISTM) here in Gemena. In August 2002, PREMIERE URGENCE – a French humanitarian NGO was sent to Gemena after the war. They hired me for a nine-month contract. My monthly salary is $300. This job has allowed me to purchase a piece of land where I built a semi-durable house, i.e., brick walls and thatched roof.

4

In virtually all Congolese cultures, the terms “dad” and “mom” refer not only to biological father and mother, but also to paternal uncles and maternal aunts. Consequently, my brother’s children call me “dad.” However, my sisters’ children wouldn’t call me dad, but instead they call me “uncle” (noko, in Lingala, and yaa, in Ngbaka). 5 As a part of the late president Mobutu’s Authenticité politics or politique du recours à l’authenticité, Citoyen and Citoyenne replaced Monsieur and Madame. It was illegal for Authentic Zairois to be addressed as Monsieur X or Madame Y.

Virtual Returns: Keeping in Touch with Family and Friends in Congo At the end of my contract with Première Urgence in May 2003, I found it useless to return to my old job with SCIBE Congo. The reason is that a CDF 2000 monthly salary (= $5.50) didn’t correspond with the volume of my work as a Plantation Director [Chef de Plantation, in French]. In order to make a living and feed my family, I chose to fully spend my time on agricultural activities, starting with market-gardening (cultures maraîchères, in French), which has always sustained me during the time of salary crisis. I have rented a 70 m x 40 m plot of land, which I have already cleared. I have tilled 30 m x 40 m and made 96 flower-beds [plate bandes, in French]. At the beginning of July 2003, I started planting, beginning with spinach, amaranth, nightshade (morel), or bilolo in Lingala. Then I planted tomatoes, egg-plants, allspice, okra or fekefeke, in Lingala. I didn’t have enough seeds at the beginning. Consequently, the first vegetables that I harvested in September and October 2003 didn’t give a satisfactory result. The good news is that I was able to obtain sufficient seeds for the next sowing. I have already begun a second nursery and I am getting ready for much farming during the months of December, January, and February 2004, the season during which vegetables do very well. The sale of these first products hasn’t been lucrative enough to meet all my needs, especially school fees for my children: I have 5 children in elementary school; 2 in the secondary school (one goes to the ITM in Karawa and another one goes to the ISTM here in Gemena). I have to pay Fc 1,500 per child in the elementary school and per trimester; Fc 3,500 for the daughter who is in the second year of the secondary school (eighth grade) for the first semester and $50 for the daughter who goes to the ITM for the first semester and $55 for the one who goes to the ISTM. I have already paid Fc 1,000 per child for the ones who are in the elementary school; Fc 2,000 for the one in the 2nd year of secondary school, and $30 for the one at the ITM. I have harvested my first vegetables (amaranth, spinach, morel, and okra), which I have saved to produce seeds. On the other hand, the tomatoes, eggplants, and allspice are still at the fructification stage and so I don’t have any vegetables to sell in November. Consequently, it will be difficult for me to pay the school fees instalments for the months of November and December, and especially for the kid who has just been enrolled at the ISTM without any down payment. I have taken a tour d’horizon in my head and I don’t see anybody who can help me.

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The little Kotongo Gbedema – who recently arrived from the village – confirmed that all your family is doing well. Your dad has received the pack that you sent to him through Dr. Kongawi and Sisters from Gbosasa Parish. I have just moved to my own house. I rely only on the market gardening as my ultimate profession. I am available and willing to render you a service if you have any project for the village or for Gemena. Our family greets your whole family and we look forward to hearing from you. You can easily reach us through the Scibe-Congo address or through the missionaries’ address of Kristu Mokambi, Bokuda Moke/Gemena. Sincerely, SG [a former middle school classmate]

Hopefully, the reproduction of these letters will help non-African readers have a much better insight into some of DRC’s complex cultural and socioeconomic realities. That understanding is particularly crucial for those organizations and/or people who are interested in working on international development projects in DRC and/or Africa. Moreover, that understanding is crucial to the establishment of global partnerships for development in accordance with the UN Millennium Development Goal number 8. For the majority of Africans of the diaspora, the sub-Saharan African predicament and image of Africa call for action. Despite and after the socalled civilizing mission, many Europeans still continue to have a quasipre-colonial and obsolete idea of the continent. In the United States, for example, the negative image of Africa is magnified by the Hollywood film industry and in other ways. My virtual return to Africa also consists of writing about, and reflecting on this problem.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN HOLLYWOOD’S UNHOLY AFRICA AND EUROCENTRISM: VIRTUAL RETURN AND KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH AFRICA THROUGH SCHOLARSHIP AND RESEARCH

HOLLYWOOD HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS HIGHTECH DARKROOMS where cinepaparazzis have developed, enlarged, and sold “negatives” of Africa, blacks, colored, and African Americans to movie consumers. Hollywood’s image of Africa in films such as Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, The Last King of Scotland, is part and parcel of that institution’s inveterate attitude toward race and Africa. That image is characterized by a “black-out,” or what the British historian Basil Davidson (1914-2010) calls “the legacy of disbelief about Africa [that] permeates European imagination.” It is nothing new. It is a reflection of age-old clichés about blackness and Africanness in the US and other Western societies. The depiction of blacks in Hollywood films is reminiscent of ethnicity and class antagonisms, not only in the United States of America, but also globally. In Hollywood and elsewhere, despite the enormous progress that has been made, blacks continue to be depicted negatively and to be treated as second-class citizens. Just like in US society and in some other diverse societies around the world, black Hollywoodians continue to be concerned with the practical applications and repercussions of the old African American saying, “if you’re black, get back; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re light, you’re all right.” This saying is also referred to as “the color line within the race” (Gates 2004, 223). Now, if this is what African Americans and black Hollywoodians have experienced on a daily basis, then how can one possibly expect much better treatment of Africa and Africans by the film industry, whose profits are based more on entertainment, myths, sensationalism, and negativities than on the Wonders of the African World? (Gates, Jr. 1999).

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This chapter has three parts. The first part is entitled, “Hollywood’s Image of Africa and Eurocentrism.” It is an examination of Africa’s and blacks’ images based on language, Hollywood’s perspective, and pseudoscientific scholarship. The second part is entitled, “Images of Africa in the West.” It is concerned with episodes of stereotypes of the continent as well as untold stories about the films Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, and The Last King of Scotland. The third part is entitled, “What Should Be Done?” It suggests educational, political, economic, and other initiatives necessary to repair Africa’s image.

I. Hollywood’s Image of Africa and Eurocentrism Hollywood’s iconoclastic image of Africa is not an isolated phenomenon. It is deeply rooted in the American experience. This experience is characterized, inter alia, by “the color line” which, according to W.E.B. Du Bois (1903 & 1961), was the problem of the 20th century. The American experience is closely related to Western Weltanschauung or worldview, which is characterized by a Eurocentric view of the world and by the will to power. Europeans have dominated most of the world through science, technology, and religion. For a long time, they have managed to impose their languages and cultures on the rest of the world. Today, most of the world’s people speak English and other colonial languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.). English has become a de facto global lingua franca. To some extent, the meanings of words have an impact on people’s relations with, and reactions to, the realities to which the words refer. The opposite is also true; i.e., people’s relations with, and reactions to the realities are a function of the definition and understanding of those realities by the dominant ideologies and cultures. More concretely, it can be argued that Hollywood’s unholy or negative and iconoclastic image of Africa is also based upon, and reminiscent of the definitions of “black” and “blackness” in the English language, which is a major European and colonial language.

A. The English Language and the Image of Africa Images of the “Dark Continent” syndrome are found not only in Westerners’ geographical approach to Africa (Hall 1977). Those images are also abundant in their cultural approach. We will deal with these approaches later. We communicate through a socially and culturally acquired language. Words mean something. Spoken words are as meaningful as written ones. But our modern age values written words

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more than spoken ones, because, as the old Latin adage puts it, “Verbum volat, scripta manent,” meaning, the word flies, written things remain. So let us see the meanings of the words “black” and “negro” as they are maintained in writing in Western dictionaries and other documents. 1. “Black” Defined Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines “black” as follows. I have italicized some words and phrases for emphases. As an adjective: (1) of the color black; very dark in color; (2) having a very deep or low register; (3) heavy, serious; having dark skin, hair, and eyes; of or relating to a group or race characterized by dark pigmentation; esp.: of or relating to the Negro race; of or relating to the Afro-American people or culture; (4) dirty, soiled; (5) characterized by the absence of light; reflecting or transmitting little or no light; served without milk or cream (black coffee); (6) thoroughly sinister or evil, wicked (a black deed); indicative of condemnation or discredit; (7) connected with or invoking the supernatural and esp. the devil (black magic); (8) very sad, gloomy, or calamitous (black despair); marked by the occurrence of disaster (black Friday); characterized by hostility or angry discontent; […]; (11) of propaganda: conducted so as to appear to originate within an enemy country and designed to weaken enemy morale; characterized by or connected with the use of black propaganda (black radio); (12) characterized by grim, distorted, or grotesque satire (black humor). As a noun: (1) a black pigment or dye; esp.: one consisting largely of carbon; (2) the achromatic color of least lightness characteristically perceived to belong to objects that neither reflect nor transmit light; (3) something that is black: as (a) black clothing; (b) a black animal; (4) a person belonging to a dark-skinned race or one stemming in part from such a race; esp.: Negro; Afro-American; (5) the pieces of a dark color in a two-handed board game (as chess); (6) total or nearly total absence of light; (7) the condition of making a profit (operating in the black; black market; black labor). 2. “Negro” Defined This term comes from the Latin word “niger,” meaning “black.” Its derivatives are numerous including the words “negritic,” “negritude,” and “negroid.” Other derivations and corruptions are shown in the Spanish and Portuguese “negro,” the French “nègre,” and the German “Neger.” Especially derogatory when used by some white Americans, other

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corruptions include such offensive and hostile derivations as “nigger,” “nègre,” and “niggah.” Equally offensive was the derivative “negress,” a term referring to a black woman; the inference is clearly animal-like, as in “lioness,” and “tigress.” Other derivations and corruptions appear in “negrillo,” a Spanish word referring to a small (diminutive) black, such as an African Pygmy or Bushman, and “negrito,” referring similarly to a small black person in the Philippines, Indonesia, or Oceania. The use of “Negro” and its many derivations carried the widespread inference that black (as opposed to white) was bad, evil, ugly, inferior, bestial, or subhuman. Even though blacks certainly did use and refer to themselves by these imposed terms, they never really accepted the meaning of the negative images and inwardly resented their use by others. Moreover, strong rejection and denial of such images occurred after the 1950s. A 1968 New York Times poll of Black Americans found that 59 percent of them preferred to be called “Afro-Americans” or ”Black” rather than “Negro.” In Afro-Latin America, negro means: (1) a slave in the colonial period; (2) one who manually works hard; (3) a term of endearment meaning beautiful (Pierson 1942, 378). Some of these definitions confirm one of the cultural approach problems; i.e., “the vocabulary used to describe Africa and Africans frequently reflects unfavorable attitudes towards, and images of, the continent and its people” (Hall 1977, 29). In other words, Eurocentrism, racism, and slavery have developed a language that has perpetuated Negrophobia. Many documents, Hollywood films, and even African American comedies continually use and entertain us with sexist, racist, and politically incorrect language loaded with pejorative, condescending, and negative overtones, for example, “natives, “indigenes, “primitives”, “pagans”, “nigger”, “huts”, “tribes”, “dialect”, “costume”, “Bushmen”, etc. Racism and the color line are real in Hollywood. Black Hollywoodians – even superstars like Chris Tucker, Samuel L. Jackson, Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier (d. 2007), and many others – have voiced concerns about it.

B. Is Black Beautiful? The Color Line and the “Black-Out” in Hollywood There is no better way to talk about racism and the color or complexion line or “black-out” in Hollywood than through the aforementioned old black adage “if you’re black, get back; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re light, you’re all right.” In the companion book to the PBS Documentary, AMERICA BEHIND THE COLOR LINE, Henry L. Gates,

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Jr. (2004) wonders whether racism in Hollywood is a relic of the past. In other words, he asks, “is Hollywood like the U.S. Army, color-blind in its pursuit of excellence and, in this case, profit?” (Gates, Jr. 2004, 219). In a series of interviews with Black Hollywood stars, Gates, Jr. asked many questions on this topic: “Do you think we are on the verge of a renaissance for black people in Hollywood…is it wide open?” (220) he asked Chris Tucker, the star of Rush Hour and one of Hollywood’s black superstars; “In Hollywood, many individuals are very liberal without a doubt…but is there institutional racism?” (221) he asked Samuel L. Jackson, another black superstar. “Does race still matter the way it did when Quincy arrived in Hollywood in the early sixties?” (226) he asked Quincy Jones, the first black person to compose scores for Hollywood films. Different black superstars gave different answers to Gates, Jr.’s questions. However, despite their differences, virtually all answers agreed on the following conclusions. Black is not beautiful in Hollywood. The whole industry is “color-struck” (Gates, Jr. 2004, 223). In Hollywood there is a secret called “the color line within the race” (223). Nia Long – star of Boyz N the Hood and Love Jones – revealed that secret to Gates, Jr. when she said, “dark-complexioned black women have a harder time making it in Hollywood than light-complexioned black women do. Most white people can identify across the color line with that light-complexioned black woman” (Gates, Jr. 2004, 224). According to Reginald Hudlin, the director of the films House Party and Boomerang, “In Hollywood, ‘black’ is only used in the negative. Eddie Murphy isn’t considered a black star. He’s just a movie star, the same way Egypt isn’t part of Africa. So black only counts in the negative” (Gates, Jr. 2004, 228). Green may supposedly be the only color that counts in Hollywood. However, in this industry, green and white apparently mix and match better than green and black. Therefore, yes, in today’s Hollywood and the USA – and elsewhere, too – race or skin complexion does still matter. In Europe, for example, Caucasian models were overrepresented in the October 2007 international fashion shows in Milan and Paris. This situation led Hadley Freeman to write a report entitled, “Why are all the models white?” According to his report from Paris on what he calls “the whitewashing of the catwalk,” Freeman notes that, “at this season’s fashion shows, there has barely been a black or Asian face on the catwalks” (Freeman, 2007). That is why many “brothers” and “sisters” spend billions of dollars in Eurocentric “beauty” salons and on plastic surgeries. The late Michael Jackson’s cosmetic surgery was among some of the most radical. “The King of Pop” changed his original skin complexion from black or brown to white. That is also why in today’s

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India, the Bollywood superstar Khan recently – in September 2007 – promoted, through TV commercials, a skin cream for “lightening up.” The underlying belief and message has always been that dark skin is ugly or a sort of disease that must be cured or cleaned up. Paule Marshall summarized this belief as follows: “We live surrounded by white images, and white in this world is synonymous with the good, light, beauty, success, so that, despite ourselves, sometimes, we run after that whiteness and deny our darkness, which has been made into the symbol of all that is evil and inferior” (quoted in McKnight 1996, 28). That is also why in the Dominican Republic, natural black hair is called “pelo malo,” in Spanish, or “bad hair.” Racial tensions in the United States, especially the black and white antagonism, are not just an American phenomenon, it is also a European phenomenon. Of course, many Americans are of European descent. So, to some extent, Europe has outsourced racism to the US and to the Americas. Slavery was the ultimate manifestation of racism. President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation or the abolition of slavery in 1863 has not meant the abolition of racism under other forms, including stereotypes of Africans and people of African descent. Despite one’s right to free speech in the United States, stereotyping, racist, and sexist use of language can be sometimes entertaining and problematic at the same time. Usually one is less likely to be in trouble when one stereotypes people from other countries than when one stereotypes one’s fellow citizens. So Hollywood has always found different ways of entertaining its domestic customers by stereotyping black Africans. Of course, some of these customers are African Americans, whose minority status and bad socioeconomic conditions have contributed to their vulnerability and second-class citizenship. One would like to hope that Hollywood’s black superstars do not participate in this process. Instead, they should use their status to fight against Negrophobia and its contributing factors.

C. Pseudo-Science, Negrophobia, and the Image of Africa The unfavorable image of Africa and black Africans predates Hollywood’s films by many centuries. That image has also been part of Westerners’ scientific and pseudo-scientific speculations and negrophobic scholarship for a long time. These speculations and so-called scholarship remind us of Davidson’s “legacy of disbelief about Africa.” For example, in 1614, the French theologian and scholar Isaac Casaubon showed to his satisfaction

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that the Hermetic texts6 do not come from deepest antiquity, but were postChristian, showing thereby the anteriority and the superiority of the Bible and of Jesus Christ to the Corpus Hermeticum and to Hermes Trismegistus.7 However, the English Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie (1908) dated the Hermetic writings as far back as the 5th century B. C. In Primitive Mentality, the French philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl (1923) wrote extensively on the “primitive” or “prelogical mind,” which he originally attributed to the Africans. In Essai sur l’inégalité des races, the French writer and the founder of racism as a philosophical trend, Count Joseph-Arthur de Gobineau (1853) stated that, “La raison est héllène, l’émotion est nègre” (Reason is Greek and emotion is Negro). In A Study of History, the English historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee (1839) depicted Egypt as “a white nation and the rest of Africa as a mere savage prehistoric footnote.” In his Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich von Hegel (1953) denied historicity to sub-Saharan Africa. He believed that culture was the concretization of reason in its historical moments. Consequently, where there is “no culture,” there is no reason, no history. With reference to sub-Saharan Africa, whose contribution to world history was deemed insignificant, he concluded that, “in this main portion of Africa, history is in fact out of question” (Hegel 1953, 216-217). Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein (1994) published a controversial book entitled The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, focusing on the supposedly lower I.Q. among Blacks. Following the bell curve line of thought, the 1962 Nobel laureate James Watson commented that, he was, “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” [and its citizens because] all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.” I have also dealt with these problems elsewhere (Gbotokuma 1997). Whatever intention these scholars had, their work is likely to influence Hollywood, some American policy makers, and social workers in their film- and decisionmaking processes. So in the past as well as in the present, many Eurocentric scholars have busied themselves more with supremacist and Negrophobic speculations than with a Dionysian affirmation of the blacks’ full humanity, historicity, and cosmocitizenship. The best possible way to

6

For detailed information about Hermetic texts, please see Scott Walter, Hermetica: The Ancient Greek and Latin Writings Which Contain Religious and Philosophical Teachings Ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, 1985. 7 “The Thrice Greatest” Hermes is the Ancient Egyptian God Toth, or Tehuti. He is the god of wisdom, learning, and literature.

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tackle this problem would be to scrutinize educational materials, identify Africa’s negative images therein, and clean them up, if necessary.

II. The Image of Africa in the West A. Perpetuating the Tarzanification of Africa Thirty-eight years ago, Susan J. Hall (1977) identified and suggested solutions to thirty problems regarding the images of Africa in US educational materials. She grouped them around four approaches: the geographical, historical, cultural, and case study approaches. A sankofic8 or backward look at some of these problems is helpful in our effort to understand the origin of Hollywood’s iconoclastic image of Africa and to remedy it. In the geographical approach, Hall (1977) identified nine problems. However, I will only focus on three of them, namely, problems number 2, 8, and 9. Problem Number 2: “Avoid images of the ‘Dark Continent’ syndrome” (Hall 1977, 69). Some educational materials are intended to confront stereotypes head on. However, one of the unintended consequences is that instead of being confronted, these stereotypes are recited, thereby refreshing and perpetuating negative images in the readers’ and viewers’ mind. For example, “for too many years, Africa has been known as the ‘Dark Continent,’ home of Tarzan of Apes, legendary locale of the search for Dr. Stanley Livingston, and a continent inhabited by ignorant savages living in unbroken jungle. The image of Africa was largely formed by American films, and often has little resemblance to the vital and turbulent continent that has undergone massive changes over the centuries” (Kontos et al. 1975, v; Hall 1977, 6). There must be something magic and epistemologically wonderful about Westerners’ selective memories of Africa. As a matter of fact, many 21st-century Westerners’ recollections and knowledge of the continent have remained basically the same as their fellow Westerners of the previous centuries. For example, during the summer of 2007, I had the 8

In the Akan language of Ghana, sankofa means “to reach back and get it” (san, to return; ko, to go; fa, to look, to seek and take) or the Asante Adinkra symbols of a bird with its head turned backwards taking an egg off its back (Wikipedia). The bird symbolizes the need for respect for one’s roots as well as the need to retrieve the goodness from the forgotten past to build better future. For a further investigation of Akan symbols, see Kawaku Ofori-Ansa, Meanings of Symbols in Adinkra Cloth, 1993.

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opportunity to converse with a young American contractor who came to my house to deliver wood for home improvement work. From my name and exotic English accent, I mean my “Globish,” or global English, my guest understood that I was not from here. So he asked me the question most people tend to ask: “Where are you from originally?” But instead of answering his question directly, I seized the opportunity to socratically test his knowledge of African geography. So I asked him to guess which country he thought I was from. I gave him three chances for this guessing game. It was not a multiple-choice format. Guess Number 1: Nigeria? He asked. No, I said. I wondered whether his first guess was due to the fact that first, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa; second, there are many Nigerians in Baltimore and in the United States; and third, there have been a lot of unfavorable stereotypes about Nigerians due to internet scams and maybe it was precisely this kind of selected memory of Africa that my guest – like many other Americans and Westerners – tended to keep. I did not want to prolong the test by asking him why his first guess was Nigeria. Guess Number 2: Congo? He asked. Bingo! I exclaimed. Here again, I did not want to complicate the test by asking which Congo (since there are Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa or DRC). Most Americans tend to limit their guesses to Anglophone African countries, ignoring Francophone, Lusophone, and other African countries. I gave him an “A” grade for his intuition. To show me how much he knew about Congo, he told me that he would like to travel to Congo and see the rainforest (jungle), gorillas, villages, and guess what else? “Aborigines.” I thought he meant Pygmies. I suggested that he preferably travels to Australia, if his primary interest was in Aborigines. I also told him that he did not have to travel all the way to Congo to see villages, since one can find them on every continent, including the Americas and Europe, which are geographically and culturally closer than Africa. The Amish villages/communities are much closer than the Congo’s Pygmy villages. My guest might not know that there are people in the United States – a minority, of course – who live a village-like life. Visiting these communities could be an excellent preparation for the transcontinental travel to the Aborigines’ land. Our mutually informative conversation came to an end without seizing the opportunity to also talk about other modern realities of Congo and Africa. My guest had to make other wood deliveries to other customers. There are many population and ethnic groups in DRC. Pygmies are among the minorities. Of course, and unfortunately, minorities tend to be neglected. Their human rights are easily violated in many countries, including but not limited to the “industrialized democracies.” So they are

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equally deserving of the international community’s attention. However, my guest’s particular interest in Aborigines and Pygmies was reminiscent of another kind of problem that has been identified in US educational materials, i.e., Problem Number 8: “Life style of minorities is not typical of all Africans” (Hall 1977, 8). My guest has probably been exposed to educational and “edutaining” materials that concentrate on Congo’s Pygmies and Australia’s Aborigines, whose description has always been extremely fascinating to Westerners. My guest’s fascination with Pygmies was also probably based on the erroneous image of African cultures as static. A propos, some of my high school friends from Congo were Pygmies from middle class families. In other words, “African societies have not remained untouched by change. Rather, like all cultures, they are dynamic” (Hall 1977, 15, Problem Number 9).

B. Stereotyping African Cultures and Exaggerating African Crises The images of Africans as “savages” or uncivilized people wearing “costumes,” living in “unbroken jungles,” poor, suffering, waiting for Westerners’ charity, etc., are also apparent in the following three episodes, which are taken from my encounters with Westerners during my personal African diaspora experiences. 1. Episode One: The Elegant Dress In October 1978 – my freshman year in Rome, Italy – a group of seminarians studying at the Pontifical Urban University traveled to Terni, located in the Italian region of Umbria. The travel purpose was to attend Missionary Day and Sunday Mass and to promote the Vatican’s missionary activities around the world. I was one of those students. For first year students, most of whom had had only about four weeks of Italian courses, the trip was also the first linguistic and cultural immersion opportunity. In this kind of situation, there was no better feeling about oneself than the realization that one understood Italian native speakers and they understood you. During one of my conversations with our Italian hosts, many of whom had never had the opportunity to socialize with black Africans, a woman in her fifties or so wondered whether everybody from my country (Congo-Zaire) always wore elegant clothes like me. By the way, I was wearing a beautifully tailored Italian suit that day. I bought it from Porta Portese, the famous Rome-based Sunday market. I bought the fashionable shoes in Kinshasa, Zaire/DRC, but I don’t know if they were made there.

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My answer to the curious Italian Signora was that some Congolese did, in fact, almost always wear elegant clothes, and some did not, depending on one’s social class, profession, taste, and occasion, just like in Italy. The Signora probably thought that the suit I was wearing that day was my first Western dress and that it could not possibly be available to the “indigenous” people of the Congo. And who knows, she probably thought that I landed at the Fiumincino Airport of Rome wearing my boubou or “traditional African costume,” which could not possibly be elegant enough and appropriate for a Roman Catholic Sunday Mass in Italy. I am just speculating, because in Europe and elsewhere, Africans are often asked many interesting and strange questions, some of which suggest, for example, that many Africans live in trees. Italy had successfully or unsuccessfully colonized the Horn of Africa. In 1937, Benito Mussolini, alias “Il Duce” (The Leader), ordered the monument in Aksun (Ethiopia) be taken to Rome. The Obelisk was dedicated to King Ezana. It is 60 feet high and weighs more than 100 tons. Its construction was a triumph of Aksunite civilization. For Mussolini, just like many other Westerners, that monument was too wonderful to be the work of African genii and to stay in Ethiopia. A basic knowledge of Italian-African past history should be sufficient for average educated Italians and Westerners to realize that to a great extent, colonization also meant assimilation, civilization or “civilizing mission.” Consequently, today’s “civilized Africans” live and act more or less like Westerners. They go to school. They have access to haute couture or top fashion clothes by Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Ralph Lauren, Versace, etc. I wondered how the Signora would have reacted, had I told her that my father was a tailor who also made elegant clothes like the one I wore on that Sunday. I don’t know which other curious questions my classmates from Asia and Australia were asked. However, the Terni trip was, to some extent, reminiscent of 267 Congolese indigenous people’s experience in Belgium in 1897. I am referring to those Congolese who were brought to Tervuren, Belgium, to participate in the 1897 World Fair. Like a “human zoo,” those Congolese were subjected to the gaze of the Fair’s white visitors. Of course, most of those Westerners had never seen black people before. Consequently, they curiously observed those indigenous people, whose existence justified King Leopold’s supposedly humanitarian and civilizing mission in the Congo. The unfortunately tragic saga of the 267 Congolese in Belgium is wonderfully documented in Boma-Tervuren: Le Voyage [The Journey], a 54-minute film by Francis Dujardin (1999).

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2. Episode Two: African Music In 1979, as I mentioned earlier, I spent part of my first European summer vacation in Wincanton, England, taking classes of English as a foreign language. During a rainy July day trip (“English weather”) to London with my international classmates, we enjoyed listening to music from some of our countries of origin. I proudly played my favorite music tape from Zaire/DRC. I say proudly because Congolese music is one of the best and most popular types of music in Africa and almost globally. Surprisingly, my pride was met with the disappointment of an Italian classmate who, by the way, was a missionary priest. His disappointment had nothing to do with the quality of the music. He just could not believe that that music was Congolese or African, simply because there was no drumming and virtually all the instruments being used were modern or European. His disbelief was reminiscent of a certain image of Africa, i.e., traditional, precolonial, “Tarzan-like,” static, where people and their cultures have not changed at all. But as a missionary priest, this reverend Padre (father) should have known that many colonial and postcolonial African churches and musicians use diverse musical instruments, including, of course, drum kits, pianos, electric guitars, etc. 3. Episode Three: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic The unholy image of Africa is aggravated by exaggerations and misinformation about the continent’s realities, some of which, of course, deserve attention and consideration from the international community. For example, in 2000 – this is not a Y2K episode – a middle school student from Baltimore, Maryland (USA), wanted to know from me if 70% of the African population had HIV/AIDS! She supposedly received that information from her teachers. It could also be the case that she simply misunderstood her teachers’ statistical statement. In my response to her I first acknowledged the gravity of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and worldwide. Secondly, I told her the truth based upon the UNAIDS statistics at that time, i.e., about 70% of the world’s HIV/AIDS cases were in Africa; however, that did not mean that 70% of Africans were seropositive. These extremely alarming statistics about the African health crisis may well be the result of a middle school student’s misinterpretation of statistical data. However, it also reminds us of Western media and Hollywood-like dramatization of African realities. There seems to be a high dose of pleasure in telling unbelievable stories about Africa, whether they are true or not. Nevertheless, many things that are part of those stories tend to be left out simply because, as true as they could be, they are

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unbelievable and inconvenient. Films such as Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, and The Last King of Scotland have done their best to tell stories about African conflicts and leadership. However, they have also perpetuated stereotypes about Africa and left out some inconvenient truths about the West’s role in some of the continent’s predicaments.

C. The Image of Africa and Untold Stories in Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, and The Last King of Scotland In an article entitled, “Stop Trying to Save Africa,” Uzodinma Iweala (2007) wrote, “Every time a Hollywood director shoots a film about Africa that features a Western protagonist, I shake my head – because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West’s fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West’s prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent [my italics for emphasis] they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems” (Iweala 2007) Hotel Rwanda (2004) is a horror film written by Keir Pearson and Terry George. It portrays the heroic action of Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle), the manager of the Hotel Des Milles Collines, a Belgian fourstar hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. Rusesabagina is a Hutu married to a Tutsi woman, Sophie Okonedo (Tatiana). Using his political connections, intelligence, wit, courage, and even bribery, Rusesabagina managed to turn the hotel into a safe haven for 1286 Tutsi refugees. It should be noted, en passant, that Rusesabagina’s heroism is apparent not only because he protected “the Tutsi enemies,” but also because he was married to a Tutsi woman. For the radical Hutus, Rusesabagina is a double traitor. His marriage situation would be comparable to a German-Jew marriage, a “racial pollution,” or a biracial marriage under Hitler’s Nazi regime, during the apartheid in South Africa or during the Jim Crow period in the United States of America. Unarguably, Hotel Rwanda praises Rusesabagina’s good Samaritanism mostly because, one may suspect, his virtues are seen by the Hollywood and Western media as something extraordinary and exceptional for a black African. Pursuant to the prevailing image of Africa, courage and goodness are unlikely to be associated with blackness. Hotel Rwanda does more than just portraying Hutu Rwandan heroism, rationality, and leadership in the face of hatred and genocide. The film also recites and refreshes Africa’s stereotypes in the viewers’ mind. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible to watch the film without being reminded that Africans are uncivilized, misogynous, savage tribesmen, dependent on Western aid, and

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lawless militias led by warlords and corrupt leaders. The stereotypes of African barbarism, misogyny, and unspeakable human rights violations are reinforced, not only by the fact that so many innocent people were killed in a short time (three months – between April and July 1994), but also by the fact that at its peak, the genocide claimed as many as 8,000 lives per day, making it even worse than the Holocaust. What is more, Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered and hacked to death with machetes. The implication is that Africans still rely on primitive weapons to kill one another, whereas civilized Westerners use sophisticated guns, smart bombs, drones, chemical and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The lawlessness of the génocidaires is displayed through rape and the chopping-up of innocent Tutsi women and children, all of which are at odds with the rules of initiating and conducting a just war. What is problematic with these pictures is that for many of the film’s uncritical viewers, some of whom see Africa as a country, the Rwandan situation is the same as the African reality. Iweala (2007) is right in pointing out that the West’s depictions of Africa tend to ignore some of the root-causes, i.e., the West’s roles in creating and aggravating many of the continent’s problems through, among other things, the colonial Divide et Impera or “divide and rule” philosophy, favoritism, racism, questionable international cooperation, unfair trade, and interventionism, etc. Rwandans were responsible for the Tutsicide. However, the international community, which is dominated by Westerners, should also accept its fair share of responsibility for ignoring the early warnings, for denying acts of genocide in Rwanda, for delaying its intervention, for the lack of impartiality in the Hutu-Tutsi conflict, and for providing rebels with weapons in violation of the UN arms embargo. In Hotel Rwanda, Col. Oliver, the white UN officer in charge of rescue operations expresses racism in humanitarian interventions and the world’s indifference toward Rwanda as follows, “You’re black. You’re not even a nigger. You’re an African” (italicized for emphasis). Racism has become the major explanation for the international community’s application of triage and lifeboat ethics to Rwanda. In an interview given in the film, Gerald Caplan, the author of Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, made the following remarks, “There were so many moments, when…the whole thing could have been stopped.…I guess when you strip everything away, Africa didn’t count anymore.…It was black, so all the racist impulses could also come into play, and Africa had nothing to sell [so] you just wrote off the continent.” By the way, the application of triage and lifeboat ethics, the bad treatment of the blacks, and the writing off of the African continent are what I also call “black-out.” Gen. Tousignant confirmed

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these remarks by pointing out that the UN itself deemed UNAMIR “a benign and low priority mission.” The UN withdrew its peacekeeping force in April 1994, and then redeployed it three months later. This UN absence corresponded with the worst of the killings. Unarguably, the West’s lack of impartiality in African conflicts, favoritism, the divide and rule philosophy, and the scramble for Africa have contributed to the worsening of African conflicts. Indeed, many people believe that the root causes of the civil war in Rwanda go all the way back to Belgian manipulation of Tutsi-Hutu relations in Rwandan society and to the exploitation of that antagonism by Belgian and Rwandan elites in political competition prior to decolonization in 1962. For example, in November, 1959, Tutsi extremists attacked a Hutu money lender; only after several hundred people in each community had been killed did Belgian officials intervene. In October, 1990, Rwandan refugees based in Uganda and organized as the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) invaded Rwanda. When called to aid the Rwandan government, both France and Belgium sent troops. Belgium withdrew its soldiers soon after, but French troops stayed for nearly three years, not only training Rwandan government soldiers, but also supporting them in combat against Tutsi feudalists. Eventually, the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi militias who organized and led the Tutsicide of April-July, 1994 were trained by the French. That is why in Rwanda, President François Mitterrand was nicknamed Mitterahamwe (Prunier 1995, 165). Apparently, the Hutu-Tutsi conflict has created or is in the process of creating another “Scramble for Africa.” In an article entitled, “Playing Games with Human Tragedy,” the Baltimore Sun columnist Jonathan Power expressed his concern about this modern day scramble for Africa as follows: “France, usually the major outside influence in central Africa, has been sidelined by the Anglo-Saxons. [The Opération Turquoise, or the French military intervention in Rwanda in 1994 undoubtedly saved lives, but it helped the Hutu perpetrators of genocide escape to Zaire.] The U.S. and Britain, and to some extent Canada, have backed the Tutsi regime in Rwanda....If the Anglo-Saxons can stay close to the Tutsis of Zaire, who seem intent on making a bid for power, maybe they have a chance of dislodging French influence” (Power, 1996, 29A). Power’s concern turned out to be a prophecy. It was realized during what is also referred to as “Africa’s first world war (1998-2003), which took place in DRC. The scramble for Africa has continued in eastern DRC, with the occupation of the city of Goma, on November 20, 2012, by the Rwanda-backed fighters

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from the M23, or March 23 Movement.9 The industrialized democracies should realize, however, that cooperative, cultural, and preventative diplomacy – not competitive and interventionist diplomacy – is the best approach to crises in Africa. They should also realize that their image of Africa, greed, unfair trade practices, neocolonialism, and cultural imperialism are detrimental to a continent that they sometimes intend to help. These practices and attitudes are also seen in Blood Diamond as well as in The Last King of Scotland. I will go over them very succinctly. Blood Diamond (2006) is another horror film based on a story by Charles Levitt and directed by Edward Zwick. The film educates the viewers about Sierra Leone’s diamond-related civil war and the international community’s efforts to put an end to it through such initiatives as the Kimberley Process,10 and the US Clean Diamond Trade Act (2003). However, like Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond also perpetuates negative images of Africa. The film refers to Africa, among other things, as “home to smugglers,” a “god-forsaken continent,” or a place that God has left a long time ago, and an HIV/AIDS-ridden continent. For example, in the film, a prostitute tries to convince D. Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) to have sex with her because she has “no AIDS.” Africa is also portrayed as a permanent battlefield with countless numbers of refugees and internally displaced hungry persons waiting for food from the West. Africans are portrayed as children or servants in their relationships with Westerners. For example, Archer refers to Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) as “my boy.” This reference is reminiscent of a statement that President Obama made during his July 11, 2009 speech to the members of the Ghanaian Parliament. He said, “Some of you know my grandfather was a cook for the British in Kenya, and though he was a respected elder in his village, his employers called him “boy” for much of his life.” Western paternalism and the superiority complex are apparent in condescending statements such as, “…without me [i.e., Archer] you [i.e., Vandy] are just another black man,” “this is Africa,” and other statements suggesting that white leadership is better than black leadership. Unfortunately, the stereotype of black leadership as dictatorship is reinforced by presidents such as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, the late president Mobutu of Zaire/DRC, and of course, the late president Idi Amin of Uganda, who is ridiculously portrayed in The Last King of Scotland. 9

For further information about M23, see Chapter 19, “Dongo Uprising and Fleeing from Bogwabe to Gemena and Kinshasa.” 10 Named after the largest mine in South Africa, the process is intended to create an internationally recognized certificate of origin for “clean diamonds,” thereby putting an end to the trade of “blood diamonds.”

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Like Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond, The Last King of Scotland (2006) also depicts African realities dominated by anthropogenic evil. This film is based on a novel by Giles Foden and directed by Kevin Macdonald. Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), is shown, and rightfully so, as a monster, a crazed, uneducated, and corrupt dictator who murdered more than 300,000 of his fellow Ugandans. But his atrocities drew much more attention from Western media when European lives were at stake and during the holding hostage of Israelis at the Entebe Airport. The film is another Westerner’s view of Africa. In it, Amin demagogically claims that he did not want to be a president, but the Ugandan people wanted him to be. A British diplomat explains Africans’ supposed willingness to condone tyranny on the ground that “violence is the only thing they understand” (italicized for emphasis). Other stereotypes about Africans that the viewers get from the film are, among others, polygamy, witchcraft, and cannibalism. Like the late Emperor Jean Bédel Bokassa of Central African Republic, Amin was also accused of cannibalism. Bokassa was deposed by the French Barracuda Operation in 1979. During a presidential dinner, Amin jokingly explains the menu to his guests as “special local food without human flesh,” thereby reinforcing the image of Africans as cannibalists. The three above mentioned films and many other documentaries and writings about Africa challenge us to do something about Africa’s condition and image.

III. What Should Be Done? Before answering the question, “what should be done about the unholy image of Africa?” it is important to answer another equally important question: “Why should we do something about this problem?” Because Africa is the cradle of humanity, the homeland of all humans. Every single person is an African. All Americans are African Americans. All Asians are Asian Africans. All Australians are Australian Africans. All Europeans are Euro-Africans. Humanity’s duty to project a much more positive image of Africa comes from the fact that, “Africa gave us the tool we needed, in the form of a powerful, abstract mind, to take on the world” (Wells 2007, 114). What’s more, Africa’s negative images have resulted in low selfesteem among Africans worldwide. Indeed, the phenomenon of whitening through hair style, cosmetic surgery to fix nose shape, or even to change skin color (like Michael Jackson?), purchasing whiteness through the selfidentification as “white” on identity cards, etc., is global and really worrisome. In Brazil and some Latin American countries, for example, if you are rich and famous, then you can also have your ethnic identity changed from black to white! “The color line within the race” continues to

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be a serious growing issue, especially in the US and the African diaspora. The contents of people’s character do not always matter everywhere. Because of negativities and misinformation about Africa, many US institutions of learning and organizations have committed themselves to rescuing the continent from the “black-out” through educational, political, legislative, and economic initiatives.

A. Academic Initiatives Believe it or not, many of the factors that have contributed to the negative image of Africa are pseudo-scientific works, some of which have been done by university professors, philosophers, historians, including but not limited to the ones whom we have mentioned above (Blumenbach, LevyBruhl, Gobineau, Hegel, Toynbee, Murray, Herrnstein, and Watson). It follows that institutions of learning must lead the way in the efforts to restore respect and dignity to Africa and Africans, thereby reaffirming, once again, our universal and common humanity. The good news is that today’s US academe has a plethora of programs intended to correct miseducation about Africa. As a matter of fact, my March 10, 2007 Google search for “African Studies Programs in the United States” gave about 8,030,000 results! 129,000 of which were found at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). These programs include, inter alia, degrees, scholarly articles and organizations/ associations, multicultural education, Afrocentric education, centers, International Directory of African Studies Scholars (IDASS), councils, committees, etc. À propos, I was struck and moved – but not surprised – when I saw the photograph of the former and first post-apartheid South African President Nelson Mandela in academic regalia on Harvard Committee on African Studies home page. He was receiving his honorary Harvard degree. This fact is worth mentioning, because of its contribution to a positive image of Africa. Many Africans – Mandela included – have heroically fought, lived, and/or died to overcome unfreedom, alienation, the “black-out,” and the legacy of disbelief about Africa. This is one of the images of Africa that the academic community in the US and elsewhere should also project in their classrooms and on their lecture hall screens. This kind of image usually takes too long to reach Hollywood’s big screens for two main reasons. First, it’s at odds with Eurocentrism and Hollywood’s normal and chronic stereotypes about blacks and blackness, to which I referred earlier in this chapter. Second, Mandela’s life story and apartheid in South Africa are inconvenient truths that question the long held creed about the moral

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purity of whiteness, the rationality of hellenity versus the emotionality of negritude, and colonization as a “civilizing mission.” In academia, “publish or perish” is an article of faith in which disbelief is anathema that is conducive to termination. Academics who want to avoid perishing should also consider objectively and consistently publishing about Africa in a way that dignifies the continent without reinventing, “Tarzanifying,” mystifying, and romanticizing it. For example, one does not have to prove that Jesus was black simply because he called everybody “brother;” or that Socrates was black because of the shape of his nose; and one does not have to uncritically agree with James George’s Stolen Legacy (1954) in order to ratify Martin Bernal’s Black Athena (1987). In other words, it is possible to constructively talk and write about Africa without excessively using an Afrocentric rhetoric. But one does a great disservice to the scientific community, to Africa, and to humanity by intentionally engaging in Negrophobic, xenophobic, and pseudoscientific scholarship and propaganda. That kind of venture is an ignominious way of trying to achieve academic immortality. Digital age teaching and scholarship about Africa must also utilize mass media and information communication technology (ICT) in efforts to think, talk, write, and publish about the Wonders of the African World (Gates, Jr. 1999). Through the use of ICT, for example, Professor Gates, Jr. and his Harvard program have been able to make a positive and Hollywood-like impact on Africana studies in the US and elsewhere. In addition to Harvard, there are also many other US universities that have managed to research and teach about Africa in a constructive way and through African eyes. For example, Emory University had hosted two African Nobel laureates – Wole Soyinka of Nigeria and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa – for a long period of time; Stanford and Duke have had V.Y. Mudimbe of DRC; San Francisco State University has had Théophile Obenga of the Republic of Congo; Binghamton University has had Ali Mazrui of Kenya; Princeton has had Kwame Anthony Appiah of Ghana, etc. African scholars in the US and other Western universities mean not only brain drain but also African brain power, intellectual capacity, and therefore, a much greater receptivity to the notion of universal humanity. That power could be a catalyst for African development through academic cooperation between Western and African universities. I have personally benefited from two wonderful African studies programs, namely, Yale’s PIER African Studies and Boston University’s African Studies. In 1999, I had the opportunity to participate in Yale University’s PIER African Studies Summer Institute on “The Teaching of Africa.” The Institute was an intensive two-week course for educators who

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face the challenging task of teaching about Africa. One of the most widespread images of Africa consists of treating it as a country, or of treating single African countries as a continent. For example, the travel section of The New York Times (NYT) of Sunday, December 9, 2007 had an advertisement about “The Destinations of the Year,” namely, “Greenland, Argentina, Africa, Istanbul, Moscow, Dubai, Berlin, [and] Kazakhstan” (p. 1). What’s the problem? Well, all destinations listed in the ad were either countries, or specific cities. Only after reading through the section did I find out that the destination “Africa” referred to Tanzania (p. 6). This identification of Africa with Tanzania is the reason why the instructors of the Yale PIER African Studies’ Institute on “The Teaching of Africa” used to repeat ad nauseam, “Africa is not a country!” We do not have the United States of Africa yet. Kwame Nkrumah’s Pan-Africanism failed to realize that dream and the African Union doesn’t seem to be interested in pursuing it at this moment. In June 2002, I had another opportunity to participate in the International Colloquium on “The Fieldwork in Africa.” It was sponsored by Boston University’s African studies department and hosted by the Dakar-based West African Research Association (WARA). The three-day exchanges among scholars from Africa, the US, and Europe contributed to a comprehensive and balanced understanding of African realities. But due to traditionally Eurocentric curricula, “African Studies still is not a high priority in the American educational system” (Schmidt 1985, 1). However, because of phenomena such as multiculturalism, Afrocentricity, and racial pride, there has been a growing interest in African and Black Studies, especially at HBCUs. Whether this interest has been translated into sustained and institutionalized programs, depends on single institutions. An institution that has a PhD in African Studies – e.g., Howard University in Washington, DC – is more likely to have more and/or better programs than the ones having only master’s or undergraduate programs. The good news is that “the HBCUs have a much larger percentage of continental faculty members than do other US institutions of higher learning” (Challenor 2002, 24). So one way or another, many of these faculty members should contribute to the understanding of Africa. African underdevelopment has played the biggest role in perpetuating Africa’s negative images. These images can be restored through the HBCUs active participation in study abroad in Africa, student and faculty exchange programs with African universities, and international development partnerships (IDPs). My interaction with the members of NAFSA and the European Association of International Educators helped me to realize that traditionally, Africa has not been a favorite study and research abroad

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destination for US students and scholars. Of course, anthropologists have been an exception to the rule. There are, however, a few institutions that choose African countries as study and research abroad destinations for their students and faculties. For example, in June 2002, during my six-day visit to the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania, in an effort to link that institution to Morgan State University, I was delighted to meet a sizeable group of African American students and faculty members from HBCUs on the UDSM campus. Those students were learning Swahili, doing field projects and making an educational film on HIV/AIDS. Like me, some of those faculty members were also trying to link their universities to UDSM, thereby sending a clearly positive message, i.e., Africa is not hell. It is not only a “Safari” destination; but it can also be a terrific destination for study and research abroad. Economic development will play a crucial role in Africa’s positive image. So it is important that HBCUs also join other institutions of learning and international development organizations in working for Africa’s development. A number of HBCUs have successfully managed international development projects in Africa through IDPs. These projects are financed, among others, by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and administered by the United Negro College Fund Special Programs (UNCFSP). One typical and notable example of IDPs is the partnership between the Mississippi Consortium for International Development/Mississippi Valley State University and African Methodist Episcopal Zion University College, Monrovia, Liberia. Their 2006-2007 project was entitled, “Enhancing and Sustaining the Role of Women in Liberia’s Rebuilding Process.” It should be reminded that Liberia is among the first countries in the world to have a woman president, i.e., Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2006 to present). This is particularly important for the amelioration of the image of Africa as a patriarchal and sexist society. If development is the new name of peace, as Pope Paul VI put it in the Encyclical Populorum Progressio (23 March, 1967), then development should also be the best possible way to change the iconoclastic attitude toward Africa. It follows that development projects must become an essential part of HBCU’s international programs and academic collaboration with African universities. In today’s knowledge economy, which is driven by ICT, special attention should be paid to bridging the global digital divide. This is a phenomenon that affects Africa more than any other continent. Two other areas of focus should be health and conflict resolution. That is because an ailing, digitally illiterate, and war-torn

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continent cannot effectively compete in the global market, which looks like a jungle where only the strongest and the fittest will survive.

B. Other Initiatives The restoration of Africa’s image cannot simply be an academic exercise. It should also be the concern of many other organizations and agencies. Just like the HBCUs, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) must join the global effort to repair Africa’s image. As a matter of fact, there are clear analogies between the conditions of African Americans in the United States and the conditions of continental Africans as well as other people of African descent worldwide. So it is worth pointing out the fact that despite financial and other challenges, the NAACP – through its Department of International Affairs – has also been committed to addressing issues such as global health, human rights, international trade, and sustainable development. Unarguably, the image of Black America is closely related to the image of sub-Saharan Africa. That is why the NAACP is encouraging African Americans to join the international community in working to improve Africa’s economy. Education has always had and will continue to play a crucial role in all people’s development. Africa is no exception. Therefore, educational initiatives such as Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa are excellent investments in Africa. The Academy is a wonderful way to experience the “Back to Africa” movement. It can be considered as a contribution to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relative to the global partnership for development (Goal 8). Since there is a causal relationship between illiteracy and poverty, Oprah’s academy is in accord with the Millennium Declaration principle of creating an environment conducive to development and the elimination of poverty (MDG 1). Moreover, the academy is also a positive contribution to MDG 3, which is “To promote gender equality and empower women.” Another development initiative worth mentioning is a hospital built in Kinshasa by the Congolese-born NBA star Mutombo Dikembe. Of course, numerous continental Africans in the US, Europe, and elsewhere have also significantly contributed to Africa’s economy through remittances to their home-based families. There seems to be no tangible policy plan of action for US-Africa relations in the new millennium. However, the February 16-20, 2000 National Summit on Africa in Washington, DC and other similar initiatives are proofs that, as the Summit theme put it, “Africa Matters.” Yes, it does. Indeed, seven years after the national summit, there was a bicongressional

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or multilateral congressional initiative, i.e., a joint summit with members of the European Parliament and the US Congress on Africa. The late Congressman Donald Payne of New Jersey spearheaded the initiative. Ana Maria Gomes represented the European Parliament. Once again, the summit theme was, “Africa Matters.” It was held at the US House of Representatives, in Washington, DC on June 8, 2007. The summit’s main agenda items were the situations in Darfur, Sudan; Ethiopia; and Somalia as well as Africa’s new challenges and opportunities. I attended both of these Summits and so I can say that a constituency for Africa is not the problem. What are missing are political will, people to people diplomacy, and better public relations. Everybody can do something and play a PR role for Africa. However, because of their big influence on popular culture, Black Hollywood stars must also act. We need to continually hear statements such as: “It’s time. It’s Africa’s time […]. I’ve never felt so positive about the future there as I do now. We just have to help get it together” (Quincy Jones, quoted by Monroe 2007, 120). “I love Africa. We go to Africa a lot […]. The myth isn’t true. [Africa’s] lovely, beautiful” (M. Jackson, ibid., 122). “There is so much knowledge the world has gotten from Africa. And there is so much history and culture that we are disconnected from because of slavery […]. So it’s important for us to reconnect and get that knowledge and apply it” (Chris Tucker, actor, 127). Equally important are statements from diplomats who have worked in the continent. For example, Charles Stith, former US Ambassador to Tanzania stated, when I was U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania, some of my friends were surprised there weren’t lions and elephants walking right up to the front door of the embassy residence. Instead, they saw paved streets, modern restaurants to go out to for dinner, modern hotels of the sort you’d find in any western city in the world – like the Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar es Salaam where they have flat-screen TV access to the Internet…you’ve got some of the greatest tourist attractions of the world beyond wildlife. (Quoted by Monroe 2007, 125)

Last but not least, it is important to listen to a US President welcoming African leaders at the White House as follows: I stand before you as the president of the United States, a proud American. I also stand before you as the son of a man from Africa […]. The blood of

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The importance of this statement was apparent, not only from the big applause that it drew from the audience, but also due to the fact that the statement has been replayed many times on the Africa Channel. Africa matters and it will do so even more in the post-September 11th era. The antagonism between the US and major oil producing countries and regions (Venezuela and the Middle East) will force the US to either find other alternative sources of energy and/or look toward Africa for its oil needs. China’s aggressive pursuit of trade opportunities in Africa serves as a wake-up call to the US In addition to oil, gold, and diamonds, Africa also has other natural and mineral resources that are deemed vital to the global age economy. For example, DRC has coltan, which is even more precious than gold and diamonds, and is used in ICT (computer and cell phone chips, etc.). Consequently, US-Africa relations can no longer be conceived in terms of charity or pure humanitarian aid to Africa. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the African Global Competitiveness Initiative (AGCI), the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa (TACA), and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) must realize that free trade is good. This is especially significant with regard to the African Renaissance and global security. The colonial era’s unfair international division of labor, and globalization-related outsourcing and unfair trade have contributed to Africa’s underdevelopment and negative image. That image could also be restored through free and fair trade as well as respect for human rights everywhere.

C. Conclusion Hollywood’s iconoclastic approach to Africa is part and parcel of the American experience. This experience is characterized, among other things, by racism and the color line. Black and white antagonism in the United States and elsewhere and the negative image of Africa are some of the consequences of Eurocentrism, or as Aimé Césaire calls it, “European reductionism.” The Eurocentric Weltanschauung has manifested itself through pseudoscientific theories about race and through the use of the language that defines “black” and “blackness” in a very pejorative way. But since language describes and creates reality, it follows that the English 11

President Barack Obama’s welcome address to African leaders during a special state dinner at the White House on Tuesday, August 6, 2014. The occasion was a three-day US-African Leaders Summit.

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language – the official language of Hollywood and the de facto global lingua franca – has also, directly or indirectly, contributed to Negrophobia and the gloomy image of Africa through some of its definitions of the terms “black” and “negro.” Hollywood’s unholy Africa is a déjà vu-like phenomenon. It is nothing but the perpetuation of racism, xenophobia, Eurocentrism, the “dark continent” syndrome, Tarzanification of Africa, the “black-out,” or, as the British historian Basil Davidson (1914-2010) describes it, “the legacy of disbelief about Africa that permeates Western imagination.” This black-out perspective on Africa, or the romantic, fallacious, and discriminatory view of Africa as being “out of history” (Hegel 1975), is inconsistent with the science-based “out of Africa” perspective. The out of Africa perspective requires that Hollywood and Eurocentrism abandon their iconoclastic attitude toward Africa, develop a filial piety toward the continent as the Motherland, and acknowledge our universal brotherhood, sisterhood, and humanity. Very often, Eurocentrism, entertainment, and profit-driven cinematographic considerations prevent Hollywood from telling inconvenient and less entertaining truths about the African experience. For example, Hotel Rwanda depicts, to some extent, the génocidaires’ barbarism and, surprisingly, Hutu heroism and good Samaritanism. However, the film leaves out what J. Power (1996) refers to as “Playing Games with Human Tragedy” and the “scramble for Africa.” Something can and must be done about the unholy image of Africa. Africans can and must do something about it. Institutions of learning at all levels must play a crucial role in this effort. The academe must be involved, not only because of its role as a credible source of knowledge of, and teaching about Africa, but also because of its controversial role in the production of some of the pseudoscientific scholarship about the continent. Of course, HBCUs should become the new engine that resets the agenda in motion. Last, but not least, a sincere North-South Dialogue, human rights, and free and fair trade in US-Africa relations and in the World Trade Organization (WTO) are sine qua non for Africa’s development and positive image. Moreover, for there to be genuine globalization, every continent must be included. Other papers and essays through which I also realized my virtual back to Africa include: “Pan-Bantuist Globalization and Africa: Will Things Fall Apart Again?” This has been my topic for my Maryland Humanities Council public lecture since 2002. I also presented it at the XXII World Congress of Philosophy (WCP) in Seoul, South Korea, July 31-August 5, 2008; “Polygyny in Africa: A Male’s Post-Original Sin or Rejection of the Primeval Monogyny and Affirmation of Sexual Inequality.” This was a paper that I presented at the XXth WCP in Boston, Massachusetts, August

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10-16, 1998; Last, but not least, “Afrosophia: Revelations from the ‘BlackOut’,” which was my invited lecture at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in October 1999. Inarguably, these various ways of virtually returning to Africa were useful rehearsals and preparation for my actual return for a two-month visit to my native land in 2009.

PART V: RETURNING, AFTER MUCH PROCRASTINATION, FOR A VISIT TO MY HOMELAND

CHAPTER SIXTEEN PLANNING THE TRIP AND LEAVING FOR DRC VIA SCHENGEN AND YAOUNDÉ

AFTER THE COSTLY PUBLICATION OF A PAN-AFRICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA (2003),1 I decided to build a brick house for my parents, either in Karawa, or in Bogwabe. They didn’t want to move to Karawa, so the house was built in Bogwabe. I personally preferred to have the house built in Karawa, because of the proximity to a better health center, i.e., the Karawa Hospital. My choice was also based on my intention to use the house as a vacation place. The problem was that I hadn’t traveled back to DRC since my departure from the country in 1978. Moreover, I was not even sure that I was going to travel there often after the completion of a “vacation home.” The construction was completed in 2008 or so. It was not expensive, especially because the labor cost was very low. However, it deprived me of financial means to do some other things. The construction also made it difficult to enjoy family vacations in the United States on a regular basis. The end of the construction in Bogwabe was a good reason for me to go there for a visit in 2008. But it did not happen for three reasons. First, I did not get the sabbatical leave for which I applied. Second, our house in Baltimore needed some repairs and improvement. It took me two summer stipends and a second mortgage to complete the works. Third, I had to travel to China and South Korea to attend the World Forum on Values and World Congress of Philosophy in Xi’an and Seoul, respectively. I also seized the opportunity to visit China’s Great Wall and to hang out in Beijing during the first three days of the 2008 Summer Olympics XXIX. The opening ceremony took place on August 8, 2008, at 8:00 p.m. China Standard Time (UTC+8). The choice of date and time was not a pure coincidence. It must be understood in the context of Chinese culture in which the number 8 is associated with good luck, prosperity, and confidence.

1

More than $9,000.00 for various permissions, including texts, images, and mailing.

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Then came July 1, 2009. My dad passed away after several months of illness. He had cerebral vascular anaemia, or anémie vasculaire cérébrale (AVC), in French, followed by a deep coma. I was unable to leave immediately. I was working during that summer as I did during my tenure as director of MSU’s Center for Global Studies. That was the only way to secure some savings, which I always used for unforeseen expenditures and for taking care of my parents’ needs. I mourned my father during the same weeks Gemena and DRC were mourning their famous businessman and senator Bemba Saolona. He passed away in Brussels on July 2, 2009. During the same period, the US and the whole music and entertainment world were also mourning Michael Jackson. “The King of Pop” passed away in Los Angeles, California, on June 26, 2009. It was a time of constant communications with my family to ensure that funeral and other needs were being met. In the meantime I was planning my historical homecoming trip to DRC.

I. Planning the Trip After securing some extra bucks through the summer job at the Center for Global Studies, it was clear that this money was not going to fill out my almost empty savings account. It was going to be used for my homecoming trip. The three most important parts of the travel planning were the purchase of a roundtrip ticket, obtaining the necessary visas, and getting the required vaccinations and travel advice. I originally thought of traveling via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for two reasons. First, Ethiopian Airlines offered the cheapest airfare. Second, I wanted to seize the same opportunity to visit the headquarters of the African Union (AU) and interview some officials about globalization and Africa. This was the topic of my Maryland Humanities Lectures from 2002 to 2014. Unfortunately, I did not receive any response to my email requests, nor could I reach any AU staff member by telephone. So I decided to travel through Brussels, Belgium, and spend some days with Amélie and her parents in Thenailles, a tiny French town located about two hours by car from Paris and from Brussels. Amélie was one of five French high school students that my wife and I hosted for several weeks in 2002 through Global Friendship, Inc. and Horizons du Monde. She was also the only student out of five who has kept in touch with us. She visited us for a week in March 2009 prior to a six-month internship in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I informed Amélie and her parents about my travel plan and they agreed.

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I purchased round trip tickets online through CheapOair.com. The total cost was $2,604.30 including insurance. That’s more money than all the pocket money that I used during my stay while in DRC. I could have purchased a cheaper ticket had I done so much earlier, for example two or more months prior to the departure. Then through the French Embassy’s web site, I obtained an appointment to apply for a visa on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. From the web site, I learned that one could no longer just show up at the French consulate in Washington, DC to apply for a visa without first arranging an appointment online. From the web site I downloaded a free application form for the Schengen visa. This kind of visa allows a traveler to visit 26 countries of the Schengen space, or free travel area. This area includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and more recently, Switzerland. I had to apply with the French consulate in Washington, DC because I planned on traveling to several Schengen states, and France was the country where I was going to spend most of the time of my trip, and because I reside in the State of Maryland. Other qualifying States for applying with the consulate of France in Washington, DC are Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Along with my application, the following documents were required: Valid passport in good condition and allowing proper identification; Copy of the five first pages of the passport; 2 passport size photographs according to the embassy’s specifications; Proof of residence in Delaware, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia (driver’s license + original and copy of a utility bill, showing the name and the address of the applicant); For non-American citizens, a proof of resident status in the USA, which should be still valid at least 3 months after the last day of stay in the Schengen area; If needed, the visa issued by the country of prior entry to the Schengen state of final destination, and/or after the trip in the Schengen area (+ one copy);

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Trip reservation with detailed itinerary; A letter from my insurance company, stating that I will be covered outside the United States, for a coverage of at least $ 40,000, valid in Europe for medical emergencies, urgent care, and repatriation expenses (+ 1 copy); Proof of employment; depending on the purpose of the trip, one of the 3 following documents: For Tourism: Hotel reservation, proof of registration with an organized tour (+ 1 copy). For business: official business invitation letter from a company in France (+ 1 copy). For private visit (family or friends): Attestation of accommodation (+ 1 copy). One’s host in France must obtain this document from the City Hall of the town he or she is living in on a permanent basis in France, by showing a proof of identity and 2 proofs of lodging.

[In my case, my host in France was also the town Mayor, which turned out to be a little bit problematic. However the problem was solved. The document had to be signed by the Deputy Mayor of Thenailles rather than by my host who happened to be the Mayor]. Funding for the Trip and Personal Finances: for tourists and visitors, last three months bank statements, all bank accounts (checking, saving, money market…with detailed transactions history and daily balance (+ 1 copy).

I found this requirement excessive and intrusive, but I had to comply, otherwise my application could be denied. The Consulate officer wanted more documents from me, maybe because she thought, and rightly so, that I did not have enough money on my bank accounts. But I was not going on a shopping spree and stay at a five-star hotel in Paris’ Rue des ChampsElysées. In France, I was going to stay with friends and in DRC, I was going to stay with relatives and friends, where some spending was expected, but not too much. The visa processing fees were $80.00 and the processing time was 15 to 20 business days. Some nationals needed a longer processing time. DRC was one of them. All this information was available on the Embassy’s web site. On October 21, 2009, I drove back to the French consulate in Washington, DC to pick up my passport with the Schengen visa. I brought the missing required documents, i.e., bank accounts, including spousal joint account. Fortunately, the consulate officer discarded this document

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because of its poor photocopy quality. I also brought a duly prepared Attestation of Accommodation. According to this French Republicapproved document, Mr. Christophe Boury declares that, I can accommodate Zekeh Sua Gbotokuma, born on … (birth date) in Bogwabe, of Congolese nationality, Passport No…, residing in … (USA address), for 30 days: 15 October 2009 and 15 November 2009 6 days: 8 January 2010 – 13 January 2010.

Everything was all right. The Schengen visa was issued. Merci Madame et au revoir, I said in French to the consulate officer before hitting the traffic jam on the Beltway (I-495 and I-95 North). In the globalization era, there is supposed to be free circulation of goods and persons. The reality is that goods circulate more freely than persons and some persons circulate more freely than others. Rich persons circulate more freely than poor persons. Europeans and Americans circulate more freely than Africans, Latin Americans and Asians. Whites circulate more freely than non-whites. The visa processing time is longer for Congolese than for Japanese etc. Reciprocity tends to be the main reason. However, it is also about ethnicity and money. “The color line” was the problem, not only of the 20th century as Du Bois stated in Souls of Black Folk (1903), but it is also, despite great progress, the problem of the 21st century. Another part of the travel planning dealt with health issues. On October 19, 2009, I made an appointment with an agency called Passport Health, specializing in, “First Class Medical Care For Travel Anywhere.” It is located on East Fort Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland. The visit to Passport Health was not covered by my health insurance. So I had to be mindful of this fact as I subscribed to their medically required and suggested travel-related medical care. Below is a list of what was medically required or desirable for traveling to DRC as well as the corresponding price:

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Office Visit Individual ....................................................................... $ 48.00 Immunizations/Vaccinations Hepatitis A (adult) 90632 V05.3 ..................................................

$ 90.00

Typhoid (Live Oral/Vi) 90691 V03.1 ................................................ $ 85.00 Medications Diarrhea Kit (Loperamide/Cipro/Ceralyte/Towels) ........................... $ 25.00 2 Doxycycline 100mg…# 50 ............................................................. $ 50.00 Supplies 1 Permethrin Clothing Repellent ....................................................... $ 10.00 1 Repellent Broad Spectrum ............................................................... $10.00 Water Filtration System ..................................................................... $ 35.00 MD Tax on Supplies (+ 6% of $ 55.00) ............................................... $ 3.30 __________________________________________________________ Total ................................................................................................. $356.30 The list of suggested/recommended vaccinations surpassed my willingness and ability to pay for them out of pocket, especially at a time when I was expected to bring some cash for my shopping in the cash only economy of DRC. It included tetanus/diphtheria/acellular, rabies, influenza, pneumococcal, meningococcal meningitis, and more. I did get the influenza vaccination later from MSU infirmary for presumably a cheaper price. I left the Passport Health office with a nicely bound brochure. On its cover page it was written: PASSPORT HEALTH Traveling To DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO Itinerary Prepared for ZEKEH GBOTOKUMA

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TERRY PARSONS, R.N., NURSE MANAGER Tel.: 410-727-0556

THE VACCINE PEOPLE

I liked seeing my name and the statement, “Traveling to Democratic Republic of Congo.” I felt like the Passport Health staff coincidentally understood the historical character of my trip, i.e., my first return to my homeland after three decades! I did not have diarrhoea during the first half of my stay in DRC, not even when I was in the village. But the second half was different. I had two instances of upset stomach and the Cypro came in handy. I used some of the Doxycycline, i.e., from November 1 to November 28, 2009. Unfortunately, I had to stop taking it upon recommendation from my medical friend Dr. Nyamowala Mbembo of MEMISA (MEdische MISsie Actie, in Dutch)2 while I was in Gemena. November 28 was the first time I felt very dizzy as a side effect of Doxycycline. Before receiving this malaria preventative medication, I told the Passport Health nurse that I was allergic to Tetracycline. Eventually, I discovered Doxycycline belongs to the Tetracycline family, according to Dr. Nyamowala, whose medical degree was from an Ivy League medical school in Rome, namely, the Catholic University Gemelli. I never used the repellents, because they were confiscated at the Brussels airport. I shouldn’t have had them in my carry-on luggage. That was against many airlines security regulations. I was able to successfully go through the security with the same medication in my carry-on luggage even in Baltimore, USA, where security checks are usually much stricter than in many other places. By the way, in July 2008, I had a similar issue with my Cypro at the Beijing airport because of the size. The lesson for me and for my readers is that before traveling by plane, one must seek information relative to security measures, luggage weight limit, extra fees, method of payment, etc. Speaking of methods of payment, one must be aware of the fact that in DRC, cash is the only method of payment. Dollars are more than welcome and very often 2

Memisa is a medical Christian organization, whose main purpose is “to provide essential, quality and appropriate care, particularly for the most disadvantaged people, without distinction of race, religion or political persuasion. This is achieved through sustainable development programmes, small-scale initiatives and emergency aid in Africa, Asia and Latin America.” See Memisa – Medicus Mundi International (MMI)’s website: http://www.medicusmundi.org/en/mmi-network-members/memisa).

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preferred. The dollarization of the world economy is a reality and DRC is no exception. No credit cards. No traveler’s checks. No checks. In addition to tickets, visa, and health concerns, I was also concerned with what I should bring for relatives and friends. I knew most people would prefer the cash. However, some others would not mind receiving something made and/or bought in the USA plus cash. The idea of bringing a lot of gifts was great but not practical, since it would entail excessive luggage, which would eventually take away all the little cash in my disposition. For this trip I bought a five-piece luggage set of different sizes. I did not fill them all. Actually I packed two of them in the big ones for other uses during the trip, including leaving one of them with winter clothes in France. I remember discussing the issue of what to bring to DRC with my wife and friends both in the USA and in DRC. The list was long, including laptops, school supplies, clothes, typewriters, cell phones, a container, etc. But what about the shipping cost? Should I ask for donations and how? How much time would that take to be successful? And many other questions. At the end of the day, I decided to just pack light and go. I did not want to delay this trip any more. I accepted a few used cell phone donations. Somebody from a Baltimore-based phone company told me that those phones worked only in North America. But I brought them to DRC anyway, because somebody from Kinshasa told me that Congolese are very creative and they will figure out how to make them work in DRC. It turned out that indeed those phones did not work but maybe someday I will receive positive news about Congolese high tech creativity and bricolage.

II. The Trip My round trip itinerary was as follows: Baltimore-New York-BrusselsYaoundé-Kinshasa for the first part and then Kinshasa-Brussels-New York-Baltimore for the return. My airline companies were American Airlines (AA) and Brussels Airlines (b). The total trip time was 56 hours and 15 minutes. The flight duration was 39 hours and 34 minutes and the layover time was about 17 hours.

A. Leaving Baltimore for Brussels via New York On Thursday, October 29, 2009, I left my Baltimore home for the Baltimore Washington International Airport. My wife drove me there for my 1:45 p.m. flight to New York (JFK). The plane landed at JFK at 3:00

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p.m. We left JFK at 6:10 p.m. or so and we arrived in Brussels the next day at 6:40 a.m. The flight duration was 7 hours and 30 minutes. Catherine and Christophe Boury, my French hosts, picked me up from the airport around 9:00 a.m. They had to drive for about 2 hours or so from Thenailles, France to the Brussels airport. Before the trip, we communicated several times by phone and by e-mail. We saw each other’s photographs. But we had never met before. At the airport waiting area, none of us carried identification signs. We just trusted our intuition. At the waiting area, I sat next to my three-piece luggage close to the exit door. As I waited, I saw a woman making a phone call to someone in an attempt to verify a cell phone number. She had my phone number, but I guess there was some problem. The person she was calling was her daughter, Amélie, who had been in touch with my wife and me after being our guest in Baltimore several years earlier. I was watching that woman and her husband as I suspected they could be looking for me. Then I stood up from the bench where I was sitting. We looked at each other. “Are you Zekeh?” Catherine asked. Yes, I answered. “Are you Catherine Boury?” I asked. “Yes,” she answered. We hugged and then we collected my luggage and went to the car for the two-hour journey to Thenailles, France. In the evening we drove to pick up Amélie from the next town’s train station. She was coming from Montpellier, where she had moved several weeks earlier to pursue her doctoral degree in biotechnologies, specializing in wine making. From the station we drove to Catherine’s parents for dinner. It was a pretty fancy one. There were about fifteen people at the table. We started with apéritifs or appetizers, snacks, and of course, French champagne in the living room. There are champagne producers in Catherine’s family. Their product is labelled Paul Michel. We then moved to the dining room for the dinner. It was a big and long one. There were at least three courses and a variety of French wines, some of which were called “orphelines” or orphans (feminine plural noun). I know French, but of course, there are many words that I don’t know, and “orpheline” was one of them. The term refers to the last wine bottle of its kind. So for example, if one had ten bottles of Bordeaux wine and there is only one left, then that bottle is called orpheline. So my transit was an opportunity for a continuing immersion in French culture. From that dinner I figured out how Amélie got to choose winemaking technology as her major and profession, which would bring her to Canada. She currently works as a winemaker at Chateau des Charmes in Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario. After dinner we drove back to the Bourys’ house located on the huge Ferme Du Bois. The restless night on the plane and the orphelines were conducive to a really good night’s sleep.

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The next day, Saturday, October 31, 2009 was a big hunting day for Catherine and Christophe and their hunting buddies. Amélie and I drove on a site seeing tour that took us to Reims, the capital city of the Champagne Region. We visited the fabulous cathedral of Reims and, of course, a guided tour of Pommery, the famous headquarters of Champagne wine production. The guided tour ended with Champagne tasting. The day was sunny and pretty warm. In the mid-afternoon we drove back to the Ferme Du Bois, where we joined the Bourys and their buddies in celebrating their successful hunting. November 1, 2009 was a cold and rainy day. In the afternoon we drove to Belgium and visited the Chimay Monastery, also famous for the Belgian beer of the same name produced by the monks. The Belgian border is about half an hour from Thenailles. The crossing was without drama. There was no checkpoint, no police stopping us for ID control. On November 2 at 2:00 p.m. Catherine and Christophe drove me to Brussels because my flight to Kinshasa was at 10:30 a.m. and I had to check in at 8:30 a.m. Amélie could not come with us because she had to catch a train to go back to Montpellier. I spent the night at the Pullman Hotel, conveniently located in the proximity of the airport.

B. France and Belgium as Transitory Countries The five-day travel break in France and Belgium was of utmost importance for several reasons. Firstly, it made the long trans- and intercontinental trip less stressful and more enjoyable. Secondly, it was culturally and linguistically important. DRC is a francophone country and a former Belgian colony. The time spent in France helped me rehearse my French prior to arriving in DRC, thereby making the linguistic transition from English to French a little bit easier. It should be noted that I only occasionally speak French with a few French and Francophone friends in the US. Thirdly, it was a moment of cementing international and interracial friendship, thereby enhancing my commitment to diversity, multiculturalism, and continuing global education. Despite my Schengen visa, financial limitations prevented me from visiting other friends living in Austria, Germany, and Italy. I have not seen most of them since I left Europe for the US in 1990. Between 1990 and 2009, I made three business-related trips to France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. I was able to visit my friends in Rome for a whole week. That was the only luxury that I had. The Rome visit in 2001 had been extended from one week to eleven days due to a US visa problem. My new Congolese passport had not had any record of the US entry visa, issued in 1990. That record had been in my

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old passport. I spent the four extra days reapplying for the visa. In June 2001, I was not a US permanent resident yet. I was a “Non-Immigrant Alien.” I had an H1-B visa, which had some travel restrictions. It was not fun. That was not the way I planned on spending my time in the “Eternal City” (La Città Eterna, in Italian). Fourthly and last, Europe was my longtime transitory continent prior to my journey to the USA. It played, to a lesser extent, the same role for my return to Africa. I really like and enjoy the opportunity of having intercontinental experiences, discovering the worlds beyond my world and national borders.

C. Leaving Brussels for Kinshasa via Yaoundé On Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. the hotel shuttle picked me up and took me to the airport. It was only a five-minute ride without traffic. The line at the check-in area of Brussels Airline was relatively short. My luggage weight was perfect, i.e., 42 kg or so. But my carry-on luggage exceeded the limit by 3 kg. Fortunately, they did not make me pay for that excess. The bad news was the confiscation of my can of insect repellent. It was part of my preventative measures against the malaria caused by mosquito bites. The can size was bigger than what post-September 11th air travel rules allowed. I should have packed it in my suitcase. I had the can, some medicines, and other important items in my carry-on luggage just in case my checked-in luggage got lost. It had happened to me before of course, namely in Manhattan, Kansas in 2000; in Rome, Italy, in 2001; and in Madrid, Spain, in 2005. Fortunately, it didn’t happen this time.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN DIARIES OF MY HOMECOMING

I. Welcome to Kinshasa, or Kin Malebo! THE FLIGHT FROM BRUSSELS TO KINSHASA VIA YAOUNDÉ, CAMEROON, took off on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. We landed in Yaoundé at 5:45 p.m. It was my first time in Cameroon. But the airport transit was too short to get out of the plane for a quick visit to Yaoundé Airport. We landed at Kinshasa’s Ndjili International Airport at 7:45 p.m. My cousin Jean Bosco and Senator José M. were supposed to pick me up from the airport. But none of them was there due to communication errors on my part. I’d told them that my arrival would be on November 4 instead of November 3 and they’d never received the update that I’d sent to them by email. Moreover, I was unable to reach them by telephone, which by the way, is their favorite communication method. For many reasons – including electric problems – the use of email is challenging even for the Congolese digital intelligentsia and upper class citizens.

A. Objecting to Selective Luggage Control by the Airport Customs Officers At customs, I refused to open my luggage for checking on the ground that only a few passengers were targeted and asked to do so. I spent fifteen minutes or so arguing with the customs officers about the way they were applying the law. It was clear to me that they expected me to bribe them. When I proved to them that I was a Congolese by speaking to them in Lingala, they let me go. However, to ensure that they received some money from me, two police officers volunteered to carry my luggage to where I was going to call and wait for a ride from my folks. I could not use my cell phone to make calls and so I had to rely on one of the officers’ phones. Fortunately I was able to talk to Jean Bosco. Of course, he was surprised that I was at the airport a day early. He told me he was going to get to the airport in thirty minutes or so, if the traffic was not bad. I gave

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five Euros (or approx. US$7.50) to the two persons who helped me with the luggage. They were not satisfied with the tip. I was sure that was sufficient. After all, most people have to work much harder and for many hours or even several days to earn what I gave them for a five-minute job maneuvering two wheeled suitcases. One of the officers decided to stay with me until my cousin arrived and safely took me home. As we waited, some young people were watching us. I found some of them suspicious. I photographed my luggage just in case something got stolen. “No please, it’s forbidden to take pictures here,” said the officer. But why can’t I photograph my own property? “Because this is the airport, he replied.” Ok, I am sorry.

B. The Ride and First Night at Inter Matonge After about 45 minutes or so, my cousin arrived. He gave the officer some additional money for helping me. I don’t know how much money he gave him, but I bet it was less than the money I gave earlier. He certainly expected a little bit more, since my cousin was driving a Mercedes Benz, a luxury car that continues to be a big status symbol in DRC and elsewhere. We drove to my cousin’s residence in the Kalamu area of Kinshasa. The room was not ready for me that evening, since I’d arrived a day early. We dropped my luggage there and Jean Bosco took me to the nearby Inter Matonge, a two-star hotel in a very busy and lively section of Kinshasa with bars playing loud music, street vendors, and much more. Cost: $40/night. Cash only. No credit card, please. The sink and the shower were out of order. There was a bucket filled with water for the shower. But that did not affect the price. I did not complain about anything because I did not expect to enjoy a great level of luxury for that price, nor did I want to confirm the sense of American arrogance often displayed by some tourists and returning fellow Congolese. I didn’t want to offend my cousin. After all, I was not an American (yet). I was shocked by the fact that the price was quoted first in US dollars rather than in Congolese francs. After several days in Kinshasa, I understood that the two currencies coexisted in the city. In some places the dollar was the preferred currency. I was also shocked by the fact that many people did not accept $1 bills at all or any bill that had a tiny tear. Obviously, there are many counterfeited dollar bills circulating in the world. But why does a tear in the bill make it unacceptable? I paid for the room and checked in. I did not want to start my stay in Kinshasa with hotel bills paid by my relatives. Then we went out to have a drink at one of the neighboring bars. I had a Primus, the most popular beer of DRC. The Primus bottle contains 75 cl. After the drink,

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Jean Bosco drove me back to the hotel. On the way to my room, I was followed by a Congolese lady. She was one of the prostitutes serving hotel customers. She asked me if she could spend the night with me, because she didn’t have transportation money to go home. I politely told her that I was very tired and I was uncomfortable sharing a hotel room with a stranger. According UNAIDS, the African continent has the lion’s share of the world’s HIV/AIDS prevalence, with the worse cases in Southern African countries (South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho…). The DRC’s HIV/AIDS prevalence is about 4.2%. In big cities like Kinshasa and many others, the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign should also take into consideration the role played by prostitution in the spread of a disease that has become like a weapon of mass destruction. The problem is that the unemployment rate is very high among big city inhabitants. Under this circumstance, prostitution has become a necessity for many unemployed, impoverished, and desperate women, some of whom are minors. I did not need to be outside to listen to the music played in the area’s bars. No complaint. That’s the way things are in Kin Malebo, “the enjoyment city” (Kinshasa mboka bisengo, in Lingala). No surprise. I was born in DRC and I understand our way, which I have missed for three decades. So let the music play. Let the Kinois brothers and sisters live their life and let them enjoy their freedom.

C. Enjoying Kin Malebo Wednesday, November 4, 2009 Breakfast at the Palais du Peuple At 9:30 a.m., Bruno, Senator José Masikini’s chauffeur, came to pick me up from Inter Matonge. He was accompanied by Maître Simon, a young attorney from the South Ubangi District. He worked for Sen. Masikini. He had just had a baby boy whom he named Barack (after President Barack Obama). We drove to Palais du Peuple or People’s Palace, which is DRC’s parliament. In this building, which was built in the 1970s by Chinese architects, 500 national députés or representatives and 108 senators work on the country’s constitution and other legal issues. That was my first time visiting the Palais. During the breakfast at the Palais’ caffetteria, I had the opportunity to meet Senator Richard Penze and two députés from the Equateur Province. I met Sen. Penze for the first time in Rome, Italy, in 1987 or 1988. Back then he was a cabinet member in President Mobutu’s régime. From the Palais, Bruno and Maître Simon took me to a telephone shop where I purchased my first local SIM card.

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Unfortunately, it did not work on my US cell phone. Then they drove me to Senator Masikini’s residence in Kalamu Zone, where I spent some time with the senator’s mother, whose first son, Jean Roger, had passed away in March 2009 in Dallas, Texas. She was unable to travel there for the funeral. But the Senator and one of his sisters represented the family. I met José and his sister Régine for the first time at Jean Roger’s huge and memorable funeral. May he rest in peace! But I had known their family since the 1970s. Jean Roger and I went to the same middle and high schools in the Ubangi and Mongala Districts, namely in Bominenge and in Bolongo, respectively. At the end of the day, around 7:00 p.m., Bruno drove me to Jean Bosco’s residence, which was not far but the traffic made it feel like a sixty-mile drive. I settled in my room. The bed had a mosquito net. I have not used one for a very long time. It is a necessity in DRC, where mosquito bites are a big contributing factor to malaria. Thursday, November 5, 2009 A Relaxing Day at Ngandayala/Nsele At 9:00 a.m. Dr. Ntanda Nkere picked me up from Jean Bosco’s house. We drove to his highly gated house in Limete for breakfast. He is a Congolese American who used to live in my neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. For a short time he also taught political science at Morgan State University, where I currently teach. In 2000, he returned to DRC and briefly worked as the late President Laurent D. Kabila’s Special Adviser for Investment. He currently teaches political science at the Université de Kinshasa, or UNIKIN. I met and took photographs with his wife and children. After the breakfast we drove to Ngandayala/Nsele, where the Nkere family has a vacation home and property. On the way to Ngandayala, we occasionally stopped to photograph interesting places and monuments, including but not limited to the Echangeur and Patrice Lumumba’s monument in Limete. I noted earlier in chapter two, Lumumba (1925-1961) was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of DRC in 1960. He was brutally assassinated in 1961 under mysterious circumstances. He was a great orator, nationalist, a principal advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC), a nationwide political party that played a key role in the country’s independence from Belgium in 1960. Lumumba is the most popular national hero of DRC. His assassination aroused international anger and consternation, particularly in the former Soviet Union and the socialist world.

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Ngandayala is about a one-hour drive from Kinshasa. I expressed some interest in purchasing land there, too. However, I did not commit myself to anything. Ntanda told me that in 2010, one could purchase 1 hectare of land (=2.4711 acres) for $1,500-2,000. That was a very good deal. In the US, that same piece of land would cost much more. I thought this was the best time to purchase a piece of land in that area. As a matter of fact, with an estimated 10 million inhabitants, Kinshasa, like many big cities, is very crowded and polluted. So in the near future Ngandayala will be one of the best and least polluted places to live. I interviewed Ntanda about the process of acquiring land there and about his recent publications relative to electoral problems in DRC as well as the international financial crisis. At the end of the day we returned to Kinshasa. We had to use a canoe to reach Ntanda’s car. On the way back we stopped at the Jardin d’Eden, or Eden Garden, a very beautiful and entertaining tourism area, which I definitely recommend to international visitors. Friday, November 6 Writing and Learning to Save Documents ASAP This day was uneventful. The weather was bad and I thought that it was not a good idea to drive or even take a walk in Kinshasa under those weather conditions. It was muddy in many places and it can be challenging to cross the street in some areas. I planned on visiting Father Camille Iwewe, a classmate from Bolongo high school and from Bamanya, where we studied philosophy as major seminarians. I canceled that plan due to the bad weather. Moreover, it conflicted with an expected visit by Sen. José. He showed up late in the evening because of work overload at the senate and because of the traffic, which of course, is always much worse whenever it rains cats and dogs. José had to leave the next morning for Mbandaka, the capital city of the Equateur Province. There were elections for the new governor and vice-governor. José was the vice-governor candidate for UDEMO (Union des Démocrates Mobutistes), his political party. He was not particularly optimistic about the whole thing, but he had to go there for a whole week. He gave me the telephone numbers of Maître Simon and Bruno and told me to call them any time I needed a ride. This was a wonderful arrangement because public transportation is very challenging in Kinshasa and Jean Bosco was not always available because he had to go to work. I must say that I did not take full advantage of José’s offer during his one week absence because I was almost addicted to my writing on President Obama. I was fired up by a letter from Common Ground Publishing LLC of University of Illinois Research Park expressing

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interest in publishing my proposed book, Obamænon: The Gospel of Glocal Change, Hope, Understanding, and Leadership for a Networking World. I submitted the book proposal in October 2009 right before leaving the USA for DRC. I kept working on the manuscript while trying to enjoy my homecoming. But the repeated loss of electric power was a normal and frustrating occurrence in Kinshasa. It often forced me to take a break from the writing. It taught me to save every single sentence that I wrote down. The power loss meant the loss of unsaved documents. But believe it or not, the awareness of the constant power loss did not prevent me from having to rewrite certain things. Sometimes I saved my document only after completing a full paragraph or a full page, hoping to be lucky with the electricity. I did not call José to ask how the governor’s election was going in Mbandaka, but the media gave some bad news. Not only did José’s party lose, but even the candidate of the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC), Mr. Busa, lost to Mr. Bayende, the interim governor and the candidate of the ruling party, Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Développement (PPRD) .MLC was the most popular party in the Equateur Province. It was founded by Jean Pierre Bemba, one of the main rebel leaders. He was also one of DRC’s four vice-presidents during the country’s transition government. He lost to President Joseph Kabila in the 2006 presidential election runoff. In 2007, Mr. Bemba was arrested and has been under investigation for war crimes at The Hague’s International Criminal Court (ICC). Apparently, Mr. Bayende won because the provincial députés – who were in charge of electing the governor – were bribed, allegedly by the ruling party. Each one of them was alleged to have received $US 5,000 or so the night before the provincial election. In DRC’s political jargon, they call it “envelope,” or “enveloppe,” in French (or “madesu ya bana,” in Lingala – children’s beans, literally). This scandalous matter was brought to the attention of the parliament in Kinshasa, but apparently it has not changed the outcome of the election. Saturday-Sunday, November 7-8 T.P. Mazembe of Lubumbashi vs. Heartland of Nigeria: On a gagné! We Won!1 The biggest event of the day for Kinshasa, the whole Congolese nation, and for the whole African continent was the victory of Tout-Puissant Englebert Mazembe of Lubumbashi over Heartland of Nigeria in the final 1 From the title of Sam Mpengo Mbey’s Editorial. GRANDS LACS – Magazine International 75 Dec/Jan2009/2010, 91.

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game of the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) or African Confederation of Football Champion’s League. This is Africa’s most prestigious sporting event. The game took place at the Kibasa Maliba Stadium in Lubumbashi, the capital city of the Katanga Province. The DRC’s president Joseph Kabila was there, along with, among other national and provincial leaders, Moïse Katumbi, the governor of Katanga and TP Mazembe’s sponsor-president since 1999. I watched it with relatives in Kinshasa. Soon after Mazembe’s winning goal, there was power loss. The problem was immediately solved through a generator. But that was frustrating. TP Mazembe is one of DRC’s best soccer teams. As a matter of fact, in 1967 and 1968, TP Mazembe was also the African Champion. Watching Mazembe’s victorious game in 2009 reminded me of another glorious moment of DRC’s soccer. In 1973, Kinshasa’s Vita Club was the winner of Africa’s Cup of Champion Clubs, or Coupe d’Afrique des Clubs Champions, in French. I was in high school in Bolongo Minor Seminary. We followed the event by radio, the school’s radio. There was no television in the whole Mongala District, including Lisala, the capital city; and newspapers were luxuries that many people couldn’t afford. I was a big fan of Vita Club. This was the era of Ndaye Mutumbula – the most valuable player – and Kembo, whose nickname was “Monsieur But,” in French, or “Mr. Goal,” and of course, Seigneur Kibonge. Kibonge received his nickname – Seigneur, or Lord – after some wonderful ball dribbling against “King Pelé” or Le Roi Pelé, in French. “The King” is Brazil’s and the world’s most famous soccer player. It should also be reminded that in 1974, The Leopards, or Les Léopards – Zaire/DRC’s national soccer team – won Africa’s Cup of Nations, or La Coupe d’Afrique des Nations, in French, for the second time. Their first win was in 1968. In 1974, too, the Léopards became the first sub-Saharan African soccer team to participate in the World Cup in Germany. Their performance was mediocre, especially with the 0-9 scoreline against Yugoslavia. It looked like the Leopards had lost their teeth and claws. It was a very humiliating experience. Vidnic, a Yugoslav, was the Leopards’ coach. He was fired soon after that World Cup. Here was a case where conspiracy theory was used to explain and excuse DRC’s poor performance. Sunday, November 8 Family and Other Affairs Father Jean Pierrot Ngbaka, a cousin, and Anastasie, a niece, joined the Jean Bosco family and me for lunch. We had interesting conversations and

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laughingly made jokes. We made phone calls to, and received calls from the city of Gemena as well as from Karawa, Bobutu, and Bogwabe villages. The most important conversation subject was the establishment of Lycée Ngbaka in Gbosasa and Lycée Anastasie Ngbako in Karawa. The two high schools were named after the above mentioned cousin and niece. Lycée Anastasie focused on six-month literacy and sewing programs for women. Lycée Ngbaka had a different focus that I don’t recall. I was told that the founding of the two schools was facilitated by His Excellency Arthur Zabusu Ngamo, a native of the North Ubangi District and DRC’s vice-minister of education. However, funding was the biggest problem. Teachers were not paid and the schools did not have supplies! I proposed that we have a meeting with the vice-minister. But that did not happen. Everybody was too busy. Obviously, there was some expectation of financial aid from me. I was willing but unable to do anything at that moment. I was on sabbatical leave and trying to survive on half salary for the 2009-2010 academic year. Many relatives were also waiting for me in Gemena, Karawa, and Bogwabe. They all needed and hoped to receive some financial aid from me. Another conversation topic was the creation of an association whose name I don’t recall. I saw the draft constitution and suggested that Jean Bosco proofread it, since he was our family’s first established lawyer. I don’t know what happened to that document after my departure. A student from Bobutu village majoring in economics at the UNIKIN also visited Jean Bosco during that weekend. He told me a sad story. He left Karawa to study in Kinshasa based on the promise of financial support from an American sponsor. When he arrived in Kinshasa, the sponsor wrote him from the US telling him that he was no longer able to provide the promised assistance due to personal financial hardships. The poor student had to fend for himself in a country where university students don’t receive government scholarships any longer. Many students who leave their provinces to study in Kinshasa do sometimes count on African solidarity. But modernity and all kinds of circumstances limit the effective working of that solidarity. Sometimes, relatives on whom one counts for financial assistance are unable to fully support their own families, some of which are large. At 4:00 p.m., Bruno was at the gate. A niece informed me that José’s chauffeur was waiting for me. I excused myself and went to the car that took me to Rigini quarter, about 45 minutes away from Kalamu. I had to drop off a parcel that Jeanne, a fellow Congolese and friend had given me in Baltimore for her parents in Kinshasa. They were surprised and happy to see me. I knew them because my family occasionally socialized with

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them during their visits to their daughter in Baltimore. I was unable to sit down for a drink, because Bruno and Maître Simon had other things to do. The family asked me to come back another day for dinner before returning to the US I gladly accepted the invitation. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond my control prevented me from going back for the dinner. Tuesday, November 10: Shopping at Victoire and Visiting the Université Catholique Jean Bosco took me to Victoire, a shopping area in Kinshasa. Here I purchased a $45.00 Nokia cell phone. I ended up paying $40.00. In DRC, many prices are subject to bargaining, even at a telephone shop. The SIM card that I had purchased several days earlier for my US AT&T Motorola cell phone had not solved my telephone problem. Before leaving the US for DRC, I’d been to the AT&T shop in Baltimore and had them do whatever was necessary to make my phone work outside the United States. Using a local SIM card was one of the things to do. I don’t know what else I was supposed to do and I was unable to reach somebody in the USA to ask for assistance when I called AT&T. Part of the problem was the sixhour difference between Kinshasa and Baltimore, Maryland. From the Victoire telephone store, Jean Bosco took me to Limete, where I visited several friends with whom I’d studied in Bolongo, Bamanya Major Seminary, and Rome. They were all professors at the Université Catholique, formerly Facultés de Théologie Catholique, where I also took some philosophy exams in 1977 and 1978 right before going to Rome. I saw five of them. Two of them, namely Fr. Iwewe, who was in charge of development economics and Fr. Georges Ndumba, dean of the philosophy faculty, took me to lunch at the campus cafeteria. After several years in Rome, Fr. Ndumba went to Belgium, where he completed his doctorate in philosophy at the Université Catholique de Louvain. Fr. Iwewe went to France, where he received his doctorate in social sciences. They told me that Mgr. Joseph K. Mbimba was in Kinshasa that week. He was our high school principal as well as our professor of French and English. He was also our rector at Bamanya Major Seminary. He was on his way back from Rome to Mbandaka, where he has been the archbishop for some time. We planned on meeting with him over a dinner, but it did not materialize. The sixth person whom I did not see and who was a theology classmate in Rome was Fr. Prof. Akenda. But I had surprisingly seen him twice, three years earlier. The first time was at an international colloquium on Léopold S. Senghor, organized by the University of West Indies at Cave Hill in Barbados in October 2006. The second time was at

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the XXII World Congress of Philosophy in Seoul, South Korea in August 2008. After studying in Rome, Fr. Akenda went to Germany, where he received his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Düsseldorf. From Fr. Iwewe’s office, I charged my new cell phone battery. I also did some reading and checked my emails. I wanted to print and reply to an email message from Common Ground regarding its acceptance of my book proposal. The message was dated October 29, 2009. That was exactly the day I had left the US for France. Unfortunately, there was a printing problem and it was getting late and Jean Bosco was there to pick me up. I forwarded the message to Fr. Iwewe so that he could print it for me. That did not work. This was just one of the technological problems I encountered in DRC. For about 24 hours, there was a blackout across the whole of Kalamu, where I stayed during the first part of my stay in Kinshasa. Jean Bosco had a generator and that was very helpful. But unless it was absolutely necessary, very few people, including my cousin, were willing to use their generators for 24 hours. Very often, the amount of gas used in small generator tanks (2 to 5 liters) determined how long the generator was going to run and keep you out of the darkness. Wednesday-Thursday, November 11-12, 2009 Research and Writing Days Like most of my days in Kinshasa, I spent these two days proofreading chapter 11 of my manuscript, Obamænon. I also worked on a paper that I was supposed to present at the Third World Universities Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 8-11, 2010. The paper title was, “Cosmoportism and ‘UniverCity’ Today: Globalizing Education at Home and Abroad.” It turned out that I could not attend the forum due to financial problems. I was counting on travel funds from MSU. Unfortunately, there was no funding for international travel. The good news was that I could still send my paper for a virtual presentation, i.e., for possible publication.2 Sunday, November 15, 2009 Discussing Kinshasa Tourism and Family Affairs I spent this day in the company of Clément Kowa, attorney and chief of staff of the provincial government of Kinshasa. Like many friends and relatives, the last time I saw Kowa was in 1978, just before departing for Rome, Italy. We exchanged business cards and made tentative 2

The paper was published in Journal of the World Universities Forum 3.5, 2010: 23-31.

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arrangements for touring and videotaping some of the most beautiful sites of Kinshasa. The purpose of the tour was to promote international tourism in the area. Unfortunately, we did not do it, because of transportation and other problems. I wish the city government understood the financial and other benefits of tourism. I also spent the day with a nephew, Jean-Pierre Ngbaka, and his wife. Like many younger relatives, JP was one of those persons whom I met for the first time. He is the son of Julienne, a cousin of mine. He was named after Fr. Jean Pierrot Ngbaka, Julienne’s little brother. Father Jean Pierrot was the first Catholic priest from Gbosasa parish, where I’d attended elementary school some decades before. Nephew JP is an excellent tailor. He told me that in Gbadolite City, he used to make dresses for Madam Bobila Dawa, President Mobutu’s wife. He was brought to Kinshasa by Mr. Nzanga Mobutu, President Mobutu’s son, for whom he also did some tailoring work. He proudly told me that he had just opened a Salon de Couture in Kinshasa. He also shared family concerns with me, including but not limited to his unpaid dowry. This problem was due, according to JP, to failed businesses in Equateur and lack of family support. By the way, in our culture, parents and extended family members are expected to contribute to the dowry. The contributions are made in various forms such as money, clothes, goats, chickens, etc. I think three thousand US dollars or so was what he still owed. I was certainly expected to contribute something, but there was no explicit request. I bet that request was going to be made explicitly during the next meetings, which never took place. Unfortunately, I could not help because, as I explained earlier, my full year sabbatical leave caused me the loss of 50% of my annual salary. I was almost broke and I preferred to possibly give limited financial assistance priority to unemployed family members and relatives living in the village. Thursday, November 19 Visiting UNIKIN and the Arrest for “Illegality” At 7:45 a.m., my friend Ntanda picked me up from Jean Bosco’s home. We drove to the UNIKIN, where he taught political science. After introducing me to his students right before an oral examination, Mr. Yves Birongo, Dr. Ntanda Nkere’s assistant, took me for a campus tour. I had visited Kinshasa twice prior to leaving the country for Europe. The purpose of my visit had been to take philosophy exams at the Faculté de Théologie Catholique de Kinshasa. But I never visited UNIKIN, which was then called Université Nationale du Zaïre (UNAZA). The most interesting part of the tour was my near arrest by the campus police and

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interior ministry security agents on the ground that I was taking photographs without authorization. The incident took place in front of a mini bar. There was a building in front of this location, about 300 feet or so away. Outside the building there were several students, standing, holding notebooks, taking notes, and facing the building wall and classroom where they should have been comfortably sitting and attending a lecture at that particular moment. My tour guide explained the situation to me. “That crowd you see out there outside the building,” he said, “these are students attending a lecture. There isn’t enough room inside for everybody. So they are attending the lecture from outside.” The weather was perfect. One may wonder what happens to those students whenever it rains. As a university professor and Congolese citizen who was interested in sub-Saharan African underdevelopment conditions, I photographed the building and the students, while the campus security agents were watching. I did not think that I was doing something illegal and the tour guide did not warn me about anything. But I was wrong, and of course, ignorance of the law is not an excuse to break it. “Monsieur,” said one of the agents in French, “vous êtes dans l’illégalité. Vous êtes en train de prendre des photos sans autorisation.” (Sir, you are in illegality. You are taking pictures without permission). My tour guide, who happened to walk around without any identification, told them who I was. But he did not convince them, because they did not know who he really was. I showed them my Morgan State University business and identity cards. Of course, everything was written in English. Did they understand English? I didn’t know. So far we’d been speaking in French, the DRC’s official language. I overheard someone saying something in Lingala. He was saying that tourists come here, take photographs, go back, and show how bad things are here, like for example, students attending classes standing outside the classroom. At this point I decided to speak to them in Lingala. I said, “I am not a tourist. I am a Congolese citizen who happened to live abroad for a long time. Now I am back home. It’s really sad for me to be treated as a foreigner, not only abroad, but also and even in my own country. No, I am not a foreigner. Do you understand? I was born in the Equateur Province…” I thought it was unwise to self-identify as someone from Equateur for geopolitical reasons. But I did not care. After about thirty minutes, several students came to see what was going on. One of them angrily shouted, “let him go! He hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then a few more students showed up. It became clear to me that the agents did not want to deal with the matter in the presence of shouting students. So they tried to isolate my tour guide and me for further investigations. But the students followed us. One of the agents suggested that I acknowledge my

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“illegality,” offer them some beer, and close the case in an African way. I did not want to do that. Finally they returned my ID card and let us continue the tour. There were many other nice buildings to photograph. After that incident, I was no longer very interested in taking photographs. But since I wanted to keep memorable visual records of my tour, I took some more photographs, including the beautiful university church, the beautiful amphitheater, and the scene of a fire accident at the UNIKIN’s medical lab. I always put my camera back in the bag to avoid being perceived as a foreign tourist. One of my high school classmates is a professor of gynaecology on the campus. His name is Justin Mboloko. I hadn’t seen him for more than three decades. The tour guide took me to his office for a surprise visit. Unfortunately, he was not there. I bought several local newspapers and magazines and we joined Ntanda in his office for the ride home. Friday, November 20, 2009 Boxing Day in Gombe, Kinshasa I spent the morning hours reading newspapers and magazines that I had bought the day before. At 7:30 p.m., Ntanda picked me up. We drove to Gombe to watch boxing fights at the Grand Hotel. There were five of them. The ticket cost for VIP seating was $25.00 per person. The drinks (beer) cost was $5.00 per bottle. The cost for general audience was much less, about $2.00. The VIP seating area had decorated tables and chairs. Ntanda and I sat in the VIP section. I paid for my ticket; but I limited my drinking to sharing one bottle of beer ordered by Ntanda. I thought a $25.00 ticket for watching two-hours of boxing was more than enough for the evening. I was mindful of the fact that many fellow Congolese had to work for almost a month to earn that kind of money. More importantly, I was mindful of the fact that $25.00 could buy many little things for relatives in the village, some of whom I was going to visit in December. As we watched the boxing, some photographers’ focus was on the people sitting at the table on our left-hand side. At that table, there was a bold guy in a white T-shirt. Ntanda told me that he was President Joseph Kabila’s younger brother. At the end of the boxing, Ntanda wanted the two of us to meet and possibly have a photograph taken with the president’s brother. But he was in a hurry walking out to his vehicle, followed by his body guards. We followed them, since we all used the same parking lot. From the parking lot it was clear to me that we were in the company of a VIP. There were three or four vehicles escorting him, one of which was a military Jeep. I wasn’t sure he had any official title, but one thing was

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clear: the president’s brother was among the most powerful people in Kinshasa and in DRC. This situation reminded me of Mr. Movoto, President Mobutu’s brother or cousin. He was a Congolese army lieutenant stationed in Gemena, where he inspired fear and was more important than even the Commissaire Sous-Régional of South Ubangi, the highest civil and political authority in Gemena. This is apparent in the fact that Gemena’s soccer stadium was named after him. The stadium is called Stade Papa Movoto. From the boxing venue we drove to the Grand Hotel for a quick visit. It was 10:30 p.m. There was some low key entertainment, that is, a band playing 1970s music to entertain the hotel customers enjoying Friday evening drinks at the bar area. I was not interested in having a seat and spending some more money, much more money, given that there were women waiting for company and free drinks. The Grand Hotel is not the hangout place for regular Joes and so when you sit down there you’d better be ready to spend and share. I knew that, and I did my best to get out of there as quickly as possible. At the Grand Hotel, the lowest room rate was $300.00 per night. We were told that there was a special promotional discount for Congolese citizens, i.e., $200.00 per night excluding breakfast and internet access. We were not looking for a hotel room. However, I was interested in knowing the cost of living in Kinshasa, not only for ordinary people, but also for the rich and for international visitors, many of whom were very likely to stay at the Grand Hotel or at Memling, a Belgian four-star hotel in the proximity of the Grand Hotel. I want the reader to be mindful of the fact that the Congolese per capita annual income was the same or just a little bit more than Grand Hotel’s room rate per night. But maybe that is irrelevant. After all, the Grand Hotel was not built primarily for the average Congolese visitor. It was built to serve, first and foremost, international customers and fat cats. That is also why it is also called Hotel Intercontinental. After the quick stop at the Grand Hotel, Ntanda dropped me at my cousin’s home around 11:30 p.m. On our way home, many night clubs and bars were open and playing loud music. We saw many bar customers drinking in the open air. Unlike in the US and Europe where people order a glass or a bottle of beer at a time and reorder when the glass or the bottle is empty, in Kinshasa, by contrast, the tendency is to order many bottles of beer or a whole case (12 bottles) and possibly have them displayed on the table. This is a way to display one’s financial power and to impress other people.

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Saturday, November 21, 2009 Cash Only: Experiencing Banking and Shopping in Kinshasa In the morning, my cousin Jean Bosco drove me to Kin-Gombe (Ville) to make a flight reservation for my trip to Gemena. At the Hewabora Airlines travel office, I asked one of the agents if traveler’s checks were accepted as a method of payment. With a big smile and surprise she answered, “here we take cash only.” Credit cards and other kinds of checks were also out of the question. Jean Bosco helped her understand that I had been out of the country for a long time and that I was visiting for the first time. She jokingly but seriously made it clear to me that we were in DRC and as the old saying puts it, “When in Rome, act like Romans.” It was a waste of time trying to tell her that in today’s globalization era, Romans should understand that their way is not the only and the best possible way. The agent directed me to the neighboring Banque Commerciale du Congo to get the badly needed cash. There were signs of activity. However, the main entrance to the bank was closed. We used the necessary detour to access the bank from an alternative entrance. Unfortunately, we were told that the bank was closed on Saturdays, except for special business. Of course, trying to cash traveler’s checks was unlikely to be part of “special business.” We walked to another bank in that area. There, we were told that they didn’t deal with traveler’s checks any more. Then we walked to Memling, a Belgian four-star hotel, which also had banking operations. No luck. Our last chance was with Raw Bank, where I was finally able to cash $400 traveler’s checks. But at what price? The fees were outrageous – $100. I couldn’t believe my ears when I was informed about the fees. I was unable to hide my disbelief and outrage. So I told the cashier that I have traveled around the world, but I have never been charged so much for cashing traveler’s checks. I accepted to cash $300 out of necessity. I needed that money to pay for my flight reservation that day in order to guarantee a seat on the Hewabora flight to Gemena on Wednesday, November 25. There was only one flight per week to Gemena and missing that flight would have meant waiting another week. The problem was that I had very limited time to spend in DRC and I didn’t want to spend all or most of it in Kinshasa. The round trip ticket from Kinshasa to Gemena cost $450. Now with $300 I could only purchase a one-way ticket, which cost $225, and have my wife wire me some money while I was in Gemena. I thought that it was unwise and risky to carry around a huge amount of cash. After all, there was no discount for purchasing a round trip ticket. We walked back to the airlines office. The agent was happy to welcome me back with some cash to purchase my ticket.

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Believe it or not, the cash only business practice also applies to big purchases like cars, houses, etc., unless you are really well connected and can make different payment arrangements. But why does the cash only transaction continue to be the best business practice even in DRC’s modern capital? Why couldn’t I buy my ticket online? How does the digital divide affect Kinshasa? These are some of the problems facing developing countries and DRC is no exception. The interactions with the travel agents here and other commercial transactions in the country were an opportunity to revise some parts of my Maryland Humanities Council lectures on globalization and Africa.3 In these lectures, I talked, among other things, about the benefits of globalization, including but not limited to free and fair trade and the centralization of worldwide banking and financing, e-commerce, and so on. We ended our morning hours and early afternoon with shopping at the Grand Marché of Kinshasa, an extremely crowded market where most prices are subject to bargaining. My cousin warned me against thieves who were very active there. Fortunately, neither of us was robbed. Everything went well because we were vigilant. We concluded the day with a dinner offered by Dr. Jacques Kongawi at his Mont Fleuri residence. The dinner was also an opportunity to celebrate a prize he had received in early November 2009 in New York for his work for the American Leprosy Mission in Gemena. Among the persons invited to the dinner were Dr. Kongawi’s twin daughters and wife, my cousin Jean Bosco, and Mr. and Mrs. Sango Nabina. Mr. Sango was the RTNC’s president of the Administration Council. He and I attended Bolongo Minor Seminary, or high school. However, he left and finished high school somewhere else. He earned a degree in economics from UNAZA. After the dinner, we watched a slideshow of Dr. Kongawi’s award ceremonies in New York and Greenville, South Carolina. Sunday, November 22, 2009 Discussing Family Matters and Provincial Politics: Pélagie and JeanPierre Stories At 12:00 noon, my cousin Pélagie had to return to UNIKIN, where she was a sophomore in nutrition science. She is Jean Bosco’s younger sister. She spent her vacation helping Jean Bosco and his wife Huguette with 3

My lectures were titled, “Globalization and Africa: Will Things Fall Apart Again?” I delivered them, among others, at the Community College of Baltimore County at Essex, University Of Maryland Eastern Shore, Laurel High School in Laurel, Maryland, and even in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, etc.

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some of the house work like cooking, cleaning, and babysitting her nephew Andy. She sang a few traditional babysitting songs. Watching her sing those songs brought back old memories. I used to sing some of those same songs many years ago, while babysitting for my aunts and some other relatives. I also babysat some of my younger brothers and sisters, some of whom died before their fifth birthday. May they rest in peace! Believe it or not, child mortality remains a serious problem in DRC and in many developing countries even today. That’s why, fortunately, the United Nations’ MDG number four is “to reduce child mortality rate.” I decided to walk Pélagie to the bus station, which was about ten blocks away. She looked sad and tired. For some reason she hadn’t had any breakfast that day and she urgently needed about forty dollars to buy course materials. She had a few belongings to carry. I gave her a few dollars that I had at that moment, ten dollars or so. I also borrowed some Congolese francs from Huguette to add to those dollars. Then I carried two of Pélagie’s bags and we walked to the bus station. On the way to the station, we stopped and bought groceries for about three thousand five hundred francs. In the good old days, university students had scholarships and free food. That is not the case anymore. Consequently, today’s Congolese college students face more challenges than yesterday’s students. At the bus station, we waited for about twenty minutes. There were many buses stopping and leaving. I thought they were too full for her to get in. She didn’t think so. We would have to wait much longer if we wanted the perfect bus conditions: I mean enough room and/or seats. She ended up taking one of the overcrowded buses and left before it got dark. I wished she’d taken a cab. But even cabs are crowded, unless one is willing to pay much more, thereby enjoying the luxury of a one-stop ride. I walked back home where Jean-Pierre (the tailor) was visiting. He told me that the purpose of his visit was to seek guidance. More precisely, he was there to complain about his uncles or my cousins in Kinshasa from whom he was not receiving guidance and help. His major concern was with the pending dowry, that is, three thousand dollars or so to be paid. As I said earlier, JP supposedly had the money. But he made bad investments on beans and a coffee plantation in Equateur. I asked him questions about his clothing salon and how he was marketing his business. I suggested some basic marketing ideas such as flyers, business cards, brochures, etc. After a one-to-one conversation with JP, his uncle, Fr. JP, arrived. He was in Kinshasa for medical care, which was often wanting in rural areas where he worked as a parish priest. We were supposed to continue the conversation with him. But we had to change the subject and postpone our guidance conversation because Sen. José M. also arrived for a visit. That’s

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what Sundays are also for, getting together with family members and friends. We shifted the conversation from family matters to Equateur’s provincial politics, especially the controversial gubernatorial election in Mbandaka, the capital city of the Equateur Province. As I mentioned earlier, José was a vice-governor candidate for his party, i.e., UDEMO. The incumbent governor, Mr. Bayende, shockingly and surprisingly won against Mr. Busa, whose party, MLC, was the most popular in the Equateur Province. There were allegations of irregularities and fraud involving bribery. The election of the provincial governor is done only by the provincial députés, some of whom were accused of receiving thousands of dollars (in cash, of course) from Bayende’s party, i.e., PPRD. Fr. JP had to leave and return to the convent. Jean Bosco joined us after several hours of absence from home. I ordered drinks and snacks to add joviality and energy to the meeting. At about 5:00 p.m., José told us he had to go back to the senate for work, even though it was Sunday. Members of DRC’s parliament and senate earned extra money for working overtime and many of them gladly seized the opportunity to increase their incomes. We ended the day with dinner (chicken, veggies, and rice). Soon after dinner JP had to rush home, mainly because the weather was getting bad and in Kinshasa it is wise to be off the roads when it’s raining cats and dogs. Not only does the rain cause muddiness, but also electrocution due to flooded and unsafely installed wires. Of course, rainy weather – like snow storms elsewhere – worsens traffic jams, thereby increasing the length of time it takes to get home. Before leaving, JP called his wife, whom he also passed to me for a quick greeting. He promised another visit the next day and he headed to the bus station. Monday, November 23 A Little Shopping for the Gemena & Bogwabe Trips Pursuant to transportation arrangements made by Jean Bosco, Bruno – José’s chauffeur – and Maître Simon were supposed to pick me up at 11:00 a.m. They showed up at 10:30 a.m., which is very good in a country where the notion of time is still pretty flexible. I asked them to give me twenty minutes to have some breakfast. We drove to Gombe, where I needed to withdraw some cash from an ATM. I couldn’t get the cash from the first bank at which we stopped, because I had a VISA card and the bank accepted Master Card only. We were directed to the next bank. After staying in line for several minutes, I couldn’t get the cash there either, because the ATM was temporarily out of order. We drove to the Grand

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Hotel, where I was able to withdraw some cash. From there we drove to a music store where I purchased two audiocassettes by L’Or Mbongo and Franco Luambo. We also drove to a market where I purchased towels and shoes, including one pair of Obama-Flippers. Their beautiful design contained President Barack Obama’s face, the US flag, and the words, “BARACK OBAMA United States USA.” Since the 2008 presidential election victory by Barack Obama, Obamabilia has continued to be a global phenomenon and Kinshasa is no exception. Maître Simon also informed me that his new born baby’s first name was Barack. He was named after the 44th US President. I finished my shopping at 2:00 p.m. I was dropped at home at 2:30 p.m. I tipped the chauffeur (2000 francs). That was not necessarily expected, but he gladly accepted the gesture and left.

II. Traveling to, and Enjoying Gemena On Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 7:00 a.m., José sent Bruno to take me to the Ndjili Airport for my flight to Gemena. I was supposed to be at the airport at 6:30 a.m. for my 8:30 a.m. flight. But since I’d already checked in my luggage the day before, it was ok to be there by 8:00 a.m. We arrived at the airport at 7:45 a.m. Bruno called a guy who was in charge of Congolese senators’ protocol. José asked him to assist me through the GO Pass, IDEF, a 9,500 franc or ten dollar airport fee, which was supposed to be used for airport renovations. We were told that I was kind of late. With the senate ID, the protocol chief told everyone concerned that he was accompanying Sen. José Masikini’s guest. I passed through the security check with my two carry-on bags. Everything moved very smoothly. I enjoyed VIP treatment. Right at the time when the airport bus carrying passengers to the aircraft was just about to leave, an airport police officer got into the bus. He was looking for me. “Are you Senator Masikini’s younger brother?” He asked. I am a little bit older than the senator. However, I said yes. “The senator asked me to give you this pack. It’s for Mr. Luyeye of SOCOTRA Gemena,” the policeman said. The bus driver waited for him to finish, as he also wanted to give me his telephone number. “Bon voyage!” he said and got off the bus and the bus finally took us to the aircraft boarding area, where there was a long line. I was among the last in that line. Here passengers had to have their carry-on bags weighed. Mine was over the limit and so I had to pay additional fees. When I asked José about the policeman, José denied sending him. He told me that he knew him as someone who always did that kind of thing, which

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by the way, increased the cost that I had to pay for excessive carry-on luggage. At 11:00 a.m. we landed at Gemena airport. I was welcomed by cousins Bertin and Marie Kotongo, nephews Sua Moke and Papy Maskos, and others. We took photographs and they loaded my luggage in the white Land Rover sent by Dr. Nyamowala Mbembo of MEMISA. Everybody got into the vehicle and we drove to Dr. Nyamowala’s residence, where I was supposed to stay. I spent about an hour with my relatives in a gazebo as I waited for Dr. Nyamowala to come and take me to lunch. Half of the relatives who were there were born after I had gone to Europe. Bertin and Marie were in elementary school. Bertin is a veterinarian. Marie had moved to Gemena, where she lived with her husband. Papy’s dad was a cousin of mine. He surprisingly joined me in Rome when I was there in the 1980s. He spent six months with me as he unsuccessfully tried to get a student visa to continue his education in pharmacology He was forced to return to DRC, where he and his wife passed away in the 1990s. RIP! I knew Sua Moke only through photographs and telephone conversations. He is my older half-brother’s son. He and his parents lived in Karawa. He is a self-taught photographer. He used to be the one who traveled to Gemena to get the remittances that I wired there for my parents and for the house construction in Bogwabe. At 1:00 p.m., my relatives left. I joined Dr. Mbembo Nyamowala and some of his staff for lunch. After lunch, Mbembo told me that he was going to take me to the neighboring Capuchin missionaries’ residence. He made my last-minute housing arrangements with them for the cost of $30 per day, including three meals. Wonderful! The original plan to stay with him was changed due to the fact that he was hosting a government official there. The vice-minister of education was staying in the room where I was supposed to stay. He was part of President Kabila’s delegation. The president was expected to be in Gemena that week or soon thereafter to deal with the Dongo unrest. As I will explain later on, this situation was to have a negative impact on the length of my visit to the Equateur province. Mbembo drove me to the Capuchin mission at 6: 00 p.m. so that I didn’t miss the 7:00 p.m. dinner. I was glad to meet, among others, Fr. Giuseppe of Italy, with whom I enjoyed speaking Italian. Fr. Kizito, the mission’s superior told me that he was related to Fr. Célestin Tongotani who passed away in Arlington, Virginia. He was glad to hear that I had attended and videotaped the funeral service. I promised to provide him with a copy as soon as possible.

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Thursday, November 26, 2009 First Family and Friends’ Gathering in Gemena Bertin organized a meeting with relatives and friends residing in Gemena. At 5:00 p.m. Mbembo picked me up and dropped me at Bertin’s house. There were about 15 people in attendance. Two of them were middle school classmates in Bominenge. Dinner and palm wine were served. After everyone’s brief introduction, I briefly told them something about my three-decade journey in Europe and the United States. My talk was followed by questions and answers. Questions were, among others, how many children I had and what my plans were to deal with the extended family’s economic problems. I told them that I had two stepdaughters, but no child of my own due to circumstances beyond my control, i.e., my wife’s infertility problems. I had to deal with this question on some other occasions. My relatives and friends, some of whom were parents and grand-parents, could not understand that at my age, and given whatever they had imagined me to be and to have, I was still childless. These have been the wonder and worries, particularly among those relatives, friends, and classmates who proudly talked about their five or more children. They definitely thought there was something wrong with me. I also did my best to explain the economic conditions under which I, and for that matter, many other people in the USA lived. In other words, I told them that many of us lived pay check to pay check, or half pay check to half pay check. This was my situation during the sabbatical leave from September 2009 to September 2010. They certainly thought that I was giving them excuses for my unwillingness to help them. At 10:30 p.m., Mbembo came to pick me up. Saturday, November 28, 2009 Getting Sick and Second Family Gathering in Gemena At 5:30 a.m., I woke up feeling very dizzy. I also had nausea. I couldn’t join the Capuchin community for the 7:30 a.m. breakfast. When I told Fr. Giuseppe what I was feeling, he thought I must have drunk unsanitary water somewhere. The cook brought my breakfast to the bedroom. At 8:00 a.m. Dr. Nyamowala came. He examined my blood pressure and body temperature. Everything was normal. He figured out that it was the side effect of Doxycycline. I had been taking this medication since early November as preventative medication against malaria, which is a common tropical disease in DRC and in Africa. Doxycycline is similar to Tetracycline to which I am allergic. The medication was prescribed to me

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in Baltimore by a Passport Health registered nurse. Usually, when I take Tetracycline, the side effect is immediate. I wondered why it had taken a whole month for Doxycycline to show its side effects. This is a medical science question that I have not put to those who know. Dr. Nyamowala suggested that I take a rest and refrain from taking Doxycycline, at least for that day. Actually I ended up stopping taking it altogether and I felt better two days later. Around 11:00 a.m., uncle Hilaire, an elementary school teacher, and three of his kids came to see me before heading home. My uncle and two of the kids lived about 18 km away from Gemena. They had been in the city for two days for the family reunion, so to speak. They’d had to take those two days off to that end. They were among the persons with whom I’d met two days earlier. They didn’t come to the mission’s residence because I was sick. They came to visit me and just found out that I was sick. The purpose of their visit was to seek some help for school tuition. My cousin Bulunu, a 21-year old boy and high school student in Gemena, owed 13,000 Francs; the two girls, Waya, 15 and fourth grader, and Nyamale, 13 and sixth grader – yes, she was ahead of her older sister. Waya was named after my paternal grand-aunt. Nyamale was named after my paternal grand-mother Lucie Nyamale to whom I had referred earlier in chapter one. Both girls needed 14,000 Francs for school supplies, uniforms, and shoes. So twenty-seven thousand Francs or about thirty US dollars were all they needed to have a happy school year. I happened to have that money with me. So I gave it to them and they left. I was still in my pajamas. At 1:00 p.m. Fr. Giuseppe came to remind me of lunchtime. I felt good enough to walk to the dining room, which was in a different building nearby. I changed clothes and slowly walked to the dining room. Virtually everybody was done, since lunchtime was at 12:00 noon. Pursuant to my request to my cousin Bulunu, somebody called me from his school to acknowledge receipt of the tuition money. I wanted to be sure the money was not used for something else. It was definitely a good day, not only for the boy and my uncle, but also for the school, because usually most parents pay tuition fees by instalments. Many others just can’t afford to pay them. That is why many children don’t go to school and/or are forced to drop out, or take much longer to graduate from school. After some struggle, just like many other Congolese high school students, my cousin Bulunu finally graduated and received his high school diploma in June 2011. He took a year off and plans on eventually attending college either in Kinshasa, or in Kisangani in 2013. In the meantime, I sent him some money and asked him to make some investment for college. He told me that he planned on buying palm oil from Gemena and reselling it in

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Zongo, a town near the Central African Republic border. This was a test where he had to prove that he is a responsible person. I had given a similar test to a nephew one year earlier. But the results were not impressive. At 4:00 p.m., a young man arrived on a motorcycle. His name was Dede. He was Dr. Kongawi’s brother-in-law. He came to pick me up and take me to Dr. Kongawi’s home according to my stay arrangements in Gemena. Dr. K was still in Kinshasa. That was the reason why I ended up staying with the Capuchin missionaries. I told Dede that I had two big suitcases and a hand bag. Consequently, he would have to do at least two trips. I also told him that Dr. Nyamowala was going to come any time with the Jeep and make the moving easy. After twenty minutes, I thought it was better to call and find out when Dr. Nyamowala was planning to come before letting Dede go. But I realized that my cell phone was not there, because Dr. Nyamowala was charging it at his residence. I couldn’t charge it from my room, because our whole residence had lost power for two days. The imminent arrival of President Kabila in Gemena helped bring electricity to parts of the city during that week, but only for a short time. I asked Dede if I could use his cell phone to call Dr. Nyamowala. No way, his phone was out of service due to lack of calling credits or unités in French, as it is called in DRC. I gave Dede five hundred Francs to go and purchase a few unités, which were being sold two blocks away. He went and came back with the phone ready for use. I made the call and found out that Dr. Nyamowala was on his way. Dede left. He had other things to do for his sister and we thought the transportation problem was resolved. Soon after Dede had left, Dr. Nyamowala showed up, not with the vehicle, but on foot. I thought maybe the vehicle had broken down or he’d forgotten he was supposed to take me to Dr. Kongawi’s house. He was accompanied by Fr. Giuseppe. I came out of my room and we sat on chairs on the guesthouse’s porch. Dr. Nyamowala explained why he’d walked instead of driving. In addition to hosting some of the presidential delegation people in his residence, the President himself was going to stay next door. Consequently, security measures were reinforced, including restrictions on the traffic. There were soldiers everywhere stopping and checking any vehicle and questioning drivers. Both Dr. Nyamowala and Fr. Giuseppe advised against moving to Dr. Kongawi’s house, especially when it was dark. They believed that during that time, our neighborhood was much safer than Dr. K’s. I took their advice seriously and stayed. I called Dede to explain the plan change to his sister. But my phone conversation with him was interrupted due to bad reception or something else on his side. I also called Dr. K in Kinshasa, but he was not available. He returned my call a few minutes later. He told me that Dr. Nyamowala’s

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and Fr. Giuseppe’s piece of advice was an excellent one. I had to unpack, since I was not moving any more. I didn’t have to use my Chinese emergency lamp because the power was back again. The Société Nationale d’Electricité (SNEL), or the DRC’s electricity company, provided electricity as part of preparations for the President’s visit to the city. Sunday, November 29, 2009 Sunday Service and President Kabila’s Visit to Gemena I went to the Sunday’s first mass, which started at 7:00 a.m. The church was packed with the faithful, joyfully singing, clapping hands and dancing. I was a little bit late and so I stood in the back. But somebody vacated a seat and kindly invited me to occupy it. At the end of the service, there were several announcements, including one by the CDD or Commissaire de District, the highest political authority in the city. He “invited” everybody to go to the airport to welcome President Kabila, who was expected to arrive any time that day. No arrival time was given. It could be in the morning. It could be in the afternoon. Nobody seemed to know. A protestant church in the area was literally forced to cancel the Sunday service to allow people to go to the airport. Vendors were forced to evacuate the market place. Many people were at the airport at 11:00 a.m. or even earlier, with or without food and drinks. I spent part of the morning hours photographing and videotaping children’s Sunday activities including drumming, singing, and dancing. In the parish or missionaries’ residence, I noticed the presence of really well-dressed people. Many of them were political dignitaries – députés and senators – most of whom were buying and drinking beers on the porch, as they waited without knowing exactly when the President was going to arrive. Dr. Nyamowala joined us during our late breakfast. I expressed my interest in joining him if he planned on going to the airport, where almost everybody was heading. He told me he was not sure about going there. He was upset because he was falsely suspected of backing Dongo’s rebels simply because of Memisa’s humanitarian assistance to the population affected by the unrest. The purpose of the President’s visit was to resolve Dongo’s unrest. After the lunch, I spent some time talking to Fr. Kizito. This was when I told him about my cousin, J.P. Ngbaka, a priest of the Budjala diocese. Father Kizito referred to Fr. JP as “noko,” the Lingala word for uncle. So we must be somehow related. We talked about development problems, including drinking water, precisely because I had some friends in the US who were interested in solving drinking water problems in developing countries by drilling wells. Like many DRC

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populations, the city of Gemena has drinking water problems. Apart from the national water company known as Régie des Eaux, whose service was very limited, there was only one private company that provided water through wells drilling. In Gemena, very few people receive news from RTNC, the statecontrolled television service. In the Capuchin parish, virtually all TV programs that we watched were from Europe, especially France’s TV5. Radio Okapi was the key source of information. The proximity to Central African Republic (CAR) also allowed easier access to radio programs from Bangui, CAR’s capital city. Gemena and Equateur people used to receive news from Jean-Pierre Bemba’s television company. For political reasons, that service was no longer available. When I left the country more than three decades ago, there was no institution of higher learning in either Ubangi district. Qualified high school graduates had to travel very far to get higher education degrees. I was told that there were three Instituts Supérieurs in Gemena. But virtually all of them needed better buildings. I planned on visiting them prior to leaving the city for Kinshasa. Unfortunately I was unable to do so because of my precipitated departure. I was also told that there were several other institutions of higher learning in the Ubangis, including another institute in Budjala and a centre universitaire in Gbadolite, the capital city of the North Ubangi District. Forty years ago Gemena had street lights and a vibrant commercial center. Today, the city is a dark place in the night, except for a very few lucky places, whose owners can’t afford to have electricity all night long, let alone 24/7. Stores such as African Luxe, SCIBE, and Portuguese stores and boutiques (magazins) have disappeared. The ComminGem factory that made soaps, perfumes, etc., was gone. Many vendors prefer selling their products at the market place rather than in a magazin or store. Unpaved and ill-maintained streets make driving in the city as bad as on rural roads. Four-wheel drive vehicles are a necessity. Market and street vendors have to always deal with dust caused by careless drivers. In Gemena, virtually all taxi services are provided by motorcyclists. I occasionally used their services. I was scared to death whenever they rode fast even in sandy areas. But my riders knew what they were doing. I remember resisting my nephew Papy’s offer to give me a ride home after a late night second reunion event when my friend was unable to pick me up by car. I told my nephew that I wanted to walk and get some exercise. But I was told that it was not safe. So I accepted the free ride. He rode very carefully and slowly. I thought he understood my concern. Like virtually all motorcyclists, he would turn the engine off whenever we were riding

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downhill. That was the best way to save gas. We arrived at our destination safely. I gave him a tip for gas. I remembered using the same technique several years before in DRC and even as a student in Italy. Papy was a student at one of Gemena’s Instituts Supérieurs. Like many entrepreneurial young people, he also used his motorcycle as a taxi. That’s how he earned a living and paid for his education. He graduated in 2011 and was looking forward to eventually continuing his studies after a one year break. Instituts Supérieurs are comparable to community colleges in the USA. Everybody who knows Papy’s circumstances should be proud of him. He had lost both of his parents to AIDS. In Gemena and elsewhere in the country, cell phones have been a blessing, especially in places where access to electricity continues to be a luxury. However, regardless of one’s whereabouts, here are some of the most common problems. In many rural areas, there tends to be bad reception, or there is no reception at all. That includes Bogwabe, my native village. The reception area is or was in Bobutu, or more than 5 km away. That was why I didn’t use my cell phone during my short stay there. When my cell phone battery was discharged, I trusted a cheap Chinese charger, not knowing that it was made for one charge only. That’s the problem with not reading instructions and other pieces of information about electronic devices, especially when fine print discourages one from reading them. I sent the phone to be charged in Bobutu. Believe it or not, there was no cell phone charger in Bogwabe. Cell phones were not popular there yet. I was supposed to get the phone the day after. Unfortunately, I was told that there was some problem with the charger there. On that very day, there was some emergency. I needed to communicate with Gemena, Kinshasa, and the USA. No way. Another common and annoying problem, which many DRC cell phone users are getting used to, is the fact that one is almost never sure one will finish a phone conversation. This problem is due to the limited unités that most people, for economic reasons, tend to purchase. So when you make or receive a call, you’d better get right to the point you want to communicate before you run out of unités, or before some battery problem occurs. Many cell phone users don’t call. They beep, thereby expecting to be called back. This practice is very common, especially when one is using somebody else’s phone. I mentioned Bogwabe, but I was not there yet. I was still in my guestroom in Gemena. It was 6:30 p.m. Dede, the guy who came to help me move by motorcycle, called to receive updates about my move to Dr. K’s house. I couldn’t finish updating him. The conversation was interrupted. He ran out of unités. I was getting used to this phenomenon. I purchased sufficient unités that evening and so I called back immediately to complete the updates. I also

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returned other calls that were abruptly ended due to unités problems. I continued writing my diary entries using my Chinese emergency lamp. I was glad I had it. It never stopped working. It had long lasting batteries. It was dark in the parish and almost everywhere. The city’s electric power that we had enjoyed the previous evening and that morning due to the President’s imminent arrival was gone again. The President’s airplane landed at 4:48 p.m. It was preceded by several noisy military airplanes. The parish was very close to the airport and so one couldn’t miss any landing. Many people had been waiting at the airport for six hours or so. Most of them were certainly glad they didn’t have to wait another six hours, hungry and dehydrated. One of the strangest things was that there was no SNEL-originated electricity on the President’s arrival day or hour, at least not in the Capuchins’ parish. Monday, November 30, 2009 Meetings and Shopping At 7:30 a.m. I joined the parish community for breakfast. Prof. Pierre Nzege Alaziambina joined us a little bit later. He served as minister of education during President Mobutu’s regime in the 1980s. He currently serves as a DRC senator. He also teaches at the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) and at the Centre Universitaire of Gbadolite in the Equateur Province. We took photographs on the residence balcony, exchanged business cards, and he expressed interest in possibly inviting me to teach some courses in Gbadolite as a visiting professor. Then I called Pastor Sanguma, then president of the Communauté Evangélique de L’Ubangi et Mongala (CEUM). I met him for the first time in Washington, DC more than a decade earlier. At that time he was working on his doctorate of divinity in Pasadena, California. I was unable to reach him by phone. Fortunately, he was among religious leaders who showed up to the Capuchins’ residence for a meeting in anticipation of their meeting with President Kabila. We didn’t have enough time for a long conversation. However, we had a few photographs taken. We were joined by the late Roger Masikini’s younger brother Mayunga and sister Lillie. Roger and I were middle school and high school classmates in Bominenge Catholic parish and in Bolongo’s Notre Dame de Grâce Minor Seminary. Lillie was an elementary school student in Bominenge parish while Roger and I were in the middle school. But I didn’t know her well. She became a successful business woman in Gemena and Karawa. She also successfully ran for a seat in the DRC Parliament. Her older brother Roger passed away in March 2009 in Dallas, Texas. May he rest in peace! Mayunga, whom I met

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for the first time during my stay in Gemena, was an architect working in the parish. The shopping of the day was all about drinking water, that is, four 1.5 liter bottles of Canadian Pure for the total price of 5,200 Congolese Francs or about $5.00. I purchased them through Mayunga. I also asked him to bring me three more bottles so that I could have enough drinking water during my trip to Bogwabe, where safe drinking water could be a challenge. The additional water supply was impossible to purchase. Why? Yesterday the market place was forced to close due to President Kabila’s arrival. Other items that I needed were a comb and a mirror. By the way, Mayunga jokingly said that a mirror was a lady’s need. But how about a comb? Anyway, I spent four days without them. There was none, neither in the common bathroom, nor in my bedroom. Fortunately, I had a really short haircut prior to leaving the United States. Before I could purchase my own comb and mirror, I saw Fr. Giuseppe shaving in front of his bedroom and office door using a mirror. I approached him and asked him to lend me his mirror for a few minutes and he gladly accepted. Grazie mille Padre! I said to him in Italian, literally meaning one thousand thanks. I was glad to shave and see my face before showing it to the world around me. While religious community leaders – Catholic and Protestant – were having their ecumenical meeting, so to speak, other house guests walked joyfully back and forth between the balcony and what could be rightfully called the Parish Mini-Bar de circonstance to purchase Skol or Primus beers. I bet for some of them it was like morning coffee. For many people it’s normal. As a student worker in Germany, I watched many co-workers eating their breakfast with pilsner beer(s). So this is not just a Congolese thing except for the fact that for some of my fellow Congolese, beer was the only item on the breakfast menu du jour, so to speak. I spent some time reading the San Francesco Review, an Italian missionary publication, which I obtained from the parish coffee table. Another batch of shopping of the day: I ordered table cloths and napkins from Sister Marie Michelle. Her convent was about two blocks away. She was in the parish residence when we discussed the order. She spent several years in Rome and so we spent some minutes chatting in Italiano. She was introduced to me by Fr. Giuseppe. After discussing my order, Sister Marie Michelle invited me to their convent to see samples of their designs. We walked together to the convent as she pushed her bicycle, since she could not give me a ride. I loved the Afrocentric designs. Living in the diaspora led me to appreciate African art even more. I left the convent around 5:00 p.m. It was getting dark when I arrived in my

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guestroom. There was no electricity. Father Giuseppe’s room was illuminated via a tiny petrol lamp. These are very commonly used in DRC, especially in rural areas, where electricity is almost non-existent. At 7:30 p.m., I joined the parish community for dinner. Rice, tarot, and chicken were served, followed by papaya fruit for dessert. Everything was fresh and delicious. Capuchin priests take the vows of celibacy, obedience and poverty. But make no mistake. Poor meals are not part of the deal. They usually eat very well and observe their meal time very religiously. We ate while listening to Radio Okapi. The key discussion topic for that evening was the irregularity in the Governor’s election in Mbandaka, the capital city of the Equateur Province. Hon. Busa, the candidate of the most popular political party in the Province – Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC) – lost to the PPRD candidate, Jean Claude Bayende, the Interim Governor. PPRD is President Kabila’s and the majority party. According to the DRC electoral system, the province governor is elected by provincial députés or representatives. The radio reported that Mr. Bayende’s election victory was due to electoral fraud and corruption. Honorable députés were reported to have received thousands of American dollars so that they could vote for the PPRD candidate. PPRD people were believed to be the suspects behind the generous “enveloppes.” The alleged electoral fraud was also reported and debated by other Congolese media. The case was investigated or was supposed to be investigated by the senate. So what happened? Well, Hon. Bayende’s election victory was confirmed despite the perceived electoral fraud and irregularities. He must have played by the “rules” and won the election. Please be reminded that November 30th was President Kabila’s second day in Gemena. He was supposed – so we were told – to meet with the population and/or religious community leaders that day at one of the area high schools. Unfortunately that meeting didn’t happen. We were told that the president took a vehicle ride toward the Akula River port to personally witness the rural populations’ living conditions, which obviously, were deplorable. For a few people who happened to see him, that was the very first time. The overwhelming majority of the rural populations have no access to the television or internet. Radio continues to be the most common way of receiving news. The RTNC has a very limited viewership. This is just one of the major development challenges for the country in today’s global age, which is supposed to be dominated by information communication technology (ICT). So in addition to the global digital divide, which negatively affects the country and many other developing nations, there is also what I may call the television divide. The limited availability of, and access to electricity plays a key role in these divides

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and DRC should be the last country on the earth to suffer from a lack of electricity. The country has potentially the most powerful electricity source in Africa, i.e., the Inga Dam! (le Barrage d’Inga, in French). I was supposed to have left Gemena for Karawa and Bogwabe. But I was still hanging in there due to the feeling that it was not safe to leave the city. It was also believed to be unsafe and unwise to even circulate in the city. Rumors about imminent threats from the Dongo unrest and the president’s presence in the city caused additional security reinforcement. Checkpoints proliferated and ill-paid soldiers sometimes took advantage of this kind of situation to arbitrarily arrest people and ask for money. It was like curfew for a week or so. Monday, December 1, 2009 World AIDS Day / Diocese Education Day At 7:00 a.m., I joined the parish community for the morning mass celebrating St. Anuarita. The celebration continued outside the church with drumming, singing, and dancing. Upon a request from Fr. Kizito, I photographed and videotaped some of these activities. The citywide World AIDS Day March, or Défilé de la Journée Mondiale du SIDA, in French, was rescheduled for another day due to President Kabila’s visit. After breakfast, I saw Pastor Sanguma and several priests gathering for the second time. They were supposed to meet with the president. I wondered whether the meeting had taken place. By the time I arrived at MEMISA at 10:30 a.m. to check my email messages, I saw soldiers coming back from the airport. I was told they went to see off and protect the president who unexpectedly departed for Kinshasa. Given security checks around MEMISA, where the president had stayed, I had to ensure that I had my ID handy. It was better to use my Congolese passport, since a USA-issued ID card could have complicated everything upon an eventual ID control. The USA-issued ID cards that I carried were my Green Card and my Maryland driver’s license. If I showed any of these identification documents, I could have been seen as an American who was suspiciously visiting Gemena while and/or because the president was there. After all, almost all soldiers would not know the difference between a US passport and a Green Card. I was accompanied by Mr. Louis Second, Dr. Nyamowala’s executive secretary. Soldiers didn’t stop us for an ID check. They looked relaxed, but the street was still closed to vehicle traffic. At MEMISA, I was told that H.E. Zabusu was in the compound. Actually he stayed in the guest room where I was supposed to stay. He was the vice-minister of national education. He was part of the president’s

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escort, probably because he was from the Gemena/Ubangi area. I asked his body guards if I could see him briefly. They asked me if I had an appointment with him. I said no. Then they told me to wait with several other people who also wanted to see him. The decision to see H.E. was supposed to be made by his personal secretary who was not around at that moment. I declined the idea of waiting. So I proceeded toward Dr. Nyamowala’s office to check my email messages. I didn’t and couldn’t check them every day. I think I checked them once or twice a week. Consequently, there were many of them. The computer was very slow, but it worked. I said to myself, as I related the problem to my above mentioned Maryland Humanity Council lectures on globalization and Africa, that internet speed was an important part of the global digital divide. At 12:30 p.m., Dr. Nyamowala walked me back to the parish residence for lunch. Menu: Fish, rice, and cooked veggies. Delicious! Prior to lunch I called and talked to Dr. J. Kongawi of the American Leprosy Mission (ALM), who was still in Kimpese, in the Bas Congo Province. He asked me if his chauffeur called me regarding my travel arrangements. I told him that I was planning on showing up at his house in the afternoon, since I had a hard time reaching folks by phone. Tuesday, December 2, 2009 At 8:30 a.m., I met with Fr. Augustin Dawili of the Karawa parish,4 to whom I also hand-delivered school supplies, mainly books. They were given to me in Kinshasa by Anastasie Ngbako, a niece of mine, for her newly established school in Karawa. She is a nurse who moved to Kinshasa to work for H.E. Zabusu, the vice-minister of national education. The school was intended to provide basic literacy and sewing training to women. In my conversation with Anastasie in Kinshasa, she talked about the school’s financial challenges. These challenges, she explained, were due to the fact that the school was, “agréée, mais pas mécanisée,” or incorporated, but not mechanized, meaning that the school was officially recognized, but without funding from the Congolese government. Under this circumstance, school staff members were either underpaid, or not paid at all. They worked hoping that the school would be mechanized someday and they will eventually be paid. That is how many new schools in DRC get started. Very often non-mechanized schools fail to provide good 4

By the way, when I left DRC some thirty plus years ago, Karawa wasn’t a parish. It used to be and might still be a predominantly protestant town. No Catholic priests permanently resided there.

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education because they tend to hire under qualified teachers. The problem is even worse when those schools are located in rural areas like Karawa or Bogwabe, where most qualified teachers don’t want to work for two main reasons. First, the living conditions in rural areas are worse than in urban centers. Second, and more importantly, job opportunities are so limited that it is almost impossible to add a second or third job, unless one is willing to be a farmer. The problem with this alternative is that farmers do not receive monthly payments and it is hard to sell their products. From Kinshasa I called and spoke with Mr. Bangabutu, the former director of SCIBE in Karawa. In the past, SCIBE – Société Commerciale et Industrielle Bemba – used to be the most important business in the area. My first phone conversation with Bangabutu was from Baltimore, Maryland (USA) in July 2009. I received his contact details through Dr. Kongawi of ALM. I asked Bangabutu to advance some money to my family to deal with my father’s funeral arrangements and he did so. I paid him back through Dr. Kongawi. I wanted to ensure that I met and thanked him again for his help. By the way, Mr. Bangabutu passed away in October 2014. RIP! Believe it or not, money transfers to my family have never been easy transactions. This situation is due to the nonexistence of financial institutions in rural areas. The situation has slightly improved thanks to Western Union’s global outreach. I say slightly improved, because Karawa and Bogwabe are out of the Western Union’s global reach. My family members have still to travel to Gemena to cash their remittances from SOFICOM, or Société Financière et Commerciale. They just have to get the code and password right. During my meeting with Fr. Augustin in Gemena, I asked him to inform Mr. Bangabutu about my arrival in Karawa sometime by the end of the week. I was not able to set the exact date because everything was subject to the security situation in Gemena and transportation arrangements with my friends. Another problem was the fact that district authorities borrowed ALM’s vehicle to use during the president’s visit. It must be noted that road conditions do not always encourage vehicle owners to gladly accept to provide this service. But friendship matters. At 9:30 a.m., I walked to MEMISA to charge my digital camera, camcorder, and laptop batteries. Electricity wasn’t part of “our daily bread” that our heavenly Father could provide. So charging the batteries at MEMISA became a good reason and opportunity to take frequent twoblock walks. After all, these walks were healthy and free exercise. I dropped the equipment with Dr. Nyamowala for charging. At 10:45 a.m., Mr. Kiale – ALM’s chauffeur – showed up at my door. He came by motorcycle. “What’s up?” I asked. “The Kabila’s people from .

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the Ville reeturned the veehicle,” he saaid. “Tomorroow it will go o through maintenancee and so we could c travel to o Karawa on Friday,” he added. a He looked tiredd. He must havve been working very hardd. He gave mee a ride to the guestrooom in the paarish. I pickeed up my U S cell phonee and we continued thhe ride to the Zain and VOD DACOM phoone companiess to see if they could ssolve the techhnical problem m that I had hhad since my arrival in DRC. Unforrtunately nothhing could be done becaus e the techniciians were absent. We rode to a Chinese C storee, where I foortunately an nd finally purchased a hat, batteries, and more importantly, i ttwo cell phon ne battery chargers: onne for me and one for Kiale. The total cosst was 7,450 Francs, F or about $7.00. I had been desperately d try ying to find a hat made in DRC. D The one I purchaased was made in China. Affter this quickk bit of shoppiing, Kiale took me bacck to the parish residency for lunch, folllowed by a nap. n After the nap, I w walked to ME EMISA and viisited its comp mputer literacy y center. I took severall pictures of a class that wass in session.

III. Homecoming g Photograaphs

Figure 17-1 Z Zekeh Stands inn Front of DRC Map at Jardin dd’Eden

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Zekeh Standds in front off a DRC Map p at Jardin d’E Eden Tourist Site near Kinshasa. This photograpph was taken on o Novemberr 6, 2009 in memory m of my first visiit and homecooming after 31 years.

Figure 17-2 E Enjoying DRC Flag F and Leopaard Skin

Kinshasa, N November 6, 2009. Wrapped inn DRC National Flag and d sitting behinnd a leopard skin, an important naational symbool. In DRC an nd in Africa, tthe leopard sy ymbolizes

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power, strenngth, authorityy, and nobility. My grandfatther’s family name n was Gon, meaniing leopard inn the Ngbakaa language. D DRC’s nation nal soccer team is Les Léopards, orr the Leopards. The late Prresident Mobu utu loved wearing leoppard skin hatss. He was also o nicknamed ““The Old Leo opard,” or “Le Vieux Lééopard,” in Frrench.

Figure 17-3 N New Year 2010 Dinner in Kinsshasa

January 1, 22010 HAPPY NE EW YEAR! BONNE AN NNÉE! MOB BU MOLAM MU MWA SIKA! From left too right: Zekehh; Huguette Kotongo K (host)); Jean-Pierree Ngbaka, my cousin and Roman Catholic priest who passeed away in December D

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2013, RIP!; and Jean-Bossco Kotongo, another a cousinn of mine and d a lawyer in Kinshasa (host). My prrevious New Year’s Y celebraation in DRC had been in 1978.

Figure 17-4 A Memorable Christmas C Dinneer in My Homelland

Kinshasa, D December 24, 2009 2 Christmas E Eve Dinner wiith friends and d relatives cheez Mrs. and Dr. D Ntanda Nkere in Kinshasa, December D 24,, 2009. Myy previous Christmas C celebration iin DRC had been b in 1977, since s I left thee country in September 1978.

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Figure 17-5 V Visiting Friendss at the Universiité Catholique dde Kinshasa

Kinshasa, N November 2009 From left too right, unknown person; Dr. Georges Ndumba, deaan of the faculty of phhilosophy; Dr.. Gbotokuma; and Camille Iwewe Prior to leavving for Rom me in 1978, I took several eexaminations (1977 & 1978) at tthis Universiity, which was w called F Faculté de Théologie T Catholique dde Kinshasa. All A three of us attended Boolongo Minor Seminary and studied in Rome, Itaaly. Dr. Iwewee is professor of economics and Dr. Ndumba is tthe faculty of philosophy’s dean.

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Figure 17-6 C CDI-Bwamandaa Headquarters in Kinshasa

Dr. Jeannôtt Mokili (lefft), a Develo opment Progrram Director at CDIBwamanda – an International Develop pment NGO – and Zekeh (right) in the Cabin oof a Boat Beelonging to the t Organizattion. CDI haas greatly contributed to rural development of thee North and Soouth Ubangi Districts. D

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Figure 17-7 Z Zekeh (left) Shhakes Hands with and Thankss Mr. Goza of Hewabora Airlines (righht)

Kinshasa, D December 15, 2009 2 Mr. Goza played a crucial role in helping me obtaain a last-minute flight ticket from Gemena to Kinshasa K on December D 9, 22009, the day y I had to flee Gemenna due to the Dongo unrest. He alloweed me to fly with the promise to ppay in Kinshaasa. The purp pose of his vissit here was to t recoup the airfare, which I was unable to pay y due to circuumstances beeyond my control.

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Figure 17-8 K Kermesse Cultturelle de l'Uniité Nationale ett de la Paix (K KERCUN) 2009

Kinshasa, D December 23, 2009 2 At the heaadquarters off the Radio Télévision N Nationale Co ongolaise (RTNC), a T Traditional Daancer from Kivu Province ((middle) particcipates in a discussionn about his Proovince’s culturre at KERCUN N 2009.

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Figure 17-9 K KERCUN 2009: Equateur Day y

Kinshasa, D December 24, 2009 2 Traditional Dancers from m the Equateeur Province perform at KERCUN K 2009 at the RTNC. On thhis day, I was among the proovince’s special guests and I had thee opportunity to say a few words w in Linggala to the aud dience.

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Figure 17-10 RTNC Leaderss and KERCUN N 2009 Special G Guests

Kinshasa, D December 24 Zekeh (midddle, holding a bag), Stan nding Next tto Mr. Sango o Nabina (middle, baald), RTNC’s Administratiion Council President, an nd Other KERCUN D Distinguished Guests, Deceember 24, 20009 (Equateur Province Day). Mr. Saango and I speent one year to ogether at Bollongo High Scchool.

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Figure 17-11 Traditional Danncers at KERCU UN 2009

Kinshasa, D December 20099 Congolese T Traditional Daancers perform m during the KERCUN 20 009 at the RTNC Statioon in Kinshasa.

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Figure 17-12 Waving from RTNC R Radio Prrogram

Kinsasa, Deecember 27, 20009 Zekeh (left seated) and the t staff of th he RTNC Raadio Program.. I was a special guesst at the 1:00 p.m. radio program. I was interviewed about a my work and liffe in the USA A. The program m was conduc ucted in French h, DRC’s official langguage. RTNC C also sponsors programs conducted in n Lingala, Kikongo, Sw wahili, and Tshiluba, T DRC C’s national languages. I was also invited to participate in a program in Lingala. Unfo fortunately, I could c not make it due to a scheduling problem an nd my return to the USA in n January 2010.

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Figure 17-13 University of Kinshasa K Churcch

The Univerrsity of Kinshhasa, or Univversité de Kinnshasa (UNIK KIN) was established in 1954 as thhe University of Lovanium m due to its affiliation a with Belgiuum’s Catholic University of Leuven, or Université Catholique C de Louvain. It was considdered the bestt university inn Africa until it i became Université N Nationale du Zaïre Z (UNAZA A) in 1971 unnder Presidentt Mobutu. UNAZA connsisted of Uniiversity of Kisangani, Univversity of Lub bumbashi, and Universsity of Kinshassa. In the 2006-2007 academ mic year, UNIKIN had a student ennrollment of approx. 26,000; a faculty and research h staff of 1,530; and 110 academic divisions d know wn as facultiess. Science Shinees and so Motto: Scienntia Splendet Conscientia, in Latin, or S does Conscieence. Source: Wikipedia. Web W Site: www. w.unikin.cd (My y photo).

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Figure 17-14 UNIKIN Studeents Attend a Leecture from Ouutside the Lecturre Room

Kinshasa, N November 19, 2009. 2 On this day, I was arrested and questioned for aboutt an hour on th he ground that I took this photogrraph without authorizationn. In this photograph, Political Sccience studennts were atteending class from outsidee due to classroom oovercrowding. The campus police let mee go thanks to o a group of students’ intervention.

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Figure 17-15 Kinshasa Foodd Market

Kinshasa, N November 5, 2009 My cousin Pélagie buys food at Kalaamu Market, Kinshasa. Th he market was very cllose to homee. So I decideed to go withh her and ex xplore the neighborhoood on my thirdd day in Kinshasa. We bouught fresh fish h from the Congo River and deliciouus mangoes.

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Figure 17-16 Babysitting Tim me

Kinshasa, N November 7, 2009 Pélagie holdds her newborrn nephew Andy. In DRC/A Africa, it takess a village to babysit.

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Figure 17-177 Adam and Eve E Statue at Eden E Garden/JJardin d’Eden n A Statue Reppresenting Addam and Eve at a Jardin d’Edden/Eden Gard den A Beautiful Park and Touurist Site with h Bar and Resstaurant in thee Vicinity of Kinshasa.

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Figure 17-18 Giant Giraffe Statues S at the Jaardin d’Eden

November 66, 2009 Zekeh standds in the middlle of two gian nt giraffe statuues at the Jardiin d’Eden in the vicinitty of Kinshasaa.

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Figure 17-19 A Relaxing Ridde on the Nsele River

November 66, 2009 Zekeh and N Ntanda Enjoy a Canoe Ride on the Nselle River at Ng gandayala in the proxim mity of Jardinn d’Eden/Kinsh hasa.

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Figure 17-20 Dining at Kinsshasa’s Portugueese Restaurant

Kinshasa, Jaanuary 6, 20100 Last supper with Sango Nabina N at a Portuguese Resstaurant in Kiinshasa. I left Kinshassa the day afteer for the USA A via Brusselss, Belgium. Mr. M Sango and I attendeed Bolongo High H School. But B he left afteer a year and graduated g from anotheer school in the t Equateur Province. Hee was presideent of the RTNC’s adm ministration council, or Preesident du Coonseil d’Administration (PCA) and a high-rankingg official at DCR’s D Societee National d’E Electricite (SNEL)

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DR RC Mini Art Collection n

Figure 17-21 Obama Flipperrs Made in DRC C

Yes, We Cann! The Obam ma Phenomeno on is tangible worldwide an nd Kinois shoemakers understand itts commercial value. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII.

Figure 17-22 Hand-Made Baags and Flipperrs

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Figure 17-23 Congolese Fem male Sculpture and a Drum

Figure 17-24 Congolese Mask

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Figure 17-25 Giraffe Sculptuures

Figure 17-26 Congolese Painnting

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Figure 17-27 Firewood Bunddles

Most Congoolese and othher Africans rely on firew wood for coo oking and heating needds.

Figure 17-28 Healthy Papayya and Banana Trees T on Memissa’s Property, Gemena G

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Figure 17-29 Vodacom Monnument in Gemeena, Near the H Hôpital Général

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Figure 17-30 My Arrival at Gemena G Airporrt

Gemena, Noovember 25, 2009 2 Relatives weelcome and piick me up at th he Gemena A irport. From left too right: Marie Kotongo (ccousin); Zekeeh G.; Bertin Kotongo (cousin); annd Others. Thhe transportattion was couurtesy of Dr. Mbembo Nyamowalaa of MEMIS SA-Belgium, with whom m I studied in DRC (Bolongo annd Bamanya) and a in Rome, Italy.

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Figure 17-31 Dr. Mbembo Nyamowala’s N Reesidence at Gem mena-Based Meemisa

Dr. Nyamow wala and I went w to the same high schoool in Bolong go, DRC; same seminaries in Bamaanya for undeergraduate stuudy in philoso ophy; and in Rome, IItaly as sem minarians and theology stu tudents at Un niversitas Urbaniana. He returned to DRC with h his wife Paoola after theirr medical training at G Gemelli Catholic University y of Rome.

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W and His Children Visit Me in Gemenaa Figure 17-32 Uncle Hilaire Wanda

November 228, 2009 The visit cooincided withh the day wheen I got sick due to side effects e of Doxycyclinee. These malaaria prevention n pills were pprescribed forr me by a Passport Health nurse in Baltimore, B Maaryland (USA A).

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Figure 17-33 An Evening Gaathering in Gem mena

November 226, 2009 On my secoond day in Germena, G I meet with relativves and formeer middle school classsmates chez Bertin, a cousin n, 3rd person ffrom the left, standing. (Photo Courrtesy: Sua Moke, a nephew)).

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Figure 17-34 My Sick Day in Gemena and a Medical Friennd’s Care

November 228, 2009 This photoggraph represennts Dr. Nyamowala’s Mediccal Tools. Dizziness aand nausea were w the side effects of D Doxycycline. The pills belong to thhe Tetracyclinne family to which w I am alllergic. Dr. Ny yamowala advised me tto stop takingg them. I did an nd I felt betterr the day afterr.

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Figure 17-35 Drinking Water Solutions: Caanadian Pure annd Water Filter

Water Bottlees Imported from f Canada and Water Fiilter Recomm mended by the Baltimoore-Based Heealth Passporrt. I purchaseed Canadian Pure in Gemena for my trip too Karawa an nd Bogwabe.. They weree part of preventativee measures whherever potablle water were a problem.

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Figure 17-36 Gemena Taxim man

A Gemena taximan waitts for a custo omer in frontt of Capuchin ns’ Guest House. Heree, virtually all taxis are mottorcycles. Flatt rate for shortt distance was 500 Congolese Franccs (less than $1 $ or ca. 65 ceents). The Lin ngala sign on his motoorcycle reads, “BANGO NA A MALOBA, BISO NA MISALA,” M or They Talkk, We Act (woork).

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a Wife Figure 17-37 Meeting Mayuunga Masikini and

Gemena, Deecember 2009 From right to left: Zeekeh, Mayunga and his wife stand close to Gemenavillee’s church, whhich is admin nistered by Caapuchin missionaries. I attended middle and highh schools with h Mayunga’s elder brotherr, the late Roger Masikkini, who passsed away in Dallas, D Texas inn 2009.

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uchin Missionarries’ Residence Figure 17-38 Special Gatherring at the Capu

Gemena, Deecember 1, 2009 From left too right: Italiann Capuchin Fr. F Giuseppe; Zekeh; Mayu unga and Lillie Masikkini; unknownn person; and Pastor P Mossaii Sanguma. What W made this gatherinng special waas the presencce of Presidennt Kabila in th he city to deal with thhe Dongo uprrising. Many political and religious leaders held meetings at the residencee in preparatio on for an evenntual meeting g with the Congolese ppresident. In 2011, M Ms. Masikinni ran for, and a won a seat as dép putée or congresswom man in the DR RC Parliamen nt. In most couuntries, women are still under-repressented in poolitical leadership positioons and DRC is no exception. C Congratulationns to the new w deputée froom the North h Ubangi district and bbest wishes!

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Figure 17-39 Keeping the Coompany of Gem mena’s Capuchiin Missionaries

From rightt to left: Gemena Capu uchin Missionnaries Penzee, Kizito, unknown, aand Zekeh (E Early December 2009). I sspent ten days at their residence beefore heading to Karawa an nd Bogwabe.

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Figure 17-40 DRC Senator Prof. P. Nzegee Alaziambina ((left) Shakes Hands H with Dr. Zekeh Gbbotokuma

December 1, 2009 Both of us w were the Capuuchin Missionaaries’ Guests. The Senator was w there as part of the Equateurr Province’s politicians p prreparing for President Joseph Kabiila’s visit to deeal with the Dongo D uprisingg. Professor Nzege N is a former minister of educattion for Presid dent Mobutu’ss regime in thee 1980s.

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Figure 17-41 An Entertaininng Drumming Performance in G Gemena

December 1, 2009 Drumming, singing, andd dancing arre important parts of AL LASCO’s activities annd daily life inn DRC. ALASCO’s main ffocus is on HIV/AIDS H education.

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Figure 17-42 Institute for Ruural Promotion

CENTER FO OR COMPUT TER LITERA ACY IN COLL LABORATIO ON WITH THE CAPU UCIN BROTH HERS ORDER R OF DRC. The computer literacy center is alsoo part of Mem misa, directed by Dr. Nyamoowala and his wife.

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Figure 17-43 Bridging the Digital D Divide: Computer C Literaacy in Gemena

December 22009 Computer sttudents practicce in Memisaa’s Computer L Lab. The digital divide is a serious problem thatt affects deveelopment and people’s ben nefit from globalizationn. Small citiees like Gemeena and rurall areas’ accesss to ICT remains a biig problem.

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Figure 17-44 Gemena-Karaw wa Exit/Unpaveed Road

Figure 17-45 ALM Employeees Load a Trucck for a Trip

Gemena, Deecember 5, 2009 Mr. Kiale – ALM Chauffeeur – and his assistant a load a 4x4 Toyotaa truck for our journey from Gemenaa to Karawa, Bogwabe, B andd Gbadolite, December D 6, 2009. Thhis is the begiinning of the journey that ended with my m flight from Bogwaabe due the Doongo uprising g.

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Figure 17-46 First Dinner inn Karawa

December 55, 2009 – Mr. D. Bangabutu u (left), formeer Director off Karawabased SCIBE E, shares a dinnner with Zek keh in Karawaa.

Figure 17-47 Karawa Rond Point P

December 66, 2009 Zekeh and tthe late Bangaabutu at Karaw wa’s Roundabbout (Rond Po oint). Mr. Bangabutu ppassed away inn October 201 14. RIP!

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Figure 17-48 Family Gatheriing and Mourniing in Karawa

December 66, 2009 Family and friends gathher at the sitee of my fathher’s tomb in Karawa, December 66, 2009. He passed p away in July 2009.. Four years later, my mother was also buried heere. She passeed away on Deecember 21, 2013. 2

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Figure 17-49 Homecoming in i Bogwabe: A Truly Village A Affair

December 66, 2009 – Arrivval and first ev vening in Boggwabe Villagee.

Figure 17-50 Homecoming: “It Takes a Villlage…”

First Eveninng in Bogwabbe with My Late L Mother, R Relatives, etcc. Despite the lack of kknowledge abbout my exactt arrival date aand time, therre was no shortage of ppeople chantinng, dancing, and a welcomingg me. It was amazing. a

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Figure 17-51 Homecoming and a Police Visitt

From right tto left: the Laate Uncle Martin “Maréchall” (RIP!); Loccal Police Chief Kembbo, etc.

Figure 17-52 Homecoming and a High Schoo ol Students’ Vissit, December7,, 2009

Bogwabe H High School’s students and d teachers vissit me at my y parents’ home.

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Figure 17-53 Homecoming and a a Wake Up Visit

On December 8, 2009 at 5:00 5 a.m., Bog gwabe’s Red C Cross (Croix Rouge, R in French) mem mbers pay a suurprise visit to o me (Zekeh, third from the right). I was still asleep when theyy arrived. I caame out in paj ajamas and participated in this earlyy morning ritual. They chan nted slogans annd welcome songs s and continued onn their way too work. They were supposeed to come baack in the evening for a much biggger welcome celebration. c U Unfortunately, this was the day wheen I had to unnexpectedly flee f the villagge to hopefully catch a flight the neext day from Gemena G to Kin nshasa due to the Dongo up prising.

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Figure 17-54 Homecoming Breakfast B Time

Bogwabe, D December 7, 2009 2 – Getting g ready for m my first breakffast at my parents’ houuse in Bogwabbe Village.

Figure 17-55 Palm Trees in My M Parents’ Baackyard

These trees are much talleer than when I left three deccades ago.

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Figure 17-56 Homecoming: A Two-Person Meeting

At My Pareents’ House, an a elementary school princiipal prepares notes for me in a dessperate attemppt to seek fun nding for his unfunded scchool. We were unablee to finalize the t meeting because b of myy rushed depaarture for Bogwabe, w which was cauused by the Do ongo Uprisingg.

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Figure 17-57 Bogwabe Highh School Studen nts Learn Shakeespeare’s Langu uage

December 77, 2009 This school is one of the newly established and unfuunded or barelly funded schools. The material coonditions undeer which manny schools op perate are utterly depllorable. Thesee conditions are among tthe reasons why w high school graduuation rates are a frequently unsatisfactoryy. It is unbeliievable to realize that four decades ago I attendeed schools thaat were in mu uch better shape than thhis school. I wish w I could do d something tto help.

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Figure 17-58 English Instrucction at Bogwab be High Schooll

December 77, 2009 Zekeh watchhes an instructtor of English h who is writinng on the blackboard.

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Figure 17-59 Palm Wine Maaking in Bogwaabe Village

December 77, 2009 – Thiis is the mosst destructive methodology y of palm wine making, whereby thhey cut down the palm treee to avoid clim mbing. In the Ngbaka language, pallm wine is also known by ddifferent namees such as Guge, Makppanza, Kayolooma, etc.

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D in Boogwabe Figure 17-60 Ngbako: Tradittional Liquor Distillation

December 77, 2009 The liquor’ss name in the Ngbaka langu uage is Ngbakko. During thee colonial time and eveen soon thereafter, it was illlegal to distill and sell this liquor on the grounds that the alcohhol level was too t high and itt made peoplee “lazy.”

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Figure 17-611 Returning frrom a Tour of Bogwabe’s Palm Wine an nd Liquor Factories

December 77, 2009 From left too right: Uncle Antoine Bom mbo; Ngudingaa, a former ellementary schoolmate; Zekeh holdding a Ngbak ko bottle; annd of coursee, several villagers.

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Figure 17-62 Handmade Conntainer – MADE IN BOGWAB BE

Bogwabe, D December 7, 2009 – Nephew w Zekeh Mokke, a high scho ool senior (front), prouudly shows mee a huge hand d-made containner that he maade. He is surrounded by relatives, including his father Makaambo, second from the right, standiing; Sua Mokke (in white t-shirt), t etc. Z Zekeh Moke graduated g from high scchool in 2013. Congrats!

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Figure 17-63 Bobutu Elemenntary School Sttaff, Bobutu, Deecember 8, 200 09

Zekeh G. – fifth from thhe right – and Bobutu Eleementary Scho ool Staff, December 8, 2009. I was pleased to fin nd out that onee of the teach hers was a classmate oof mine from m Bominenge middle schoool. Believe it i or not, teaching conntinues to be one of the mo ost important career choicees. A high school diplooma is all one needs to be an a elementaryy school teach her, which would be aanathema for virtually all Western eduucational systeems. The quality of edducation at alll levels has deteriorated d soo much during g the past two decadess or so that radical r reform m is necessaryy. After fifty years of independencce, DRC shoulld no longer bee at the point w where even high school graduates are “qualified” to t teach other high school sstudents. This is exactly what happenns, especially in rural areass. And this is why in somee schools, very few hiigh school stuudents pass th he Examen d’’Etat, or the nationally n mandated finnal exams. Quuality educatio on at all levells is exactly what w DRC needs right now to solvee underdevelo opment probleems. Nationall political leadership shhould be fully aware of these problems annd act accordin ngly.

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Figure 17-64 Zekeh Speaks to t Bobutu Elem mentary School’’s Pupils and Sttaff.

On Tuesdayy, December 8, 2009, I talked t to studdents and teaachers of Bobutu’s Elementary Schhool for about ten minutes. The talk was supposed to be longerr than that. I abbreviated a my y talk becausee I was sudden nly urged to go back too Gemena thaat day and posssibly fly to K Kinshasa the next n day. I was told thhat the Dongoo insurgents were determ mined to take Gemena airport, therreby making it i difficult to leave the citty by plane. I told my hosts that I hhad to cut shoort my visit to o the school ddue to an emerrgency in Gemena. I ddid not give any a details beccause I didn’tt want to paniic them. I instructed m my trip managgers to give ad dditional detaails after my departure. d Bobutu is w where I did myy third and fou urth grade in thhe 1960s.

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Figure 17-655 Bobutu Elem mentary School: Where Have All the Brick Buildings Gone?

Pupils and tteachers from Bobutu’s elem mentary schoool waiting for my visit. When I attennded the thirdd and fourth grades g here in the ‘60s, two-thirds of the school bbuildings weree brick houses. Today, therre is not a sin ngle brick building. M My third and foourth grade teeachers were tthe late Ignacce Gelena and Mr. Anntoine Wongollo. Despite hiis age and shhaky health co onditions, Mr. Wongollo continues teeaching. This is because off the lack of retirement benefits forr most DRC employees. Those who happen to have such benefits tendd to go througgh some bureaaucratic probllems. These arre perfect examples off the many thinngs falling apart in DRC. M My late uncle Alphonse A Kotongo w was its origginal director/principal. T The United Nations Millennium Developmentt Goal numbeer 2 is “to achhieve universaal primary education.” To that end, special attenttion should bbe paid to thee learning environmentt, including buut not limited to school builldings.

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Figure 17-66 My D-Day One: Getting Read dy to Flee from m Bogwabe to Gemena G

“In fuga saluus” On Decembber 8, 2009, thhe Principal of o Bobutu’s E Elementary Scchool sent somebody w with this mottorcycle to pick p me up ffrom Bogwab be. I was invited to ggive a talk to t the schoo ol students annd teachers. After an abbreviated talk, I was rushed r to Bog gwabe to quicckly pack and d head to Gemena. Thhis predicameent was due to o the imminennt threat of th he Dongo rebels captuuring the cityy airport from m where I waas supposed to fly to Kinshasa. T The parked mootorcycle wass my plan B. The chauffeu ur was on his way.

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IV. Photograph P s from Afriica

Figure 17-67 African Map: Photo P Taken fro om a Congolesee Artist's Work

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Senegal / La République Du Sénégal Quick Facts Flag Colors: Green, Yellow, and Red National Anthem: Pincez Tous Vos Koras, Frappez les Balafons (Pluck Your Koras, Strike the Balafons) Population: 12,969,606 (2012 est.) Land Area: 196,190 sq. km or 75,749 sq. mi Capital: Dakar Official Language: French. Others: Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, Mandinka Currency: CFA Franc Head of State: Macky Sall (2012-) Religions: Islam (94%); Christianity (5%); Indigenous: 1% Literacy Rate: 40% (2003 est.) GDP per Capita: $1,500 Source: Fact Monster.com and National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition (GDP and literacy rate data) Note: Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906-2001) was the first president of Senegal. He was also a cofounder of the Negritude movement, along with the late Aimé Césaire of Martinique and the late Léon G. Damas of French Guyana.

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Figure 17-68 Zekeh Relaxes in the Backyard of Novotel, a Four-Star Hotel in Dakar, Senegal

June 13, 2002. The occasion was the second international symposium on “The Fieldwork in Africa,” 12-15 June 2002. It was organized by Boston University’s African Studies Program, in collaboration with West African Research Association (WARA). I presented a paper titled, “Globalization and Africa: A Wake Up Call for New Leadership, Movements, and Ideologies.” The trip to Dakar was my first return to Africa since leaving the continent in 1978.

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Figure 17-69 House of Slavees on Gorée Islaand, Senegal

June 17, 20002 Zekeh standds at the frontt door of the House H of Slavves, or La Maison Ma des Esclaves, inn French, Junne 16, 2002. The T visit tookk place soon after the WARA’s Seecond Sympossium on “Fielldwork in Afr frica,” Dakar, June 1215, 2002. My Englishh Translation of the seco ond sign/flyerr from the to op: “The Senegalese people have preserved thee original HO OUSE OF SLAVES. It reminds Afrricans of the faact that a part of themselvess had transited d through this sanctuarry.”

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Figure 17-70 The Door of No N Return/La Po orte du Non (Saans) Retour, Gorée Island

June 17, 20002 – Zekeh siits at the closeed “Door of N No Return.” This T is the back door oof the House of Slaves from which milllions of Africcans were loaded ontoo slave boats for the Transsatlantic Passaage. Gorée Issland is a UNESCO W World Heritagee Site. It is a 0.182 0 sq. km ((45 acre) islan nd located 2 kilometerss (1.2 miles) out o to sea from m the main harrbor of Dakar.. It has an estimated ppopulation of 1,056 (2005 5) Data sourcce: Wikipediaa. Before leaving the D Door of No Return, R I declarred, I WILL R RETURN.

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Figure 17-71 A Slave-Boat-llike House on Gorée G Island

June 17, 20002 Over three hhundred yearss, millions off African slavees were shipp ped to the Americas thhrough the Door of No Retu urn.

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Tanzania / T The United Republic R Of Tanzania T

Figure 17-72 Representationn of Slave Trad de and Conditioons in Zanzibarr, Tanzania June 22, 20022

Zanzibar is a 637 sq. mi. m (1,651 sq.. km) island located in th he Indian Ocean, 22 m miles (35 km m) off the coaast of east-ceentral Africa. In 1964, Zanzibar, toogether with Pemba Island d and some other smallerr islands, joined with Tanganyika on o the mainlaand to form thhe United Reepublic of Tanzania. A Arabs had thhe deepest in nfluence on Z Zanzibar, beccause the island’s possition made it i a perfect entrepôt e for A Arabs mountiing slave expeditions into Africa and a conducting g oceangoingg commerce. Tippo T Tip was the moost famous annd perhaps th he most poweerful of the Afro-Arab A slave traderrs. (Source: The T New Encyyclopædia Brritannica, Vol. 12, 15th Edition. Chiicago: Encycloopædia Britan nnica, Inc., 19 94, p. 896)

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Figure 17-73 IAABD Conference 2005 Parrticipants

Dar es Salaaam, Tanzania, April 6, 2005 5 Participants iin the Internattional Associattion of Africann Business Dev velopment (IAABD) Coonference, G. Tulip Hotel, Dar D es Salaam m, Tanzania, April A 6-9, 2005. Digniitaries and hossts include, am mong others, Prof. M. Luaanga, vice chancellor oof the University of Dar ess Salaam (cennter, 4th from m the left, sitting); H.E E. Jakaya Kikwete, K then n minister off foreign afffairs and currently preesident of the United Repub blic of Tanzannia since Deceember 21, 2005 (centerr, 5th form lefft, sitting).

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Figure 17-74 Zekeh (right) Shakes S Hands with w a Man in Z Zulu Warrior Drress

A South Afrrican man prouudly shows up p in his Zulu w warrior costum me – tiger skin – at thee South Africaan Freedom/N National Day P Picnic at the Black B Hill Regional Paark, Maryland,, USA, May 6, 6 2000.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN COMMEMORATING WORLD AIDS DAY IN GEMENA

AS I SAID EARLIER, WORLD AIDS DAY (JOURNÉE MONDIALE DU SIDA) EVENTS in Gemena were postponed due to President Kabila’s visit there. So December 3 was the day. At 9:00 a.m. several March organizers came to the parish residence to pick up the loudspeaker from Fr. Giuseppe, director of ALASCO – Association de Lutte Anti-Sida au Congo (Association for Anti-AIDS Combat in Congo). After a fifteen-minute rehearsal, we headed to Hôpital Général de Gemena, or Gemena General Hospital, the march departing point. Like a paparazzi, I was equipped with a digital camera and digital camcorder. We spent about forty-five minutes in front of the Hôpital Général, waiting for the march participants to show up. I photographed the gathering crowd and recorded elementary school pupils joyfully running from their neighboring school and singing, “SIDA! SIDA! Esila!” literally meaning, AIDS! AIDS! Be it ended! or No More AIDS! At 10:30 a.m. or so, there was enough of a crowd to start marching. Based on legible signs on display during the march, the event was cosponsored, among others, by ALASCO, CIC, CORAPHAR Sud Ubangi, Fondation SHEKINA ONGD Gemena, PNMLS/ASSI (Assistance Santé SIDA or Assistance Health AIDS),. Almost every Anti-AIDS organization had its slogan. For example, PNMLS/ASSI’s slogan was “Abstinence Fidélité Préservatif” or “Abstinence, Faithfulness, Prophylactics.” Participants included, beside the above mentioned organizations, city soldiers, elementary school pupils, a marching band, and a good segment of the Gemena population. The march began around 10:45 a.m. and ended around 3:00 p.m. Using a big loudspeaker, the march leading team invited everybody to participate in the event by repeating the following phrases, “JOURNÉE MONDIALE DU SIDA! BANSO TOKENDE DEFILÉ,” meaning World AIDS DAY! LET’S ALL GO MARCHING. We marched from the Hôpital Général to the Papa Movoto Soccer Stadium. There, we were joined by the city/district authorities. After singing Debout Congolais,

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the DRC Naational Anthem m, there were speeches s by thhe district adm ministrator and HIV/AIIDS patients gave g speechess, followed byy an HIV/AID DS-related educational play, which concluded c witth the distribuution of free condoms. c Some particcipants reluctaantly took the free condom ms. I wish the free gifts had been haandled with discretion. At th he end of the eevent, Father Giuseppe and I took ttaxicabs and rode toward PAROUSIA B Bar Restauran nt for the Post-March reception, which w was by invitation onnly. Pictures are a worth thousands of words. So please p refer to o the photograaphs section for fo further details abouut the marchh. Below aree some of thhe key speecches and testimonialss of the Day.

I. W World AIDS Day Speeeches and T Testimonial A. The Occasion O

Figure 18-1 JJMS Occasion Speech S

Sarah, an A AIDS patient and a provincial president off UCOP+, delivers the Occasion Sppeech during the JMS/WA AD march at Papa Movotto Soccer Stadium in Gemena, Deccember 3, 200 09. The originnal text was in n French,

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DRC’s official language. I obtained the text and permission to use it from Fr. Giuseppe, ALASCO’s director and one of the event’s organizers. Below is my English translation. On December 1, 2009, the whole world celebrated World AIDS Day, or Journée Mondiale du SIDA, in French. Its theme was, “Universal Access and Peoples’ Rights.” We thank all those who, in one way or another, have contributed to the organization of this day. We, the Congolese Union of Organizations and Persons Living with HIV, or UCOP+, seize this opportunity to encourage people who have access to ARV and who got out of clandestinity. We thank them for being organized as PVV associations to effectively fight against AIDS. Ladies, gentlemen, and distinguished guests, On this day, the United Nations decided to announce this year’s theme, i.e., “Universal Access and Peoples’ Rights.” This day’s theme is in agreement with our country’s commitment. It reflects the urgency of meeting the critical needs of defending human rights and allowing everybody to have access to the prevention, treatment, and cures of HIV. Unfortunately, despite the promulgation of Bill No. 008/011 of July 14, 2008 relative to the protection of PVVs and PAs, nothing has been done to vulgarize the bill and to reinforce its applicability, thereby allowing PVVs to enjoy their rights, to be confident, and to be treated like anybody else suffering from a treatable disease. That is why on this day celebrating World AIDS Day, our requests stress the bill’s vulgarization and application. It is our duty – all of us – to explain to our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, and children, the reality of AIDS. Because if we keep silent, this accomplice silence will condemn our whole district to the HIV/AIDS infection. Consequently, we, PPVs, mindful of our health condition, and out of clandestinity, we ask to be the best possible speakers in accordance with our motto, “Never for Us Without Us; Nothing for Us Without Our Rights, Including the ARVs in the Right to Health.” PPVs came out of clandestinity thanks to structures and organizations whose mission is to struggle against AIDS in our district and thanks to the above mentioned bill. These organizations include, for example, ALASCO, PEASIT, CORAPHAR, etc. United by the ideal and commitment to confront this disease, the UCOP+ of the South Ubangi District intends to improve the quality of life for its

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members throughout the district through advocacy, community and resource mobilization as well as capacity building. Ladies, Gentlemen, and Distinguished Guests, One has to be a PVV to understand the meaning of “positive life” [i.e., the life of AIDS patients].…Covered and protected by the law and no longer living in clandestinity, PVVs are now in charge of their lives. They have access to all structures and organizations, both domestic and international for their well-being. Yesterday, being a PPV was a handicap. Today, however, with the ARV, PVVs are now in charge of their health. They contribute to all the socio-economic activities of our district. Seropositivity is a condition under which one can live. It is similar to all other diseases such as cardiopathy, or heart disease, diabetes, and many other diseases. “Sero-ignorance is more dangerous than the condition of a person whose test result is positive or negative.” So we particularly thank the head of state for having promulgated the anti-discrimination law. Now we have accepted ourselves. We feel protected by Bill No. 08/011 of July 14, 2008, which protects the rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS and those who are infected with it. Today’s ceremony is a reminder to the authorities regarding their political commitments to the applicability of the law. People who are undergoing ARV treatment are healthy. We have duties toward third entities. We also have rights and we deserve these rights, namely, the right to life, right to health, and everybody’s access to prevention, treatments, and cures. Support services are a right and an imperative. We thank all local authorities and organizations who are committed to fighting AIDS under the aegis of PNMLS. Ladies, Gentlemen, and Distinguished Guests, The Congolese Union of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS of South Ubangi encourages the Association of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (APVVLS), all Opérateurs d’Appui-Conseil (OAC) to work harder in order to constitute the true barrier between HIV and the community. Let us work to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, and psychological and economic support. Let us work to achieve peoples’ rights. Let us work against stigmatization and discrimination. May God bless DRC! May God bless the Equateur Province!

Commemorating World AIDS Day in Gemena May God bless the South Ubangi District! May God bless the UCOP+ ! Thank you!

B. JMS Speech 2 By the Local Coordinator of South Ubangi’s PNMLS Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, First and foremost, I would like to thank you all for attending this gathering despite your other duties On this solemn day, we are honored to address you at this great moment, which marks the beginning of the World AIDS Day 2009 ceremonies in our District. Ladies and Gentlemen, The PNMLS was created by presidential decree No. 04/029 of March 17, 2004. It was established here in our district in March 2009. This coordination – just like all others in DRC – must follow the guiding principle of Three One, that is, it must apply the only and unique national strategic plan through one single unity of coordination and everything through a single follow-up and evaluation frame. This means that everybody and all structures must be aligned behind PNMLS, if they don’t want to risk being marginalized, or operate illegally and be penalized. The commitment declaration is consistent with the World Campaign Against AIDS. Its goal is to stimulate and sustain a concrete and lasting response to the AIDS epidemic. That’s why in 2006, DRC subscribed to the campaign aiming to ensure “universal access to prevention, care, and treatments of HIV.” That campaign also resulted in the elaboration of a road map. The theme of the 2009 World AIDS Day is, “Universal Access and Persons’ Rights.” It is intended to stress the importance of understanding HIV/AIDS and its relationship to human rights. Everybody’s access to prevention, treatments, cure, and support services is an imperative human right.

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Chapter Eighteen I would like to praise the efforts made by H.E. Joseph Kabila Kabange, the DRC president, for taking the lifesaving initiative of letting DRC join the great mass, i.e., the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS. To Mr. Dede Watshiba, the PNMLS national coordinator, who makes a lot of sacrifices to lead the program, we want to reassure him of our performance. We also want to stress the commitment of the provincial coordinator of PNMLS/Equateur, Mr. Marcel Eke, whose efforts have resulted in the establishment of this coordination. The whole local coordination of PNMLS South Ubangi is grateful to the South Ubangi district commissioner (Commissaire, in French), to his assistant, and to the administrator of Gemena Territory. All of them have greatly assisted the coordination since its establishment here. […]. So, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to solicit from all of you an unconditional commitment to fight HIV/AIDS. I urge the local community to appropriate this fight. Today, with everybody’s contribution and consent, I am committed to promoting the following anti-AIDS campaign. From the next week on, all South Ubangi schools will use ten minutes of their class time every day to teach about HIV/AIDS. We will do whatever we can to succeed in our big campaign to raise public awareness about this issue. This campaign will allow us to [hopefully] avoid new HIV/AIDS infections. Moreover, we must take action and effectively fight against a phenomenon that is harmful to youth, i.e., movie theaters that show pornographic films all day long to audiences regardless of their age. We should know that the challenges are enormous and that we must commit great financial sums. In other words, funds must be allocated and all of us must first and foremost count on our own financial resources before asking for foreign aid. This month we will principally reflect on the magnitude of the pandemic in our district, the means available to fight it, and Ubangi’s socio-cultural realities. According to statistics published by the WHO in 2007: 32.2 million persons worldwide live with HIV About 2.5 million persons have the virus primo-infections 2.1 million persons have died of AIDS

Commemorating World AIDS Day in Gemena Almost one-third of primo-infections and deaths occurred in eight subSaharan African countries. We need to find ways and means of halting the pandemic in order to leave a better future to our children. There is a GREEN LINE telephone. It’s free. You can call and ask HIV/AIDS-related questions to counsellors who are available 24/7. About the Multisectorial Local Council on the Fight Against AIDS Its general objective is to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and its impact on the community. Its specific objectives are: To sensitize the government to the necessity of applying [enforcing] different laws protecting persons living with HIV against discrimination as well as laws relative to gender inequalities and sexual violence against women. To promote the fight against HIV/AIDS in order to guarantee universal access to prevention, treatment, and care of HIV/AIDS, and to obtain a general strategic result. State institutions – the presidency of the republic, parliament, government, and the judiciary – and specialized organs are concerned with the applicability of these laws in the following ways: The government is committed to ensuring the applicability of the laws. The judges and lawyers are sensitized to ensure that these laws are respected. The community is sensitized The parliamentarians are committed to vulgarizing these laws Persons living with the virus (PVV, in French) know their rights and duties. Special groups are sensitized. Ladies and gentlemen, let us all be committed here, now, and forever. Long life to the South Ubangi District! (Vive le District du Sud Ubangi!) Long life to JMS! (Vive la Journée Mondiale du SIDA!)

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Vive le PNMLS!)) Thank you! (JJe vous remerciie!)1 Long life to PNMLS! (V

C. JMS Tesstimonial

Figure 18-2 JJMS Testimoniaal

Hubert – ann AIDS Patiennt, Holding a Microphone M – Gives a Perssonal and Courageous Testimonial During the JM MS March att Papa Movotto Soccer Stadium in G Gemena, Deceember 3, 2009 9. Testimoniall about My Seropositive S Life L at the Paapa Movoto Stadium, S by Hubert T Togba Preamblee It was neecessary that inn my own word ds, I tell my coommunity som mething about myy serological staatus. The purpo ose is to fight aagainst the HIVV-AIDS 1

I obtained thhe original French text and peermission to usse it from the Capucin C Fr. Giuseppe, AL LASCO’s direcctor and one of o the event’s organizers. Th he English translation is mine.

Commemorating World AIDS Day in Gemena discovered in my blood after a voluntary test in September 2009 at the CDV (Centre de Dépistage Volontaire, [or Voluntary Test Center]) of the Programme Evangélique Anti-Sida Tomibatela [the Anti-AIDS Evangelical Program known as Tomibatela] (PEASIT), run by the ECC-17th CECU in Gemena, District of South-Ubangi. My strong will to live and to still be useful to my family, to the community, and even to humankind led me to reveal my seropositive status and its management [gestion, in French]. My disclosure could help not only people with whom I share the same serological status, but also those who don’t know it yet! My name is Mr. Hubert TOGBA. I was born in Bokonzi on May 20, 1959. I am the son of Mr. Egide MONGBELENGA and Mrs. Bernadette NYANZEKO. I am from the Lobondo II village, Bokonzi Groupement, Sector of Bomboma, Territory of Kungu, District of South-Ubangi, Province of Equateur, Democratic Republic of the Congo. I hold a diploma in social science followed by one year of law school [1er Graduat en Droit, or G1 in French]. I am an employee of the ministry of foreign trade, in the Equateur provincial division. I am in charge of local and borders commercial cooperation. I am divorced because of my serological status and I am father of a large family. It took me some time before making a decision. I had to think about it from September to November 2009. I finally decided to testify on December 3, 2009. Usually World AIDS Day is celebrated every year on December 1t. But in 2009, the event was moved to December 3 in Gemena because of the presence of the head of the state in our city. The PNMLS [Programme National Multi-Sectoriel de Lutte Contre le Sida, or the Anti-AIDS MultiSectorial National Program] and the UCOP+ (l'Union Congolaise de Personnes vivant avec le VIH, or the Congolese Union of Persons Living with HIV] had to reschedule the ceremony commemorating the event for December 3, 2009. I intend to achieve two objectives through my testimonial. First Objective: To produce a psychological effect on myself and on other PVVIH or persons living with HIV. Effect on Myself I said to myself that many people are dead also because of this worry of being sero-positive. But once everybody was informed about my condition, not only did it have a positive healing effect on my psychosis, but it also had a beneficial impact on the PVVIH community. From a sexual

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viewpoint, that public knowledge of my health condition would keep me away from women. Lastly, as a courageous act, since nobody else did it before me, it would push NGOs and anti-AIDS associations to open their doors to me so that together we fight against this pandemic throughout the world. Effect on Others I also thought that this testimonial would put an end to the taboo and the shame that seropositive people experience in our community. Stigmatization is the PVVIH’s number one deadly enemy. After seeing me and hearing my voice here and/or through our city’s mass media, my fellow PVVIHs will no longer be ashamed of their condition and hopefully, the community will no longer stigmatize them. I hope that the impression of well-being resulting from my testimony will also stimulate the PVVIHs to overcome their condition, to gain social acceptance, and to realize that their situation is not hopeless if we compare it with other diseases. I also believed that my testimonial would lead sero-ignorants to have the courage to get themselves tested, thereby knowing their health condition. This is the best possible way to effectively deal with the progression and the propagation of HIV-AIDS in our South-Ubangi District. I once again said this to myself: Humans live in a disease-stricken world. Leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, etc….were once believed to be incurable diseases. But today they are treatable diseases. However, they are also seen as dangerous, because they kill! We must fear HIV-AIDS, but PVVIHs shouldn’t lose hope. Since science evolves with time and space, I believe that HIV-AIDS will have its cure very soon. So I have to testify in order to sow hope and encourage PVVIHs to keep hoping, because as an old saying puts it, “Hope allows us to live,” [l'espoir fait vivre, in French]. So on this December 3, 2009, at the Papa Movoto Stadium of Gemena, in the presence of more than 1,500 people, and for the first time in the history of AIDS in our district, represented by political and administrative authorities, the army, the police, and the anti-AIDS NGOs [ONGD], I publicly testify as follows: I believe that the time has come for us to testify on HIV-AIDS in humans here in Gemena. Otherwise World AIDS Day will not mean anything. That’s why I am now going to testify on my seropositive condition.

Commemorating World AIDS Day in Gemena [Once again] My name is Mr. Hubert TOGBA. […]. I am an employee at the ministry of foreign trade in the provincial division of Equateur from which I have received numerous assignments in different places. I think this situation has contributed to my current health condition and my divorce with my wife. Because I have been given assignments in many territories and sectors of our Equateur Province, I had to leave my wife behind to take care of our children’s schooling. During those times I had sexual relations with female partners without using condoms. When I was a Congolese refugee in Bétou (Congo-Brazzaville), I worked as a community health agent [or Agent de Santé Communautaire (ASC), in French] for the IRC (International Rescue Committee), in its Preventative Health Program. The purpose of the program was to sensitize the population about infectious diseases such as HIV-AIDS, etc. I remember receiving from IRC T-shirts with the following slogan, “HALT, HIV-AIDS! AIDS WILL NOT GO THROUGH ME” [HALTE AU VIH-SIDA, LE SIDA NE PASSERA PAS PAR MOI, in French] Unfortunately, today I inform you that I have the AIDS virus in my blood. How did I know it? When the provincial government for which I work decided, once again, to assign me in Gemena, on a certain Friday in August 2009, two staff members – one man and one woman – from ALASCO [Association de Lutte Anti-Sida au Congo], came during the Flag Waving [Salut au Drapeau, in French] to sensitize state employees regarding HIVAIDS, how it is spread, and how to prevent it. It reminded me of my previous work with IRC. I was eager to know my serological or HIV status. So I decided to take a blood test at the CDV of PEASIT/ECC-I7th CECU in Libenge-Moke, near Gemena. That’s where I met Rev Pastor Deolo Tonga, the PEASIT coordinator, with whom I started the counselling process, including pre-counselling and post-counselling. Prior to this test, I was determined to take the blood test. But it was precisely during the time when I was waiting for the test result that I almost lost courage. Fortunately, Rev. Pastor Deolo – with a great deal of sincerity and tact – managed to reassure me. His questions during our dialogue helped me to accept the sad test result. Dear brothers and sisters of Gemena and South-Ubangi District, I had to answer many questions regarding the cause of my HIV-AIDS infection. For example, who was that woman? […]. How should I behave now vis-àvis my family, my community and our Almighty Lord? How will my family members see me? I acknowledged my responsibility in this predicament.

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Chapter Eighteen Then the most important question came to my mind, that is, what should I do to stop HIV-AIDS propagation in my district, in my country, DRC, and on planet earth? After these tormenting questions, I decided to inform all of you who are here now that I am seropositive and thanks to the free ARV that our government gives to us, and thanks to the counselling from the medical doctor assigned to me by the PNMLS, I will have a long life, thereby being useful to my family, my community, and the humankind to which I belong. Two weeks after I started taking ARV, I gained some weight. Before taking ARV I weighed 49 Kg [= 108.0254 lbs.] and now I weigh 65 Kg [=132.99 lbs.]. I exhort my family members and all my acquaintances to refrain from abandoning me. It is my love for them that led me to testify today. I need all of you! PVVIHs need assistance from all of you! Follow my example. Go and take the blood test. Know your condition in order to avoid the HIV infection or to avoid infecting other people. Remaining sero-ignorant is more dangerous than knowing your condition. My last word to all of you is that I need your support to live and to stop this pandemic. May all people of good will do something for PVVIHs throughout the world. Your action will stop AIDS. I believe in a future generation without AIDS. That is my full testimonial on my seropositive life. I thank you for your attention.2

II. More About AIDS HIV/AIDS: Facts, Questions and Suggestions What I Know About AIDS [Ce que je sais du SIDA] AIDS exists [Le SIDA existe] We live with HIV-positive persons and with those who suffer from AIDS, often without even knowing it [Nous vivons avec des personnes qui portent le VIH et avec ceux qui sont malades du SIDA, souvent sans le savoir] AIDS is a deadly illness. AIDS kills. [Le SIDA est une maladie mortelle. Le SIDA tue]. 2

I obtained the original French text and the permission to use it from the author himself through Dr. Jacques Kongawi’s of ALM. He sent it to me through email attachments. Hubert was excited by my request and willingness to share his public testimonial with my readers. The English translation is mine.

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Everybody can get AIDS [Le SIDA peut attraper tout le monde]. How is AIDS transmitted? [Comment le SIDA se transmet-il?] At the barbershop. ATTENTION! Change razor for every customer [Chez le coiffeur. ATTENTION! Pour chaque client, changez de lame] LET US ALL SAY NO TO AIDS [DISONS TOUS NON AU SIDA] AIDS comes neither from God, nor from witches [Le SIDA ne vient pas de Dieu, ni des sorciers] How to live with infected persons [Comment vivre avec les personnes infectées] Let us avoid discriminating against and stigmatizing persons living with HIV [Evitons la discrimination et la stigmatization des personnes vivant avec le VIH] SOURCE: Ministère de l’EPSP – JAPON UNICEF (The English translation and table are mine) [Facts About HIV/AIDS]

Table 18-1 HIV/AIDS: Facts, Questions and Suggestions

III. DRC’s AIDS Fact Sheet General Indicators, Figure or Estimation Source Percentage of population living on less than 1USD/day: n/a (Human Development Report, 2005) Corruption perception index: 2.3 (Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2005) Total expenditure on health as percentage of GDP (2003): 4% (WHO, The World Health Report 2006) Per capita total expenditure on health (USD) (2003): 4 (WHO, The World Health Report 2006) Physicians per 100,000 people (2004): 11 (WHO, The World Health Report 2006) PLWHA in need of ARV treatment (estimation): 209,000 (WHO 3 by 5 Progress Report, 2006) PLWHA under ARV treatment (public and private sector): 7000-8,500 (WHO 3 by 5 Progress Report, 2006) Antiretroviral therapy coverage: 4% (WHO 3 by 5 Progress Report, 2006) Policy on financial participation by patients, in general: In the DRC, there is a cost recovery policy for all health services.

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AIDS in the Public Sector (as of February 2007) Policy on financial participation: for HIV/AIDS, not yet established. First line regimen medicines: availability and price range to be paid by patient/month First line regimen drugs cost between 28-30 USD. Second line regimen medicines: availability and price range to be paid by patient/month Monthly Cost of Over 300 USD for the Drugs. Laboratory controls: cost to be paid by patient CD4 count: about 2,600 CDF (= 5 USD) Viral load: about 5,200 CDF (=10 USD) HIV test: about 2,600 CDF (=5 USD) Medical Follow up: Availability and Price to Be Paid by Patient/Month Consultation: 4,500-5,200 CDF (=10-12 USD) Hospitalization: minimum daily cost is 6,500 CDF (=15 USD) at General Hospital of Kinshasa. Source: Medecins Sans Frontières, February 2007

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IV. Photoographs froom World AIDS A Day 2009 in Geemena, DRC C

Figure 18-3 A ALASCO

Association de Lutte Anti-SSida au Congo,, or Associationn for the Anti-A AIDS Fight in the Congo

Figure 18-4 T TOMIBATELA

“TOMIBAT TELA” or Let’’s Protect Oursselves (Againnst AIDS). This is an aanti-HIV/AID DS sign made by the Conggo’s Associatio on of the Anti-AIDS ccampaign.

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Figure 18-5 C CE QUE JE SA AIS DU SIDA

Teaching M Material from World AIDS S Day 2006: Reads, amo ong other things, CE QUE JE SAIIS DU SIDA (in French),, or WHAT I KNOW ABOUT AID DS AIDS Exists. We live with people p who are sero-positive, eetc.

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LE SIDA TUE Figure 18-6 L

Le SIDA est une maladie mortelle (AID DS is a terminaal disease) AIDS KILL LS. It is sufficcient to look at the personns who are inffected by AIDS to seee its impact onn the community.

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Figure 18-7 W World AIDS Daay March 2009 in i Gemena

December 3, 2009 Participants in World AID DS Day Marcch (WAD), orr Défilé de la a Journée Mondiale duu SIDA (JMS)), in French, gather g in frontt of Gemena’ss General Hospital. Thhis event was postponed fro om Decemberr 1 to Decemb ber 3 due to Presidentt Joseph Kabbila’s visit to the town to deal with th he Dongo uprising.

Commem morating World AIDS A Day in G Gemena

ASSI SUD-UBA ANGI Figure 18-8 A

ASSI – Assiistance Santé Sida or Assisttance Health, A AIDS Motto: ABS STINENCE, FIDELITY, PR ROTECTION

Figure 18-9 T Two Women Caarry an ALASCO O Sign.

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Figure 18-10 A Policeman Secures Order att JMS March

A Policemann from Gemeena City secures law and oorder during the t WAD March.

Figure 18-11 DRC Armed Foorces Reinforcee Maximum Seccurity at JMS

Gemena-Based DRC Arm med Forces Paarticipate in W WAD/JMS Maarch. The reinforcemeent of securityy during this event e was duee, among otheer things, to the perceeived threat from f the Don ngo uprising. Gemena Airrport was believed to bbe the rebels’ main target.

Commem morating World AIDS A Day in G Gemena

Figure 18-12 Two Men Carrry an AIDS “Sen nsibilisation” S Sign.

Figure 18-13 Two Women Carry C a CORAPHAR Sign

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Figure 18-14 JMS Participannts at Papa Mov voto Soccer Staadium

As one cann see, maintennance is a major m problem m in most parrts of the country. Thiis stadium shoould be in mucch better shappe. Mr. Movoto was the most powerful military leeader in Gemena. He was aalso well con nnected to political leadders, esp. to his h brother, thee late Presidennt Mobutu.

Figure 18-15 JMS March Taakes Place on a Barely Coveredd Stadium

The stadium m is losing evven its grass. This conditiion makes thee dust an unhealthy annd unpleasantt part of the sp ports events thhat take place here. It is a problem thhat can be easily solved. Bu ut apparently nnobody cares.

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Figure 18-16 Two Women Carry C a CIC Sign n

Figure 18-17 Gemena Trum mpet Players and d Other Musiciians Take a Breeak during the JMS Marcch at Papa Movvoto Soccer Stadium

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Figure 18-18 A Woman Carrries a Huge Con ndom Pack at thhe JMS March.

A female paarticipant carrries a USA-m made condom ppack on her head. h The lifesaving coondoms were freely distribu uted to JMS pparticipants. Itt is sad to note that sex and HIV/A AIDS taboos caused c some ppeople to refu use, or to only reluctaantly take thee condoms. I would like to draw my y readers’ attention to Gemena wom men’s active paarticipation inn the JMS Marrch 2009. Apart from the march’ss security and d entertainmeent roles, wh hich were mostly handdled by men, virtually all March signs and the cond dom pack were carriedd by women. Maybe thing gs were done differently during d the previous yeaar’s event. I commend c Gem mena womenn for their com mmitment in the dauntting task of deealing with an nd bringing uunder control the t AIDS epidemic. U Unfortunately, in AIDS-striccken parts of the world, women are disproportioonately infecteed. Consequeently, it will ttake a strong army of proactive w women to win this fight. Bu ut men shouldd not just sit back and watch. Afteer all, men have h sex, too.. More imporrtantly some of these women are our sisters, coousins, niecess, mothers, auunts, girlfriend ds, wives, employees, coworkers, boosses, classmaates, etc. Accoording to the UNAIDS July 2014 G Gap Report, Sub-Saharan S Africa A continuues to claim the t lion’s share of AIIDS cases, thhat is “24.7 million m [23.5 million-26.1 million] people” outt of an estiimated 35 million m peoplee infected worldwide w (www.unaidds.org). Moreoover, the report lists DRC aamong six nations that “are being lleft behind annd facing the triple t threat oof high HIV burden…” b That’s a big wake up call and a reason for immediatee action.

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Figure 18-19 ALASCO’s AIDS Education Sign S

This HIV/A AIDS Education Sign in Lingala L Says, “Eating and working with a seroopositive perrson does no ot cause AID DS; but onlly sexual intercourse bbetween a maan and a womaan does.” (AL LASCO)

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Figure 18-20 Post-JMS Marcch Ride

Zekeh cheerrfully waves at a the end of the ride from m the Gemenaa Football Stadium to Parousia Reestaurant, thee venue of tthe post JMS March reception. Au revoir! G Good bye! Hassta la vista! Ngemba oyee! Oye! May God blless our brotheers and sisterss who are seroo-positive. May the inteernational com mmunity takee the necessaryy measures to o prevent, cure, and resscue humankiind from the HIV/AIDS H panndemic.

CHAPTER NINETEEN DONGO UPRISING AND FLEEING FROM MY VILLAGE TO KINSHASA

I. Leaving Gemena for Karawa (KW) and Bogwabe Village WE’D PLANNED ON LEAVING GEMENA ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2009 by 12:00 noon, but we left around 6:00 p.m. The ALM’s 4x4 Toyota pickup truck was fully packed with medical supplies for delivery in Gbadolite, the capital city of the North Ubangi district, in the northern part of the Equateur province. When the chauffeur came to pick me up from the parish residence, he spent at least thirty minutes as he tried to make room for my three-piece luggage set. We made a quick stop to pick up several passengers, including my cousin Bertin and other persons. Bertin took some days off to travel with me and make certain that things were a little easier. He brought his hunting rifle, but he didn’t kill anything. There were seven passengers in the two-cabin vehicle, including a child. I thought that was too much, but it was pretty normal in DRC, where transportation conditions are very difficult. As soon as we exited Gemena, we had to make a U-turn. The chauffeur had forgotten a travel refrigerator that he was supposed to take to Gbadolite so that he could bring fresh fish from there. After getting the forgotten refrigerator, we drove nonstop to KW. The road was dusty, unpaved but in relatively good condition due to recent road works done by the Bwamanda-based Center for Integral Development, or Centre de Développement Intégral (CDI-Bwamanda).1 1

CDI Bwamanda is the Congolese branch of CDI Belgium. It is an international development NGO established in 1969. Its purpose is to improve the quality of life in rural regions of the South (DRC and Benin). Its projects are funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation and the European Commission. CDI Bwamanda projects in agriculture, health, education, and road maintenance serve about 800,000 people. For additional information, please go to: http://www.donorinfo.be/fr/organisaties/organization/detail/detail/37

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The dustiness of the road was visible on the luggage and on passengers’ heads, especially those who were not sitting in the cabins. We arrived in KW at 9:00 p.m. and we spent the night there. I had dinner with SCIBE’s retired director Mr. Bangabutu and his family and spent the night there. Bertin and another passenger spent the night at my nephew’s house, about 5 blocks away. I don’t know where other passengers spent the night. But they all had their own KW connections.

A. Emotional Family Gathering in Karawa Sunday, December 6, 2009 At 8:00 A.M., we had breakfast and soon thereafter I was told that there was a visitor outside. I asked what her name was. Charlotte, Mr. Bangabutu said. Oh yes, that’s my aunt from my grandfather Jules’ second marriage. In the 1950s and 1960s, my grandparents moved to KW, where my grandfather worked as a Magazinier, or salesman and shop manager for a Portuguese company. Back then, that was a very prestigious position. My grandfather never returned to Bogwabe, his village, after his retirement. He divorced his first wife, or grand-mother Lucie Nyamale. Instead, he moved to Bosele, his new wife’s village, where he had a tiny coffee plantation. The village is located about ten miles from KW. Charlotte came in and gave me a big hug. We had our pictures taken; we sat down and talked for about thirty minutes. I gave her some money and I told her we would meet again later at my father’s tomb. Before going to the tomb, Mr. Bangabutu wanted to show me his retirement place. We rode together there on his big motorcycle. It was a nice farm with cows, an orchard, a fishery, and a new house. He told me he was not in a hurry to move out of SCIBE’s mansion-like residence because the company owed him back pay. It’s worth noting that in DRC, back pay and/or unpaid salaries are amongst the common problems which, by the way, have a negative impact on productivity and the country’s economy. This situation was also complicated by the death of his boss, Sen. Bemba Saolona, in July 2009. In the neighborhood of the farm, there was also a private elementary school, founded by Mr. Bangabutu. I didn’t have the opportunity to meet with the pupils because it was Sunday. From the farm we continued our ride toward my half-brother’s house located across Libala River. That’s where my father is buried, right next to the house. This is a very common practice in DRC, especially in rural areas. Many people prefer to bury their relatives as close as possible to their houses. When I arrived, several relatives were waiting for me there,

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including Sebastien Bamo (Seba), my elder half-brother who moved there from Bogwabe; Sua Moke, Seba’s older son and the family’s designated photographer; my ailing elder half-sister Francisca Saboko; aunt Charlotte – whom I had met earlier in the morning – and her husband Onombili, a retired elementary school teacher, who had a coffee plantation; Alphonse Ngbako, an elementary school teacher in Gbosasa parish who is married to another aunt of mine; Zeke Moke, a cousin’s son and a Gbosasa High School senior; uncle Timothé, who moved from Bogwabe village to the KW area a long time ago; and Bertin, who took a leave of absence from his job in Gemena to accompany me. After greeting everybody I went to my father’s tomb, which was very close to my brother’s house. I stood there in silence fighting back tears. I was surrounded by relatives and friends. My sad and teary look was a catalyst for more tears around me. Then we sat down and talked. We took some group pictures. I watched nephews repairing a bicycle, probably a flat tire. Flat tires are frequent occurrences. This is due to the bad road conditions as well as overloads. For most people in the rural areas, bicycles are the only and the most important means of transportation. Dr. Gado of the Karawa Hospital joined us soon after lunch. I went to the Catholic Middle School of Bominenge with two of his older brothers. He was the physician who treated my father at the Karawa Hospital. This is the only medical center serving thousands of people. In the good old days – 1960s and 1970s – KW Hospital used to be a very good medical facility, especially when it was under American missionaries’ administration. Unfortunately, conditions have dramatically deteriorated since their departure. Patients travel there from many neighboring villages. Very often they are taken there only when they are very sick and/or moribund and traditional medicine has failed. Believe it or not, medical ambulances are non-existent. People who can afford it may have their patients transported aboard a truck, usually full of merchandise and other passengers. Motorcycles and bicycles are also used to transport patients. Many others walk, if they can, or they are carried on stretchers by friends and relatives. Sometimes it takes several days of walking under a hot tropical sun to get to the hospital. Under these circumstances, of course, dehydration and exhaustion aggravate patients’ conditions.

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B. Leaving Karawa for Bogwabe via Gbosasa Parish: Memories from Elementary School Days After lunch I met with my brother Sebastien and my sister Francisca. That was going to be our last meeting together. But we didn’t know. Francisca had ten children and has been very sick for some time. I couldn’t recognize her at all. She had AIDS. She probably contracted it from her late husband, who died of the disease several years earlier. I gave them some money and we left KW in the afternoon for Bogwabe with one additional passenger, my nephew Sua Moke. I thought there was no more room for anything in the truck. But the chauffeur managed to accommodate him. The road conditions between KW and Bogwabe were very bad and so the ride took much longer than it should, i.e., four hours or so, including two quick stops. Bogwabe is only about 25 miles from KW. CDIBwamanda road works didn’t go beyond KW, probably because of funding limitations. Forty years ago there used to be cantonniers or road workers paid by the Territoire de Businga, or local government. They took good care of the roads. That profession doesn’t exist any longer. What’s more, villagers used to have a designated day of the week, usually Saturday, also known as the Salongo day, for public works, usually for road and bridge maintenance. I am afraid that policy was gone. There also used to be an Office de Route, a state-funded program specializing in road construction and maintenance. That was also gone. The Office de Route’s mismanagement led Congolese to jokingly refer to it as “Office dérouté,” or “deviated office.” In DRC many things have fallen apart due to a systemic dysfunction, corruption, lack of exemplary leadership, and a lost sense of common good. With reference to road maintenance, for example, equipment maintenance and replacement remain big problems. Fund embezzlement is a common practice. During the ride, whenever it was not safe to keep passengers aboard, especially on erosion-stricken and slippery portions of the road, the chauffeur stopped and asked everybody to get off and walk. He would drive under the guidance of his assistant, making sure he didn’t end up in a ditch. Then everybody would get in the vehicle again when it was safe, applauding and thanking the chauffeur for a good job. We arrived in Gbosasa around 5:00 p.m. We made a quick stop to briefly talk to Christine, my other half-sister and the mother of five children. She moved to Gbosasa with her late husband who was a tailor. He passed away in 2009, the same year as my father. I also talked to two Congolese Catholic priests, who took over after

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Belgian missionaries left the Gbosasa parish in the 1980s. I photographed the parish church and elementary school buildings. The church was still in good condition, at least from the outside. I attended the fifth and sixth grades in Gbosasa. I photographed the three-classroom building that housed the 5th-A, 5th-B, and 6th grades. It used to be the best building and it had electricity. Well, not anymore. The roof and windows have been in bad shape for some time. They are fixable, but nobody seems to care. Belgian missionaries and the Budjala diocese used to take care of those things. The diocese and Congolese priests who took over don’t have the necessary financial resources to keep the parish and school in good conditions. Of course, and unfortunately, the DRC government, which has been struggling to pay teachers decent and regular wages, was very unlikely to be concerned with repairing school buildings, especially in rural areas. In the past, Gbosasa Catholic Elementary School was a boarding school, especially for pupils who were not from Gbosasa and the immediate vicinity. Dorms had neither electricity, nor kitchens, nor refrigerators, nor running water, nor regular meal plans. When I attended that school several decades before, we – i.e., 5th and 6th graders – were in charge of cooking our own meals and preserving them. We fetched water and firewood. We usually cooked outside the dorms, except when it rained. We were organized in groups of three to five for the purpose of sharing our daily dorm duties. It’s the equivalent of roommates without rooms. Some of our teachers had the responsibility of ensuring that we went to bed at a specific bedtime and woke up in the morning, usually at 5:00 a.m., and went to the daily morning mass at 6:00 a.m. We also had daily evening prayers in the parish church. Attendance was mandatory. There were consequences for unexcused absences. These consequences or punishments varied from whipping to gardening and missing the opportunity to attend the best and competitive Catholic middle school, i.e., Bominenge’s Cycle d’Orientation (CO Bominenge), about 45 miles away. Everybody had to bring their bed at the beginning of the school year. Parents didn’t necessarily take their children to school. They were not always willing to walk back and forth for that purpose. We packed and left. The good news is that it was pretty safe to walk. But as children, we were terrified by the possibility of being attacked by chimpanzees from the forested area of the road, in the neighborhood of Gbosasa. We occasionally heard them roar, but no attacks took place. There was no telephone, no post office. So there was no easy way to communicate with parents, relatives, and friends who were left behind. We walked home every other week (about 7 miles) and brought back foodstuffs, which we often carried

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on our heads. Yes, I did all these things when I was ten/twelve years old. From time to time we received free foodstuffs from the parish. Some of the foods were donations from Europe, mostly from Belgium and The Netherlands, but also from the United States. Fifth and sixth graders then had electricity in their classrooms for the early morning and evening study. That was a luxury that is non-existent today. Our stop in the Gbosasa parish was limited to the quick visit to the school and a short conversation with two priests and my aunt Josephine, an all-girl elementary school teacher. We didn’t even sit down. We did our best to avoid being seen by Gbosasa parishioners, former school teachers and classmates, and to avoid being detained for a long time. I wish we could’ve been, but we wanted to arrive in Bogwabe before it got dark. We were in a hurry also because the chauffeur was supposed to drop me, my cousin Bertin, and my nephew Sua Moke in Bogwabe and continue the trip to Gbadolite. The stop in Gbosasa lasted thirty minutes or so.

C. Leaving Gbosasa for Bogwabe via Bobutu Village We drove to Bogwabe village with another stop in Bobutu village, where I attended the third and fourth grades. Back in the 1960s, Bobutu used to be a small but important shopping center, with three or four Portuguese stores, or magazins, in French. My uncle Martin was a Magazinier or shop manager and salesman there, just like my late grandfather was in Karawa. The road conditions between Gbosasa and Bogwabe were relatively better than between KW and Gbosasa. There was no major erosion. However, we drove on a grassy road and in some places the grass was more than three feet tall, thereby rendering visibility challenging. Thank God there was no traffic at all. Our vehicle was the only one on the road between Gbosasa and Bogwabe. What continued to amaze me was the realization that road conditions were much better four or five decades ago than today. People mostly walk and ride bicycles and motorcycles. They seem to be less concerned with road conditions. The Bobutu stop was also a quick one. I talked to my nephew Demba and my third grade teacher Antoine Wongolo. He is my father’s cousin. I gave him some money and I briefly met with the school principal and another teacher with whom I attended the middle school in Bominenge. The school looked very different. When I attended school there, there were two brick buildings. Well, not any more. They were gone and replaced with mud buildings.

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D. An Overdue Homecoming in Bogwabe From Bobutu we drove non-stop towards Bogwabe. We got there around 6:30 p.m. Now I could say that I was home again. Yes, sort of… I had been gone for thirty-one years without return. I was back home because I didn’t leave home through “The Door of No Return.”2 Despite limited or a total lack of instant communication via cell phones, it didn’t take long to have a sizable crowd in my parents’ front yard. They knew I was coming, but they didn’t know the exact day or time. Given the very limited vehicle traffic in Bogwabe, the arrival of the ALM’s vehicle was sufficient to guess what was going on. They had seen that same vehicle before, because it occasionally delivered some of the construction materials for my parents’ new house. Moreover, the notion of extended family was very real in that village, where I was everyone’s relative and everyone’s guest. No invitation was necessary and no appointment was required for the historic reunion. My arrival was like the return of the prodigal son, the one who was expected to be his brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. This expectation was apparent in several meetings that I had with several people. They assumed that I had all kinds of useful connections with political leaders in Kinshasa and they hoped to have some of their problems solved through those connections. I hugged my mother whom I hadn’t seen for thirty-one years! Then I hugged my uncle Martin Zeke, also nicknamed Maréchal, because he used to dress like President Mobutu, the real and only Grand Maréchal of Congo-Zaire I shook hands with everybody. Sua Moke – the family photographer – took a lot of pictures. I was happy to be home. My mother was certainly the happiest of all. I am her only surviving son. Virtually all my brothers and sisters died before their fifth birthday. The late Pius Pasika – my immediate younger brother – died at the age of nineteen in a vehicle/tractor accident while performing agricultural work in Gbadolite. I was in England at that time and I couldn’t travel back for the occasion due to financial restraints. I had two half-sisters and a half-brother from my father’s short-lived polygamy. For religious reasons, I guess, my father divorced their mother, whom I never knew. Polygamy is at odds with Catholicism. My elder half-brother Sebastien passed away in September 2

Reference is to Gorée Island, Senegal, which became a major entrepôt for the Atlantic slave trade until the end of the 18th century. “Slaves House,” or Maison des Esclaves, in French, was the place where about 20 million African slaves are believed to have been shipped through the “Door of No Return,” or Porte du Non Retour, in French, to embark on slave boats for the Middle Passage, or the oneway journey to the Americas.

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2010, that is, fourteen months after my father’s death in July 2009. My elder half-sister Francisca passed away in February 2010, or seven months prior to Sebastien. In other words, both of them passed away after my visit there. I was glad to see them for the last time. May they rest in peace! I was also glad to see my parents’ new brick house – the only one in the area – which I helped build by sending remittances home from the US. For several years I actually had two mortgage payments, one in the US and another in DRC. The visiting crowd sang and danced with joy. I provided disco music with the new CDs and boom box that I brought from Kinshasa for the family’s entertainment. The courtyard light was secured with the Chinese device that I also brought from Kinshasa. The visitors promised to return to the family residence for more celebratory events with drumming and dancing. But it did not happen due to circumstances beyond our control. I will explain them later. I recognized some faces despite the effect of aging. Many people with whom I attended elementary school and/or played as kids looked much older than I. Many others have already died. Others had moved somewhere else due to limited opportunities in the village.

E. The Bogwabe Red Cross Wake Up Visit and a Busy Day Monday, December 7, 2009 Early in the morning at 5:00 a.m., I heard people singing on the street and marching toward my parents’ house. I thought I was dreaming; but I was not. What was going on? I asked. Bertin told me that it was the local Croix Rouge or Red Cross team. They came to say hello to me. But why did they come so early in the morning? I asked Bertin. Because they had to go to work in the field, Bertin explained. They usually started working as early as possible because it got very hot around 12:00 noon or ever earlier. In some areas of the savannah, where there were very few trees, if any, it could get extremely hot (40 degrees C or more than 100 degrees F) and therefore unpleasant to work. I gave the camcorder to Bertin and asked him to record the short and interesting early morning event. It looked like an emergency and so I went out in my pajamas to say hello and listen to the group’s chants and slogans. Then they left. I went back to bed, but I couldn’t sleep any more. I got dressed and had breakfast. Soon thereafter, I received the next visitors of the day, namely the Bogwabe High School seniors and the principal. During my meeting with the principal, he talked about the school’s problems and challenges. The biggest problem was that for the past three consecutive years, none of their

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seniors had passed the Examen d’Etat, or State Examination that determined a successful completion of high school. Admission to university is also contingent upon passing the Examen d’Etat, which is a very tough test even for well-established and prestigious schools. The Petit Séminaire Notre Dame de Grâce in Bolongo, my Alma Mater, used to be among schools having outstanding performance on the Examen d’Etat. For at least four consecutive years in the 70s, 100% of the school’s seniors passed the test. That exceptional performance was due to several factors, including but not limited to qualified and dedicated teachers, excellent administration, and tough admission criteria. My conversation with the principal of the Bogwabe High School suggested that the school’s poor performance on the Examen d’Etat was due, among other reasons, to poor staffing and financial problems. For example, none of the school teachers had a college degree. The school was “agréée, mais pas mécanisée,” meaning the school was officially recognized, but received no government funding. Teachers relied on tuition and other fees paid by students’ parents, many of whom couldn’t afford to pay punctually. During my meeting with the principal, we also discussed reapplication for the school’s “mécanisation.” Unfortunately, my rushed departure didn’t allow me to gather all the needed documents for me to take the whole dossier to Kinshasa for eventual action by the national ministry of education. By the way, at that time, Mr. Zabusu, the Congolese vice-minister of national education, was a native of the Ubangi District. So the case was very close to home. Of course, there were numerous similar cases in that area as well as across the whole country. Consequently, there was so little he would have done. After the meeting with the principal, I visited the school to witness its poor conditions. I visited an English class. Students didn’t have textbooks. Benches were in a deplorable condition. There was only one girl out of about fifteen students enrolled in that class. The Bogwabe High School predicament was not an isolated case. It was part of a national situation in which the proliferation of institutions of learning has occurred at the expense of quality. We concluded the day with a visit to a palm wine and traditional liquor brewery. I purchased a couple of bottles, which we consumed at our evening gathering. This was going to be our last evening together. But we didn’t know what was going to happen the next day. Fortunately, we spent that evening as if it were the last one. We ate, drank, danced, and told stories. Even my mother danced, despite her physical challenges. I was very interested in listening to stories relative to their daily lives during the country’s five-year war (1996-2000). They told me how some

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of them were mistreated by rebels and government soldiers; how their chickens and goats were taken by these combatants; how they ran away from the village into the bushes and forests. My mother did not run away because she had physical challenges. Instead, she told me that her favorite hiding place was the granary, or yanga in the Ngbaka language. My sister Christine talked about sleeping on some grass under which there was a snake that died of suffocation. Many rebels and government soldiers didn’t have vehicles. Consequently, they forced young people to transport their military ammunition and foodstuffs. In Gbadolite, the capital city of the North Ubangi district, my late uncle Martin got in trouble with government soldiers, also called Kabila’s soldiers. One day, AFDL soldiers arrested and questioned him for hours because his nickname was Maréchal. President Mobutu used to be the country’s only leader to be called Maréchal, “Le Maréchal.” After Mobutu’s fall in May 1997, the new regime didn’t want anything that was reminiscent of the decadent regime. Uncle Martin told us that the only reason why soldiers didn’t kill him was his proven identification as a member of the Ngbaka ethnic group. In other words, he was not a Ngbandi, or of the same ethnic group as “Le Grand Maréchal.” This title was just one of many ways in which the autocratic leader expressed his megalomania, supremacy, and omnipotence, so to speak. During our conversation, I also asked what had been done to protect the population, should another rebellion break out. I asked that question in light of the Dongo uprising in the South Ubangi district, which seemed like it could become another widespread war. I will explain the Dongo uprising in the next section. Very few people were knowledgeable of that situation. Nobody remembered the uprising’s ring leader by name. Somebody jokingly referred to him by a nickname, “Jesus,” because of his alleged ability to magically walk on water, meaning his ability to supposedly sail using a torn mat. His real name was Adjani. I also wondered whether anybody still had the knowledge of any ancestral war time protection or defense and offense mechanisms, which were used by legendary Ngbaka warriors and heroes. For example, Nwengo was known, among other things, for his alleged ability to escape from dangerous situations by magically disappearing and reappearing elsewhere, etc. Nwengo was also believed to be an arrow-proof or bulletproof person. The answers to my questions were that Christianity and colonialism caused them to lose traditional culture and know-how. So for today’s rural Ngbaka people, the only way out, in the eventuality of another war, would be to run away into the bushes. In other words, the

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wise Latin saying, “In fuga salus,” or Salvation in running/fleeing” was the solution. My relatives’ answers were reminiscent of Chinua Achebe’s famous book, Things Fall Apart (1959). Yes, in today’s DRC, things are falling apart every day, not only because of Christianity, the colonial heritage, and globalization, but also because of negative and self-destructive cultural beliefs and practices. For example, belief in witchcraft and other tabooistic superstitions hasn’t gone away, even among Christians and political élites.3 Corruption, nepotism, tribalism, provincialism, divide and rule strategies, greed, and sexism continue to cause things to fall apart. Things are falling apart because destructive forces and special interest groups have proliferated at the expense of constructive and patriotic forces. Things are falling apart because of leadership crises. Things are falling apart and the educational system doesn’t seem to effectively play its role any more. Things are falling apart because a growing number of Congolese dream of becoming politicians without patriotism and without a clearly defined governing agenda. Things are falling apart because politicians run for office for purely selfish reasons. They are not there to serve the Congolese people. They are not there for the common good, i.e., a commitment to rebuilding a country that is falling apart. In the absence of the government of the people, by the people, and for the people, some individuals or groups try to be in charge by all means necessary, including uprisings such as the short-lived one in Dongo, a town located in the South Ubangi district, Equateur province.

II. The Dongo Uprising A. The Uprising as Interethnic Disputes There were many stories about Ajani, the young ring leader of the Dongo uprising. I never had the opportunity to see him, nor did I talk to anybody who actually met him, nor did I talk to someone who had personally witnessed the insurgency. However, Le Potentiel, a Kinshasa-based newspaper, published an informative and reliable article on the situation 3

In a documentary titled, Les Confessions de Frère Dominique Sakombi Inongo, or Brother Sakombi Inongo’s Confessions (c. 1995) Mr. Sakombi, a former minister of information during the Mobutu regime, talks about, and denounces magical practices that many leaders used to keep and strengthen their political power. The documentary mentions, among other things, the expensive consultation of the late Senegalese Marabout Kebe as well as Indian magic. See also Ngandu Nkashama 1995.

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unfolding in the South Ubangi district. The article was titled, “Dongo: La Menace Armée se Précise,” in French (Dongo: the Armed Threat Becomes Much Clearer).4 Here’s a summary of that article: Dongo “insurgents” have attacked MONUC’s helicopter “with heavy weapons.” What originally began as an interethnic rivalry becomes a genuine “armed threat.” Prior to this article, Le Potentiel also published an article titled, “Dongo: Une Nouvelle Menace Armée” [Dongo: A New Armed Threat].5 The facts on the ground suggest that the newspaper’s account is correct. The Dongo insurgency is no longer a short news item. Quick action must be taken to avoid the Kivu and Oriental provinces syndrome, precisely in the Ituri district. There are contradictory statements about the Dongo situation. However, it is undoubtedly another threat, which has become been crystal clear in the las few days. The supposedly interethnic unrest has become dangerous. As a matter of fact, in Kivu and in the Oriental provinces, things started in the same way, especially in Ituri, where war lords have not put down their weapons yet. War is a very lucrative business there. The Dongo situation, in the Equateur province, requires quick reactions. Last week, the situation was not clear. According to MONUC’s spokesperson, “All actors have insufficient information.” On the other hand, according to Jean-Paul Dietrich, “[Congolese] authorities have probably not seen the gravity of the situation. They have underestimated the assailants’ aggressive potential. They have lost control over the situation. That’s why things are moving in this direction.”

Anyway, the DRC president Joseph Kabila Kabange trusted the version relative to interethnic disputes over the management of fish ponds in Dongo. He stated, “I can’t close the chapter on security without firmly denouncing the tragic events in Dongo, in the Equateur province, where recently two ethnic groups [i.e., the Enyele and the Monzaya] clashed, resulting in the death of one hundred people, including police officers.” The president made this declaration before the national assembly and the senate in parliamentary (congressional) session. What’s more, without calling the Dongo situation an interethnic conflict or insurrectional movement, MONUC warned against the danger on Wednesday, December 9, 2009. Indeed, Alan Doss, the special representative of the UN secretarygeneral in DRC, made the following statement regarding the insurrection: “We must ward off every eventuality.” Congolese authorities are doing everything in their power to put an end to the insurgents’ adventure in Dongo. They have sent reinforcements 4

See Le Potentiel, Number 4801, Friday, December 11, 2009, 2 (My English translation). 5 Le Potentiel, Number 4795, Friday, December 4, 2009.

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there, i.e., MONUC full assistance. President Kabila – who visited Gemena from November 29 to December 1, 2009 – promised that “law and order will be restored.” As a matter of fact, Le Potentiel and other sources confirmed the news indicating that Gemena city’s markets and shops were opened on Tuesday [December 8]. However, most schools and public services were closed. Consistent with his promise of law and order, the president reminded the Congolese people of the fact that, “similar and equally regrettable dramas have occurred in other places. So I urge all elected officials to work in order to eradicate this tribalism of another age” (Le Potentiel). The Kinshasa’s newspaper concluded its article by wondering why elected officials from the Equateur Province were keeping silent. As I will explain in the following section, the Dongo uprising had a negative impact on my stay in Bogwabe.

B. Discussing Family and Village Issues Tuesday, December 8, 2009 We started the day with a family meeting at 5:30 a.m. That was pretty early, but it was very normal to hold important family meetings early in the morning. There were ten people in attendance. The key agenda items were my father’s sickness and subsequent death; and my mother’s care. My father had suffered from frequent malaria as well as other age-related illnesses. There was no hospital nearby. There was only a poorly equipped health center with very limited medical supplies. When my father’s health condition started worsening, I called and spoke to a medical doctor from the Karawa Hospital. I asked him if he could send nurses to Bogwabe to check up on him. My request was understandable given the poor transportation conditions there. In fact, in Bogwabe, like in many neighboring villages, nobody owned a vehicle. It’s a big luxury to own a vehicle in many rural areas. In the mid-1970s, there was one businessman – a former truck driver – who managed to purchase a truck. But he moved to Karawa where he later died. SCIBE’s trucks used to drive through Bogwabe because of the company’s coffee plantation in the neighboring village of Bodangabo, which is also where the sector chief resides.6 In the 1960s, Chief Milimo, the first post-independence chief, had a car. Not a 4x4 pickup truck. Back then, road conditions were good enough to drive cars there. SCIBE’s trucks don’t go there any more, or maybe not as often 6 In DRC, a sector, or Secteur, in French, consists of a certain number of villages (10 or more) headed by a sector chief.

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as in the past. Bemba Saolona,7 the company’s owner, passed away in July 2009 and that was a serious coup de grâce to transportation in that area. SCIBE’s truck drivers illegally transported passengers despite the fact that all vehicles carried the French sign, “PASSAGERS INTERDITS,” or “Passengers Forbidden.” That used to be how truck drivers made ends meet and sometimes enriched themselves and even started their own businesses. Very often, passengers dangerously sat on the top of fully (over)loaded trucks. To minimize accidents and injuries to passengers, drivers used to ask passengers to get off the truck whenever safety required, especially on the most dangerous portions of the road such as muddy and slippery hills. At some point I thought of providing my family with a truck, which they could also use as an investment. But that would have been a bad investment in that area due to vehicle maintenance and infrastructure problems. There is a serious shortage of mechanics in rural areas. When vehicles are broken, it usually takes a long time to have them repaired and it takes much longer still to order parts. Gas shortages are common. There are no gas stations in Bogwabe and its vicinity, which means that gas is very expensive. Car insurance is practically non-existent. Of course, things are a little bit better in big cities. But my parents didn’t want to move, not even to Karawa, where I wanted their new house built and where there is a hospital. Anyway, I thought that it was a bad idea for my ailing father to travel to Karawa using inadequate means, including bicycle or motorcycle! I promised to pay for the nurse’s transportation and for the medical treatment. The physician exceptionally accepted my special request and he sent a nurse to Bogwabe, where he treated my father for malaria. The nurse also requested my father’s medical records from the local health center. But the request was supposedly denied due to pending medical bills! Maybe they just didn’t keep the records and used the unpaid bills argument as a pretext. But I could be wrong. They should have known that sooner or later the bills were going to be paid. The payment problem was due, among other reasons, to the challenge of sending remittances from the United States to DRC’s rural areas such as Bogwabe, where there are no banking institutions. I paid for the nurse’s trip and treatment through a

7

The late Senator Bemba was one of DRC’s top business leaders. He was the father of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the rebel movement Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC), one of the Congolese transition government’s four vice-presidents, and the presidential candidate who lost against Joseph Kabila in the democratic election run-off in November 2006.

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friend who lives in Gemena and who used to facilitate my financial transactions. A few days after the nurse’s home treatment, my father’s condition deteriorated. He was taken to Karawa Hospital, where his health got worse every day. He could neither speak, nor eat and he was in a coma for ten days or so. Family members had to occasionally go to pharmacies in the area to purchase some of the prescribed medications, because the hospital supposedly didn’t have them. During my father’s worsening health condition, I couldn’t be easily reached due to out of state travel. I was attending a NAFSA conference in Los Angeles, California, and the Caribbean American Book and Art Fair (CABAFAIR) in Miramar, Florida. On July 1, 2009, I received a telephone call from my nephew announcing my father’s death after about two agonizing weeks at the hospital. I called the hospital and asked if it could transport the body and family members to Bogwabe for the funeral and burial there. No way. The hospital didn’t have any vehicle in working condition. The physician told me that the hospital’s only vehicle had been broken for some time and, as I explained earlier, it takes some time to repair broken vehicles. These are exactly the conditions under which most rural medical and other institutions function. No ambulances. No adequate equipment. Insufficient medical supplies. This is the meaning of underdevelopment. Moreover, I was told that nobody in Karawa had a vehicle. This means, among other things, that today’s Karawans and Congolese people are economically much worse off than they were three or four decades ago. Most people walk or ride bicycles. The wealthiest ones ride motorcycles. Women carry just about everything on their heads or on their backs, whether it be a baby, or the drinking water for the family, or a bundle of firewood, which they sometimes fetch from a long distance; whether it be food-stuffs and other products that they take to, and from the market-place. Men usually carry things on their shoulders or on their backs. So the only remaining possibility was to rent a vehicle from Gemena’s businesspersons who were in Karawa for the weekend market day. My nephew Sua Moke went to the market-place to explore this possibility without a positive outcome. Among other reasons given, the road conditions between KW and Gbosasa were very bad and vehicle owners were reluctant to provide that kind of service, not even for a higher price. I think my relatives were exhausted by agonizing days at the hospital and nobody was willing to carry the body for the 25-mile walk to Bogwabe. They moved the body to my brother’s place for burial there. I was constantly in touch by telephone. I called Mr. Bangabutu of SCIBE and

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made financial arrangements for the burial and mourning gatherings. We had never met before our telephone conversation. Moreover, I have spent most of my adult life abroad. However, he had heard positive things about me. In fact, in our telephone conversation, he reminded me of meeting my parents at their new construction site in the Bogwabe village. He congratulated me on the project, which was and still remains a big deal there. Believe it or not, it was one of very few houses that were built with durable materials. So he gladly accepted to advance the necessary cash for my family’s immediate needs. I paid him back through Dr. Kongawi of Gemena-based ALM. By the way, Dr. Kongawi was the one who gave me Mr. Bangabutu’s telephone contact details. Soon after my father’s burial in Karawa, Mr. Bangabutu had to travel to Gemena for the burial of his boss, Senator Jeannôt Bemba Saolona, SCIBE’s owner. He had passed away in Brussels, Belgium, and his body was taken to Gemena for what looked like the biggest funeral. That was the case because, as I mentioned earlier, Bemba was one of the wealthiest men in DRC and definitely the wealthiest person in the Equateur province. His funeral was, I suspect, second only to Mama Marie Madeleine Yemo – the late President Mobutu’s mother – who had died in Gemena in 1971. While my family members were mourning in KW and Bogwabe, I was mourning at home in Baltimore, alone. My wife was visiting a friend in Kansas. In the United States, media news was overwhelmingly dominated by the death of Michael Jackson, “the King of Pop.” He passed away in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009, or just six days prior to my father’s death. Most major TV channels (CNN, MSNBC, BET, etc.) covered Jackson’s death. So I made a special tiny shrine in memory of my father and placed it in front of our living room television. I video recorded it along with Jackson’s lengthy mourning and funeral extravaganza. That was my creative way to combine the King of Pop’s extravagant obituary with my personal family’s modest mourning. Anyway, let’s go back to the family meeting in Bogwabe. After talking about my father’s situation, it was time to talk about my mother’s care. After spending weeks at KW Hospital with my father and after several days of mourning next to the grave in KW, my mother returned to Bogwabe, where many other people were waiting to see her and continue the mourning. Without my father, she was going to be confined to a quasisolitary life, despite many visits by relatives and friends. I originally thought of hiring somebody to help her with housekeeping and other work, but after discussing the matter with other family members, we agreed on having a relative stay with her. My niece Elodia was chosen for that purpose. She is my half-sister Francisca’s daughter. We concluded the

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family meeting with suggestions and recommendations regarding better ways to solve existing tensions and how to handle the family finances, which heavily depend on my modest remittances. Soon after the family meeting and breakfast, two visitors showed up, namely a teacher and the principal of the new elementary school in Botolo, the next village. They wanted me to assist them in their desperate effort to get their teachers paid. Their school was, like many other newly established schools, “agréée, mais pas mécanisée.” This was the third time to frustratingly deal with this kind of situation. So far school teachers’ salaries had come from modest monthly fees, that is, 1,200 Congolese Francs, or about $1.30 per pupil, which pupils’ parents paid. As small as this amount might be, there were still people who couldn’t afford to pay it regularly. Unemployment and abject poverty are real problems. To make me interested in, and collaborate on their school project, the principal’s strategy was to rename the school after me. I suggested that they hold a school board meeting and have a vote before renaming the school. I also suggested that they bring me some written notes and copies of their original application for the mécanisation. They returned to Botolo to prepare the full dossier and come back later. Unfortunately, we would not meet again due to my unexpected and sudden departure. I will explain it later.

C. An Abridged Speaking Engagement at Bobutu Elementary School My next agenda item was a speaking engagement at the Bobutu Elementary School, where I’d attended third and fourth grades several decades before. I was expected to be there at 10:30 a.m. and it was already 9:30 a.m. I was supposed to get a ride but at this point in time my ride provider hadn’t showed up yet. So Bertin suggested that we start walking. Bobutu was only about 5 km away (ca. 3 miles). That’s a piece of cake for most people around there who usually walk most of the time to go anywhere. My concern was with not arriving punctually. We started walking. I was dressed casually and comfortably. Of course, that was not the way most people expected to see the university professor from the United States. But some people appreciated my simplicity. After one-mile walking we saw a motorcyclist coming from Bobutu. That was my ride. Bertin would have to continue walking. There was room for one person only and even if there was room for two, they wouldn’t allow it out of respect. As soon as we started riding toward Bobutu, we saw a vehicle coming. We recognized it. It was the ALM chauffeur. He was supposed to

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come and pick me up in another three days. What’s up, Mr. Kiale? I asked worriedly. He explained, “there is an emergency and we have to get back to Gemena today. Dongo rebels led by Mr. Adjani have reached Bobito village and their arrival in Gemena is imminent. They are determined to take the airport and the security situation in Gemena is worrisome. Dr. Kongawi called from Kinshasa and urged me to drive back immediately to prepare his family’s evacuation on tomorrow’s flight to Kinshasa.” If the rebels took Gemena, then I couldn’t fly back to Kinshasa. If I couldn’t fly back to Kinshasa, then I couldn’t fly back to the United States according to my planned itinerary. Of course, whenever rebels take a city, looting and other problems follow. I told the chauffeur that I had a speaking engagement in Bobutu. However, given the situation, I would like to show up even just for a fiveminute greeting. We continued our motorcycle ride to the school, followed by the chauffeur and his crew. At the school, they probably expected me to speak in French or in Lingala. That’s what Congolese intellectuals do. French is DRC’s official language and Lingala is the lingua franca, especially in the Equateur province. Instead I proudly spoke in Ngbaka, our mother tongue. I wanted to prove to them that I was still one of them and I hadn’t forgotten my cultural roots even after thirty-one years abroad. I spoke for about five minutes while the chauffeur was waiting. The audience probably thought the chauffeur might have been there simply as part of protocol or a security mechanism for a VIP. I told the audience that I planned on meeting with them for a little bit longer; but I had to unexpectedly go back to Gemena to solve an urgent problem. I didn’t tell them the whole truth. I didn’t want to create another panic among a population whose war memories were still relatively fresh. I instructed Bertin to explain the situation only after I had left the area. I recovered my cell phone from Bianse, another cousin of mine. I’d sent it to him the day before for charging, something that could not be done in Bogwabe. Unfortunately, he was unable to charge the phone due to technical problems with the solar panel in Bobutu. It was the only one for that whole area. I found myself in a predicament where I could use neither my phone, nor my digital camcorder because of charging problems. The camera battery was still good. Thank God! This whole situation needed to be photographically documented. We just had to hope that the motorcycle and the vehicle batteries would behave better. This was no time for the vehicle to breakdown. There was no workshop around.

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D. My D-Day One: Dongo Uprising and My First Flight from Bogwabe to Gemena I rode back to Bogwabe with the motorcyclist to pack, while the chauffeur slowly followed us. The ride by motorcycle was faster than by car. My mother and a few other people at home were surprised by the brevity of my school visit. I told them that I had forgotten something in the bedroom. I instructed the motorcyclist to wait until the chauffeur arrived and to follow us when we left. That was my plan B. I went straight to my bedroom and started packing without really talking to anybody. My mother, Maréchal, my aunt Mathilde, and sister Christine were around. Soon after my arrival by motorcycle, the chauffeur surprisingly arrived, thereby drawing family members and villagers’ attention. There were very few vehicles. I didn’t see any other vehicle during my two-day visit there. After I finished packing, I called my mother and Maréchal to my room and told them that I had to travel back to Gemena immediately to solve an urgent problem and then I’d be back as soon as possible. Of course, everybody must have learned the meaning of “as soon as possible.” As a matter of fact, long before I had left DRC for three years of study in Rome, Italy. But guess what? I’d come back after thirty-one years! Once again, I didn’t tell anybody the whole truth about my sudden departure. I gave them some money, clothes, and whatever gifts I’d brought for them. I had somebody take my luggage to the vehicle, which was surprisingly surrounded by a sizeable crowd. I took last pictures. I said good bye, got into the vehicle and left waving. My mother and several people were teary. They couldn’t fully understand what was going on. What was strange was the fact that during the evening before, we’d spent some time talking about many things, including their war experiences and what they did to survive. A friend of mine provided me with photographs of destructive bombings of Gemena and the human casualties. I’d followed the Congo war very closely from the United States. I’d watched disturbing images on TV screens. I’d participated in academic panel discussions in Baltimore and in Washington, DC on the situation; I’d compiled numerous reports, essays and newspaper headlines. Some of the headlines read: UN Says Rebels Use Cannibalism (The Associated Press, August 1, 2003); Tribal Fighters Kill Up to 150 in Congo (Andrew England, The Associated Press, Nairobi, July 29, 2003); Children Fight Tribal Rivals in Congo (Rodrique Ngowi, The AP, Bunia, Congo, July, 2003); Displaced People Pour back Into Congo’s Bunia (Dino Mahtani, Reuters, Bunia, June 28, 2003); Congo Rebels Execute, Kidnap in Dark of Night (Fiona O’Brien, Bunia, June 13, 2003); UN Envoys Visit War-Torn Eastern Congo (Fiona

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These headlines and many others had helped me understand my family and relatives’ talk and jokes – less than twenty-four hours earlier – about their experiences of running away from the village and hiding wherever they could because of war. And guess what? Now it was my turn. Yes, when you speak of the devil, you see its tail; right? We were not walking or running to the bush to hide from rebels as my relatives and many other people did. We were actually doing something daring and crazy. We were driving toward Gemena, the next battlefield, so to speak, if the warning news was correct. This was my first D-day, my hegira, or flight, so to speak. In Bosamba – the next village – we made our first unplanned stop, simply because we saw an old man rushing from his house to the road. I recognized him. He was a Bogwabe native who served as the village catechist there. I didn’t know he was still alive. He was about ninety years old and looked jolly healthy for his age. We used to call him nkoko Ngbanza (nkoko means grandfather, in Lingala). I shook his hand from the vehicle without getting out. I gave him some money. It was the right thing to do, regardless of an explicit request. I apologized for being in such a hurry and we continued our flight. I was also supposed to meet with Bosamba’s Elementary School teachers and pupils. No way, sorry! We were in a hurry. The next stop was Gbosasa, where once again, I hoped nobody would notice my presence. We didn’t want anything to prevent us from arriving in Gemena by the end of the day. The only quick stop in Gbosasa was to drop my sister Christine. She asked us to wait a second so that she could rush to her house and bring us peanuts. The chauffeur didn’t mind. After all he loved peanuts and ended up keeping all of them. Before arriving in KW, we met a guy driving alone in a Land Rover. The chauffeur knew him. He updated us on the worrisome security situation in Gemena, our destination, where the population lived under the panic caused by the supposedly imminent arrival of Dongo insurgents led

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by Ajani. The lonely driver had left from Gemena and was heading toward the port city of Lisala via the port town of Businga, all of which are located in the Equateur province. He preferred to catch a flight from Lisala airport to Kinshasa rather than from Gemena airport, which the insurgents intended to capture. I told him I was going to try to possibly catch a flight from Gemena to Kinshasa. I say possibly because I didn’t even have any reservation, nor did I have enough money to purchase a last-minute airline ticket. Cash was the only acceptable method of payment and the flight day was hopefully the next day, Wednesday, December 9. The guy from the other vehicle asked me if I wanted to ride with him and catch a flight from Lisala instead. I replied that I had to recover my laptop and one suitcase in Gemena. He must have thought that I was being unreasonable, or maybe I didn’t take the perceived threats as seriously as he did. Why should I risk my life for a laptop and a suitcase? The laptop contained my manuscript titled, Obamænon, which Common Ground had accepted for publication. It was the best and the most exciting news of my sabbatical leave. As important as that research was, however, it wasn’t worth risking my life for. At this point I became more worried than ever before. But without knowing anybody in Lisala, it would have been very difficult to make the necessary financial arrangements for my airfare. We said good bye and wished each other all the best and we continued on our respective opposite ways. We stopped in KW to quickly drop my nephew Sua Moke and uncle Timothé at my brother’s house, which is also the site of my father’s grave. That was the second most emotional stop, not only because of the grave, but also because of my terminally sick sister who was staying there. I didn’t get out of the vehicle at all. I was too stressed and mentally unable to deal with the whole situation. We were in a big hurry. We were struggling for our survival, so to speak. We continued the flight toward Gemena. The chauffeur’s cell phone was still working and so from time to time he would call and receive calls regarding the security situation in Gemena. We came across several big trucks full of passengers leaving Gemena towards KW. Everyone spoke and was worried about the imminent arrival of Dongo rebels in Gemena and the insecurity in the city and guess what? We were heading to Gemena. At one point prior to arriving in Gemena, we got stopped by a crowd along the dark road. They were trying to take care of a motorcyclist who’d fallen and broken his leg. He was riding with a child and some luggage. The child seemed to be all right. They too had left Gemena for the same reason. They were fleeing and heading to KW, away from the potentially dangerous place. We were asked to take them back to their family in

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Gemena. Our vehicle was pretty full, but we managed to make room for two additional passengers without their motorcycle. At a few miles from Gemena, the chauffeur called to find out if it was safe to enter the city when it was dark. The alternative was to spend the night in the vicinity of the city, in the vehicle, of course, and drive into the city the next morning. He was told that it was relatively safe to drive into the city. It was about 7:00 p.m. We entered the city. We dropped the patient and the child with their family and explained to their teary relatives what had happened. We continued the ride through the dark city streets and dropped other passengers to their houses. On the road to ALM residence, we stopped at one of the city’s bars. It was open. There was electricity. It was provided by a generator. There were a few people and there were beers: Skol Beers, whose famous commercials say, Pelisa Nguasuma, a difficult to translate Lingala phrase suggesting that one gets fired up after drinking the famous beer. An open bar was a signal of normalcy, the chauffeur told me. The bar wouldn’t be open if things were really bad in the city. I purchased two bottles and offered one to the chauffeur as a token of my gratitude for safe driving. He drank his immediately from the vehicle. He was really thirsty and so was I. But I didn’t drink mine until we arrived at Dr. Kongawi’s ALM residence, where I spent the toughest night of my two-month DRC trip. Micheline, Dr. Kongawi’s wife and several family members were at home. They were packing and getting ready for the evacuation the next day. Unlike me, they had airline tickets. Micheline asked me if I was hungry. No, I am not hungry, I replied. My only meal of the day had been the breakfast in Bogwabe. I hadn’t wanted to have an early lunch because I hadn’t wanted to show up too late for the speaking engagement at Bobutu Elementary School. Big mistake! But we hadn’t had any foreknowledge of that day’s misfortune. I was tired, thirsty, and worried, just like everybody else in the house. I asked for a bottle opener. I opened the bottle of Skol that I’d purchased from the bar earlier and I drank it. There was no time for conversation. Everybody was busy packing. The chauffeur turned the TV on. There was a movie on the French TV5 channel. Believe it or not, in Gemena, it was easier to get news from French and other foreign channels than from the Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise (RTNC), the national Television station. He asked me if I wanted to charge my cell phone and camcorder batteries. I wished I could, but it was impossible, because I’d left the necessary accessories in my other suitcase, which was at another friend’s residence, several blocks away. For the journey to Bogwabe, I’d relied on a tiny cell phone charger that I’d purchased from a Chinese store. Unfortunately, that device had had a very short longevity,

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making it impossible to communicate by phone for three days. The chauffeur took my luggage to the bedroom and I went to bed. The room had a very comfortable king size bed. But to sleep, or not to sleep, that was the question. I kind of slept with one eye closed, one eye opened, so to speak. We’d had a long and busy day and I really needed a good rest before another busy and adventurous day. Unfortunately, the thought of an eventual negative development during the night made it very difficult to sleep deeply.

E. My D-Day Two: Dongo Uprising and My Second Flight from Gemena to Kinshasa Wednesday, December 9, 2009 I woke up around 6:00 a.m. That was not too early. The day before I’d woken up at 5:00 a.m. due to that early visit by Bogwabe’s Red Cross team. I started repacking, making sure that I had what I absolutely needed in my handbag. At 7:00 a.m., Dr. Kongawi’s mother knocked at my bedroom door and asked if I was awake. Of course, I was. This was no day for grasse matinée or sleeping late. I opened the door and she told me that city soldiers had started looting! They had already looted a neighboring white man’s house. Now they were at the Nuns’ residence and we’d be the next target. The residence had been targeted for looting and vandalism several times before and she knew something about soldiers’ looting. As a matter of fact, I have kept a memo regarding “INSECURITE A GEMENA” (in French), or “Insecurity in Gemena.” According to the memo, my host’s residence was the target of numerous threats by armed soldiers in June, July, and August 2008. The threats included residence gate and house door destructions as well as shootings at the residence. Fortunately, nobody had been injured. These life-threatening and demoralizing incidents were investigated by the city authorities, filmed by the Gemena-based staff of the United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUC-Gemena) and broadcasted on Radio OKAPI. Consequently, I took the looting warning from my hosts very seriously. I said to myself that what had happened during a relatively peaceful time in 2008 could also be repeated in 2009 when there was a real threat of war coming from the Dongo rebels. That was a depressing warning. But as the French saying puts it, “Un homme averti en vaut deux” (“forewarned is forearmed”). The warning was another reason for trying to figure out other ways of repacking, including putting certain tiny things in my socks and even in my underwear, hoping that no looter, if any, was going to ask me to get completely undressed. I thought looters would be

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interested in the cell phone, camera, and camcorder. So I removed the card and SIM card and I put them in places where they didn’t normally belong. Now you know what places I am talking about, right? But of course, there wasn’t enough room there. I was wearing multi-pocket pants, but that was no safe hiding place. I had a very small amount of cash left, i.e., about twenty dollars and maybe ten thousand Congolese Francs (worth another eleven dollars or so). So I was not concerned about losing big money. I feared for my life. You never know how soldiers may behave under certain circumstances. They can shoot and kill for fun and for no good reason. I just hoped to keep cool, calm, and collected and possibly do whatever they might ask me to do. At 7:30 a.m., the cook informed me that breakfast was ready. I loved the way he put it. “The good appetite is ready,” he said. It was not a continental breakfast. It was pretty substantial. Knowing that I may have to skip lunch and/or dinner again like the day before, I ate as much as I possibly could. The menu consisted of canned sardines, bread, and coffee. I ate only half of what was served. After breakfast, the chauffeur showed up and took me to another house in the residence, where Micheline, Dr. Kongawi’s wife, was finalizing her packing. I used her cell phone to call MONUC-Gemena. The purpose was to seek protection and to find out if they could help me fly to Kinshasa, should it be impossible to fly otherwise. Please note that I had no reservation for that day. I was almost cashless and couldn’t use credit cards for anything there. The cost of a one-way flight to Kinshasa was $225.00 and I had no more than $30.00! I’d failed to withdraw transferred money from SOFICOM (Société Financière Commerciale) prior to my trip to Bogwabe due to code errors. The errors were corrected; however, it would have taken about half a day to cash the money. That was not enough time to make all the travel arrangements. MONUC had planes that flew back and forth to Kinshasa and the flight could be free. The phone rang and rang and rang. No answer! I asked the chauffeur to take me to the Hewabora office and find out if they could allow me to travel and pay in Kinshasa. The chauffeur told me that Mr. Goza, the Hewabora representative in Gemena, knew Dr. Kongawi very well and that could help. We drove to the airline office and upon arrival there, we saw Ms. Lillie, a well-established business woman in Gemena. I attended the middle and high schools with her elder brother, the late Jean Roger Masikini, who passed away in Dallas, Texas in March 2009. Lillie had been attending an all-girls boarding elementary school in Bominenge Catholic Mission while her brother and I were attending the boarding middle school there. But I didn’t know her well. She is also Dr.

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Kongawi’s former sister-in-law and the sister of Sen. José Masikini, whom I met for the first time at his brother’s funeral in Dallas. They were all well known in Gemena. All these connections were very helpful in my desperate situation. The chauffeur was very pleased to see Lillie there, because Mr. Goza knew her and she could reassure him of the payment arrangement(s). There was no long line in the office. There were only three or four customers in front of me. The chauffeur introduced me to Mr. Goza. I gave him my Morgan State University business card and explained my predicament and the need for a ticket to fly to Kinshasa and pay upon arrival there. Lillie also reassured him of the payment and he agreed without hesitation. This was a typical case that confirmed the “whom you know” principle. It was kind of late to do everything from his Hewabora office desk. So he called another airline staff member who was at the airport. He instructed her to issue a ticket for me. He asked the chauffeur to rush me to the airport to check in my luggage and take care of other formalities. But before rushing to the airport, we had to make a quick stop to pick up my laptop and suitcase that I’d left with Dr. Nyamowala of Memisa. Everything went smoothly and we headed to the airport. The chauffeur dropped me at the heavily guarded airport gate. No one was allowed beyond the gate without a ticket. I had none. The chauffeur had instructions to get in, but he had to park the vehicle. Before going to park, the chauffeur briefly explained the situation to airport security guards, but they were strict, even when the chauffeur joined me. Knowing our soldiers’ mentality and expectations, given the special circumstance, and despite my reluctance to contribute to the country’s widespread “madesu ya bana” or bribery, I handed some money to one of them and he allowed us to continue to the check-in point. Another soldier angrily stared at me and said, “you are the one who encourages corruption in this country.” I politely told him that his colleague did not ask for any money and I was simply being grateful for his understanding. The resentful soldier was right in saying that. But would he have said no thanks, had I handed the money to him? As corrupt as my gesture may have seemed to be, I had to defend it as a case of situation ethics. It was a case in which my self-interest conflicted with the requirement of morality. By the way, as I explained earlier, upon my arrival at the Ndjili International Airport on November 3, 2009, I’d found myself in a situation in which customs service officers expected me to bribe them. I resisted their pressure and didn’t give them anything. Back then I could afford to waste time. I wasn’t in a hurry. But this time, things were completely different. It was a struggle for life and time was everything.

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The chauffeur identified the agent who’d received the order to issue me the special ticket for the price of $249.00. I was told that the regular ticket for $225.00 was no longer available. I didn’t mind. I just needed the opportunity to leave Gemena before an eventual worsening of the situation. Then we checked my luggage in after a forty-five minute wait in the long line. I paid the required ten-dollar airport fee – cash only – and moved to the boarding waiting room. I was in the company of many other travelers, many of whom were fleeing because of the Dongo rebels’ threats. I spent some time conversing with Hon. Wotewangi, a provincial député from the South Ubangi district. He told me that he had to leave because he felt that he was going to be an easy target for rebels. His parliamentary immunity didn’t seem to mean anything at all. I asked if he was leaving with his family. He said he’d moved his family out of the city. They were in a rural area where he had a farm. In the waiting room, I also saw another provincial député, Hon. Constant Mbio. He was a middle school classmate of mine in Bominenge. What a surprise! We hadn’t seen each other for decades. I remembered and reminded him of a class joke. Our teacher of French asked us to define the word “symbiosis.” His answer was, “the feminine of Mbio.” It was exactly that kind of joke and some others that made our class entertaining. Mr. Mbio had worked as an agronomist (Ingénieur Agronome, in French) prior to his political career. After a short conversation and a kind of reunion with Hon. Mbio, our incoming plane landed. That’s what everybody was really waiting for. Then there was another surprise. Among the passengers coming out of the plane there was my cousin Jean-Bosco. He is a Kinshasa-based lawyer. I jokingly asked him why he was coming to Gemena while many people were fleeing. He optimistically replied that the security threats were reported with great exaggeration and the panic was greater among a certain category of people than others. He also added that he was going to figure out other ways of fleeing, if necessary and even without any flight from Gemena. He was there for business reasons and as a wise saying puts it in French, “Qui ne risque rien n’a rien, (those who don’t risk anything get nothing)”. He also needed to show up in the North Ubangi district from time to time because he was planning on running for the 2011 parliamentary elections. Yes, many people, especially Congolese intellectuals, love political careers. That’s where the money is, given that there are very few job opportunities in the private sector. I asked JeanBosco to call his wife in Kinshasa and inform her about my unexpected return that day. My phone hadn’t been working for several days. I used his phone to call a friend and ask if I could stay at his house in Kinshasa, since Jean-Bosco wasn’t around and since I also wanted to socialize with that

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friend who, by the way, was a former colleague from Baltimore. He was a lecturer at Morgan State University’s department of political science prior to pursuing a political career in DRC. He was also a political science professor at UNIKIN. He said I was welcome to stay with him the day after. He needed some time to prepare the room for me. I returned the phone to Jean-Bosco, said good-bye, and wished him good luck. The departing and fleeing passengers walked in line from the waiting room to the plane. I saw and waved to Micheline and her child from the line. I took my camera out of my carry-on bag and tried to take a picture of the fleeing passengers, believing hopefully in the resurrection of the dead batteries. Miracles happen and it was so crucial that this particular moment not remain unrecorded and undocumented. Somebody from the line told me that it was forbidden to take pictures because the Gemena airport had become a military base because of the Dongo uprising. As a matter of fact, the airport was surrounded by armed Congolese soldiers and MONUC peacekeepers. There was no miraculous resurrection of the batteries. We boarded the airplane under the watchful eyes of the airport security staff and the airplane took off for the ninety-minute flight to Kinshasa. Upon a safe landing at Kinshasa’s Ndjili International Airport, we cheerfully and gratefully applauded to thank the pilot for rescuing us from the supposed Dongo uprising and its potential impact on Gemena. From the Ndjili airport, Lillie and I were picked up by Bruno, Sen. Masikini’s chauffeur. He took us to the Kalamu zone, where the senator and his mother live. I spent a few hours with them, telling our stories. Lillie entertained us with additional wonderful stories about Mr. Adjani, the charismatic and almost legendary nineteen-year old leader of the Dongo uprising. A friend of mine explained Ajani’s supposedly supernatural power as follows. “Once upon the time,” she said, “soldiers and police tried to arrest Ajani; but he resisted. Faced with his insubordination and resistance, the officers tried unsuccessfully to shoot him. Their guns failed to work. Then Mr. Adjani took a gun from an officer and shot them all dead.” True or untrue, this was the kind of fairy-tale that caused so many people to fear the Dongo uprising and flee. At 5:00 p.m., after enjoying a moment of relief, Bruno drove me through the heavy rush hour traffic to my cousin’s house in the Kalamu zone, Kinshasa. That traffic was nothing compared to Gemena’s nightmare. The December 9 night in Kinshasa was much better than the previous one in Gemena. The day after, I didn’t go anywhere. I was sick and tired of agonizing, driving, fleeing, and flying. I made a few phone calls to thank several people, especially Mr. Goza of Hewabora airline, whom I couldn’t reach that day. I also spent that day writing down

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whatever I could remember from my experience fleeing. From the United States, I had spent a lot of time reading and gathering stories about what is also called “Africa’s First World War.” But I never imagined myself being caught in a similar predicament. Of course, it would be an exaggeration to compare my forty-eight hours of Dongo-related nightmare, or “Dongolization” with many Congolese people’s five or more years of rebellions and chaos, also referred to as “Congolization.” However, my short-lived nightmare helped me to better understand what millions of fellow Congolese had gone through and continue to go through, even as I write this section, especially in the most troubled eastern provinces. In fact, on November 20, 2012, fighters from the March 23 Movement – also known as M23 – seized and terrorized the population of Goma, the capital city of North Kivu. They robbed the city’s bank before leaving the city due to international pressure. Everything took place under the watchful eyes of UN peacekeepers and the fleeing Congolese army. According to UN investigators, M23 received clandestine support from the neighboring government of Rwanda, headed by Gen. Paul Kagame. Of course, like in previous DRC rebellions, the Rwandan government categorically denied its obvious involvement in eastern DRC.8

III. Dongo Uprising and Congolization: The Unpaved Road to Security, Development and Peace in DRC As I mentioned earlier, December 8 – the day when Gemena’s markets and stores were reopened – was also my first D-Day, i.e., the sad day when I had to interrupt my family visit in Bogwabe and flee to Gemena. The DRC government efforts to stop the Dongo insurgency were felt during my tenday stay in Gemena. President Kabila’s visit was preceded and followed by frequent military airplanes landing. The security threats were also apparent in the cancellation of the president’s scheduled meeting with the population at the Athénée, or one of the area high schools. We were told that the president was going to spend four days in the city. But instead he left after two days. He also cancelled a scheduled meeting with the city’s religious community leaders. That meeting was rescheduled for another day in Kinshasa. The imminent armed threat and security problems were reported with exaggeration. However, some insurgency-related killings

8

For further details, see, for example, Jeffrey Gettleman’s article, “Rebels in Congo Seize Commercial Hub.” The New York Times, Wednesday, November 21, 2012, A4.

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occurred between Gemena and Dongo just a few days after the president’s rushed departure. Three years after the Enyele-Monzaya insurgency in Dongo, there were still instances of internally displaced persons. There are also numerous Dongo refugees in the neighboring Congo-Brazzaville waiting and hoping for a safe return home. Fortunately, DRC’s Radio Okapi announced that the United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) and other organizations started the repatriation of about 49,000 Dongo refugees from Congo-Brazzaville on April 30, 2012. Another round of repatriation was supposed to hopefully take place in 2013. As astronomic as these numbers look, they are just a fraction of war’s consequences in DRC. As a matter of fact, according to Internal Monitoring Centre and UNHCR, as of January 2012, there were still about 1.7 million internally displaced persons in DRC and about 500,000 refugees outside the country. On April 16, 2012, I attended an event entitled, “Military Reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” It was sponsored by the Wilson Center’s Africa Program of The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. The event was a discussion of a report entitled, The Democratic Republic OF Congo: Taking a Stand on Security Sector Reform. It was produced by Congolese and International organizations, including, among others, Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI); Congolese Network for Security Sector Reform; European Network for Central Africa (EurAc); and Groupe Lotus. Without making a specific reference to the Dongo’s short-lived unrest, the report’s executive summary contains, among other things, the following worrisome statements: The central cause of this suffering is continued insecurity. The Congolese government’s inability to protect its people or control its territory undermines progress on everything else. An effective security sector – organized, resourced, trained and vetted – is essential to solving problems from displacement, recruitment of child soldiers and gender-based violence, to economic growth or the trade in conflict minerals.…The imperative of developing effective military, police and judicial structures has been repeatedly emphasized. Yet, far from showing sustained improvement, Congolese security forces continue posing a considerable threat to the civilian population rather than protecting them. The recent allegations of an army Colonel leading his troops to engage in widespread rape and looting of villages near Fizi in 2011 underscores the fact that failed military reform can lead to human rights violations. The military – the Forces Armées de la République du Congo (FARDC) – has been accused of widespread involvement in the most serious human rights

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On June 11, 2012, Louise Arbour, president and CEO of the International Crisis Group (ICG), confirmed the country’s security nightmare through an “Open Letter to the United Nations Security Council on the Situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” After more than five years of fratricidal rebellions in DRC, which have resulted in the deaths of about five million people, millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, and raped girls and women, especially in the Kivu and Oriental provinces, DRC faces a daunting nation-building task. This is the case not only in conflict-ridden areas, but also in those areas that were not battlefields. For example, Kinshasa – the country’s capital city – was not a battlefield. However, the city is not exempt from reconstruction needs. Roads, transportation, public health, and education systems need immediate attention. In Gemena, for example, street lights are no longer existent. The city’s public transportation is secured by motorcyclists. Most people walk anyway. So in Gemena, when you need a cab, you get a motorcyclist for the ride. It is challenging to drive from Gemena to Gbadolite. For my trip from Gemena to Bogwabe, my friends suggested that I take “a taxicab.” I could get there faster by “cab” than by truck. The problem was that I had a lot of luggage. I was lucky to make the trip aboard a 4x4 Toyota pickup truck from ALM. In a nutshell, things continue to fall apart. This is apparent in the fact that “the country is now in last place in the annual United Nations Development Program (UNDP) development rankings, i.e., 187 out of 187 countries.”9 This is incredible for a country that is also referred to as a “geological scandal.” People expect their government to solve all problems and the government, a democratic government, should do something, i.e., create conditions that are conducive to solutions. Obviously, the Congolese government is overwhelmed by the daunting task of rebuilding the country after three decades of dictatorship and more than five years of devastating conflicts. Of course, and unfortunately, there are also issues with mismanagement, corruption, embezzlement, and impunity. International financial institutions and foreign investors are reluctant to lend, donate, and invest in DRC. Consequently, new wars are luxuries that the country cannot afford any more. But will they ever learn? That is the big question. The November 20, 2012 occupation of Goma by the M23 rebels suggested that law and order are still elusive for the Congolese people. What DRC 9 See UNDP Human Development Index 2011, available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics.

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needs first and foremost is, among other things, educational reform at all levels. Consequently, education shouldn’t be treated as a footnote to President Kabila’s Cinq Chantiers, but rather as an important part and the engine that sets everything in motion. The next chapter reflects on the Cinq Chantiers.

CHAPTER TWENTY EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN DRC: REFLECTIONS ON THE CONGOLESE GOVERNMENT’S CINQ CHANTIERS

I. KERCUN and Cultural Issues in DRC ON DECEMBER 24, 2009, I PARTICIPATED IN KERCUN 2009 – Kermesse Culturelle de l’Unité Nationale, or Cultural Fair of National Unity – organized by the RTNC, from December 19 to December 31, 2009 on the theme, “Cinq Chantiers: Un Rêve Devenu Réalité,” or “The Five Chantiers: A Dream Realized.” Every DRC province had its day to highlight its cultural heritage. December 24 was Equateur Province Day. As a proud native of that province, I attended the whole day event. During the closing part of the program I participated, along with other distinguished invited guests from the province, in final thoughts in Lingala. I introduced myself and I did my best to answer the RTNC journalist and KERCUN host’s questions in a grammatically correct Lingala. I also said a few greeting words in Ngbaka, my native tongue. These simple facts surprised the audience and won me a big applause. But why should one be applauded for speaking in one’s tongue or national language? Indeed, many fellow Congolese think that one, like me, should have forgotten one’s native language after being abroad for many years. Believe it or not, there are many stories about Congolese who pretend to have forgotten their own native language even after just a year or even less in another part or the country and/or abroad, especially in Europe and USA. Those who still speak their languages would speak it with French or English accents. I think that is ridiculous and shameful. So after my brief talk on RTNC, several journalists airing radio programs in national languages – particularly in Lingala and Swahili – invited me for cultural and educational talk shows in Lingala. One of them asked me to share ideas about how to promote interests in national languages, most of which are neglected by the Congolese intelligentsia, or spoken in a grammatically incorrect way and with a lot of French words.

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Historically speaking, many languages have borrowed from other languages. But I think Lingala has borrowed too much from French. Frangala would be the proper name for the kind of Lingala spoken by many Congolese, especially in Kinshasa. “Lingala Facile” (Easy Lingala) is another term for Frangala. Many Congolese can barely count in Lingala or in other native languages. Dates and prices are commonly given in French. For example, 2000 Francs = “deux mille Francs” instead of “Nkoto mibale;” May 30 = “le 30 mai” instead of “mwa 30 mai;” etc. During my stay in Kinshasa, I watched a talk show on women’s role within the family. The program was conducted in Lingala. But Frangala was so prevalent that “libota,” or the Lingala term for “family,” was never used. That was unbelievable. Another RTNC journalist asked me to talk about the “Cinq Chantiers (5Cs) and Education.” I liked both topics because I am a university professor and educator interested in promoting international education and diversity through multilingualism and interculturalism. That is why I founded Polyglots in Action for Diversity, Inc. in 2005, and that is why writing Lingala-based dictionaries has become one of my cultural and intellectual hobbies. As a matter of fact, when I was in Rome, Italy, I authored Dizionario Italiano-Lingala/Lingala-Italiano (Armando Curcio, 1990). In the United States, I have been encouraged by multiculturalism and diversity. Consequently, I also co-edited Lingala-English Glossary, published electronically in Pan-African Dictionaries Online by Kasahorow (2009). “Chantier” is a French word which means building site or road works. The Cinq Chantiers are President Joseph Kabila’s program for the reconstruction and modernization of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in five key areas, namely, Infrastructures, Employment, Housing, Water and Electricity, and Health and Education. I thought it would be better to not only air my thoughts on the radio, but also have them possibly published in local newspapers and/or elsewhere, thereby enhancing my thinking, speaking, and writing skills in Lingala. Obviously, this is also one of many ways to value and promote the use of DRC’s national languages, and to dismiss the myth of diasporic Congolese who can’t function in their native tongues any more. Being an intellectual is not at odds with the knowledge of one’s native language and culture. After all, Cicero, Dante Alighieri, Shakespeare, Goethe, Voltaire, and many other elite intellectuals didn’t have to express themselves in foreign languages, nor did they have to use a large amount of words and phrases borrowed from other languages to prove their intellectual superiority. Being bilingual or multilingual is and should also be part, or even the apogée of the

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intelligentsia’s modus operandi. Many Congolese and Africans don’t seem to value and be proud of multilingualism unless it involves knowledge of colonial languages. This is a problem that even Mobutu’s Authenticité politics didn’t manage to address effectively. Of course, and ironically, the key documents about Authenticité were written in French, the official language of Congo-Zaire. As an international educator who believes in the power of proverbs and world wisdoms, I would like to begin my thoughts about the relation between the 5Cs and education with the Chinese saying about long planning and education: If you plan for a year, plant a seed. If for ten years, plant a tree. If for a hundred years, teach the people. When you sow a seed once, you will reap a single harvest. When you teach the people, you will reap a hundred harvests. (K’Uan-Tzu 551-479 B.C.).

So to K’Uan-Tzu and to all Chinese, especially those who are living and working in DRC, I say nihao and xie xie, or hello and thank you for their competitive cooperation and partnership. I hope the China-DRC partnership will also be a teaching and learning opportunity, thereby allowing the Congolese people to reap a hundred harvests. K’Uan-Tzu’s wise saying can and must help all peoples of the world, including Congolese leaders, some of whom – despite big challenges – are doing their best to get the country out of its actual predicament. The saying can and must help us to move forward. It can and it must give us new and progressive ways of thinking as we are in the process of changing, building, repairing, teaching, sowing, digging, cleaning, and doing all kinds of work to improve the quality of life for all fellow Congolese regardless of their ethnic groups, provincial origins, and political affiliations. Like the Americans, the Congolese people should also believe in the motto, “E pluribus unum,” or “Out of many, one.” The Chinese saying can and must help political leaders, senators, députés, province governors, and district, territory, and sector leaders as well as all Congolese citizens for the realization of the 5Cs and other work done in private sectors all over the country.

II. The Relevance of Education for the Five Chantiers The 5Cs and many other development projects are and must not be oneyear or five-year works. They must be lasting works done by many people over a longer period of time. That is why these works require education

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and different kinds of institutions of learning using various methodologies and appropriate technologies. Undoubtedly, the 5Cs cannot be successful today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and for many years to come if institutions of learning at all levels are falling apart, and especially if many children and adults are illiterate because they couldn’t even receive an elementary education. DRC leaders must do whatever is in their power to ensure universal access to elementary school in accordance with the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number two.1 The 5Cs will not be successful for a long time if after primary school many children don’t attend high school due to financial and other problems such as child labor, child soldiers, girls’ early marriage, teen age pregnancy, etc. The 5Cs’ success cannot last long if many high school students fail on their final examinations or Examen d’Etat due to many reasons, including but not limited to their learning and teaching conditions, lack of qualified teachers, lack of appropriate teaching materials and supplies, etc. Moreover, the Chantiers success cannot last much longer if students, most of whom come from poor families, don’t have scholarships and other kinds of financial aid to pursue their education at universities or at other institutions of higher learning and professional schools. The 5Cs success cannot last for a long time if teachers and professors do not receive necessary incentives, including regular and decent salaries; or if university professors are not given time and resources to teach effectively, to conduct research, and to write and share their research results through publications, be they books published by university presses, be they articles published in national and international newspapers and journals, be they through free talks on national radio and television, etc. Academic and other freedoms matter. DRC’s reconstruction and modernization projects cannot be fully effective if PARENTS do not take their parenting responsibilities seriously, including but not limited to helping their children with homework, keeping their children out of the streets and dangerous places, especially during the night, and preventing children from spending more 1

The United Nations MDGs are: (1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger (2) Achieve universal primary education (3) Promote gender equality and empower women (4) Reduce child mortality rates (5) Improve maternal health (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases (7) Ensure environmental sustainability (8) Develop a global partnership for development in the least developed countries, including opening the world markets to their goods. For further information, see UNDP, “The Millennium Development Goals: Eight Goals for 2015.” www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview.html

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time on watching TV than on studying; nor will these projects succeed if parents are not willing to limit the size of their families in order to take better care of their children; nor if polygamists believe that it’s more important to save and spend more money and fortune on their next dowry than to invest in their children’s education; and of course, nor if students have no respect for parents and teachers. Very often, students’ performance at school is a reflection of what is going on at home, be it child abuse and neglect, hunger, spouse abuse, separation, divorce, etc.

III. Gender Equality and Development The challenging task of nation-building, mending, protecting, and uniting the Congolese people cannot and will not be fulfilled effectively if some cultural beliefs and practices, institutions of learning, and methodologies don’t allow both boys and girls to enjoy equal educational and professional opportunities. The inclusion of women is a sine qua non for fully successful development. This is a fact that is supported not only by contemporary feminist and human rights theories, but also by some African teaching stories. For example, according to Osun and the Power of Woman, a Yoruba teaching story: Olodumare, the Supreme Creator, who is both male and female, wanted to prepare the earth for human habitation. To organize things, Olodumare sent the seventeen major deities. Osun was the only woman; all the rest were men. Each of the deities was given specific abilities and specific assignments. But when the male deities held their planning meetings, they did not invite Osun. “She is a woman,” they said. However, Olodumare had given great powers to Osun. Her womb is the matrix of all life in the universe. In her lies tremendous power, unlimited potential, infinities of existence. She wears a perfectly carved, beaded crown, and with her beaded comb she parts the pathway of both human and divine life. She is the leader of the aje, the powerful beings and forces in the world. When the male deities ignored Osun, she made their plans fail. The male deities returned to Olodumare for help. After listening, Olodumare asked, “What about Osun?” “She is only a woman,” they replied, “so we left her out.” Olodumare spoke in strong words, “you must go back to her, beg her for forgiveness, make a sacrifice to her, and give her whatever she asks.” The male deities did so, and Osun forgave them. What did she ask for? The secret initiation that the men used to keep women in the background. She

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wanted it for herself and for all women who are as powerful as she. The men agreed and initiated her into the secret knowledge. From that time onward, their plans were successful.2

This powerful story suggests that discrimination against women can result in the failure of men’s and societies’ plans. Osun and the Power of Woman is also reminiscent of The Subjection of Women, in which the authors state, among other things, that, “the principle which regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes – the legal subordination of one sex to the other – is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be replaced by a principle of perfect equality, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, no disability on the other” (Mill and Taylor 1869 (1997); Mill in M. Wollsstonecraft 1985, c1, 219). So now is the time to understand that women should not only be valued based on their wedding rings and childbearing ability. Education, diplomas and certificates could also, in many cases, improve the quality of life and longevity, especially for children, many of whom die before their fifth birthday. It is time to understand that girls and women are capable of pursuing education at any level. It is time to understand that some girls perform better at school than boys.

IV. Conclusion In conclusion, I strongly believe that education, teaching methodologies, institutions of learning at all levels – kindergarten, primary, secondary, university, as well as professional schools – are and must be the foundations of any reconstruction and modernization efforts in DRC and elsewhere. That is the best possible way to realize lasting development, security, and peace. For a country that has experienced “Africa’s first world war” and the deadliest war of the last two decades or so, education must also include conflict resolution methods, sex education, gender equality, and respect for women in peace time as in war time. The raping of women in eastern Congo has been one of the worst public revelations for our country. It must stop. Without education, excellent schools, and new methodologies for the 21st century, our independence and sovereignty will be just words. 2

Adapted from a Yoruba story by Deidre L. Badejo. Deidre L. Badejo, “Osun Seegesi: The Deified Power of African Women and the Social Ideal.” Paper presented at the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace Conference, Seoul, South Korea, August 20-27, 1995.

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Without an excellent and world-ready education, we will continue to rely on foreign assistance for just about everything, including basic needs like food and drinking water. Without education, it will be very difficult to guarantee longevity for the 5Cs. It takes education to solve various problems relative to infrastructure, employment, housing, water, and electricity. It takes education to have a healthy and wealthy population. It takes a village to raise a child. Education is everything. Consequently, today’s institutions of learning must understand the importance of new technologies, especially information and communications technology (ICT). If we neglect this field, we will continue to lag behind and things will keep falling apart. Our educational systems must reward hard work and excellence. Grades should reflect students’ performance rather than subjective criteria. Bought and undeserved diplomas are harmful to our country’s development. Undeserved degrees deliver mediocre workers to the job market as well as mediocre leaders. Our educational systems must make the learners aware of our fabulous natural and mineral resources; how to exploit and use them for the common good and as a bargaining tool for international business and political negotiations. DRC is a “geological scandal” and as such it should be doing much better. There is no reason whatsoever why a country like DRC should be among the poorest and least developed countries in the world. As a country, we will achieve development goals and go forward only: If we all join in and work together If we are all united in a common purpose If we love one another as fellow Congolese If we stop fighting and killing one another If we respect human rights If we improve women’s conditions If we value education as the engine of durable development If we all wake up, stand up, walk, and run as fast as possible, because to some extent, today’s globalized world looks like a jungle in which, as the African Fable of the Lion and the Gazelle and Lion puts it: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to

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death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: When the sun comes up, you’d better be running (Quote Investigator).3 Wake up Congolese! Rise up! Stand up! Debout Congolais! Walk! Run! Fly! Yes, we can! Iyo, tokokoka! Oui, nous le pouvons!

It’s never too late. And if anybody thinks it’s too late, then they should know that it’s better late than never.

3

“The Fable of the Lion and the Gazelle,” qtd in The Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/08/05/lion-gazelle/

PART VI: NATURALIZATION AND COSMOCITIZENSHIP

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE THE NATURALIZATION PROCESS

I. Applying for Naturalization ON OCTOBER 29, 2001, I BECAME A PERMANENT RESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Ten years later, on September 9, 2011, I finally decided to become a US citizen and so I applied for naturalization.

A. Filling Out the Application Form I filled out the N-400 Application for Naturalization form, issued by the Department of Homeland Security, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The Form is 10 pages long and consists of fourteen parts. These parts are as follows: Part 1. Your Name (Person applying for naturalization) Part 2. Information About Your Eligibility (Check only one). [Here I certified that] “I am at least 18 years old and “I have been a lawful permanent resident of the United States for at least three years, and I have been married to and living with the same US citizen for the last three years, and my spouse has been a US citizen for the last three years.”1 Part 3. Information About You (Including, e.g. US Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Country and Nationality of Birth, etc.) Part 4. Address and telephone Numbers Part 5. Information for Criminal Records Search Part 6. Information About Your Residence and Employment Part 7. Time Outside the United States (Including Trips to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands). [Here I was required to list] “all trips of 24 1

Actually my Canadian-born wife became a US citizen in 2000.

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hours or more that you have taken outside the United States since becoming a lawful permanent resident. Begin with your most recent trip.…”2 Part 8. Information About Your Marital History Part 9. Information About Your Children [Here I provided information about my two stepdaughters]. Part 10. Additional Questions. [These are General Questions as well as specific questions relative to Affiliations to Groups and questions about Continuous Residence; Good Moral Character; Military Service; Removal, Exclusion, and Deportation Proceedings; Selective Service Registration; and Oath Requirements.] Part 11. Your Signature Part 12. Signature of Person Who Prepared This Application for You (If applicable) Part 13. Signature at Interview. Part 14. Oath of Allegiance

The application fee for the N-400 was $ 595.00. There was also a separate fee of $ 85.00 for biometrics.

B. First Notice: Notice of Action On September 26, 2011, i.e., approximately two weeks after I mailed my N-400 Application to the USCIS, I received an I-797C, Notice of Action acknowledging receipt of my dossier with the Single Application Fee of $ 680.00. The I-797C, Notice of Action contained, among other things, my Application Number (NBC) and my USCIS A Number. Other pieces of information in that document were the following: Please verify your personal information listed above and immediately notify our office at the address or phone number listed below if there are any changes.

2

I took 6 trips totaling 125 days between October 29, 2009 and August 5, 2006. I traveled to Belgium, France, DRC, China, South Korea, Canada, Bahamas, and Mexico.

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Upon receipt of all required Record Checks, you will be scheduled to appear for an interview at your local USCIS field office. For more information about the naturalization process and eligibility requirements, please read A Guide to Naturalization (M476). USCIS also has a free booklet to help study for the naturalization test. Ask about Learn About the United States Quick Civics Lessons when you go to have your fingerprints taken at the Application Support Center.

I checked and double-checked my personal information as listed on the Form I-797C. Everything was correct and so there was no need of calling or notifying the USCIS about anything. I just had to wait for the next step, of which I was notified much sooner than I thought.

C. Second Notice: Biometrics Notification On October 7, 2011, or eleven days after the first I-797C, Notice of Action, I received the second Notice. It was the Biometrics Notification. The Notice Date was October 04, 2011. The USCIS-issued Notice of Action read as follows: To process your application, USCIS must capture your biometrics and have your fingerprints cleared by the FBI. The photo taken may be used on your naturalization certificate. PLEASE APPEAR AT THE BELOW APPLICATION SUPPORT CENTER AT THE DATE AND TIME SPECIFIED. If you are unable to do so, complete the bottom of this notice and return the entire original notice to the address below. RESCHEDULING YOUR APPOINTMENT WILL DELAY YOUR APPLICATION. IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR AS SCHEDULED BELOW OR FAIL TO REQUEST RESCHEDULING, YOUR APPLICATION WILL BE CONSIDERED ABANDONED. APPLICATION SUPPORT CENTER USCIS BALTIMORE 100 S. CHARLES STREET, SUITE 201 BALTIMORE, MD 21201 DATE AND TIME OF APPOINTMENT: 10/17/2011 AT 11:00 AM WHEN YOU GO TO THE APPLICATION SUPPORT CENTER TO HAVE YOUR BIOMETRICS TAKEN, YOU MUST BRING:

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THIS APPOINTMENT NOTICE and PHOTO IDENTIFICATION. Naturalization applicants must bring their Alien Registration Card. USCIS has a free booklet to help you study for the naturalization. Ask about “Learn About the United States: Quick Civics Lessons” when you go to have your fingerprints taken at the Application Support Center. NO CELL PHONES, CAMERAS, OR OTHER RECORDING DEVICES PERMITTED. [Etc.]

D. Third Notice: Pre-Interview Case File Review On November 23, 2011, or thirty seven days after my biometrics and fingerprints appointment, USCIS sent me the third notice. The Notice date was 11/16/2011. The document contained, among others, the following pieces of information: THIS IS NOT AN INTERVIEW NOTICE Subject: Pre-Interview Case File Review. Prior to forwarding your case for interview, USCIS has performed a complete review of your file and Application for Naturalization (Form N400). As a result of that review, we have identified additional documentation may be needed. We recommend that you bring the documents listed below to your naturalization interview to limit any potential delays that might result if needed documents are not available at interview. In the event additional documentation is required, you will be advised during your interview. All documents must be clear and legible. If you have a document in any language other than English, please provide an English translation along with the original document. The translator must certify that the translation is complete and accurate, and that he or she is qualified to translate. If you have any questions about your interview or about the information requested please contact USCIS National Customer Service Center at 1800-375-5283. Thank You. USCIS recommends you bring the following documents to your interview: Bring your state-issued driver’s license or state-issued photo identification card.

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Chapter Twenty-One If you are applying for naturalization on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen, bring an original Internal Revenue Service (IRS) form 1722 listing tax information for the past three years or copies of the income tax forms you filed for the past three years. For assistance, please call the IRS tollfree at 1-800-829-1040 or you may complete Form 4506 (request for copy or transcript of tax form) available at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irsfill/f4506.pdf. If you are applying for naturalization on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen, bring proof of residence (IRS return transcript or federal tax form returns, rent or mortgage payments, utility bills, etc.). Questions may be directed to the USCIS National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283. Thank You. REMINDER: bring this original notice with your documents.

I immediately prepared the additional documentation. At this point I was fired up and ready for the interview. I studied the tests of English and US history and government. I studied using The US Department of Homeland Security, USCIS, Office of Citizenship’s booklet, Learn About the United States: Quick Civics Lessons for the Naturalization Test, Washington, DC, 2011. In addition to the booklet, there was also an Audio CD containing 100 questions and answers. I started with the booklet and moved to the CD to which I listened while driving. Questions were relatively easy. For example: [Question # 1] What is the supreme law of the land? (Answer: the Constitution) [Question # 2] What does the Constitution do? (A: sets the government; defines the government; protects basic rights of Americans) [Question # 3] The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words? (A: We the People) [Question # 96] Why does the flag have 13 stripes? (A: because there were 13 original colonies) [Question # 97] Why does the flag have 50 stars? (A: because there are 50 states…) [Question # 98] What is the name of the national anthem? (A: The Star Spangled Banner)

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[Question # 99] When do we celebrate Independence Day? (A: July 4)

E. The Naturalization Interview My Naturalization Interview took place on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 around 10:45 a.m. The Department of Homeland Security/USCIS N-659, Naturalization Interview Document Check List consisted of fourteen items, for example: You must be properly attired and bring: Your Permanent Resident Card (previously known as “Alien Registration Card” or: “Green Card”) and…. A government issued photo identification; and All passports and travel documents (including expired and current) issued by any government Although not required, it is recommended that you bring two additional passport-style photos (2”x2”). If your current name is different than the name on your Permanent Resident Card, bring: The document that legally changed your name (e.g., marriage license, divorce decree, court document) If you are applying on the basis of marriage to a U.S. citizen, bring: Proof that your spouse has been a U.S. citizen for at least the past three years (birth certificate, naturalization certificate, certificate of citizenship, your spouse’s valid U.S. passport, or Form FS-240, Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America); and Your current marriage certificate registered by a civil authority; and Proof of the termination of all previous marriages for both you and your spouse (divorce decree, death certificate, etc., registered by a civil authority; and An original Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1722 listing tax information for the past three years…, or copies of the income tax forms you filed for the past three years; and Proof of marital union as well as proof of residence; and

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My interview with the USCIS officer Brown was faster and shorter than I expected. Everything was done under oath. I showed my Green Card, driver’s license, and passports. I was asked personal and professional questions. I was asked to read and write a short sentence in English, which he dictated. Other Naturalization Test questions were, for example, “What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?” (A: the Bill of Rights). “We elect a President for how many years?” (A: four). “What is the name of the Speaker of the House of Representatives now?” (A: John Boehner). “Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?” (A: American Indians). “When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?” (A: July 4, 1776). “Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States.” (A: Missouri). Bingo! I gave correct answers to all questions. The interviewing officer, Mr. Brown, issued me form N-652, Naturalization Interview Results. On that one-page document, it was stated, among other things: On January 18, 2012, you were interviewed by USCIS Officer Brown. You passed the tests of English and U.S. history and government. USCIS will send you a written decision about your application. A decision cannot yet be made about your application. It is very important that you: Notify USCIS if you change your address. Come to any scheduled interview. Submit all requested documents. Send any questions about this application in writing to the officer named above. Include your full name, Alien Registration Number (File#), and a copy of this paper. Go to any Oath Ceremony that you are scheduled to attend. Notify USCIS as soon as possible in writing if you cannot come to any scheduled interview or Oath.

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The process was moving much faster and more smoothly than I thought. I expected the USCIS written decision and Oath Ceremony to happen in February or March 2012, since I was told the process would take six months. Moreover, I know several people whose application took a year or longer. But I was wrong.

F. Fourth and Last Notice: Notification of Naturalization Oath Ceremony Less than ten days after the interview, I received USCIS Form N-445, Notice of Naturalization Oath Ceremony. On that January 24, 2012 Notice, it was stated, among other things: You are hereby notified to appear for a Naturalization Oath Ceremony on: Monday, January 30, 2012 At: US CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES 31 HOPKINS PLAZA BALTIMORE, MD 21201 ROOM 101 FALLON FEDERAL BUILDING, PINK GATE, NONE Please report promptly at 9:00 A.M. You must bring the following with you: This letter, WITH ALL THE QUESTIONS ON PAGE 2 ANSWERED. TYPE OR PRINT ANSWERS IN BLACK INK. Permanent Resident Card. Any Immigration document you may have. If the naturalization application is on behalf of your child (children), bring your child (children). Other. Proper attire should be worn.

On Monday, January 30, 2012, I showed up to Fallon Federal Building at 8:45 a.m. There was a long line at the security checkpoint. I headed to

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Room 101, where I was asked to sit and wait along with numerous other naturalization candidates from the four corners of the world. I drove there alone. My wife couldn’t take that day off. Fortunately, I was joined a few minutes later by Dr. Sambe Duale, a friend and fellow Congolese from the Equateur province. He had become a US citizen several years earlier. At 9:15 a.m., all Naturalization candidates were asked to go to the seventh floor using a high capacity elevator. Before taking the Naturalization Oath, candidates had to once again and for the last time in this process, answer eight questions on page 2 of Form N-445. I answered all questions on the Application Form before showing up to the Federal Building. The USCIS assignment was as follows: AFTER the date you were first interviewed on your Application, Form N400: Have you married, or been widowed, separated, or divorced? (If “Yes,” please bring documented proof of marriage, death, separation or divorce.) Have you traveled outside the United States? Have you knowingly committed any crime or offense, for which you have not been arrested? Have you been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, convicted, fined or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance, including traffic violations? Have you joined any organization, including the Communist Party, or become associated or connected therewith in any way? Have you claimed exemption from military service? Has there been any change in your willingness to bear arms on behalf of the United States; to perform non-combatant service in the armed forces of the United States; to perform work of national importance under civilian direction, if the law requires it? Have you practiced polygamy, received income from illegal gambling, been a prostitute, procured anyone for prostitution or been involved in any other unlawful commercialized vice, encouraged or helped any alien to enter the United States illegally, illicitly trafficked in drugs or marijuana, given any false testimony to obtain immigration benefits, or been a habitual drunkard?

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My answer to all these questions was “No”. Of course, I also had to certify that, “each of the answers shown above were made by me or at my direction, and that they are true and correct as of the date of my naturalization oath ceremony.” We signed, dated, and turned in Form N445 to the USCIS Officers. They quickly reviewed the Form with each candidate. The next step was about returning our “Alien Card,” thereby signifying that we were just minutes away from being “disalienated,” i.e., naturalized. This seems to strangely suggest, to some extent, that being an “alien” is like being artificial. In this sense, the Naturalization Oath Ceremony is like an initiation rite, a rite of passage through which one moves from one’s artificiality or alienness to naturalness or citizenship. After returning the Alien Card to the Officers, each candidate was given the opportunity to take a look at his or her CERTIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION and check his or her personal information for accuracy. Officers handed to all candidates a package consisting of: A copy of The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, published by US Department of Homeland Security – US Citizenship and Immigration Services (http://www.uscis.gov). It is worth noting, as the USCIS Director reminded new citizens in this booklet, that, “the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are the two most important, and enduring documents in our Nation’s history. It has been said that, The Declaration of Independence was the promise; the Constitution the fulfillment.” The Citizen’s Almanac: FUNDAMENTAL DOCUMENTS, SYMBOLS, AND ANTHEMS OF THE UNITED STATES, published by US Department of Homeland Security – US Citizenship and Immigration Services (http://www.uscis.gov). The Citizen’s Almanac contains, among other things, Presidential Statements on Citizenship and Immigration. Three of them caught my attention, namely the statements by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama: The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations and Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment. (George Washington, First President of the United States, 1789-1797)

Washington’s statement reminds us of some of the reasons why colonists and many immigrants came to the United States of America, that

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is, to seek political liberty, religious freedom, and economic opportunity, and to escape persecution. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling. (Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, 18611865)

Lincoln’s statement is reminiscent of the belief that Americans, by birth or by choice, are all united by the common civic values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. For more than two centuries, this nation has been a beacon of hope and opportunity, a place that has drawn enterprising men and women from around the world who have sought to build a life as good as their talents and their hard work would allow. And generation after generation of immigrants have come to these shores because they believe that in America all things are possible. (Barack H. Obama, 44th President of the United States, 2009-2017)

It is worth remembering that in 2007, Barack Obama – the Junior Senator from Illinois – launched his presidential campaign from Springfield, Illinois, which was Lincoln’s birth place. One of Obama’s favored stories is “of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.” Presidents Washington’s and Obama’s statements have something in common. They remind us of an important fact about the United States of America, i.e., that it is an aliens’ nation, an immigrants’ nation, the land of the free and the land of opportunity. Other items in our package were: A VOTER’S GUIDE to Federal Elections, published by the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC), September 2011 (www.eac.gov) Important Information for New Citizens. This USCIS flyer contained, among other things, photographs of important symbols such as the US Flag, the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell, etc. The flyer also contained the phrase, Congratulations on becoming a US citizen. Other pieces of important information were as follow: YOUR RIGHTS Freedom to express yourself. Freedom to worship as you wish. Right to a prompt, fair trial by a jury.

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Right to vote in elections for public officials. Right to apply for federal employment. Right to run for elected office. Freedom to pursue “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”3 YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES Support and defend the Constitution. Stay informed of the issues affecting your community. Participate in the democratic process. Respect and obey federal, state, and local laws. Respect the rights, beliefs, and opinions of others. Participate in your local community. Pay income and other taxes honestly, and on time, to federal, state, and local authorities. Serve on a jury when called upon.4 Defend country if the need should arise. NEXT STEPS: NOW THAT YOU ARE A U.S. CITIZEN Apply for a U.S. Passport Update Your Social Security Record Register to Vote Obtain a Certificate of Citizenship for Your Child Sponsor Family Members to Come to the United States [etc.]

As we went through the Naturalization package, USCIS Officers reminded us of the fact that we were still aliens until and unless we did take the Oath, which was just a few seconds away. Then that moment came. Everything began with the singing of the US National Anthem, followed by the Pledge and Oath of Allegiance. The presiding Officer asked everybody to stand up and, of course, we did so gladly and cheerfully. The pre-recorded music was helpful, since we hadn’t rehearsed anything so that we could sing in a musically sound fashion and with harmony. Moreover, there was no guarantee that everybody knew the Anthem’s words by heart. Everybody had a written text of the Anthem. 3

This phrase comes from a memorable statement from the Declaration of Independence, i.e., “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” 4 By the way, on October 25, 2013, I received from the Jury Commissioner, Circuit Court for Baltimore City, a notice summoning me to jury service as a trial juror, scheduled for December 11, 2013. I showed up on that date, but I was not selected for the murder case.

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The Star-Spangled Banner Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the Twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, Thro’ the perilous fight; O’er the ramparts we watched, Were so gallantly streaming, And the rockets red glare, The bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag Was still there. Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?5 Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the Flag Of the United States of America And to the Republic For which it stands, One Nation, under God, Indivisible, with liberty And justice for all. Oath of Allegiance I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign Prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; 5

The Star-Spangled Banner was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key after a critical battle in the War of 1812. Mr. Key was a lawyer and amateur poet who had been sent to Baltimore, Maryland, to secure the release of Dr. William Beans, an American taken prisoner by the British (The Citizen’s Almanac, p. 10). Other patriotic Anthems are, America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates, 1893 (see The Citizen’s Almanac p. 14); God Bless America by Irving Berlin, 1938 (The Citizen’s Almanac, p. 15); I Hear America Singing, from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, 1860 (The Citizen’s Almanac, p. 17); Concord Hymn by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1837 (The Citizen’s Almanac, p. 19; and The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, 1883 (The Citizen’s Almanac, p. 20).

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that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform non-combatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.6

II. A Special Milestone: The New Citizenship and Congratulatory Messages With the solemn Oath of Allegiance, we definitely became citizens of the United States of America. From now on, we were reminded, as former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis eloquently put it, that “The only title in our democracy superior to that of President [is] the title of citizen.” The presiding officer invited us to give ourselves a round of applause for this special milestone in our lives. We cheerfully did so. Some people shed tears of joy. After the Pledge of Allegiance, we listened to a congratulatory video message from Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America, whose black father was from Kenya. Our Naturalization package also included written messages from the President and from the USCIS Director.

A. Message from the President THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON Dear Fellow American: I am honored to congratulate you on becoming a citizen of the United States of America. You represent the promise of the American Dream, and because of your determination, this great Nation is now your Nation. You have sworn a solemn oath to this country, and you share in its privileges and responsibilities. Our democratic principles and liberties are yours to uphold through active and engaged participation. I encourage you 6

Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security – US Citizenship and Immigration Services M-789 (06/10).

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to be involved in your community and to promote the values that guide us as Americans: hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism. Since our founding, generations of immigrants have come to this country full of hope for a brighter future, and they have made sacrifices in order to pass that legacy on to their children and grandchildren. This is the price and the promise of citizenship. You are now part of this precious history, and you serve as an inspiration to those who will come after you. We embrace you as a new citizen of our land, and we welcome you to the American family. Sincerely, Barack Obama [Signature]

In addition to President Obama’s messages, there was also another message from the USCIS Director. It was written in The Citizen’s Almanac, one of the key documents included in the Naturalization Oath Ceremony package. Like President Obama’s message, the Director’s message was also a congratulatory and welcome message. It also reminded new citizens of their rights and responsibilities.

B. Message from the USCIS Director TODAY YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA-becoming “a peer of kings” as President Calvin Coolidge once said. This occasion is a defining moment that should not soon be forgotten, for it marks the beginning of a new era in your lifetime as a U.S. citizen. Naturalized citizens are an important part of our great democracy, bringing a wealth of talent, ability, and character to this Nation. Your fellow citizens recognize the sacrifices you have made to reach this milestone and with open arms we welcome you. The United States offers an abundance of freedom and opportunity for all its citizens and we wish you all the best along the way. As you will read in this booklet, The Citizen’s Almanac, naturalized citizens have played an important role in shaping this country. From Alexander Hamilton to Albert Einstein, foreign-born Americans have contributed to all aspects of society – literature, motion pictures, public service, and athletics, to name just a few. As a citizen of the United States, it is now your turn to add to this great legacy.

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For more than 200 years, we have been bound by the principles and ideals expressed in our founding documents, but it is up to citizens like you to carry on this legacy for future generations. Upon taking the Oath of Allegiance, you claimed for yourself the Godgiven unalienable rights that the Declaration of Independence sets forth as a natural right to all people. You also made a commitment to this country and were therefore awarded its highest privilege – U.S. citizenship; but great responsibilities accompany this privilege. You now have certain rights and responsibilities that you must exercise in order to maintain our system of government. By becoming an active and participatory citizen, you further strengthen the foundation of our Nation. The United States of America is now your country [Italicized for emphasis] and The Citizen’s Almanac contains information on the history, people, and events that have brought us where we are today as a beacon of hope and freedom to the world. We hope the contents of this booklet will serve as a constant reminder of the important rights and responsibilities you now have as a U.S. citizen. By continuing to learn about your new country, its founding ideals, achievements, and history, you will enjoy the fruits of responsible citizenship for years to come. Through your efforts, the freedom and liberty of future generations will be preserved and ensured. May you find fulfillment and success in all your endeavors as a citizen of this great Nation. Congratulations and welcome. May the United States of America provide you peace, opportunity, and security.7

III. Certificate of Citizenship and Passport Right after the Naturalization Ceremony we received our Certificate of Citizenship while being photographed by family members and friends in attendance. From my I-Phone I emailed some photographs to friends and family members, some of whom sent me congratulatory messages via Facebook. Sambe had an early afternoon engagement in Washington, DC and so we couldn’t have coffee or lunch after the Ceremony. We agreed on catching up with champagne during the National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl XLVI. I spent the afternoon at home because I didn’t have to go to work. I was on a Tuesdays and Thursdays schedule, which also allowed me to work from my home office on other days of the week. I sent some more emails with the photos du jour or naturalization photographs to 7

Source: The Citizen’s Almanac – A publication of the US Department of Homeland Security/US Citizenship and Immigration Services, M-76 (rev. 07/10), v-vi. My emphases.

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friends and relatives. My wife and I ended the day with a well-deserved dinner at Carrabbas, an Italian restaurant on Belair Road in Baltimore. On Sunday, February 5, 2012, my wife and I joined friends in Washington, DC, where we cheerfully toasted my Naturalization while watching the Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. They played at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The giants won 21 to 17. On February 6, 2012, I applied for a US Passport from the United States Postal Services (USPS), Harford Road Station. The application fee was $ 110.00. The USPS Passport fee was $ 25.00 and the domestic money order fee was $ 1.15. So the total amount I paid was $ 136.15, which was much less than the cost of a DRC Passport, i.e., ca. $ 250.00. My DRC Passport expired in July 2011 and my Green Card expired in November 2011. I didn’t see the urgency of renewing them, because I planned on applying for US citizenship by the end of the summer of 2011. The US Post Office employee told me that my US Passport would be mailed to me in 4 to 6 weeks, i.e., sometime between February 27, 2012 and March 12, 2012. But I received it earlier than I expected. Indeed, on Thursday, February 23, 2012, the Passport was in my mailbox. That was less than three weeks from the application date. On page 3 of the Passport it is written: WE THE PEOPLE Of the United States, In order to form a more perfect Union, Establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, Provide for the common defense, Promote the general Welfare, and secure The Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and Our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The last line on page 3 reads, “SIGNATURE OF BEARER/SIGNATURE DU TITULAIRE/FIRMA DEL TITULAR,” in English, Français, and Español, respectively. As a polyglot, I loved reading this trilingual request to sign the document. I joyfully signed it thereby signifying that from now on, I am part of, “We the People of the United States.” On page 5 relative to “IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR PASSPORT,” the first line is a reminder that, “THIS PASSPORT IS NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED BY THE BEARER IN THE AREA DESIGNATED ON PAGE THREE.” I

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silently said Amen to the three-language request on page 1 of the Passport, that is: English The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection. Français Le Secrétaire d’Etat des Etats-Unis d’Amérique prie par les présentes toutes autorités compétentes de laisser passer le citoyen ou ressortissant des Etats-Unis titulaire du présent passeport, sans délai ni difficulté et, en cas de besoin, de lui accorder toute aide et protection légitimes. Español El Secretario de Estado de los Estados Unidos de América por el presente solicita a las autoridades competentes permitir el paso del ciudadano o nacional de los Estados Unidos aquí nombrado, sin demora ni dificultades, y en caso de necesidad, prestarle toda la ayuda y protección licitas.

I said Amen and Hallelujah to these requests because, as I explained earlier, I went through a lot of delays and hindrances during my global safari. My new US Passport came along with two leaflets from the US Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. These documents contained information about Travel Tips, Electronic Passport, Passport Services, etc. One of the leaflets featured the photograph of the United States of America and a world map. It also contained the following statement, “With Your U.S. Passport, the World is Yours!” I love this statement, not because of my ownership of the world as a personal property, so to speak, or as something that I conquered through some hidden ideology, but because of the feeling of enhanced membership into something big and important. I also love that statement because of President Coolidge’s fantastic and uplifting idea of supposedly “becoming a peer of kings” through US citizenship. What’s more, I sometimes like referring to myself in my bio sketch as a “cosmocitizen,” or global citizen. So, to some extent, my US Passport is like a confirmation of my cosmocitizenship; quod erat demonstrandum, or which is to be demonstrated, in Latin. I felt like taking an international trip immediately to test my global citizenship and to find out if or how the world is really mine. Unfortunately I couldn’t, because I wasn’t on vacation and there was

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no other plausible reason to travel. Moreover, global citizenship is not the synonym of global “dollarship.” As part of the requirements for the passport application, I also sent the original copy of my new US Certificate of Naturalization. The US Department of State mailed it back separately. I received it the day after my receipt of the US Passport. So on February 24, 2012, I had both my Certificate of Naturalization and US Passport. Whenever appropriate and necessary, “birthers” may be entitled to question my nationality based on my place of birth. However, they will and should shut up when I show them my “papers,” i.e., my Certificate of Naturalization and US Passport, both of which are MADE IN USA.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO REASONS FOR BECOMING A US CITIZEN

I. Citizenship and Membership A. Alienness, Alienation, and a Difficult Decision WHY DID I FINALLY DECIDE TO BECOME A US CITIZEN after twenty-one years in the country? Isn’t a Green Card sufficient to live and work in the United States? Don’t I love my native land, DRC? These are some of the questions with which I struggled as I thought about the naturalization process. As I explained earlier in this book and elsewhere,1 I left my country, then known as the Republic of Zaire in 1978, one year after my first and only voting exercise in the 1977 presidential election. In that election, there was only one candidate, Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga, the founding president of the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR), the state party and the only party in the whole country. The voting process consisted of casting either a green ballot, or a red ballot. The green ballot signified yes to Mobutu and the red ballot signified no to him. Everything took place under the watchful eyes of the regime’s election officers, police and/or soldiers. They were there to ensure that voters casted the green ballot, which the overwhelming majority of voters did, sometimes reluctantly. It was dangerous to cast the red ballot. Many of those who did so had to explain themselves. Some of them went through torture and/or imprisonment. So for many decades, my fellow Zairians/Congolese couldn’t freely exercise their right to vote and participate in their country’s democratic process. I spent twelve years in Europe without ever participating in the Zairian/Congolese elections, which took place every five or seven years. Expatriates didn’t vote. There was no such thing as an absentee ballot. For understandable reasons, I also couldn’t vote in Italian or European elections, not even in local or regional elections in Rome-Lazio where I 1 See Re-Electing President Obama & Moving USA Forward (2012), a selfpublished eBook that was based, mutatis mutandis, on this chapter.

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was a lawful resident for many years. In Rome, I had a government-issued ID card on which was written, among other things, “REPUBBLICA ITALIANA.” However, my citizenship was “Foreign” or “CITTADINANZA STRANIERA,” in Italian. I wondered why they didn’t use “Zairese” or Zairean instead of “Straniera,” since they knew exactly from which foreign country I came. I had a Permesso di Soggiorno, or stay permit, which was renewable every year. I will never forget the long line and the waiting experience one had to go through in the renewal process. Very often one had to go to the Questura di Roma, or the immigration services office very early in the morning, sometimes at 5:00 a.m., that is, two or three hours before the opening time, hoping to be served to avoid coming back over and over again. Foreigners – especially those from Africa – were happy to have their Permesso di Soggiorno renewed, even if it didn’t give them the right to work and vote. I am talking about the pre-Legge 943, or Bill-943 of 30/12/1986 referred to earlier, when it was quasi impossible for most foreigners to work, I mean legally. I was not only a straniero, or foreigner, but also an extracomunitario; I was a straniero extracomunitario, i.e., a foreigner from a non-European Community country. Of course, here too, I am talking about a pre-European Union era. So citizenship privileges such as the right to vote were not my concern at all. As I stated earlier, I first entered the United States in 1990, which means that I have now been in this country for twenty-two years. I came on a tourist visa, which was fortunately changed into an H-1B, a nonimmigrant status that allowed me to extend my stay and work legally. I became a permanent resident in November 2001. Unlike my Italian Permesso di Soggiorno, which I had to renew every year, my US Green Card was valid for ten years. I had more rights with my Green Card than I had with my Permesso di Soggiorno and Libretto di Lavoro or work permit in Italy. As a permanent resident, the only important things from which I was excluded were holding a federal job, voting, and running for a federal office. With a Green Card, I could have become a US citizen several years earlier. But Congolese patriotism and the fear of making a choice that would close other windows of opportunity in DRC were my main concerns. After three decades of living outside my homeland, first as straniero extracomunitario in Europe and secondly as an “alien” in the United States without any imminent plan to return and bring about whatever necessary change most educated expatriates dream and talk about, it became clear to me that US citizenship was a good idea. Most of my close friends from DRC and other countries were naturalized as soon as it was legally possible. Some of them were probably wondering what I

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was waiting for. They have had more choices; they have participated in, and influenced this country’s democratic process. So these factors meant that perhaps it was my time to make a decision to become an American citizen.

B. The Obama Phenomenon and My Second Class Citizenship Then came the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Boston, Massachusetts, July 24, 2004, during which Sen. John Kerry accepted his nomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate for the US presidential election of November 2004. He lost to the Republican incumbent President George W. Bush. At that Convention, Barack Obama, then a state senator from Illinois and a candidate for the US Senate, delivered a well-received keynote address. For some reason I was unable to watch him on the evening he spoke. My wife watched Obama’s speech and was impressed by what she saw and heard that evening. She was interested in voting for the second time after her disappointment with her first voting experience in the presidential election of 2000 between the Democratic candidate Sen. Al Gore and the Republican candidate Gov. George W. Bush. My wife also referred to Obama as a “Kenyan,” because Obama’s father was from Kenya. It should be noted that the “Kenyan” reference had nothing to do with “birthism” or “birtherism,” or the belief – mostly held by conservative Republicans – that Barack Obama is not really an American, because he was supposedly “born in Kenya.” The Kenyan reference was meant to get my immediate attention, because I am an African. My wife recommended that I watch replays of that memorable speech. I did and I was impressed too. The speech elevated Obama on the national stage and marked another important milestone in his political career. I say another milestone because many people believe that the original starting point of Obama’s celebrity and stardom was his election as the first black to head Harvard Law Review in 1990. Geoffrey Robertson – a member of the UN Internal Justice Council – referred to this fact as “Obama’s First Presidency.”2 Then came 2007, when Obama announced his candidacy for the November 2008 presidential election. His early and wowing victory in the Iowa Caucus and on the Super Duper Tuesday 2008 sent the unmistakable signal that he was a serious candidate for the presidency. His message of change and hope was overwhelming, credible, and contagious, so to speak. From the Iowa Caucus victory on, I joined the change movement. I made 2

See Geoffrey Robertson, “Obama’s First Presidency.” The Sidney Morning Herald, June 28, 2008.

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minimum monthly contributions to the Obama 2008 Campaign. I did my best to watch every major campaign rally and speech. I attended Obama’s campaign rally at Baltimore’s First Mariner Arena. I joined the excited crowd in shouting, “Change, Hope, Obama, Now!” Like many Americans in 2008, I was “fired up and ready to go.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to the polling station and vote, because I wasn’t a US citizen yet. I was still an alien. I thought of applying for citizenship so that I could participate in what was clearly a historical election in which there was a great hope to elect the first African American president. But I didn’t apply for citizenship, because I wasn’t sure that my application was going to be processed in time for the November 4, 2008 presidential election. So my support was limited to small monthly financial donations to the campaign. As we know, Barack H. Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on November 4th, 2008. As a campaign supporter, I received an invitation from The Presidential Inaugural Committee “to attend and participate in the Inauguration of Barack H. Obama as President of the United States of America and Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as Vice President of the United States of America on Tuesday, the Twentieth of January two thousand and nine in the City of Washington.” Unfortunately I was unable to travel to Washington. Like millions of people in the United States and around the world, I watched the historical event with my wife and friends on television. Our family big screen TV was delivered just in time to enjoy the historical event. I framed the fancy looking invitation. It is a part of my “Obamabilia” as along with my Certificate of Change and Hope, so to speak. I also included it in the appendices section of my book on President Obama entitled, Obamænon: The Gospel of “Glocal” Change, Hope, Understanding, and Leadership for a Networking World (Gbotokuma 2011, 207). Believe it or not, the publication of this book was a big consolation for my inability to vote in the November 2008 presidential election and contribute to that epic victory. During my two decades or so in the United States, I have experienced five presidential elections resulting in the presidencies of Bill Clinton (two terms, 1993-2001); George W. Bush (two terms, 2001-2009); and Barack Obama (2009-2017), respectively. I liked President Clinton, but I wasn’t fired up during his presidential campaign. I didn’t make any effort to closely follow his election campaign rallies. I didn’t make any financial donation to his campaigns. Maybe I felt too alien and too broke to invest time and money in election campaigns. I wasn’t sure that “nonimmigrant aliens” were allowed to have some level of participation in the US democratic process. Moreover, I didn’t want to do anything that could

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eventually jeopardize my stay in the country. After all, I was used to living my adult life abroad without participating in presidential and other politically important elections. However, in 2000, I was more interested in the presidential election than in previous years. That was perhaps due to my wife’s first opportunity to vote. She had voted for Al Gore, who won the popular vote but lost to George Bush upon a difficult and controversial decision by the US Supreme Court. The court’s intervention was due to the State of Florida’s inability to accurately count its votes. In spite of my elevated level of excitement in the 2000 election, I didn’t make any financial campaign contribution.

C. The Positive Impact of Barack Obama’s First Election Victory My interest in, and support for Barack Obama’s campaign was also understandable by the fact that I am an African immigrant and Obama’s father was from Kenya, and therefore a fellow African. He had spent several years in the United States as a student at the University of Hawaii and at Harvard. Barack Obama’s election victory led me to think and believe that naturalized Americans’ children could also someday become US President. That’s also what change and hope are about. That’s cool! That’s obamenal! That’s the kind of USA in which I would like to continue living and working. That’s the kind of country of which I would like to definitely become a citizen. Prior to the publication of Obamænon (Gbotokuma, 2011) and soon after Barack Obama’s November 4, 2008 epic victory, my excitement about “the Obama phenom” was a catalyst for cogitation on why I would like to finally become a US citizen. I thought of writing an article in which I could include young people’s reactions to the historical event. So on November 6, 2008, or two days after Barack Obama’s election victory, I asked my PHIL220 ethics and values students at MSU to write and share one page of reactions to, and reflections on the event that was a “glocal” sensation, not only in the media, but also on campuses, especially at minority serving institutions. I instructed them to focus their reflections on the meanings of the election victory, first to them personally, and then to the United States and to the world. Virtually everybody in that class was black, African American, and a first time voter. The class was almost equally divided between females and males. Like most people in the United States and around the world, these young students had also held a very strong disbelief about the possibility of a black US President during their lifetime. Historically, this disbelief has been codified, so to speak, in

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the old black saying that, “if you’re black, get back; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re light, you’re all right.” Consequently, despite the fact that Obama is light or biracial, his election victory was a big surprise. Its meanings are, to summarize my students’ and many other people’s views: change in the whites’ perceptions of, and attitudes toward blacks; the overcoming of racism and Eurocentrism; revived patriotism; America being the place where dreams come true; a rejection of worldwide stereotypes about blacks (lazy, fat, dumb, criminal, etc.); changing the world’s view of, and attitudes toward the United States; higher self-esteem among African Americans; the apogée of emancipation and “the Advancement of the Colored People;”3 the realization of MLK’s dream; change; progress; hope; diversity in action; possibility of improved global alliance and collaboration. Mary, one of the students, had the following to say: “I didn’t think that Barack Obama was going to make it this far to being a president….This election made me believe that the Africans are now welcomed into this country….Barack Obama being the president will also stop the issue of segregation, racism, or discrimination in this country. The election gave hope to the people of the United States. It actually proves the name by which this country is called. Everyone in this country – United States – is now united….It unites the Africans, Caucasians, Asians….” Steven, another student, wrote, “this election was very important to me. So much excitement surrounded me this year as a man of color. A black man ran a race with a white man and won. No one had any idea that 2008 was going to be the year of history; a black candidate raised the most money and became the president-elect so early….It has been proven that one of the things people fear the most is change, [but] that outlook proved to be false in this 2008 election….Barack Obama is going to change the world and try his best to establish good or neutral diplomacy with our enemies and try to resolve issues that America has with the rest of the world. Obama promised change and change will reach all around the globe and the world will have a different outlook on America.”4 3

From the U.S. civil rights movement known as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded on February 12, 1909 by Ida B. Wells, W.E.B Du Bois, Archibald Grimké, and others. 4 For additional reactions, see “Morgan State University’s Students React to Barack Obama’s Election Victory,” compiled with an introduction by Zekeh Gbotokuma. Cosmoport - The Newsletter of the Center for Global Studies, Morgan University, Issue Number IX, Fall 2008, 25-26. See also Gbotokuma 2011, 107110. By the way, in a February 18, 2012 email message, Prof. Arthur Bierman, a Caucasian friend and a mentor of mine commented on my book and students’

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The cover page of the Fall 2008 Cosmoport newsletter featured the photograph of the Obama campaign rally in Baltimore. It also contained the following statements, “Change Has Come to the USA & to the World and We Welcome It. COSMOPORT Joins the Glocal Community in Congratulating Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.” As the founding editor of this newsletter and as one of millions of Obamaphiles, I sent a copy of the newsletter to President Obama. In my cover letter I wrote: Dear President Barack Obama: I am pleased and honored to send you two complimentary copies of COSMOPORT – The Newsletter of the Center for Global Studies at Morgan State University. This IXth Issue includes a compilation of Morgan students’ reactions to your historic election victory. I thought that you would not mind reading this additional information about that MEMORABLE MOMENT. The domestic and global challenges are numerous and big. However, there is no doubt that with your AUDACITY OF HOPE, CONFIDENCE, “YES WE CAN” attitude, HAKUNA MATATA spirit, and an overwhelming support that transcends the national borders, CHANGE will become the reality of OUR TIME. CONGRATULATIONS and all the best for the next EIGHT YEARS. Yours sincerely, Dr. Zekeh Gbotokuma, Associate Professor of Philosophy COSMOPORT Editor and Director, Center for Global Studies

A month later and to my pleasant surprise, I received a letter from The White House acknowledging receipt of the copies of Cosmoport that I sent to the president. The letter, which I also reproduced in Cosmoport, Issue X, Summer 2009, was as follows:

reactions as follow, “What a monumental piece of work is your Obamænon….I was particularly moved by your students’ responses to Obama’s becoming president of the US. They were thoughtful, most of them thrilled with a new epoch opening for them, the US, and other nations. And were deeply sincere, finally released from the bleakness of exclusion.”

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506 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON August 3, 2009 Dear Friend:

Thank you for your kind note. Your thoughtful words join a chorus of millions of Americans who are eager to lead our Nation towards a brightest tomorrow. Each day, I am inspired by the encouraging messages of hope and determination I have received from people across the country. With the magnitude of challenges we face, we will only overcome them if our imagination is joined to common purpose. The future we leave to our children and grandchildren will be determined by our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, take great risks, and move forward as one people and one Nation. With your help, we will build on what we have already achieved and lay a new foundation for real and lasting progress. Sincerely, Barack Obama [Signature]

The President’s letter addressed me as “Dear Friend” rather than “Dear Zekeh,” or Dear Dr. Gbotokuma. But it didn’t matter. I was happy and felt good after receiving that letter signed by the president, whose signature was unmistakable. The president has millions of supporters and so it’s just much easier for the White House to refer to them as “Friends” than as Dear Joe. The letter was a clear sign of a US President, whose administration can find the time and ways of dialoguing with ordinary people. By the way, President Obama has tried to be in touch with the American people through traditional mass media. He has also used the latest ICT and social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to interact with them, especially his strong supporters, many of whom are “millennials” and of the ICT-savvy younger generation. From the White House, I have received not only thank you emails and cards for my campaign donations, but also a holidays/Christmas card featuring the first family’s photographs. The card was signed by Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their two daughters Malia, and Sasha; and guess who else? Bo, “the First Dog.” The

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greeting words on the card were as follows, “From our family to yours…May the holiday season and the coming year be filled with joy for you and your family.” That’s cool! Especially the addition of Bo’s signature. That’s one of the things I like about the 44th president of the USA. Receiving a letter and greeting card from President Obama reminded me of my feeling after I received a letter with “Apostolic Blessing” from the Vatican on behalf of Pope John Paul II in 1983.

D. Spero, Ergo Sum, or I Hope, Therefore I am Change, unity, and hope were key themes in Obama’s extraordinary presidential campaign in 2007-2008. Hope is about a better future. Inarguably, no one represents that future better than the historically oppressed people, immigrants, the ethnic and other minorities, the poor, the sick with preexisting conditions, the forgotten, and above all, the young people whose future is logically and chronologically longer than the old ones. It is precisely the idea of change and hope as represented by Obama’s presidency that also influenced my decision to become a US citizen sooner rather than later. As a new citizen whose global safari seems to have reached a final destination, I too, have the audacity to hope. The Audacity of Hope is not simply Obama’s 2006 bestselling book title. The audacity to hope is not simply the favorite topic of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s controversial homilies in Chicago. Hope is a theological virtue. Hope is crucial to the human condition and experience. Like freedom – not necessarily radical freedom à la Jean-Paul Sartre (1956) – hope is human and as such it is also quintessential to the American Dream and promise. It is in this sense that we could, to some extent, understand the following statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the XXXVIth President of the United States (1963-1969): “For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say “Farewell.” Is a new world coming? We welcome it – and we will bend it to the hopes of man.”5

Hope is the raison d’être of my long and melodramatic safari. Hope is what made me decide to leave my country for Europe and for the United States, my kind of new world. Hope is what made me believe that I could be something more than a manovale comune in Italy, or a Werkstudent in

5

From The President’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1965.

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Germany. Hope is what allowed me to change my nonimmigrant and alien status to a permanent resident and citizen of the United States of America. Hope is my daily bread, my bed, my seat, my seatbelt, my vehicle. This is so true that in addition to the famous and memorable Cartesian quote “cogito, ergo sum,” or “I think, therefore I am” (Descartes 1960), I dare also make another equally philosophical and theological statement about humans, i.e., spero, ergo sum, or I hope, therefore I am. We are not only a Cartesian “thinking thing” or “res cogitans,” in Latin. We are also hoping beings, or res sperantes, in Latin. As I stated elsewhere (Gbotokuma 2011), our hope includes a great number of things, for example: hope for change in the face of the status quo, even if we tend to fear change; hope in the face of despair; hope for accessible and affordable health care in the face of curable and supposedly incurable diseases and preexisting conditions; hope for cure and healing in the face of epidemics and pandemics; hope for reforms on Wall Street, shared prosperity, and economic opportunity in the face of hardships on Main Street and our streets, and in the face of greed and individualism; hope for free and fair trade in the face of “junglobalization” or savage globalization; hope for – to use some of President Obama’s speech titles – “A Just and Lasting Peace” in the face of wars, terrorism, and underdevelopment; hope for “A More Perfect Union,” for “A World that Stands as One,” for “A New Beginning,” and for a common ground in the face of divisions, new apartheids, mutual suspicions, and clashes of civilizations; hope for reason in the face of anger and other negative emotions; hope for cosmocitizenship in the face of negative and ill-defined nationalisms and patriotisms; hope for a greater dialogue with, and understanding of the world beyond our borders; hope for leadership; hope for confidence and courage in the face of fear and self-doubt; hope for equal opportunity in the face of racism, sexism, and ageism; hope for wellbeing and full-being in the face of misfortune and indignities; hope for a better world where human rights are right and the golden rule is the rule, even for those who have no gold; hope for new hopes; hope in the honest pursuit of happiness; hope for the hopeless; hope for better days today, tomorrow, and pourquoi pas, in saecula saeculorum, or forever and ever. Spero, ergo sum.

E. Exercising My Right to Vote On June 12, 2012, I registered to vote with Baltimore city board of elections. I received my voter notification card on June 20, 2012. It included the Election Day polling place, which is about two blocks from

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my house. The letter from the director of Baltimore city board of elections addressed me as “Dear Voter” and concluded with the exhortation, “EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE!” Now armed with my naturalization and new citizenship at the beginning of another equally exciting election year, 2012, and more importantly, with a voter notification card in hand, I was more than fired up and ready to go and vote on November 6, thereby participating in the democratic process of my new country. My intention to possibly vote for President Obama in the November 6 election was also based on his constant reminder that we’re not simply “a collection of blue states and red states; we’re the United States of America.” As a Christian and as a Congolese-born or African-born with some understanding of ancestral communalism, I particularly appreciate President Obama’s frequent references to the communitarian and Christian belief that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, especially during hardships, like the ones the American peoples have experienced for the past four years. The reader should be reminded that these hardships have been caused by laissez faire policies and deregulations, many of which are part of the Republicanconservative philosophy. Like many fellow Americans, I also share the president’s belief that the government has a role to play in our lives. As a matter of fact, in any democratic system, the government is and should be, “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” A people’s government is one that establishes justice for all and promotes the general welfare. Obama understands the principle of solidarity (principium solidaritatis, in Latin), which basically stresses our interdependence and the belief that we have to shoulder each other’s burdens, at least and especially during difficult and challenging times. He also understands the principle of subsidiarity. In a nutshell, the principle of subsidiarity, or principium subsidiaritatis, in Latin, is one of the principles of Catholic social thought. It holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization – e.g. the federal government – which can be done as well by a smaller and simpler organization (e.g. state, city, county, village, etc.). In other words, any activity which can be performed by a more decentralized entity should be performed by it without any interference by the larger entity. This principle is the bulwark of limited government, personal freedom, and individual responsibility. In the United States, for example, libertarians and conservative Republicans seem to use the principle of subsidiarity not only to support their core idea or ideology of limited government versus big government, but also and often to oppose any so-called big government intervention,

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even when it is necessary and urgent. In Washington, DC, this fallacious interpretation of the principle of subsidiarity, coupled with Obamaphobia, has resulted in obstructionism, the “do-nothing” and “hell no you can’t” Republican congress. What this radical interpretation of the principle overlooks is that the principle of subsidiarity also means that larger organizations or communities have an obligation to help smaller ones whenever it is necessary. So for example, the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 – an economic stimulus measure which also included the bailout of the automobile industry – were consistent with principium subsidiaritatis.6 Of course, most Republicans, including the presidential candidate Mitt Romney, opposed the measure on the ground that it was a big government action. Believe it or not, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a limited and necessary application of the trickle-down economic theory. But its rejection had more to do with Obamaphobia than with intrinsic merit. Fortunately for President Obama, the bailout was necessary, urgent, and it has worked. This is apparent in the fact that the US economy is much stronger in 2014 than it was in 2009 when President Obama became the 44th president of the USA. It was definitely a smart government action. As a new citizen, I welcome the idea of equal opportunity in this capitalist and competitive society. I am committed to keep working harder in my pursuit of the American Dream. So I enthusiastically join millions of fellow Americans in commending the president for his political courage and for his moral leadership in addressing – as he did in Osawatomie, Kansas, on December 6, 2011 as well as at the State of the Union Addresses (SOTU) on January 24, 2012 and on January 20, 2015 – the inconvenient truth about the ever growing and scandalous divide between the rich and the poor in the United States, or between the “1 percenters” and the “99 percenters.” Conservative Republican politicians and 1 percenters have accused the president of waging “class warfare” when he proposed the Buffett Rule as one of the best possible solutions. The Buffett Rule is “a simple principle of tax fairness. No household making more than $1 million should pay a smaller share of their income taxes than middle-class families pay. For 98 percent of American families who make less than $250,000, taxes should

6

For more details about principium solidaritatis and principium subsidiaritatis, see J. Goenaga, Philosophia Socialis, 1964, 55-86.

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not go up.”7 The rule is named after the American billionaire and philanthropist Warren Buffett, whose secretary’s tax rate is higher than the one paid by her über wealthy boss who can afford to pay a much higher rate. Fortunately, and in agreement with the overwhelming majority of the American people, this is a case of just war and it is worth waging. It is worth fighting for the rights and well-being of the majority, possibly for the well-being of all, the well-being of the nation, and we know the importance of waging this kind of war in a democratic system, especially during an election year like the one in which we were then, i.e., 2012. The Occupy Wall Street movement suggests that the big gap between “haves” and “have-nots” could become, if ignored by political leaders, a recipe for social unrest. This could eventually change the American Dream to the American Spring.8 It is a categorical imperative that US leaders strongly believe as President Obama does, that the USA’s welfare requires that “everybody gets a fair shot, that everybody does their fair share, and plays by the same rule.”9 More importantly, it is a moral imperative that leaders start acting based on that utilitarian belief, which is all about social justice, “middle class economics” as President Obama called it in his January 20, 2015 SOTU, and the common good rather than socialism or communism. So far in that election year, many voters seemed to buy that believable idea which tends to sound like an anathema in a capitalist economy so used to the idea of trickle-down economics. The problem with this kind of economics is that it has been tried, but didn’t work. Instead, it has contributed to the Great Recession, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. I was so inspired, fired up, and ready to vote, not only because of what could be perceived as my enlightened Obamaphilia, but also because of my belief in a positive change and transformative leadership for this country and for our global village. I was fired up and ready to vote, knowing that my negritude or blackness was no longer a hindrance to the exercise of this sacrosanct civil right. 7

See http://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/buffett-rule. During the Fiscal Cliff negotiations of December 2012, a compromise with GOP increased the figure to $400,000 and $450,000 for individuals and couples, respectively. 8 Reference is made to the “Arab Spring,” which resulted in regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc. 9 President Obama repeatedly used these memorable sentences in “Renewed Nationalism,” his December 6, 2011 economic speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, as well as at his January 24, 2012 State of the Union Address and in many other occasions.

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When I cast my vote, I would be grateful to numerous leaders of the Harlem Renaissance,10 which is credited for laying the foundation for the Negritude and Civil Rights movements. It is worth remembering that many Harlem Renaissance and Civil Rights movement leaders – for example Martin L. King, Jr. – fought for, and tragically died to win civic participation and political equality for blacks and women. Believe it or not, there are states in the USA where citizens are worried about preserving their right to vote without unnecessary restrictions. That is why in Selma, Alabama, thousands of citizens, especially African Americans led by Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin L. King III (MLK, Jr’s son), and AFL-CIO leaders marched on March 5 and 7, 2012 to protest that state’s and other states’ – Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc. – new immigration laws and voter identification laws across the country. Such laws are not only intended to solve voting fraud problems; they are also believed to have the consequence, intended or unintended, of suppressing votes among minorities and the elderly. For example, in Ohio, a Republican-based attempt was made to prevent early voting, i.e., voting just the weekend preceding Election Day. That is because early voting tends to benefit Democrats. The Obama campaign successfully sued that state to overturn those restrictions. According to Judge Eric L. Clay who wrote on behalf of the Supreme Court, “at any time, personal contingencies like medical emergencies or sudden business trips could arise, and police officers, firefighters and other first responders could be suddenly called to serve at moment’s notice. There is no reason to provide these voters with fewer opportunities to vote than military voters, particularly when there’s no evidence that local boards of elections will be unable to cope with more early voters.”11 In Pennsylvania, the GOP house leader and speaker Mike Turzai unequivocally admitted, in July 2012, that the voter identification law was intended to secure Mitt Romney’s election victory in that state. There is no guarantee that this law will be upheld, because even Pennsylvania justices had voiced their doubt about voter ID legislation. In South Carolina, – a pretty red state – voting restrictions were put on hold until 2013, thereby

10

The Harlem Renaissance’s notable figures are, among others, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, W.E.B Du Bois, Alain Locke, Marcus Garvey, Booker T. Washington, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. 11 Adam Liptak, “Justices Clear the Way for Early Voting in Ohio.” The New York Times, Wednesday, October 17, 2012, A17.

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providing the Obama campaign with another reason to smile despite the quasi-certainty of election defeat in that state.12 “Occupy the Vote” was an interesting theme of the March 7, 2012 event in Selma, Alabama. As a re-enactment of the 1965 Selma-toMontgomery voting rights marches, participants walked 54 miles over five days in March 2012. Believe it or not, there are still people who’s right to vote is the subject of endless legal debates. This is the case, for example, in Saudi Arabia, where women’s right to vote has been debated by that country’s parliament for a long time. There are countries whose citizens started exercising their right to vote relatively recently. I am thinking, inter alia, of South Africa, where the apartheid system prevented the Bantus, or black South Africans from voting until 1994. So when I vote – although under different circumstances – I will remember the legendary ANC leader and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and millions of South Africans who, in April 1994, danced and drummed their way to polling stations while also playing vuvuzelas, or trumpet-like instruments that became popular worldwide during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in that country. Of course, as a Congolese-American, I will also be mindful of the unfortunate circumstances under which parliamentary and presidential elections took place in DRC in November 2011. According to observers from the Carter Center, Human Rights Watch, and DRC Catholic Church leadership, those elections were characterized by fraud, irregularities, violence, and even death, all of which are diametrically opposed to the country’s name, i.e., Democratic Republic of the Congo. The naturalization oath ceremony package also included A Voter’s Guide to Federal Elections. I read this document to understand my preelection duties. On February 25, 2012, I attended an Obama Cares Rally hosted by Maryland African Americans for Obama. I seized the opportunity to take care of my Maryland voter registration application. The first two questions on the form were, “are you at least 16 years old?” and, “are you a US citizen?” Of course, I checked “Yes” for both questions. The form made it boldly clear that, “If you answer NO to either question, do not complete this form.” I completed the form and handed it to an official from the City of Baltimore board of elections. This was a new registration. I registered as a member of the Democratic Party. Other party choices were Republican Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, and unaffiliated or independent of any party. I chose the Democratic Party for the following reasons. First 12

See Charlie Savage, “Federal Court Blocks Voter ID Law in South Carolina, but Only for Now.” The New York Times, Thursday, October 11, 2012, A18.

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and foremost, it is a fact that Democrats embrace diversity – or “E Pluribus, Unum” (out of many, one) – more than Republicans. Secondly, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was championed by a Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). He was the one who signed the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts into law. The full title of the Civil Rights Act is self-explanatory: An act to enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States of America to provide relief against discrimination in public accommodation, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, and for other purposes” (Pub. L. 88352, 78 Stat. 241).

As a naturalized citizen and as a black African, I am definitely appreciative of President LBJ’s political courage for having signed into law a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed racial segregation, discrimination against black Americans and women as well as unequal application of voter registration requirements. As a matter of fact, let’s remember that voting in a federal election is one of the basic rights of US citizenship. There are four amendments to the US Constitution about voting. The 15th Amendment permits American men of all races to vote. So being black is no longer a voting handicap. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. But after the 15th Amendment was passed, some leaders of southern states were upset that African Americans could vote. So what did they do? They designed fees called poll taxes to stop them from voting. The 24th Amendment made these poll taxes illegal. The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from twenty one to eighteen (US Department of Homeland Security, USCIS 2011, 12). Hopefully, US democracy will keep moving forward despite several attempts to go backward. Before exercising the right to vote as a US citizen that year, I benefited from the Civil Rights Act, a part of which is affirmative action. I think my first teaching job at Kansas State University was consistent with a correct application of affirmative action policies. It is worth stressing the fact that Democrats advocate affirmative action more than Republicans. Secondly, not only do Democrats advocate free enterprise tempered by some government intervention or regulation; they adopt the “Third Way.” This term refers to “various political positions which try to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing

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economic and left-wing social policies” (Bobbio and Cameron 1997, 8). Thirdly, in today’s globalized and interconnected world, the Democrats’ opposition to unilateralism – or their multilateralism – seems to serve US foreign policy and national interests better than the Republicans’ embrace of unilateralism and ill-defined American exceptionalism. This term is attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville (1954). He noted that the United States held a special place among all other nations, because it was a country of immigrants and the first modern democracy. This definition of American exceptionalism is easily acceptable and less problematic than some other definitions shared by most right-wing Republicans. For example, Malone and Khong (2003) describe exceptionalism as “the widely held belief that the United States and its values and institutions are the best yet devised, the conviction that the world needs to adapt to American ways rather than vice versa.” This definition of exceptionalism has contributed to what many people around the world see as American arrogance. It has resulted in the United States’ negative images and unfavorable ratings around the world. The good news is that President Obama’s presidency has been able to improve the US image. This is the case because, according to the 25-nation Pew Global Attitude Survey released on July 23, 2009, “Confidence in Obama Lifts US Image Around the World” (Pewglobal.org)13 Last but not least, it is ironic to realize that many conservative Republicans – many of whom claim to be Christians – ridicule President Obama’s social justice idea of redistributing wealth and food stamps. On September 25, 2012, the former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich – a Catholic – stated that Obama is a false president, not a real president. He also frequently referred to Barack Obama during some of his party’s presidential debates and campaign stumps as “the food stamps president.” Sen. Rick Santorum, another Republican presidential candidate who is also a Catholic, injected race in some of his campaign speeches to a predominantly white audience. He said something suggesting that President Obama’s tax policy was tantamount to taking money from whites and giving it to blacks. He also accused the president of elitism for suggesting that every American child should consider going to college, which by the way, could be a good way out of poverty and food stamps.

13 See PewResearchCenter: Global Attitudes & Trends, esp. “Confidence in Obama Lifts U.S. Image Around the World,” July 23, 2009. Also qtd in Gbotokuma 2011, 111. http://www.pewglobal.org/2009/07/23/confidence-in-obama-lifts-us-imagearound-the-world/

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I don’t know what Jesus Christ would think of Gingrich’s and Santorum’s statements. What is clear, however, is the fact that the two Republican presidential candidates ignore something that is so fundamental to their own Christian faith: that is, love, the love of one’s neighbor. Undoubtedly, the food stamps program is consistent with Jesus’ words, “whatsoever you do to the least of my people [brothers], that you do unto me…” Mtthew 25: 35-40). How could presidential candidates – whose Christian faith seemed to be a focal point of their campaigns – criticize another candidate for practicing Christian love and charity and for being “my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). If conservative Republicans respect the Declaration of Independence and the basic human right to life, then why would they oppose national health insurance or universal health care? Why are they threatening to repeal the so-called Obamacare, i.e., Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), H.R. 3590/P.L.III-48? Why is a life-saving and human right-based policy such as PPACA a bad policy simply because it is a “big government program?” Fortunately for congressional Democrats and President Obama, on June 28, 2012, the US Supreme Court upheld the health care law. According to the surprising majority opinion stated by the Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, “the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax. Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness.” Simply put, PPACA is constitutional. Undoubtedly, the decision gave the congressional Democrats and President Obama an epic victory. It vindicated and handed the president something to be proud of as he runs for a second term. Like food stamps, which are necessary under many circumstances, PPACA is a necessary government policy. It is intended to sustain life which, according to many conservative Republicans, begins from conception. I am personally satisfied with the court’s decision, because PPACA was one of the key arguments in support of what I call “Obamænon,” or the Obama phenomenon. The decision allows me to confidently reiterate some of the statements that I made in my book, when I didn’t know that PPACA was going to become an effective political weapon for GOP’s 2010 congressional elections. What’s more, I didn’t know that PPACA opponents were going to take it to the Supreme Court and try to repeal it less than two weeks after the court’s decision on its constitutionality. Here’s what I wrote about PPACA.

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The success of this landmark law is and will continue to be of paramount importance, not only to millions of American people who will hopefully benefit from it, and for whom “Obamacare” means “Obama cares” for them; but also to President Obama who promised it and owns it, so to speak. PPACA looks like a game changer and definitely another contributing factor to the Obamarama. It means, among other things, from a domestic perspective, that President Obama is an effective and tough American leader. In Obama’s quasi triumphant words, “This week, we can rightly say the foundation on which America’s future will be built is stronger than it was one year ago.”14 The Act means that the president’s leadership at home has been illuminated through his ability to accomplish a key domestic agenda despite numerous obstacles to it. Local or domestic leadership is a requirement for global leadership. Consequently, the Act “may give Obama new stature overseas, in a world that was beginning to wonder about his ability to use power.”15 Indeed, it would have been logical to wonder how the president could effectively carry out a global comprehensive health care plan without being able to reform the health care system at home. The new landmark law also means that the president is able to deliver on some of his presidential campaign promises, especially the promise of change, hope, and universal health care (Gbotokuma 2011, 169).

F. Choosing a Political Party and Participating in the U.S. Democratic Process I don’t agree with the Democratic Party’s ideology in its entirety. But I have to make a choice based on some reasons. I could have chosen to become a member of the Republican Party on the ground that it was the party of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln courageously issued in 1863 to free black slaves in the Confederate states. But obviously the Republican Party of today is not the same as Lincoln’s Republican Party of yesterday. Freedom is as important as equality and the pursuit of happiness. I could have chosen to become a member of the Green Party, given the urgency of dealing with climate change and other ecological problems. But I don’t see any contradiction between being a Democrat and understanding the need to take action to solve global warming. There is no way I could have chosen to possibly become a member of the Libertarian Party after hearing all the racist comments by the Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, who by the 14

President Obama’s statement on the signing day of PPACA, ACAMarch 23, 2010. 15 Joe Klein, “Promise Delivered: How Obama’s epic victory in pushing forward health reform revitalized his presidency.” TIME 175.13 (2010), 22.

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way, doesn’t seem to understand that we’re living in a global village and a spider’s web-like world. So I am a registered Democrat. I like the Democratic Party’s centrism or moderate stance on societal issues as compared with the Republican Party’s radicalism and TEA Party-like stance. My vote, when I cast it, would be – believe it or not – my second presidential election vote, an exercise taking place thirty-five years after the first one, which I cast in an undemocratic election in my homeland. My golden vote, when I cast it, would be another proof and confirmation of my new citizenship. It would be a rejection of birtherism which, by the way, was put on display by Donald Trump and regained momentum on May 29, 2012. This was the day when Mitt Romney won the Texas Republican primaries and unofficially became the GOP nominee for the November 2012 presidential election. This was also the day when Romney joined the birtherist Trump in Las Vegas, Nevada, for his campaign fundraising. They landed aboard Trump’s plane. It looked like a TrumpRomney ticket. The birtherist definitely overshadowed Romney, who gladly accepted the situation for obvious reasons. Money talks and it would eventually talk much louder still than ever before in the 2012 presidential election with the proliferation of Super PACs or Political Action Committees pumping millions of dollars into that year’s election. Believe it or not, this was also the day that the Romney campaign chose to release – under the watchful eyes of the birtherist-in-chief – a copy of his birth certificate, thereby proving his unquestionable US citizenship and qualification for the presidency. By releasing his birth certificate while collecting campaign dollars with the birtherist-in-chief’s blessing, Romney practically embraced birtherism and its racist messaging about President Obama’s birth certificate. The May 29, 2012 Trump-Romney show led many people to question Romney’s senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom’s statement that his boss “has said repeatedly that he believes President Obama was born in the United States.” Three days after the Las Vegas fundraising event, Mitt Romney tried to control the event’s damage by reiterating his belief that President Obama was born in the United States. To show his commitment to birtherism as a supposedly winning campaign strategy for his GOP candidate, Donald Trump voiced his views through TV interviews in which, without giving any single name, he claimed that there were many people who questioned the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate. As a newly naturalized US citizen and a potential voter, I was (and am) profoundly disturbed by birtherism and its racist agenda. One should

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wonder why M. Romney – whose white father was born in Mexico – should be seen as more American than President Obama, whose black father was a Kenyan? Or why Romney, as he stated in a July 2012 campaign stump, supposedly understands the USA’s Anglo-Saxon heritage better than Obama? It should be noted as an important historical piece of information that the Obama vs. Romney presidential election is likely to also revive, to some extent, old racial stereotypes perpetrated by Mormonism, about the second-class humanity of the black people until a relatively recent time, i.e., the 1970s. Birtherism à la Trump is un-American. It is inconsistent with the fundamental nature of the United States as an immigrants’ nation. It is a form of racial profiling, negrophobia and xenophobia. It is clearly meant to bash new foreign-born citizens, immigrants, and non whiteAnglo-Saxon-Protestants (WASPs). It is wrong, because it is at odds with the USA’s motto, “E Pluribus, Unum.” What’s more, my vote would be an act of continuing hope for positive and sustainable change; hope for a new beginning in the United States and in our global village; hope for a world in which citizens may participate in free, fair, and safe elections. In the United States, voters – especially newly naturalized Americans and first time voters like myself – were looking forward to casting our first votes in an election without the kind of drama the country witnessed in the 2000 presidential election. In August and September 2012, the American people and voters had the opportunity to watch both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions and extravaganzas. In October 2012, we had the opportunity to watch three presidential debates between President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney, and one vice-presidential debate between VicePresident Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan. It was believed that the outcomes of these debates were going to determine candidates’ chance to win that year’s election. President Obama won two debates out of three, namely the last two debates, which took place at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, and at Hofstra University, New York, on October 22 and October 16, 2012, respectively. Mitt Romney won just the very first debate, which took place in Denver, Colorado, on October 3, 2012. Joe Biden won the vice presidential candidates’ debate which took place soon after the first presidential debate. In other words, the Democratic incumbent ticket won 3 debates out of 4, and the Republican challenging ticket won only one. This was a positive sign for the Obama Campaign. This sign was also boosted by the September 2012 unemployment rate, which was 7.8%.

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G. Overcoming Alienation: My First Vote as a US Citizen On October 24, 2012, I received a notice from the Baltimore city board of elections regarding the “Official 2012 Presidential General Election Sample Ballot.” The notice contained information relative to early voting and Election Day dates, sites, and voting hours. The dates for presidential general election early voting were Saturday, October 27-Thursday, November 1. The voting hours were 10:00 a.m.-08:00 p.m., Sunday hours 12 noon-6:00 p.m. I was already fired up and ready to vote. I didn’t want to wait until November 6. Moreover, worrisome news about Hurricane Sandy between the second early voting day and the last early voting day in Maryland led me to cast my vote as soon as possible. The weather was very beautiful on Saturday, October 27. Consequently, at 3:00 p.m. on that day, my wife and I drove to one of the early voting sites, namely The League for People with Disabilities, 1111 E. Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, Maryland 21239. The line was long, but it didn’t matter. I took several pictures while waiting for the event. One of the early voting workers – a third age Caucasian man – chatted with me. He told me that I was one of three persons wearing a tie. He jokingly asked me if I was going to get married that day. I replied that I was going to vote for the first time as a newly naturalized American and that was an important historical event for me. He also asked me if I was from Kenya. I replied with a question: I asked him if he knew somebody from Kenya. He said he did. However he couldn’t remember his or her name. I jokingly asked if that person’s name was Obama, causing several people around us to laugh. They were certainly aware of birtherists’ ridiculous and failed attempts to make the American people believe that President Barack Obama was supposedly born in Kenya. As a matter of fact, one birtherist had stated two weeks or so earlier that that year’s election was an opportunity “to send President Obama back to Chicago, or Kenya.” Well, I was going to cast my vote to hopefully give the president four more years in the White House, because he was “MADE in the USA.” I entered the voting room and handed my voter registration card to one of several election employees. I also handed my new US passport instead of a Maryland driver’s license as my identification document. She immediately returned it to me without checking it. She asked me how I pronounce my last name. She also asked me for my date of birth and address. My responses matched my voter registration data. She handed me a receipt to sign and a voting card for the electronic voting. As I waited for my turn to go to one of the voting booths, the same third age guy with whom I chatted earlier announced to everybody in the

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room that I was a first-time voter. My fellow early voters applauded and I thanked them while joyfully raising my hands. I cast my vote around 4:00 p.m., thereby confirming once again, my US citizenship. Everything went very smoothly without intimidation. It is worth reminding the reader of the fact that my vote occurred twenty-nine days after the publication of my aforementioned e-book, which was essentially an exhortation to vote for President Obama. I was confident and, like millions of other people in the USA and around the world, I optimistically looked forward to what was going to happen on the official Election Day.

H. A Pre-Election Day Extravaganza I stayed fired up by doing a few meaningful things. For example, on Friday, November 2, my wife and I hosted an event at home to celebrate my birthday and new citizenship, which occurred on January 30, 2012. There was no big celebration, except for the champagne toast while watching the Super Bowl XLVI with friends in Washington, DC. The November 2 event at home was also, as the invitation flyer put it, “a celebration of friendship, First Time Presidential General Election Early Voting, & Pre-Election Fever.” Last, but not least, the event was also about the book signing of my election-related self-published book, Re-Electing Obama & Moving USA Forward: Memorandum to My Fellow Americans Regarding Fairness and National Well-Being (Gbotokuma 2012). The flyer included a photograph of the early voting sign with a copy of the book placed next to it. Undoubtedly, the event was also an opportunity to remind my friends of the November 6 election. By the way, my birthday is November 4. But I chose to celebrate it on Friday, November 2 rather than on Sunday November 4 when most of my friends had to go to bed early because of their Monday business. We chatted, ate, listened to international music, and toasted using the two Ngbaka language words, “Gba! Yombe!” (the equivalent of cheers! or bottoms up!) The party started at 7:00 p.m. and was over soon after midnight. On Sunday morning, November 4, I attended a TESOL conference at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) – Essex. I seized that opportunity to promote my election-related book. I sold only one book. That was not enough to spread the word about President Obama’s re-election on November 6. In the afternoon of November 4, my wife and I drove to Coppin State University in West Baltimore, where there was a Votefest for which we’d received free tickets at the early voting site seven days earlier. The event organizers allowed me to use an empty table and

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display my books. No single book sale. Some event participants thought that the book was free. We ended our time at the Votefest with a brief interview with Dimitri Reeves, a young Baltimorean rising star. He entertained the crowd singing and dancing like the late Michael Jackson. The interview focused on my book and an exhortation to vote on the Election Day.

I. Presidential Election Results and Meanings On Tuesday morning, November 6, I drove to work. However, like most Americans and millions of people around the world, the US presidential election results were the main agenda item of the day. For obvious and good reason, I canceled my classes and gave students take-home assignments, thereby making it easy for some of them to vote. I kept my office hours and drove back home around 7:30 p.m. to witness the last hours of the election day, especially exit polls, early state by state results, projections, etc. After a long and agonizing election evening and night, the long awaited breaking news from CNN was the projection of Barack Obama as the winner. The projection was confirmed. Mitt Romney gave his delayed concession speech, thereby acknowledging what we’d heard and/or read on lead domestic and international front pages and headlines on November 7. For example: “Republican’s Elephant Crushed by Democrat’s Donkey.”

Translation: “Obama’s Night” (The Times); “Obama Wins” (Post); “Obama Re-Elected: ‘You Have Made Me a Better President’” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany); “Obama Re-Elected: ‘The best Is Yet to Come’” (Le Monde and Le Figaro, France); “Obama Remains President” (Bild, Germany); “America’s Gift for Obama” (Financial Times Deutschland); “FIRED UP: Obama Wins Re-Election” (Denver Post); “Four More Years” (Anchorage Daily News); “Barack Four More” (Rupert Murdock’s The Sun); “Yes! You Can, Again…Mubaarak (Congratulations) USA!” (A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire); “The Obamas can leave the moving boxes in the cellar for another four years” (German TV network RTL); etc. 16

16

For additional headlines, see Georg Szalai, “President Obama’s Re-Election: How the News Media Around the Globe Covered It.” November 7, 2012. http://hollywoodreporter.com/print387335

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RTL’s statement is particularly interesting because when Mitt Romney’s campaign momentum reached its zenith after the first presidential debate on October 3, some pundits started writing President Obama’s political obituary. For example, a Romney campaign spokesperson – and definitely a birther – stated that this election was an opportunity “to send Obama back to Chicago, or Kenya!” Well, on the election night, President Obama was in Chicago, where he instead gave a victory speech. His victory was a big coup de grâce, not only to Romney’s hope to move to the White House, the GOP, and its multimillion-dollar super PACs, but also to the TEA Party as well as to birtherism. Yes, Barack H. Obama was “MADE IN THE USA.” So birtherism, if it survives at all, will have to invent another theory and myth in its desperate attempt to alienate and delegitimize Obama’s presidency.

J. The 2013 Inaugural Ball and Reflections on King’s Dream On a personal level, I must confess, once again, that President Obama’s reelection gave me tremendous gratification for the following reasons. First and foremost, it was a peremptory proof and confirmation of what I have referred to elsewhere as Obamænon, or the Obama phenomenon (Gbotokuma, 2011). Second, an eventual Obama election defeat would have been extremely frustrating because of my pro-Obama and electionrelated publication, Re-Electing Obama & Moving USA Forward (Gbotokuma 2012). Third, like many fellow Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, I regularly made small donations to the Obama Campaign. Fourth, and more importantly, I voted early for Obama and this was my very first vote as a US citizen. Fifth and finally, President Obama’s reelection gave a credible meaning to the American Promise and to the motto, “E Pluribus Unum.” President Obama’s second epic victory was overwhelming, beyond reasonable doubt, and somewhat surprising to those who expected a very close election, or even his defeat, i.e., 51% vs. 47%! He won both the electoral votes (332; only 270 are needed) and the popular votes (more than 60 million votes compared to Romney’s 57 million or so). He has a clear mandate and unquestionable legitimacy. He earned, to use his predecessor President George W. Bush’s phrase, a “political capital,” which he should spend liberally. As an Obama campaign supporter, I received – just like in 2009 – the presidential inaugural committee’s letter on January 14, 2013 inviting me to attend the second inauguration. The card was sealed with the phrase, “INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT 2013” and it contained the following words:

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The Presidential Inaugural Committee requests the honor of your presence to participate in the inauguration of Barack H. Obama as President of the United States of America and Joseph R. Biden, Jr. as Vice President of the United States of America on Monday, the twenty-first of January two thousand and thirteen in the city of Washington.

The presidential inaugural committee’s invitation was followed two days later by another invitation from the Ambassadors Inaugural Ball committee. The beautifully designed flyer contained the following words: The honor of your presence is requested at a historic Inaugural Tribute for President Barack Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural Ball Monday, January 21, 2013 Venue: Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square The Historical Society of Washington, DC 801 K Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM

Black Tie Affair

The invitation flyer was signed by a host of committee co-chairs consisting of eighteen foreign ambassadors, some of whom I’d met at previous events in Washington, DC and elsewhere. My wife and I decided to purchase two tickets online. They were kind of expensive for our family budget; but the desire to kick an inaugural ball for the first time after my original winning vote made us ignore the cost. We didn’t travel to DC for President Obama’s first inauguration and this was our second and last chance. So we drove to DC on Sunday afternoon and spent the night at a friends’ house. We watched that Sunday evening’s NFL 47th Championship between Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots. Our home team won. The score was 28 to 13, thereby advancing them to the NFL Super Bowl XLVII against San Francisco’s 49ers at Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 3, 2013. The Ravens ended up winning that Super Bowl by 34 to 31. Go Ravens! Go OBiden (Obama-Biden)! Yes, We Can! On the inaugural day – Monday January 21, 2013 – we watched day time inaugural ceremonies – the swearing in by Chief-Justice Roberts,

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President Obama’s inaugural speech, the parade, etc. – with our hosts on the television. The weather was wonderful: sunny day without snow, or rain. We concluded the day with the Ambassadors Inaugural Ball. We purchased general admission tickets. However, we ended our soirée in the company of VIP/heads of state ticket holders without paying additional costs. We were taken there by a DC friend of mine who happened to be part of the organizing committee. He was the one who forwarded the invitation to us. That’s one of the good things about connections and networking. It was our first happy hour outing of the New Year 2013. We enjoyed a buffet, champagne, live international music, all in the company of elegantly dressed people. It was Obamarific. After President Obama’s second term inauguration, it is time for all Americans to remember and accept the unambiguous meaning of our country’s name, “The United States of America,” rally behind our 44th president, get back to work, and together, move FORWARD. During the Democratic National Convention 2008, Sen. and presidential candidate Barack Obama chose the date of August 28 to deliver his acceptance speech as his party’s nominee for that year’s presidential election. His date choice was intended to coincide with Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s “I HAVE A DREAM” speech during the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. That Dream, which is a part of the American Dream, became a reality when the American people elected and re-elected an African American as the 44th president of the United States of America. That is why I decided to participate in the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington (1963-2013). The pre-celebration event took place on the Washington Mall on Saturday, August 24, 2013. I WAS THERE, because: I shared Martin L. King, Jr.’s Dream The Dream that all men and women are created equal; that they all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness around the Table of Brotherhood and Sisterhood. I wanted to keep the Dream alive, not only for me, but also for all. I wanted to keep the Dream alive, because it caused my long journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the United States of America via Europe. I wanted everyone to possibly have, hold a job, and operate in a nonhostile work environment, one without harassment, petty professional jealousy, negative competitive collegiality, and ethnicity and/or nationalitybased academic profiling.

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Chapter Twenty-Two I wanted all my fellow Americans and cosmocitizens to responsibly enjoy basic human rights as clearly stipulated in the US Constitution as well as in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Millennium Development Goals. I wanted to enjoy my new citizenship in a nation that believes in, and acts on the motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” or “Out of Many, One.” I wanted to continue working and thriving in a fair share and fair shot nation as well as in a fair global village where, in President Barack Obama’s words, “everyone plays by the same rule.” I wanted to symbolically march to honor and thank all leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, Negritude, Civil Rights, and Anti-Apartheid movements as well as other freedom fighters for their commitment to, and sacrifice for universal human rights. I believe in a just and lasting peace through justice, international development, solidarity, and cooperation. I was there because the 50th anniversary was the single most important event following my first presidential vote and the second inauguration of President Obama.

My original and early vote was also the expression of my hope for a world in which law abiding people may eventually travel freely and safely. This point brings me to address another reason for becoming a US citizen, i.e., international traveling facility.

II. Travel Problems I left my homeland three years after high school, or soon after experiencing the teenage years, all of which were spent in Catholic boarding schools in the Equateur province. In my Zairian and DRC passports (I had four of them), it was written, among other things, “Countries for which this passport is valid: ALL Countries [or] TOUS PAYS,” in French. But unless one is a diplomat, I assume, it has never been easy to travel with a Zairian or Congolese passport. In 1979, as a seminarian in Rome, I spent my first summer vacation in France and England. Of course, prior to travel, I applied for, and obtained travel visas from the embassies of France and the United Kingdom in Rome. I traveled to Wincanton, UK, by boat from the sea port of Cherbourg, France, after a three-week vacation in Picauville, Normandy. The purpose of my travel to England was to study English at St Luke’s Priory School in Wincanton. It

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was a four-week summer course. I was surprised by the fact that despite a proper visa issued by the British authorities in Rome, I was subjected to a relatively long questioning about the purpose of my travel to the UK. It was my second travel experience within European countries. I was naive. But with more traveling I understood that traveling with a Zairian/Congolese passport could sometimes be difficult. I had African friends who could travel to some European countries without a visa. But Zairians/Congolese need(ed) a visa to travel to any country. In June 2005, as I mentioned earlier, I traveled to Spain for a seven-day trade mission. The travel was sponsored by EDUESPAÑA. Virtually all participants were international educators and NAFSA members from the United States who were interested in establishing partnerships with Spanish institutions of learning. Despite the fact that I was officially invited to participate in the mission, my visa application had to take at least three weeks, because I had a Congolese passport. But I wasn’t totally surprised, because of what I knew about African undocumented immigrants in Spain as well as in Europe. The trip went very well, except for the lost luggage, which was found within 24 hours. The hospitality in Spain was impeccable. However, my return check-in at Madrid Airport took much longer than for my US colleagues, because I had a Congolese passport. I had the same experience at Beijing Airport, China, in August 2008. I was traveling back to the United States from Seoul, South Korea, where I spent eight days attending the XXII World Congress of Philosophy. My original return itinerary was through Tokyo, Japan. But I changed it to Beijing, because I wanted to have a taste of some truly global sports experiences, i.e., the Summer Olympics atmosphere, even when I was unable to obtain last-minute affordable tickets to the XXIXth Olympic Games. I watched some of the games from my International Fortune Hotel room. At the airport, it took Chinese customs agents more than thirty minutes to check, double-check, and triple-check my passport, because it was a Congolese passport and also because, I guess, very few Congolese travel to China. I should add, however, that contrary to my expectations, it was very easy to obtain a tourist visa from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, much easier than a Schengen visa. My last overseas visit prior to my naturalization was to DRC in 20092010. I decided to visit French friends on my way to DRC and on my return to the United States. I applied for a Schengen visa from the consulate of France in Washington, DC. Despite the fact that I was a permanent resident of the United States; despite an invitation letter from my French hosts who, by the way, happened to be a town mayor and a high school teacher, respectively; and despite proof of employment and

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wonderful health insurance, the French consulate officers had to also check and double-check my financial records, meticulously going through my bank statements, line by line, before issuing me the visa after three weeks of waiting time. As director of Morgan’s Center for Global Studies for ten years, I had the opportunity to travel internationally. However, my DRC passport was very limiting, costly, and inconvenient. In 2009-2012 fiscal years, the Congolese passport price was $ 250.00-$ 300.00, depending on where you bought it. The US passport price was $ 110.00 plus $ 25.00 for the USPS passport fee. With a US passport, which is valid for ten years and costs less than the DRC passport I can now travel much more easily and spend less on visa applications than ever before, frequently paying nothing at all. With a US passport, I can travel to neighboring Canada any time without a visa. I can travel to Europe and China much more easily than ever before. As a matter of fact, my first post-naturalization international travels took place in June and August 2013. I traveled to Martinique, which is a French overseas territory, and to Greece and Italy. The purposes of the travel were to attend and present a paper at an international colloquium in celebration of Aimé Césaire’s centenary in Fort de France; to attend and present another paper at the 23rd WCP in Athens; and to visit friends in Rome, respectively. France, Greece, and Italy are EU countries that allow US citizens to travel there without a visa as long as the stay doesn’t exceed ninety days. Consequently, I didn’t spend any money on visas, nor did I spend any money on gas, parking, and tunnel toll as I used to do whenever I had to travel to Washington, DC for visa applications. Moreover, border control officers didn’t have to spend a lot of time checking and double-checking my passport. I was treated with much more respect and less suspicion than ever before. With my US passport and citizenship, I felt like, to use President Coolidge’s aforementioned phrase, “a peer of kings.” I felt like a cosmocitizen. The only travel worry was due to the US government’s travel alert regarding Al Qaeda’s global threats against US interests, especially in Yemen and North Africa, neither of which was my travel destination. So these are some of the benefits and privileges of US citizenship. I will be 58 years old or so by the time this book is published. I have spent 36 years of my life between Europe (12 years) and the USA (24 years). In other words, I have spent most of my adult life outside my native country and mostly in the USA. Now, if we assume that one becomes an adult at the age of 18, then I spent only four years of my adult life in DRC. So to a great extent, the assumption of US citizenship is nothing but a confirmation of some facts about my plural identity as well

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as about where I have spent most of my lifetime so far. I am a Congolese citizen by birth; I am a US citizen by choice, and I am a cosmocitizen based on the sum of my lived international experiences from Africa to the Americas.

III. Photographs Quick Facts about the USA Flag Colors: Red, White, Blue (with 13 red and white stripes, symbolizing the original 13 colonies National Anthem: The Star Spangled Banner National Independence: July 4, 1776 Motto: In God We Trust; E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One) Population: 313,914,040 (2012) – Whites: 77.9%; African American/Blacks: 13.1%; Asians: 5.1%; Hispanics or Latinos: 16.9%; Native Americans: 1.2%; Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders: 0.2%; Two or More Races (Mixed): 2.4%; Foreign Born: 12.8% Area: 3.806 million sq. km, or 9.857 million sq. km Number of States: 50; Number of Territories: 4 Official Language: English. Others: Spanish, etc. Percentage of Languages Other than English Spoken at Home: 20.3 Major Religion: Christianity (Protestant and Roman Catholic). Others: Islam, Hinduism, Santeria, Rastafarianism, etc. Capital: Washington, DC Currency: U.S. Dollar ($) GDP per Capita: $ 27,915; Median Household Income: $ 52,762 Literacy Percent: 99 Life Expectancy: 78.64 years Head of State: Barack Hussein Obama (First African American President, 2008-2014) SOURCES: US Census Bureau 2010 & CIA. Last Revised June 2013

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Figure 22-1 N Naturalization Ceremony C Hand dshake

Baltimore, JJanuary 30, 20012 After Takingg the Oath of Allegiance at a Naturalizattion Ceremony y, Citizen Zekeh Gbotookuma Receivees His CERTIF FICATE OF N NATURALIZA ATION. The ceremoony was conduucted by natu uralization andd immigration n services officers in B Baltimore, Marryland (USA)) on Monday, JJanuary 30, 2012. Photo Courtesy: Sambe Duaale

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Figure 22-2 A Post-Naturalizzation Ceremon ny Handshake

Baltimore, M Maryland, Jannuary 30, 2012 2 After takingg the Oath of Allegiance att a Naturalizat ation Ceremon ny, fellow Congolese American Dr. D Sambe Duale shakees hands with, w and congratulatees the new US U citizen Zekeh Gbotokuuma, who displays his CERTIFICA ATE OF NAT TURALIZATIO ON. The Cereemony was conducted c by naturaliization and immigration services offficers in Baltimore, B Maryland (U USA) on Monnday, January 30, 3 2012.

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Figure 22-3 Waving from the 50th Anniiversary of thee March on Washington W (1963-2013) ffor Jobs and Freedom

Washington Mall/Reflectting Pool, Satturday, Augusst 24, 2013 (the exact day is August 28) Many peoplle believe thatt the election and a re-electionn of Barack H. H Obama as the 44th president of the t United Staates of Ameri ca is the realiization of Dr. Martin L L. King, Jr.’s Dream. It is the t realizationn of the hope and wish expressed in the Civvil Rights Movement M ssong, “WE SHALL OVERCOM ME.” The 19663 March on n Washingtonn was for “JJobs and Freedom,” iincluding the freedom to vo ote and run fo for any office. In 2008, Americans freely voted and put, for the first timee, a Black Man in the White House. That is what w the Maarch on Washhington for Jobs J and Freedom waas also all aboout. In 2012, President Obbama managed d to keep

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his job for a second term. That is what the March on Washington for Jobs was also about. That is what Selma’s “Blood Sunday” (March 7, 1965) was about. Inarguably, with a non WASP as the US President, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington is extremely meaningful. As a newly naturalized US citizen, I am proud of my original vote, cast in a free and fair election. I am also proud of other ways in which I tried to make modest and positive contributions to Obama’s re-election victory, including but not limited to my timely e-book, Re-Electing Obama & Moving USA Forward: Memorandum to My Fellow Americans Regarding Fairness and National Well-Being (Gbotokuma, 2012). I was glad and proud to attend the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington at the Washington Mall. I WAS THERE and I marched, because: I shared Martin L. King, Jr.’s Dream The Dream that all men and women are created equal; that they all have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness around the Table of Brotherhood and Sisterhood. I wanted to keep the Dream alive, not only for me, but also for all. I wanted to keep the Dream alive, because it caused my long journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the United States of America via Europe. I wanted everyone to possibly have, hold a job, and operate in a nonhostile working environment, one without harassment, petty professional jealousy, negative competitive collegiality, and ethnicity and/or nationality-based academic profiling. I wanted all my fellow citizens and cosmocitizens to responsibly enjoy basic human rights as clearly stipulated in the US Constitution as well as in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Millennium Development Goals. I wanted to enjoy my new citizenship in a nation that believes in, and acts on the motto, “E Pluribus Unum,” or “Out of Many, One.” I wanted to continue working and thriving in a fair share and fair shot nation as well as in a fair global village where, in President Barack Obama’s words, “everyone plays by the same rule.” I wanted to symbolically march to honor and thank all leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, Negritude, Civil Rights, and Anti-Apartheid movements as well as other freedom fighters for their commitment to, and sacrifice for universal human rights. I believe in a just and lasting peace through justice, economic development, international solidarity, and cooperation.

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Figure 22-4 Ambassador Andrew A J. Youn ng (Right) andd Zekeh at thee National Summit on A Africa.

The Nationnal Summit on Africa took t place in Washingto on DC’s Convention Center, Febrruary 16-20, 2000. The S Summit’s theeme was, “AFRICA M MATTERS: Dialogue D and Celebration oof Africa.” One O of its objectives w was to formulate a Nation nal Policy Plaan of Action for U.S.Africa Relattions in the 211 Century.” Mr. Young (1932-) is onne of the Civil Rights Movvement activissts of the 1960s in thee USA. He waas with Dr. Maartin L. King, Jr., Congressm man John Lewis of Allabama, Rev. Jesse Jackson n, and many oothers in Selm ma on the “Bloody Suunday,” Marchh 7, 1965, maarching from S Selma to Mon ntgomery for the Votinng Rights for African A Amerricans. Young has served hiis country in various ccapacity as paastor, mayor, Congressmann of Atlanta, Georgia, and the 14thh U.S. Ambassador to the United U Nationns (1977-1979 9). He has been, amonng other thinggs, director of o the New Y York City-based Drum Major Instittute (DMI) foor Public Poliicy. It was a great honor to t just be around one oof the legendaary figures, whose w work annd life have co ontributed to the advanncement of collored peoples as well as to uuniversal hum manism.

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Figure 22-5 W Witnessing CHA ANGE in Baltim more, Marylandd

February 20008 Zekeh attendded Sen. Baraack Obama’s Presidential P C Campaign Rallly at First Mariner Areena in Baltim more, February y 2008. “Firedd Up” like millions m of Americans, I joined thoousands of Maryland M Obaamaphiles in chanting, “Change! H Hope! Obama! Now! Yes Wee Can!” From m that day on, my m belief and faith in Obama’s channce to win thee Democratic P Party’s nomin nation got stronger eveery day. The epic e victories on the Superr Duper Tuessday gave me more reason to believve in the win nds of changee, which weree blowing virtually evverywhere. Foor the first tiime, not onlyy did I make regular modest donnations to the campaign; I also dedicatted a good portion p of Cosmoport tto Obama’s historic election victory on N November 4, 2008. By the way, Cossmoport was the newsletterr of the Centeer for Global Studies S at Morgan Staate Universityy. I founded and a edited it from 2000 to o 2009. I religiously, ppassionately, and fanaticallly watched alll the campaig gn events. Most imporrtantly, I pubblished a boo ok on the O Obama pheno om titled, Obamænon: The Gospel of o Change, Hope, H Understaanding, and Leadership for a Networrking World (C Common Gro ound, 2011).

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Figure 22-6 Invitation to the t First Inaug guration of Barrack Obama ass the 44th President of tthe USA

January 20009 The Presidenntial Inauguraal Committee mailed the Innvitation to thee ObamaBiden Camppaign supporteers.

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Figure 22-7 Z Zekeh and Presiident Obama Cu ut-Out

Baltimore, M Maryland, Auggust 3, 2011. Obamaphilees and supporrters around the t country (U USA) organizzed house meetings/paarties to celebbrate President Barack O Obama’s 50th birthday (Aug. 4, 19661). In Baltim more, the eventt took place att Mother’s Fed deral Hill Grille (S. C Charles Streett) from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The presiden nt was in Chicago; hoowever, he waas virtually prresent as it’s aapparent in th his photo. Attendees, iincluding Conngressman J. Sarbanes andd State of Maryland’s M Obama 20122 campaign staff s (D-MD),, ate, drank, ttook photograaphs with Michelle & Barack Obam ma cut-outs, an nd cheerfully sang “Happy Birthday to the Presiident.” The evvent was also o about gettinng fired up again a and strategizing for the 2012 presidential p ellection. He woon again.

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Harvard Handshhake and Obam mænon Figure 22-8 H

Cambridge, MA, Novembber 16, 2011 Harvard Unniversity Law w Professor Charles Oglletree (right, holding Obamænon)), shakes handds with Zekeh. The occasionn was Ogletreee’s threeday lecture on the themee, “Understan nding Obama..” Harvard University, U Cambridge, MA, Novembber 15-17, 2011. The eventt was sponsorred by the W.E.B. DuB Bois Institutee for African n and Africaan American Studies. Ogletree waas Barack Obaama’s law proffessor (1988-11991).

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Figure 22-9 M My First Vote ass a US Citizen

Baltimore, O October 27, 20012 Holding a ccopy of Re-Electing Obama a, my electionn-related publlication, I cast my hisstoric early vote v in the US presidentiaal election of 2012 on Saturday, O October 27 aroound 3:00 p.m m. The venuee was The Leeague for People withh Disabilities, 1111 E. Cold d Spring Lanee, Baltimore, Maryland M 21239.

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Photograp phs from th he 2013 Am mbassadorss Inaugurall Ball A Tributee to President Barack Obama & First Lady Miichelle Obaama Carnegie Libbrary at Mt. Vernon, V Washington, DC Monday, Jannuary 21, 2013, 7:00 p.m.-1 1:00 a.m.

Figure 22-10 Madeleine andd Zekeh at the 2013 Ambassadoors Inaugural Ball B

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Figure 22-11 Miss USA Delegation Memb ber and Zekeh aat the 2013 Am mbassadors Inaugural Balll

Figure 22-12 Ambassadors Inaugural I Ball VIP V Area

From the left to the rigght: Ms. Am mina Gerba oof Cameroon, General Director off Afrique Exxpansion, a Laval, L Québeec-based inteernational enterprise; Z Zekeh; and a Cameroonian C friend of Amiina.

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Figure 22-13 Zekeh at 2013 Ambassadors Inaugural I Ball

Washington, DC, Januaryy 21, 2013 As a newly naturalized American A (Jan 30, 2012) andd first time vo oter, I was grateful andd delighted to join my fello ow Americanss and global citizens c in celebrating the second innauguration off Barack Obam ma as the preesident of the USA.

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Figure 22-14 Zekeh Stands in i Front of Luxor Hotel’s Sphiinx in Las Vegaas

Luxor Las V Vegas is a 366-story hotel casino. The hhotel is remin niscent of Egypt’s Greeat Pyramid of Giza, considered as thhe oldest of all a Seven Wonders of the Ancient World W (the other six being thhe Hanging Gardens G of Babylon, thhe Temple of Artemis att Ephesus, thhe Statue of Zeus at Olympia, thhe Mausoleum m at Halicarnaassus, the Co lossus of Rho odes, and the Lighthouuse of Alexanndria). It (the original) wass built (2550 BC) as a tomb for thhe Egyptian pharaoh Khu ufu. Las Veggas’ impressiv ve Luxor Sphinx is tw wo stories talller than the original. o (Souurces: “Luxor Pyramid and Sphinx,,” a review by b RoadsideAmerica.com oon November 2, 2014; Wikipedia, “Wonders of the World,” last edited inn October 2014 by D. Eaketts). Thhe photograph is mine, 2014 4.

EPILOGUE VENI, VIDI, DIDICI, DOCUI, ET SPERO I CAME, I SAW, I LEARNED, I TAUGHT, AND I HOPE: THE DREAM CONTINUES

I. Meditations on Global Immigration, the American Dream, Cosmocitizenship, and Netizenship AS I LOOK FORWARD TO CARRYING OUT REASONABLE DUTIES of my new citizenship, which also means cosmocitizenship and “Netizenship”;1 as I look forward to enjoying its constitutionally unalienable rights; as I conclude the relatively less melodramatic stories about my journey from “the Heart of Darkness”2 to the “enlightened” world, so to speak, or from Kin Malebo, DRC, to “a shining city upon a hill,” as layman John Winthrop (1630) and President Ronald Reagan (1980-1988) called the USA, I am reminded of a tragic safari that took place about five hundred years ago, i.e., the Middle Passage. As a matter of fact, “in 1619…a Dutch man of war brought African slaves to Virginia. And so while settlers built and dreamed, people of color were subjugated and exploited by a rising nation that prided itself on the expansion of liberty” (Meacham 2012, 32). Millions of Africans were captured, sold, bought, and taken to the New World, supposedly discovered by Christopher Columbus (or Cristoforo Colombo, in Italian) of Genoa, in 1492. Not only did his interesting discovery open the way for European 1

Netizenship is a 21st-century neologism referring to internet-based citizenship. “Netizens” are web-savvy citizens, many of whom supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. In my Maryland Humanities lectures series and elsewhere (Gbotokuma 2011), I have also referred to netizens as the “digital intelligentsia.” The neologism has been popularized, among others, through publications such as Abdul Paliwala’s “Netizenship, Security and Freedom” (2013). 2 A reference to Joseph Conrad’s book, Heart of Darkness (1899).

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exploration and adventure; but it was also a catalyst for what I call “blackout” or the exclusion of, and discrimination against Africans and Amerindians; “blaxploitation,” or exploitation of blacks; alienation; genocide; and colonization that had nothing or little to do with a “civilizing mission.” The crossing of the Atlantic Ocean between the 16th and 19th centuries was a painful, humiliating, dehumanizing, and deadly experience for many African slaves who were treated like animals. During and at the end of their journey, African slaves – especially males – were kept shackled. They were “house Negroes,” plantation or “field Negroes,” maroons, buffalo soldiers, and Harlem Hell fighters who fought in segregated units in World War I. They made invaluable contributions to the New World’s economy. They had unreasonable duties without unalienable rights. Columbus’ discovery also opened the door and the window to a continuing global immigration to the New World. From American history, we learn that in the 17th and 18th centuries, European colonists – especially from England – sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the American colonies. Of course, the Middle Passage didn’t apply to them. Some left the Old World to escape inquisition and religious restrictions or persecutions. Many of them came to the Americas to seek political freedom and economic opportunity. My journey, like many other immigrants’ journeys, is a part of that global historical movement. I left Congo-Zaire for Europe when Mobutu’s dictatorial regime was at its zenith. However, I was not persecuted there, simply because I was very young and I never publicly and loudly denounced the regime’s human rights violations. It was dangerous and practically illegal to be opposed to the regime. “Opposition” was a dirty word. The opposants or members of the opposition – for example, Etienne Tshisekedi, Nguza Karl-I-Bond (1938-2003) – were treated like criminals or terrorists. Living as I did, as a Catholic in an overwhelmingly Catholic/Christian country, I enjoyed a great deal of religious freedom. The exception was when Mobutu’s Authenticity politics forced everybody to get rid of Christian or European names. The late Cardinal Joseph Malula was forced to spend some time as a political refugee in Rome (the Vatican) for voicing his disagreement with some aspects of the regime’s policy. For years, Zairians/Congolese were used to believing that one could be a good Christian without being named John or Mary upon baptism. Many Congolese took their Christian names back as soon as Laurent Kabila overthrew President Mobutu in May 1997. I have kept my new authenticity first name, i.e., Zeke(h). Being from the Ngbaka ethnic group, I realized very early on that my economic and educational opportunities were pretty limited compared to

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fellow Congolese from the Ngbandi, or Mobutu’s ethnic group, and some other predominant groups. My travel to Europe wouldn’t have been possible without the opportunity that the Roman Catholic Church gave me through the diocese of Budjala. Believe or not, tribalism, provincialism, and nepotism are common practices in many countries and DRC is no exception. In this sense, my coming to the United States was also about seeking a better economic opportunity and pursuing the American Dream in “the land of the free” and a country whose constitution stipulates that “all men [and women] are created equal.” As I look forward to enjoying my new citizenship and cosmocitizenship, I am also reminded that even in today’s global village and supposedly civilized world, there are still millions of people who migrate under difficult conditions. Some of these conditions are, to some extent, reminiscent of the Middle Passage. I am referring, for example, to thousands of Africans who have been seeking liberty and economic opportunity through risky and deadly crossings from Morocco to Spain. I am referring to thousands of voiceless African women – mostly young girls – who are enslaved by mafia-related prostitution rings in Europe and elsewhere. Many of these poor women are afraid to escape because of many reasons, including but not limited to the supposed consequences of breaking “the juju oath.” According to the blog Slavery in the 21st Century, the pledge consists of, “mixing the girl’s…hair along with her blood….If one disobeys the oath, it is believed that she or her family will be killed.”3 According to “People and Power,” an Al Jazeera Free Speech TV program aired on Sunday, June 10, 2012, sex traffickers bring their victims to Europe on the promise of a better life. The whole process causes the women to owe their bosses, also known as “Madams,” a huge amount of money ranging from 30,000 to 60,000 euros.4 These African girls’ and women’s predicament is reminiscent of sex tourism in Phnom Penh, 3

See the blog, “Slavery in the 21st Century,” Wednesday, September 21, 2011 at http://slaveryinthe21century.blogspot.com/2011/09/enslaving. 4 “Slavery in the 21st Century,” Wednesday, September 21, 2011. The acknowledgment of this modern-day slavery and the commitment to dismantle it was apparent in a conference on the theme, “The Ambiguity of Hospitality: A Survey of Assistance and Social Protection for Foreign Women and Minors Reduced to Sexual Slavery, or “L’Ambiguità Dell’Accoglienza: Un Percorso di Assistenza e Protezione Sociale per Donne e Minori Stranieri Ridotti in Schiavitù Sessuale, in Italian. It was sponsored by the Italian prime minister’s office department of equal opportunity, Regione Lazio and several Rome-based human rights organizations, Campidoglio, Rome, June 22, 2001. I attended that conference and I wished some of those illegal and unethical activities did not take place in the “Eternal City” and in the back yard of the Holy See.

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Cambodia, where hundreds of thousands of girls – as young as 12 years old – are promised a better future in Thailand, but end up as sex slaves there.5 I am talking about the nightmare of Asian and other foreign laborers in the Persian Gulf (Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait) and elsewhere, whose work has been transformed into “indentured servitude.”6 I am also talking about Mexicans, Central and South Americans, including unaccompanied minors,7 who walk across the US-Mexico border under harsh conditions, etc. Many of them spend a long time in Phoenix, Arizona’s “drop houses” and in “stash houses” in Edinburg, Brownville, and McAllen, Texas. They live in sub-human conditions, where “smugglers often hold the immigrants as ransom to extort more money from their families.”8 My former colleague Prof. Clifford DuRand described Mexicans’ crossing experience in an International Education Week talk titled, “Mexico-US Migration: They Walk, We Fly.”9 The Mexican and South American undocumented immigrants’ walk in pursuit of economic opportunity in the USA is also reminiscent of thousands of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants and Afghan refugees, many of whom walk hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles for months in their desperate attempt to reach Greece. This country is an economically troubled European country, where xenophobia and, of course, the police crackdown on illegal immigrants, are becoming a common phenomenon. The risky journey from Istanbul to Athens is facilitated by unscrupulous Turkish smugglers. Some immigrants are reported to lose their lives while crossing the river Evros to Greece from Turkey using rubber boats.10 Last, but not least, I am referring to nearly 12 million undocumented immigrants living clandestinely in the United States. Like millions of other 5

See Stop the Traffic, a documentary film directed by Emily Marlow (27 minutes). It investigates the horror of the child sex industry in Cambodia. 6 See Tom Hundley, “Indentured Servitude: A Way of Life in Gulf…Many Foreign Workers Are Mistreated.” The Seattle Tribune, electronic edition. Monday, April 22, 2013. See also Richard Morin, “Indentured Servitude in the Persian Gulf.” The New York Times, Sunday, April 14, 2013, 4. 7 See Michael Sherer, “Flight of the Children: An Exodus from Central America Tests the U.S.” TIME, June 30, 2014, 17. 8 See Manny Fernandez, “For Many Illegal Entrants Into US, a Particularly Inhospitable First Stop.” The New York Times, Sunday, May 27, 2012, 14. 9 Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, November 16, 2005. Mexicans’ and South Americans’ painful journeys to the United States is also the focus of a documentary titled, “The Other Side,” a Bullfrog Films, Inc., production by Television Trust for the Environment, © 2001 TVE. 10 For details, see Michael Kennedy, “For Illegal Immigrants, Greek Border Offers a Back Door to Europe.” The New York Times, Sunday, July 15, 2012, 12.

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“dreamers,” they too hope to overcome their nightmare and realize their American Dream through a comprehensive immigration law and a positive outcome of the DREAM Act. The acronym DREAM stands for “Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors” (H.R.1751, 3/26/2009). In a nutshell, the American Dream Act of March 26, 2009 amends the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to repeal the denial of an unlawful alien’s eligibility for higher education benefits based on state residence unless a U.S. national is similarly eligible without regard to such state residence. Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to cancel the removal of, and adjust to conditional permanent resident status, an alien who: (1) entered the United States before his or her 16th birthday and has been present in the United States for at least five years immediately preceding enactment of this Act; (2) is a person of good moral character; (3) is not inadmissible or deportable under specified grounds of the Immigration and Nationality Act; and (4) at the time of application, has been admitted to an institution of higher education or has earned a high school or equivalent diploma. [The Act] sets forth the conditions for conditional permanent resident status; [and] authorizes an alien who has satisfied the appropriate requirements prior to enactment of this Act to petition the Secretary for conditional permanent resident status.11

Frustrated by a “do nothing” and “hell no you can’t” Republican congress that blocked the passage of the DREAM Act, and in the heat of the presidential campaign 2012, President Obama bypassed the congress and signed, on June 15, 2012, an Executive Order and announced, from the White House Rose Garden, that his administration would stop deporting young illegal immigrants known as “DREAMers” who match certain criteria specified in the Act. The President’s “temporary stopgap measure” is expected to prevent the deportation of about 800,000 immigrants who came to the United States as children. The measure is meant, according to the president, to make immigration policy “more fair, more efficient and more just.”12 The President’s executive order was also followed by another good piece of news for immigrants in Arizona when, on June 25, 2012, the US Supreme Court weakened Arizona’s tough 2010 immigration law (HB 1070). The court upheld the most controversial or “show me your paper” part of the law, while blocking others due to that state’s interference with the federal government’s legal competence and duty to handle immigration policies. Civil rights activists and some other 11

For details on the American DREAM Act, see http://www.dreamact2009.org See Julia Preston and John Cushman, Jr., “Obama to Permit Young Migrants to Remain in U.S.” The New York Times, Saturday, June 16, 2012, A1 & A16). 12

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people (Lydia Guzman of Respect-Rispecto; Carlos Garcia of the Puente Movement) are opposed to the show me your paper part of the law on the ground that it has the intended or unintended consequence of racial profiling. According to what critics call the “show me your papers” provision, it “requires state law enforcement officials to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest if they have reason to suspect that the individual might be in the country illegally” (Arizona SB 1070).13 Obviously, “colored” people are more likely to be targeted than blond and blue-eyed people. As a newly naturalized US citizen with three decades of experience as an alien in Europe and the United States, I feel immigrants’ pain and I applaud national policies that are intended to alleviate immigration-related sufferings and pave the way to citizenship. Have I found opportunity in the United States? I would say yes, knowing that it’s all relative and limited as it should be in the real and imperfect world. I am fully aware of today’s growing skepticism about the USA as the land of opportunity. This skepticism is apparent, for example, in the following interview question to, and answer by the US Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz: Question: “Is America kidding itself when it calls itself the land of opportunity?” Answer: “Yes, it is. There are amazing stories of people who made it from the bottom to the top. But what happens on average? What is the chance of somebody from the bottom making it to the middle or somebody from the top who doesn’t work going down? In terms of basic statistics, the U.S. has become less a land of opportunity than other advanced industrial countries.”14

In fact, Stiglitz’ skepticism is consistent with an October 2011 report from the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO). According to that report, from 1979 to 2007, “the average real after tax household income for the one percent of the population with the highest incomes rose 275 percent. For the rest of the top 20 percent of earners, it rose 65 percent.

13 SB 1070 is Arizona Senate Bill or “The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” (2010) It is a controversial law regarding illegal immigration in that state. The controversial SB 1070 was modified as House Bill 2162, or HB 2162, which was passed on April 30, 2010. 14 See “10 Questions.” TIME, June 11, 2012, 66. For further inquiry about this issue, please refer to Joseph Stiglitz, The Price of Inequality (2012). See also Timothy Noah, The Great Divergence (2012).

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But it rose just 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent.”15 David Brook also expressed concerns about fading opportunity in present and future US society through what he calls “the Opportunity Gap,” i.e., “the inequality of outcomes among adults” and “inequality of opportunities among children” (Brook 2012, A19). My affirmative and subjective answer regarding opportunity in the USA is based on the fact that being a university philosophy professor was a quasi-impossibility for me in Italy and/or Europe. It never occurred to me to have the audacity to apply for a teaching position at an Italian or European University. As an “extracomunitario” foreigner in Italy, my Libretto di Lavoro or work permit was clear about what kind of job I might or might not apply for. Manovale comune or unskilled manual worker: that was my identity and job qualification. In the United States, my international education, multicultural background, and doctoral degree qualified me for the H1-B visa category. Consistent with Affirmative Action and the Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity, being a member of an ethnic minority group was an advantage. I was able to be hired and to be promoted. In the contemporary USA, President Obama has personified and epitomized, in a superstar fashion, not only the possibility, but also the reality of opportunity. In “The American Promise,” Senator and candidate Barack H. Obama’s Democratic Nomination Speech in Denver, Colorado, on August 28, 2008, he optimistically and idealistically spoke about USA as the land of opportunity as follows: With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States. Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story – of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to. This moment – this election – is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise.

Inarguably, President Obama’s re-election on November 6, 2012 for a second term was a second chance to keep that promise. My European experience allows me to state that the American promise, however, is far from being a European promise for the overwhelming majority of African immigrants, not even for European-born sons and daughters of African immigrants. As a matter of fact, most African-born scholars who are lucky enough to teach in European universities face a lot of problems relative to 15

The CBO report title was, “Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007,” October 25, 2011. See https://www.cbo.gov/publication/42729

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promotion. They tend to work as Assistants and Chargés de Cours (or teaching assistants) for a very long time and with very little chance of being promoted. The question one ought to ask is, “are those African scholars being judged based on the content of their character, or are they victims of the color line?” In France, for example, Affirmative Action à l’Américaine would be an absurdity because of French Universalism, taboos created around race, and the French credo in “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.” French Universalism is the French republican ideal which proposes, in the words of Leonora Miano, a Cameroonian-born novelist, that, “if you embrace French values, the French language, the French culture, then race doesn’t exist and it won’t matter if you’re black.”16 Apparently, the good intention behind French Universalism hasn’t necessarily resulted in good outcomes for many French blacks. The “Advancement of Colored People” is a typically American phenomenon. It is definitely rare and a very slow process in Europe. According to Patrick Lozès, founder of Cran, a black organization devised partly to gather statistics, “there is only one black member representing continental France in the national assembly among 555 members; there are no continental French senators out of some 300; there are only a handful of mayors out of 36,000; but none from the poor Paris suburbs.” More importantly, according to Cran’s findings, “the percentage of blacks in France who hold university degrees is 55, compared with 37 percent for the general population. But the number of blacks who get stuck in the working class is 45 percent, compared with 34 percent for the national average.”17 The ideals of liberty (Liberté) and equality (Égalité) were also expressed in the founding document of the United States. However, they didn’t result in fraternity (Fraternité) and equal opportunity in the pursuit of happiness. It took the civil rights movement to help the United States live up to its creed. Things are not and may never be perfect. However, this is certainly an area where other countries have something to learn from the United States. Have I achieved the American Dream? I don’t think so, especially when, like many other hardworking immigrants and Americans, I still live 16

Ms. Miano is the author of Tels des Astres Eteints (Like Extinguished Stars), 2008, qtd by Michael Kimmelman, “For Blacks in France, Obama’s Rise is Reason to Rejoice and to Hope.” The New York Times, June 17, 2008. 17 In April 2009, I had the opportunity to meet and converse with Mr. Lozès. He illustrated the French blacks’ predicament in an international symposium on the theme, “Constructing Black France: A Transatlantic Dialogue,” Barnard College and Columbia University, New York, Friday, April 17, 2009. See also Gbotokuma 2011, 117.

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paycheck to paycheck, with meager savings and forever indebted to credit card companies. It’s worth mentioning that for me – and for many immigrants from developing countries – savings are very difficult because of remittances that we often send to our families abroad. We often live our lives as our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. It’s like paying additional taxes to the ones that we pay to Uncle Sam. That’s why for immigrants, the American Dream is even a much more important ideal. Unfortunately, for most immigrants as well as for most naturalized and natural born US citizens, the American Dream is and remains what it is, i.e., just a dream. It’s like a lottery, where the chance of winning is very slim. But you can’t win without playing and so we keep dreaming about that “better, richer, and happier” future. We keep hoping, sometimes believing that we can fly even without wings and that the “sky is the limit.” Most of us are dreamers and hope-mongers. Will I ever realize the American Dream? Maybe, if I keep dreaming, hoping and working harder and harder every single day, and being mindful of the fact that the American Dream, just like genius and success, is, in Thomas Edison’s words, “one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” (BrainyQuote).18 Just because some people realize the American Dream at an early age doesn’t mean others will never realize it a little bit later, sometimes when they almost stop dreaming. The American Dream has no deadline. For millions of immigrants who traveled thousands of miles – either by air, or by boat, by walking, or even by swimming – to reach the land of opportunity and the land of the free, the Dream is, like hope, the last thing to die. The difficulty to realize the American Dream is apparent in many immigration stories. For example, Jacob Deng Mach, a “lost boy” from the Sudan states, twelve years after leaving his country for the United States, finds that “all I knew was that America was the greatest thing in the world. Nobody knew how people struggle in America.”19 But for many immigrants, keeping the Dream alive is a categorical imperative. This is the case even when the US-originated global financial crisis and other factors have led to doubts, skepticism, pessimism, and growing inequalities, or The Great Divergence (Noah, 2012). Relatively new immigrants must be mindful of Jefferson’s words 18

Thomas A. Edison as qtd in BrainyQuotes. http://mobile.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/thomas_a_edison.html 19 See Kevin Sack, “A Lost Boy Grows Up.” The New York Time Magazine, December 8, 2013, 31-37. Sack’s opening statement or subtitle is the best possible way of summarizing the problem with the American Dream. “12 years after leaving Sudan,” he writes, “a Lost Boy has found that the dream of a better life is both all around and just outside his grasp” (31).

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regarding 99 percent perspiration until they are 100 percent dehydrated and cannot perspire any more. They must also religiously believe in Thomas Paine’s declaration on the “birth of a new world” (1776) according to which, “we have it in our power to begin the world over again” (Paine 1986/1776).20 They must, in agreement with President Obama’s word, reject the world’s “isness” and work for its “oughtness,” and adopt one of the most popular slogans, “Yes, we can!” “Si, se Puede!” Moreover, the American Dream shouldn’t be limited to personal material success. It should also be about Martin L. King, Jr.’s dream of equality, brotherhood and sisterhood in the pursuit of the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and happiness. Have I achieved happiness? Well, I am happy just to be in the number of the American dreamers. The Founding Fathers’ Declaration of Independence contains a statement about the unalienable right to pursuit of happiness. However it does not guarantee the achievement thereof, nor does it define happiness. And so like anybody else, I am pursuing happiness. The sky and the credit card limit are the limits. I am definitely happier in the USA than I was in Italy or Europe due to a clearly unequal opportunity. Have I acquired world wisdoms? Well, as a professional philosopher, I should be interested in, and committed to wisdom, since the etymological meaning of “philosophy” is “love of wisdom.” My international travel and living has definitely allowed me to extend my abstract and Platonic love of wisdom to a concrete and pragmatic understanding of world wisdoms. Of course, this is a long process and a work in progress which, I am afraid, no human and mortal being will ever fully complete. However, my experiences on three continents (Africa, Europe, America) and my most recent travel to Asia (China and South Korea in 2008) have enhanced my understanding of world cultures, civilizations, and our shared humanity. Believe it or not, my two-hour climbing of The Great Wall, a few hours of touring Wuhan’s Buddhist Temple, Xi’an’s imperial monuments in terracotta, and Seoul’s Namsangol Hanok Village, etc., were contributing factors in my efforts to relativize and overcome Eurocentrism. My lived and shared experiences with my fellow cosmocitizens have led me to agree with the Amerindian Lakota’s phrase, “Mitakuye oyasin,” meaning “we are all related.” My global safari has allowed me to acquire multicultural competence through the study of several world languages, cultures, and religions. As incomplete and limited as my journey may be, it has undoubtedly broadened my Weltanschauung or worldview. It has 20 Thomas Paine as qtd in Mark’s Quotes. www.marksquotes.com/Founding-Fathers/Paine/index2.htm

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allowed me to fully realize that my way is not the only way, nor is it always the best way. More importantly, that journey is, to some extent, a rehearsal for, and a pathway to cosmocitizenship. I am a Congolese citizen by birth. I am a naturalized US citizen by choice. I am or I want to become a global citizen based on my life journey. This experience allows me to restate in Latin, like the Roman playwright Publius Terentius (195 or 185159 BC), “Homo sum, et nihil humani alienum mihi puto,” or “I am a human being, and I think that nothing that is human is foreign to me.” Despite the similarity in human experiences, there are always surprising and striking differences. There are lessons learned as well as pieces of advice for other prospective international “safarians” or travelers and cosmocitizens.

II. Lessons Learned and Global Travel Advice As one whose first international travel destination was Rome, I am pleased and I find a great consolation and pride in the eighteenth century British writer Samuel Johnson’s statement that, “A man who has not been in Italy is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see” (Boswell 1993/1791).21 Global Safari is all about discovering and learning. I agree, to some extent, with Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s belief that “travelers are always discoverers, especially those who travel by air. There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas” (Lindbergh 1935).22 This belief shouldn’t underestimate discoveries travelers make while traveling by car, by train, and by boat. Like many other international travelers and like Julius Caesar, I can say, mutatis mutandis, “veni, vidi, vici, or I came, I saw, and I conquered. But since I didn’t militarily conquer anything, I would like to modify Caesar’s words and say, veni, vidi, didici, meaning, I came, I saw, I learned. My travel-based learning has been the result of many different processes of transits, transitions, translations, adoptions, and adaptations. I know something about the pains and pleasures of airport transits, including but not limited to missing a flight connection. I know something about culturally transitioning from 21

James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, qtd in The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations, 1992, 422. Also qtd in Oxford Essential Quotations, ed. by Susan Ratcliffe, online version, 2014, quote number 83. 22 Anne M. Lindbergh, North to the Orient, qtd in The New Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Quotations, 1992, 422.

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one country or continent to another. And I know something about the usefulness of dictionaries as translation tools before, during, and after transit and transition moments. During my global safari I witnessed and/or experienced many interesting events of historical proportion. Some of these events have had an impact on our religious, economic, social, and political lives. They include, among others, the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who assumed the name of Pope John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian cardinal to be elected pope after so many years, breaking a long held tradition of Italian quasi monopoly in this field. This charismatic pope was believed to have also contributed to the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The dismantlement of apartheid in South Africa and the election of President Nelson Mandela; the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States; the epic election victories of Barack Obama in November 2008 and 2012; the USA-originated global financial crisis; and, of course, ongoing globalization are some of the most memorable events of the past thirtyfour years. To some extent, the Y2K was one of the most feared events. Some people even thought that it was going to be the end of the world as we know it. For readers who have already forgotten about it, or didn’t have to experience that agonizing moment, the Y2K computer crisis or the socalled “millennium bug” was “a result of the fact that when computers were built, they came with internal clocks. In order to save memory space, these clocks rendered dates with just six digits – two for the day, two for the month, and…two for the year. That meant they could go up to only 12/31/99. So when the calendar hit January 1, 2000, many older computers were poised to register that not as 01/01/2000 but as 01/01/00, and they would think it was 1900 all over again. It meant that a huge number of existing computers…needed to have their internal clocks and related systems adjusted, otherwise, it was feared, they would have shut down, creating a global crisis, given how many different management systems – from water to air traffic control – were computerized” (Friedman, 2005, 108). Believe it or not, I still have the 5.28-gallon (ca. 12 liters) Natural Spring Water that my wife and I purchased as part of the Y2K preparedness plan. It’s our Y2K memorabilia, so to speak. I have learned many valuable lessons during my global safari. Here are thirteen of them.

Lesson/Advice 1: Passport Matters If you are a diplomat, a diplomatic passport will and should make your international travel a lot easier than an ordinary or regular passport.

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However, just because you are a diplomat doesn’t mean you will be issued any visa you need to travel anywhere in the world. What’s more, not all passports are created equal. Usually, a US passport holder is likely to be treated with more respect and dignity than, say, a Middle Eastern or an African passport holder. So be cool and be prepared for additional and special scrutiny or check-in and check-out time.

Lesson/Advice 2: Your Visa Is Not Everything Your way isn’t the only best possible way. Your Visa credit card may be necessary, but not sufficient. It might be declined for many reasons such as “over credit limit,” or no credit available; the use of your own credit card abroad could be deemed suspicious and so sometimes it is highly desirable to inform your credit card company about your international travel. In some places, Master Card is the only and/or preferred card. So it is wise to have a plan B, just in case. In some places – e.g. in DRC – cash is the only method of payment.

Lesson/Advice 3: Entry and Re-Entry Visa Depending on the reciprocity between your country and the country or countries you plan on visiting, you are likely to need visas. If you travel as a foreigner, i.e., if you travel from a country that isn’t yours and plan on returning to it, then remember to eventually secure both entry and re-entry visas. If you travel to Western Europe and plan on visiting several countries, then a Schengen visa is the best possible visa. It saves you time and money.

Lesson 4: Humility Be humble, especially when you are not at home. According to a Congolese proverb, “in a foreign village, dogs lower their tails” (O mboka mopaya, mbwa ekokitisaka mokondo, in Lingala).

Lesson/Advice 5: Packing Luggage loss is a possible part of travel (mis)adventures. It happened to me several times, i.e., in Manhattan, Kansas; Rome, Italy; and Madrid, Spain. Consequently, your carry-on luggage should include items that you absolutely need during your journey. For security reasons, post September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, you must be aware of what

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you may or may not include in your luggage and how much you may have in your carry-on luggage. Anything can be suspicious. For example, at Beijing and Brussels International Airports, customs agents confiscated my diarrhea liquid medicine and mosquito spray can on the ground that these items exceeded the size requirements.

Lesson/Advice 6: Mind Your Appearance Your look is likely to be a factor in the way airport travel agents treat you. While you cannot become a chameleon overnight and change your color, you should, however, do whatever you can to possibly minimize unnecessary ethnicity-based suspicions and stereotypes.

Lesson/Advice 7: Punctuality Be punctual because, as King Louis XVIII of France is believed to have said, “Exactness [Punctualit] is the the politeness of kings” (L’exactitude [La ponctualité] est la politesse des rois, in French).23 It’s better to wait than to have other people wait for you. “African time” is not a universal phenomenon. You will eventually pay dear prices for being late, for example, missing a flight, which can have many other consequences. On July 22, 2008, for example, I missed my flight to Beijing because I was late. Fortunately, I was able to catch a flight the day after and my paper presentation in Xi’an was also rescheduled thanks to the conference organizers’ understanding and flexibility. But things could have been worse.

Lesson/Advice 8: The Color Line Is Still the Problem of the 21st Century. Sexism and Classism Are Real Everywhere Believe it or not, “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and islands of the sea” (Du Bois 1903, 9). Despite the universal declaration of human rights, despite the advancement of colored peoples in 21st century USA, and despite the dismantlement of apartheid in South Africa and the abolition of the caste system that treats 23 The French banker (banquier) Jacques Lafitte (1767-1844) attributed this statement to King Louis XVIII. See Qui a dit “l’exactitude est la politesse des rois” in Le blog d’une Mamie http://zibulinette.canalblog.com/archives/2011/07/0721559102.html (CanalBlog 2014).

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India’s Afro-Dalits or “untouchables” as second class citizens, racial, gender, and class discriminations are still a reality in many countries today. African immigrants’ predicaments continue to be mediocre in many Western and Middle Eastern countries. For example, Afro-Iraqis are called “Abed,” a term that means “slave!” To a great extent, birtherism and the treatment of President Obama in the United States by right-wing conservatives are manifestations of racism and xenophobia. In Europe, many African super star soccer players – e.g., Thierry Henri of France, who has been playing for the New York Red Bulls in the USA since 2010, and Mario Balotelli of Italy – are paid very well. However, they have also been subjected to racial slurs and called monkeys. This unacceptable treatment is at odds with FIFA’s antidiscrimination statement according to which, discrimination of any kind against a Country, private person or group of people on account of race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation or any other reason is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion. (FIFA Statutes, art. 3)24

In April 2013, Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s center-left government appointed Dr. Cécile Kyenge, a surgeon of Congolese descent and outspoken advocate of immigrant rights as Italy’s first black female minister of integration. This symbolic and important gesture should have been perceived by Italians and other nations as a positive sign and proof of a civilized and progressive country accepting our universal humanity and brotherhood. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the historic appointment has, “opened the national debate on the tension between the increasingly multicultural nature of Italian society and the undercurrent of racism that is increasingly difficult for Italians to ignore.”25 The appointment has angered many people, especially from xenophobic political movements. For example, Mario Borghezio, a Euro-parliamentarian for the antiimmigrant Northern League, could not hide his anger. His statement that “She [Dr. Cécile Kyenge] seems like a great housekeeper” is, as many people correctly saw it, racist and xenophobic. The “housekeeper” reference is reminiscent of the notion that “colored” and extracomunitari 24 At FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil, June 12-July 13, soccer games began with a reading of this statement and a display of a sign that read “SAY NO TO RACISM.” For further information, see www.fifa.com. 25 Elisabetta Povoledo, “Slurs Against Italy’s First Black National Official Spur Debate on Racism.” The New York Times, Sunday June 23, 2013, 6.

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foreigners, especially those coming from the Philippines and Cape Verde, should normally and always work in Italy as Colf’ (collaboratori familiari, or maids) and manovali comuni (unskilled workers) regardless of their education level. Mr. Borghezio’s attitude and mindset are also reminiscent of US birthers (e.g. Donald Trump et al.) who believe that Barack Obama doesn’t deserve to be US president because he was supposedly born in Kenya, i.e. he is black. Barack Obama has been elected twice without causing Barackolypse. Dr. Kyenge’s short-lived appointment as an Italian government cabinet member did not cause everything to fall apart in Italy. In France, Ms. Anne-Sophie Clere, a former Front National candidate to municipal elections, posted a photograph of Madam Christiane Taubira on her Facebook page, comparing her to a monkey.26 I personally experienced racism in Italy and in the United States. However, I was also able to overcome hardships and to survive due to the action of my white European and American friends who recognize our universal and shared humanity. For me and for many immigrants, poverty and the awareness of the color line have been a catalyst for hard work and pursuit of excellence.

Lesson/Advice 9: Cooking During my first three years in Rome, my scholarship included meals cooked by nuns at Collegio Urbano. At Centro Internazionale Giovanni XXIII, there was a very limited meals service. Students who attended Università degli Studi di Roma or Rome’s Public University had access to the mensa or cafeteria for a really ridiculous cost. Lay students – like myself – who attended private and pontifical universities didn’t have access to the mensa. We had to buy groceries and cook some of our meals. It was an interesting experience for me as a Congolese/African guy who was brought up to believe that cooking was a woman’s business, except, of course, for men who do it professionally. I remember being accused of sexism by my Italian girlfriend when, at the beginning of our relationship, I watched her doing most of the cooking. Back then, I thought that she was a feminist. By the way, many people whom one would call sexists today, used to consider the term “feminist” a dirty word, especially at the 26

C. Taubira is a black French politician from French Guiana. She is a former member of the French Assemblée Nationale, Euro-parliamentarian, and presidential candidate. She currently serves as France’s minister of justice (2012- ). According to a July 16, 2014 verdict, Ms. Clere is expected to serve nine months behind bars for her racist Facebook post. Dura lex, sed lex. Vivent la Liberté, l’Égalité, la Fraternité!

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beginning of the feminist movement. Anyway I got used to cooking out of necessity and pragmatism and don’t mind doing it, especially risotto and barbecues during the summertime.

Lesson/Advice 10: Networking and Whom You Know In today’s competitive knowledge economy, what you know can sometimes be as important as whom you know. Consequently, networking is of utmost importance. Today’s ICT has enhanced our networking capacity, especially through social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). In the United States, for example, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign success was attributable, among other things, to the effective use of social media and “netizenship.” So remember to always KEEP IN TOUCH.

Lesson/Advice 11: Hard Work and Negative Competitive Collegiality In my professional career in the academic world, I have realized that collegiality and collaboration are necessary. Competition is the engine that pushes us to work hard to succeed and/or survive. Hard work can be conducive to promotion, honors, success, survival, and happiness. However, negative competitive collegiality and colleagues’ insecurity can sometimes lead to professional jealousy and resentment towards successful colleagues. This is true about all professions everywhere. Some insecure supervisors and leaders are afraid of being outperformed by their supervisees and so they would sometimes do anything to prevent them from performing better, getting promoted and rewarded. As an immigrant, first in Europe, and then in the United States, I have learned that hard work doesn’t simply mean working hard. It also means, in many cases, working much harder than the natives. This is especially so during national economic crises and periods of high unemployment rates, when immigrants are perceived as the ones who are “stealing jobs,” and therefore, can be easily profiled, discriminated against and fired.

Lesson/Advice 12: Languages, Cultures, and Cosmocitizenship World language skills function or can function as a tool or mechanism to bridge what I call the ‘phone divide.’ As an international student and guest worker in the 1980s in Europe, I rediscovered and became more and more aware of my Africanness, negritude, and ‘thirdworldness,’ so to speak. Consequently, I became active with social issues affecting African and

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international students. In 1984, I unsuccessfully ran for the presidency of the newly created Association of African Students in Rome, or Associazione degli Studenti Africani di Roma (ASAR), in Italian. I lost the election to my good friend Stan Sheriff of Liberia. One of the key reasons for my election defeat was the phone divide, i.e., the antagonism between Anglophone and Francophone students. Liberia is an Anglophone West African country. Congo/Zaire is a Francophone Central African country. Anglophone students were more socio-politically active than, and outnumbered, Francophone students due to a great number of Nigerians in Rome. Italian was ASAR’s official language. However, English and French were occasionally used because most African students in Rome were from Anglophone and Francophone countries. Since French and Italian are very similar languages, Francophone students spoke Italian better than the Anglophones. I remember some Anglophone friends of mine justifying their broken Italian and/or their lack of effort to improve their fluency in Italian on the grounds that English is an international language and so they could survive in the world with little or no knowledge of Italian. The election for the ASAR presidency became, to some extent, the battleground for the Anglophone-Francophone antagonism. After my election defeat, I was asked to assume the secretarygeneral position. My language skills in Italian and French, as well as basic knowledge of English, were a plus for the position. I gladly accepted to serve the association in that capacity. In the 1980s I was also learning German. So yes, I was from Congo-Zaire, a Francophone and Lingalophone country. However, I wasn’t just a Francophone or Lingalophone. I could use more than one “phone,” i.e., “Lingala phone”, “Ngbaka phone”, “French phone”, “Italian phone,” “British phone” or “English phone”, and whenever necessary, “German phone”, so to speak. I am a “polyphone,” i.e., a polyglot or multilingual person. That’s cool. Isn’t it? Multilingualism is the single most important, the best possible, and the most enjoyable lesson learned during my global safari. I make a living as a philosopher, i.e., as a philosophy professor, and that is how society defines me. However, I love and I would prefer to refer to myself as a polyglot, or as Prof. Mudimbe calls me in his preface, “Mr. Global.” But for people who don’t see any economic benefit in foreign language skills, being a polyglot would not answer the question “what do you do for a living?” Multilingualism allows me to assume multiple personalities and to communicate with my global brothers and sisters. It enhances my participation in our common and shared humanity in a spider’s web-like and shrinking world. Last but not least, multilingualism is not only the

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most effective tool to bridge the “phone divide,” but it is also, above all, a powerful tool for cultural diplomacy in a conflict-ridden world. It is like a multi-visa passport of cosmocitizenship and netizenship. Usually knowing the language(s) and culture(s) of a host country will make your travel and stay much easier. English has become today’s de facto global lingua franca. However, don’t assume that everybody in the world speaks English. Americans used to religiously hold this belief until the September 11 attacks and wake-up call, reminding them that foreign language skills are in the national interest and have security value (Gbotokuma, 2008). Remember that the best possible way to understand people’s cultures is through their languages, because, as the German philosopher Johann G. Fichte (1762-1814) put it, “people’s language is their soul” (Die Sprache eines Volkes is seine Seele, in German). For a cultured world traveler, foreign languages have many advantages. A basic knowledge of German was precisely what allowed me to work as a student worker in Germany and pay for some of my education expenses in Italy. Basic knowledge of English (or “Globish,” that is English as it is spoken globally by non-native speakers), was definitely behind my audacity to move from Italy to the USA and pursue the American Dream. Things would have been very different and much more challenging without any knowledge of Shakespeare’s language. My experiences with international travel have led me to fully agree with the Austrian philosopher’s belief that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world” [Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt, in German (Wittgenstein 1961, §5.6).

Lesson 13: Adopt and Adapt “When in Rome, do like Romans.” However, be mindful of the African saying that, “By imitating everybody else all the time, the chimpanzee cut its throat.” To a great extent, assimilation is a requirement for one’s full membership in a new society. However, immigrants ought to remember that diversity is not necessarily a bad thing. Adopting and adapting is not about making a radical change about oneself; it is neither self-denial, nor the acceptance of cultural alienation. It is rather part and parcel of acculturation as a survival mechanism in new environments.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

AA: American Airlines ACA: Affrodable Care Act ACLI: Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani (Italian labor union) ACT: American College Test ACTFL: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages AFDL: Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du CongoZaire, (in French) AFL-CIO: American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations AG: Aktiengesellschaft (in German) AGCI: African Global Competitive Initiative AGOA: African Growth and Opportunity Act ALASCO: Association de Lutte Anti-Sida au Congo ALM: American Leprosy Mission ANC: African National Congress APA: American Philosophical Association APIC: Association de Personnel Indigène de la Colonie APVVLS: Association des Personnes Vivant avec le Virus VIH/SIDA (in French) ARV: Antiretroviral ASAP: As soon as possible ASC: Agent de Santé Communautaire (in French) ASSI: Assistance Santé SIDA (in French) AT & T: American Telephone and Telegraph (Company) AVC: Anémie vasculaire cérébrale (in French) B.C.: Before Christ BBC: British Broadcasting Corporation BENELUX: Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg BET: Black Entertainment Television BWI: Baltimore Washington International (Airport) C: chapter (also chap.) CA: California Ca.: circa

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CABAFAIR: Caribbean American Book and Art Fair CAF: Confédération Africaine de Football (in French) CAL: Center for Applied Linguistics CAR: Central African Republic Card.: Cardinal CAZA: Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums (formerly Canadian Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums CBO: Congressional Budget Office CBS: Columbia Broadcasting System (US TV Network) CCAE: Conseil des Communautés Africaines en Europe (in French) CCBC: Community College Baltimore County CD: Compact Disc CDD: Commissaire de District (in French) CDF: Congolese Franc CDI-Bwamanda: Centre de Développement Intégral-Bwamanda (in French) CDV: Centre de Dépistage Volontaire (in French) CECU: Communauté Evangélique du Christ en Ubangi (in French) CEI: Commission Électorale Indépendante (in French) CENI: Commission Électorale Nationale Independante (in French) CN Tower: Canadian National Tower (or Canada’s National Tower) CEO: Chief Executive Officer CEUM: Communauté Evangélique de l’Ubangi et Mongala (in French) CGS: Center for Global Studies CIA: Central Intelligence Agency CIC: Communauté Islamique au Congo (in French) CIC: Consultants Interculturele Communicatie (in Dutch) CLA: College of Liberal Arts CNN: Cable News Network CNS: Conférence Nationale Souveraine (in French) CO: Colorado; Cycle d’Orientation (in French) COLF: Collaboratore Famigliare; Collaboratrice Famigliare (in Italian) Coltan: Columbite-tantalite CONAKAT: Confédération des Associations Katangaises (in French) CORAPHAR: Comité Rural d’Action pour la Promotion de l’Habitat et de l‘Agriculture Rurale (in French) CT: Connecticut CV: Curriculum Vitae CVR: Corps des Volontaires de la République (in French) DAAD: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (in German) DC: District of Columbia

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DM: Deutsche Mark DMI: Drum Major Institute DPI: Department of Public Information DNC: Democratic National Convention DRC: Democratic Republic of the Congo DREAM Act: Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act EAC: Electoral Assistance Commission EAIE: European Association for International Education E-book: electronic book ECC: Evangelical Covenant Church ECI: Eastern Congo Initiative Ed.: editor EDUESPAÑA: Educación en España (in Spanish) EEC: European Economic Community EEO: Equal Employment Officer EPSP: Enseignement Primaire, Secondaire et Professionnel (in French) Esq.: Esquire ETS : Educational Test Service EU: European Union FARDC: Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (in French) FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization (of the United Nations) Fc: Franc Congolais FGM: Female Genital Mutilation FIFA: Fédération Internationale de Football Amateur (in French) FISP: Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie (in French) Fr.: Father G1: Graduat 1 (in French) GDP: Gross Domestic Product GmbH: Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (meaning a company with limited liability, in German) GOP: Grand Old Party Gov.: Governor; Government GPS: Global Positioning System HB: House Bill H.E.: His/Her Excellency HBCUs: Historically Black Colleges and Universities HBO: Home Box Office HIV/AIDS: Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Hon.: Honorable

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HP: Hewlett-Packard HU: Hubei University IAABD: International Association of African Business and Development i.e.: id est (Latin meaning that is) IBM: International Business Machines ICC: International Criminal Court ICD: Institute for Cultural Diplomacy ICD: Inter-Congolese Dialogue ICEX: Instituto de Comercio Exterior (in Spanish, meaning Institute for Foreign Exchange or Commerce) ICG: International Crisis Group ICT: Information Communication Technology IDASS: International Directory of African Studies Scholars IDP: International Development Partnership IDPs: Internally Displaced Persons IEW: International Education Week IFAD: International Fund for Agricultural Development IIE: Institute of International Education Inc.: Incorporated INS: Immigration and Naturalization Service Instr.: Instruction IPM: Intellectual Property Misappropriation IRC: International Rescue Committee IRS: Internal Revenue Service ISTM: Institut Supérieur des Techniques Médicales (in French) ITM: Institut des Techniques Médicales (in French) IVF: In Vitro Fertilization J.P. II: John Paul II JFK: John Fitzgerald Kennedy JMPR: Jeunesse Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (in French) JMS: Journée Mondiale du SIDA (in French) KERCUN: Kermesse Culturelle de l’Unité Nationale (in French) Kg: kilogram KGB: Komitet gosudarstvennoƱ bezopasnosti” or Committee for State Security (Soviet Intelligence) Kin: Kinshasa KRW: Korean Won K-State: Kansas State KSU: Kansas State University KW: Karawa LBJ: Lyndon Baines Johnson

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LG: Life’s Good LLC: Limited Liability Company MA: Master of Arts M23: March 23 Movement MDGs: Millennium Development Goals MEMISA: MEdische MIsie SAmenwerking, or MEdische MISsie Actie (in Dutch) MISWG: Mayor’s Immigration Working Group MLC: Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (in French) MLK: Martin Luther King MMI: Medicus Mundi International[is] (in Latin MNC: Mouvement National Congolais (in French) MNCs: Multinational Companies MONUC: Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies au Congo (in French) MONUSCO: Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en [République Démocratique du] Congo, in French MOU: Memorandum of Understanding MP3: Moving Picture3 MP4: Moving Picture4 MPR: Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (in French) Msgr. (Mgr.): Monsignor MSNBC: Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company MSU: Morgan State University NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAFSA: National Association of Foreign Student Advisers NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement NBA: National Basketball Association NEPAD: New Partnership for African Development NED: National Endowment for Democracy NFL: National Football League NGLS: Non-Governmental Liaison Service NGO: Non-Governmental Organization NY: New York NYT: New York Times OAC: Opérateurs d’Appui-Conseils (in French) ONGD: Organisme non gouvernemental de Développement (in French) ONUC: Opération des Nations Unies au Congo (in French) OP-ED: Opinion-Editorial OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network P.S.: Post Scriptum (Latin)

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PAD: Polyglots in Action for Diversity; Polyglottes en Action pour la Diversité (in French); Políglotas en Acción para la Diversidad (in Spanish) PDA: Personal Digital Assistant PEASIT: Programme Evangélique Anti-SIDA Tomibatela (in French and Lingala) PhD. [Ph.D.]: Philosophy Doctor PHIL: Philosophy PIER: Program in International Educational Resources PIGS: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain PLWHA: People Living With HIV/Aids PNMLS: Programme National Multi-Sectoriel de Lutte contre le SIDA (in French) PPRD: Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et la Démocractie (in French) PRP: Parti Révolutionnaire du Peuple (in French) Pub.: Publication PUG: Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana (in Latin); Pontificia Università Gregoriana (Italian) PUU: Pontificia Universitas Urbaniana (in Latin); Pontificia Università Urbaniana (Italian) PVV: Personnes Vivant avec le Virus (in French) RCD: Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (in French) RIP: Requiescat in Pace RPF: Rwandan Patriotic Front RPA: Rwandan Patriotic Army RTNC: Radio Télévision Nationale Congolaise (in French) SB : Senate Bill S.J.: Society of Jesus (Societas Jesu, in Latin) SAT: Scholastic Aptitude Test; Scholastic Assessment Test SC: Security Council SCIBE: Société Commerciale Industrielle Bemba (in French) SIDA: Syndrome d’immunodéficience acquise (in French) SIOI: Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale (in Italian) SNEL: Société Nationale d’Electricité (in French) SOCOTRA: Société Congolaise de Transport (in French) SOFICOM: Société Financière et Commerciale (in French) SOTU: State of the Union (Address) TACA: Trade Advisory Committee on Africa TEA (Party): Taxed Enough America TESOL: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

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TP Mazembe: Tout-Puissant Mazembe (in French) TV5: Télévision 5 (French TV Channel) UCOP+: Union Congolaise des Organisations et Personnes Vivant avec le VIH/SIDA (in French) UCSEI: Ufficio Centrale Studenti Esteri in Italia (in Italian) UDEMO: Union des Démocrates Mobutistes (in French) UDSM: University of Dar es Salaam UK: United Kingdom UNAIDS: United Nations AIDS Program UNAMIR: United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda UNAZA: Université Nationale du Zaïre (in French) UNCFSP: United Negro College Fund Special Program UNDP: United Nations Development Program UNHCR: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNIKIN: Université de Kinshasa (in French) URT: United Republic of Tanzania USAID: United States Agency for International Development USCIS: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services USD: United States Dollar(s) USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics UTC+8: Coordinated Universal Time+ 8 hours VIP: Very Important Person VODACOM: Voice and Data Communications Vol.: Volume WARA: West African Research Association WASP: White Anglo-Saxon protestant WCP: World Congress of Philosophy WFP: World Food Program WHO: World Health Organization WMD: Weapons of Mass Destruction WSF: World Social Forum WTO: World Trade Organization Y2K: Year 2000

APPENDIX B PHOTO GALLERY

NORTH AMERICA: Canada and Mexico THE CARIBBEAN AND ANTILLES: Martinique, Barbados, and the Bahamas ASIA: China and South Korea CANADA Quick Facts Flag Colors: Red and White (See Fig. B-1 Canadian Flag on the Roof of the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC) National Anthem: O Canada Population: 32,225,000 Area: 9,984,670 sq. km or 3,856,101 sq. miles Official Language: English and Français Religion: Roman Catholic, Protestant Capital: Ottawa Currency: Canadian Dollar (1 US $ = 1.04 Canadian Dollar) Life Expectancy: 79 GDP per Capita: $29,300 Literacy Percent: 97 Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II (1952-Present); Prime Minister: Stephen J. Harper SOURCE: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th [online] Edition. Retrieved June 2014

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Figure B B-1 Canadian Flag F

Figure B-2 Caanadian Provinncial Flags

The six Caanadian Proviinces are: Qu uébec, Ontarrio, British Columbia, C Alberta, Novva Scotia, andd Saskatchewaan.

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Figure B-3 Zeekeh Wears a Canadian C Royal Guard Hat, Otttawa, Canada, June J 2006.

Madeleine and Zekeh Visit thee Canadian Parrliament in Otttawa, June Figure B-4 M 2006

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Figure B-5 CN N Tower/La Toour CN in Toron nto, Ontario

The CN Tow wer is Canadaa’s National Tower. T It definnes the Torontto skyline at 553.33m (1,815 ft., 5 in.). It was th he world’s talllest tower forr over 32 years. It hass been overtakken by Dubai’s Burj Khalifaa building (ov ver 828 m or 2,716.5 ft.; 160 storries). CN To ower is “an architectural triumph, engineering Wonder of thhe Modern World W and awaard-winning diining and entertainmennt destinationn. With breatthtaking view ws from 3 ob bservation levels incluuding the Glaass Floor and d Sky Pod, w world’s higheest glassfronted elevvator featuringg glass floor paanels, theatre,, ride, arcade, shopping and award-w winning dininng at 360 Thee Restaurant aat the CN Tow wer – it’s Toronto’s m must see vissited by almost 2 millionn people each year” (SharpShootter Imaging). My photo.

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Figure B-6 N Niagara Horseshhoe Falls Ontario, Canadaa is a great August 3, 20114 – Niagara Falls in Niagara on-the-Lake, O tourist attraction. TOP, from left to right: Chris, Amélie, annd Madeleine, my m friends and wife, resppectively, havinng fun prior to the boat tour off Horseshoe Fallls. BOTTOM: T Tourists wearinng red raincoatts enjoy a boaat tour of the wonderful Horseshoe Faalls. Niagara Faalls are located between b the tw win cities of Niaagara Falls, NY and Niaggara-on-the-Lakke, Ontario, Can nada, on the boorder of Ontariio, Canada and New Yorrk. The falls’ tootal height is 167 1 ft (51 m). T The average fllow rate is 85,0090cu ft//s (2,400 m3/s)). Niagara Fallls consist of thhree falls: the Horseshoe H Falls on the Canadian sidee, the American n Falls, and thhe Bridal Veil Falls, the combination oof which form the t highest flow w rate of any waater fall in the world w (See Wikipedia, “N Niagara Falls.” (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wikki/Niagara_Fallls).

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Figure B-7 N Negro Burial Groound in Niagaraa-on-the-Lake 11830

During a sum mmer 2014 visit to friends and a walk inn Niagara on-the Lake, Ontario, Cannada, this signn caught my attention. a It reelates an impo ortant part of the blaacks’ experieence in thee Americas. That experrience is characterizeed, inter alia, by b runaway slaves (maroonns) in desperaate search of safe haveens. The text on o the sign reaads as follows:: Here stoood a Baptist Church erected in 1830 througgh the exertion ns of a former Brritish soldier, Joohn Oakley, wh ho although whhite, became pastor of a predom minantly negro congregation. c In n 1793, Upper C Canada had passsed an act forbiddding further inntroduction of slaves and freeeing the child dren of those in tthe colony at tw wenty-five. Thiss was the first llegislation of itts kind in the Briitish Empire. A long tradition of tolerance atttracted refugee slaves to Niagarra, many of whoom lie buried heere. Erected bby the Ontario Archeological A an nd Historic Sitees Board (My Photo) P

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Figure B-8 W Welcome to Africcan Lion Safarii

I took thiss photo from m the venue entrance in Hamilton/Caambridge, Ontario, Cannada, August 6, 2014. There was nno better way to t conclude my m GLOBAL SSAFARI book than with some experrience of safaari at African n Lion Safarii, which is “Canada’s “ Original Saafari Adventture.” It is located bettween Hamillton and Cambridge, Ontario and allows one to t “get closerr to over 1,00 00 exotic birds and annimals!” It is a privately ow wned companny founded in n 1969 by Colonel G.D D. Dailley. In 1975 it was a founding meember of the Canadian Association of Zoologicaal Parks and Aquariums, A noow known as Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aqquariums (CAZA). It has eearned an inteernational reputation fo for excellence in the care, management, m and breeding g of many endangered species. It is recognized internationnally for its breeding programs foor rare and endangered e sp pecies as welll as for its efforts e to support connservation of wildlife worrldwide (from m African Lio on Safari Official Guiide Book, 20144).

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Figure B-9 G Giraffes and Elannd from African n Lion Safari

Giraffes andd Eland at Afriican Lion Safa fari Giraffes are the world’s taallest animals.. Range: Africca, south of thhe Sahara Desert Diet: Leavess and buds Gestation Peeriod: 14-16 months m Adult Weighht: 1000-15000 kg Adult Heighht: 4.5-6 m Life Span: 115-20 years Conservatioon Status: Enddangered Species Source: Afriican Lion Safaari Official Gu uide Book, 2014 (My Photo o).

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Figure B-10 N North Americann Elk at Omegaa Park

Omega Parkk, Montebello,, Québec, Aug gust 9, 2014 The Park iss located in the proximity y of Montebeello Château, Québec, Canada. Theese three anim mals blocked the t road untill we gave them m carrots from our caar windows. An A adult North h American ellk weighs 250 0-450 kg. Its height is 1.5 m and haas a life span of 20-25 yearrs (Source: To our Guide Brochure. M My photo.)

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Figure B-11 Z Zekeh Feeds a Fawn F (Deer) wiith Carrots at O Omega Park

Omega Parkk, Québec, Auugust 9, 2014 During the A African Lion Safari three days d earlier inn Hamilton/Caambridge, Ontario, I ddid not have thhe opportunitty to come thiis close to an nimals. At Omega Parkk, visitors weere allowed to o approach soome animals and feed them.

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Figure B-12 Arctic Wolves at Omega Park Omega Park, Québec, August 9, 2014

Quick Facts Scientific Name: Canis lupus arcticus, in Latin Habitat: Northern Canada, Alaska, part of Greenland and Iceland, and Northern Europe. Size: 1-1.8 m including tail Weight: 45-70 kg Lifespan: 7 years; 20 in captivity Diet: Carnivore (musk oxen, peary caribou, arctic foxes, arctic hares, etc.) Source: Switch Zoo.com Retrieved September 15, 2014. My photo.

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MEXICO / UNITED MEXICAN STATES / ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS (in Spanish) Quick Facts Flag Colors: Green, White, and Red National Anthem (El Himno Nacional Mexicano): Mexicanos, al grito de Guerra (Mexicans, to the Cry of Battle) Population: 107,029,000 Area: 1,964,375 sq. km or 758,449 sq. miles Official Language: Español/Spanish. Others: various Mayan, Nehuatl, and other indigenous languages Religion: Roman Catholic, Protestant Capital: Mexico City/Ciudad de México “La Ciudad de los Palacios,” or the City of Palaces (19,013,000 [21 million] inhabitants – The largest Spanish-speaking city of the world). Currency: Mexican Peso (1 US $ = 12.52 pesos) Life Expectancy: 75 GDP per Capita: US $8,900 Literacy Percent: 92 Head of State: Enrique Peña Niento (2012-) SOURCE: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition

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Figure B-13 Z Zekeh Visits El Piramide del Sol S in Teotihuaccan, Mexico

Tetihuacan, Mexico, July 30, 2006 The tour of El Piramide del Sol or thee Pyramid of the Sun in Teetihuacan was one off several cultuural activities organized byy Kukulcan School S of Spanish in C Cuernavaca, Mexico. M

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Figure B-14 M My First Day off a Spanish Cou urse at Kukulcaan School of Sp panish

Cuernavaca,, Morelos, Meexico, July 31, 2006 Cuernavaca is also calledd “The City off Eternal Sprin ing,” or “La Ciudad C de la Eterna Prrimavera,” in Spanish. From m left to rightt, standing: Ku ukulcan’s registrar annd adm. assisstant; Leticia Becerril (dirrector) and a Spanish instructor. K Kukulcan speecializes “in teaching Spaanish languag ge in its cultural conntext to hellp students achieve highh levels of Spanish, conversationnal fluency, and a a better understanding u g of Mexican culture.” (From the School’s web site s www.kuku ulcan.com.mxx/ Retrieved October O 5, 2014)

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Figure B-15 Madeleine andd Zekeh (Midd dle) Enjoy Apppetizers at La Mañanita M Restaurant in Cuernavaca, Mexico

Cuernavaca,, Mexico, Auggust 2006 From Left to Right: Mrs. M Patricia Guevara; Zeekeh; Madeleeine; and Guillermo G Guevara. The Guevara famiily served as hhost family to o my wife and me durinng our two-week summer Spanish S coursee at Kukulcan n School.

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THE CARIBBEAN & ANTILLES / MARTINIQUE / BARBADOS / BAHAMAS MARTINIQUE / TERRITOIRE FRANÇAIS D’OUTRE-MER / [FRENCH OVERSEAS TERRITORY] Quick Facts Flag: French Flag National Anthem: La Marseillaise (French National Anthem) Population: 412,305 (2012) Capital: Fort-de-France Area: 1,128 sq. km, or 436 sq. miles Language(s): French and Creole Head of State: François Hollande (2012-) Source: Wikipedia

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Figure B-16 Z Zekeh waves from Aime Cesaiire Internationaal Airport

Le Lamentinn, Martinique,, June 22, 2013 Martinique A Aimé Césairee Internationaal Airport, or Aéroport Inteernational Martinique A Aimé Césaire, in French. Itt is located in Le Lamentin,, a suburb of Fort-de-F France, Martiinique’s majorr and capital city. The airrport was opened in 19950 and renam med in 2007 after a A. Césairre, poet, politiician, and co-founder oof the Negrituude movemen nt. He was a m member of th he French parliament, or Assembléée Nationale Française annd served as Fort-deFrance’s maayor for 56 yeears. The purp pose of my seecond visit here was to participate iin an internatiional colloquiium celebratinng Césaire’s centenary c (1913-2013))

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Figure B-17 C Césaire Speaks to the 2003 Co olloquium Particcipants

Fort-de-Frannce's Atrium, Martinique, Ju une 24, 2003 Aimé Césaaire (1913-20008), in front of the miicrophone, th hanks the Internationaal Colloquium m 2003 parrticipants. T The Colloquiium was organized byy the Centre Césairien d’E Etudes et de R Recherches (C CCER) to celebrate C Césaire’s 90thh birthday. The colloquium m theme waas, AIME CESAIRE: U Une Pensée pour p le XXIe siècle s (AIME CESAIRE: A Thought for the XXIIst Century), Fort-de-Francce, Martiniquee, June 24-26 6, 2003. I presented a paper titled, “Négritude, Panafricanism me et Mondiaalisation” (“Negritude, Pan-Africannism and Glob balization,” G Gbotokuma 20 003, 129136). Right behind Césaiire, from left to right, Dr. Z Z. Gbotokumaa and Dr. Pierre Alikeer, Césaire’s closest c friend. Césaire’s thaank you remarrks could be summarizzed in the stattement, “This is not a reunnion; it is com mmunion.” (My photo)

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Figure B-18 C Césaire Hugs annd Thanks Zekeeh for a Birthdaay Gift

Hôtel de Villle (City Hall), Fort-de-Fran nce, June 27, 22003 Aimé Césaiire (1913-20008), holding the t two volum mes of A Pan n-African Encyclopediia, hugs and thanks edito or Zekeh Gbootokuma for this 90th birthday gift ft. The occasioon was an Inteernational Co lloquium orgaanized by the Centre Césairien d’Etudes et dee Recherches on the them me, Aime Cesaire: Unne Pensée pour le XXIe sièccle (Aimé Césaaire: A Thoug ght for the XXIst Centuury), Fort-de-F France, Martin nique, June 244-26, 2003. Behind G Gbotokuma iss Mrs. Annick k Thebia-Me1 san, Presiden nt, l’Autre Siècle, Switzerland.

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Figure B-19 C Césaire Autograaphs His Book for Zekeh in Foort-de-France

At the end of his meetting with sev veral internatiional colloquiium participants in his city haall office, A. Césaire C autoggraphs his Cah hier d'un Retour au Pays Nataal for Z. Gbottokuma. Here is the translattion of his wordss: To Zekehh, To thank him for letting us hear the voiice of essential Africa on this day of June 27, 22003. Friendshiip and gratitudee Aimé Céssaire Fort-de-F France, 27 June 2003

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BARBADOS Quick Facts Flag: Blue, Yellow, Black National Anthem: In Plenty and in Time of Need Population: 258,000 Capital: Bridgetown Area: 430 sq. km, or 166 sq. miles Language(s): English Religion: Protestant, Roman Catholic GDP per Capita: $ 15,000 Literacy: 97 percent Life Expectancy: 73 Head of State: Queen Elizabeth II.; Gov. General: Elliott Belgrave Source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition

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Figure B-20 Z Zekeh Waves frrom Blue Horizzon Hotel in Barrbados

Rockley, Chhrist Church Parish, P Barbados, October 2 7, 2006. I came heree to attend ann internationall colloquium in commemo oration of Leopold S. S Senghor’s cenntenary (1906-2006). The eevent was orgaanized by the Universiity of the West Indies at Cav ve Hill, Octobber 26-28, 200 06.

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Figure B-21 A Historic Reunnion of Congoleese Scholars in the Caribbean

Cave Hill, B Barbados, Octoober 26, 2006 6 Congolese S Scholars Attending Sengho or Colloquium m at the Univ versity of West Indiees at Cave Hill, Barbados, Octoberr 26-27, 20 006. The Internationaal Colloquium m was organized by the U UWI’s Deparrtment of Language, L Linguistics annd Literature. It was a celeebration of Leeopold S. Senghor’s 100th anniverssary (1906-20 006). Senghorr passed away y in 2001. From left to right, Dr. Jeaan C. Akenda, Université C atholique de Kinshasa, K DRC; Anothher Congolesee based in the US; Dr. Zekehh Gbotokumaa, Morgan State Univerrsity, USA; annd Dr. Claverr Mabana, Uniiversity of Weest Indies at Cape Hilll, Barbados. Akenda, A Gboto okuma, and M Mabana were cllassmates at Pontificiaa Universitas Urbaniana in n Rome. A rrevised versio on of my paper was later publisheed as a book k chapter titleed, “Senghoriitude: Le Credo Sengghorien comm me Défi à la Mondialisatio M on” (Gbotokum ma 2010, 121-138).

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Figure B-22 P Prof. Irele and Zekeh Z Enjoy a Post-Colloquium P um Tour in Barb bados

Cave Hill, B Barbados, Octoober 29, 2006 6 Retired Harvvard professoor Abiola Irelee (left) of Niggeria and Zekeeh (right) take a tour of Barbadoss following a two-day Inteernational Co olloquium commemoraating Léopoldd S. Senghor’s 100th Annniversary (190 06-2006). The colloquuium took plaace at the Un niversity of W West Indies, Cave C Hill Campus, Occtober 26-27, 2006. 2

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THE BAHAMAS/ COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS Quick Facts Flag Colors: Blue, Black, Yellow National Anthem: March On, Bahamaland Population: 316,182 (2012 est.) Capital & Largest City: Nassau (est. 2009: 248,000) Land Area: 5,382 sq. mi (13,940 sq. km) Language(s): English (Official); Creole among Haitian immigrants Ethnicity/Race: 85% Black; 12% White; 3% Asian and Hispanic Religions: Baptist 35%; Anglican: 15%; Roman Catholic: 14%; Pentecostal: 18%; Church of God: 5%; Methodist: 4%; Other Christian: 15% (2000) GDP per Capita: $15,300 (2011) Currency: Bahamian Dollar Literacy Rate: 95.6% (2011 est.) Life Expectancy: 72 Head of State/Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II Governor-General: Arthur Foulkes Prime Minister: Perry Christie Source: Fact Monster, 5/14/2012. Accessed July 30, 2014.

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Figure B-23 Z Zekeh's Artisticc Passport Photo ograph with Baahamas Sign

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Figure B-24 A Atlantis Resort on Atlantis Islaand, Bahamas

Picture takenn during the Royal R Caribbeean Cruise, Jannuary 2007.

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Figure B-25 Z Zekeh Enjoys thhe Caribbean Royal R Cruise froom Lauderdale, Florida to Nassau, Bahaamas January 20007.

Figure B-26 A Spectacular Dinner D During the Royal Caribbbean Cruise

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Figure B-27 T The Royal Caribbbean Cruise Reception R Dinneer January 2007 7.

Madeleine, Zekeh, and Fellow F Royal Caribbean C Cruise Membeers Enjoy Dinner while watching Enntertaining Waaitressing.

Figure B-28 B Bahamas Markeet in Nassau

Nassau Marrket, where touurists stop, sho op, bargain, annd save.

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THE ASIAN N TRIP

Figure B-29 A Travel Nightm mare at Washington Dulles Intternational Airp port

July 22, 20008 I was suppoosed to leave for f Beijing, China today, buut I couldn’t travel t due to reservatiion misunderstandings, etcc. Here in tthis photograaph I am anxiously w waiting for a cllarification ph hone call from m my travel ag gency and travel rescheeduling for Beeijing. The prroblem was soolved and I waas able to take the nexxt day’s flight, thereby missing the first da day of the Worrld Forum for Axiologgy at Shaanxii Normal Uniiversity in X Xi’an, China. My final destination was Seoul, South S Korea, where I wass going to atttend and present twoo papers at thhe XXII Worlld Congress oof Philosophy y (WCP), July 29-Auggust 5, 2008.. I spent the night at a neearby hotel in nstead of returning to Baltimore and paying moree than $ 200 ffor the taxi.

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CHINA/PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Quick Facts about China Flag Color: Five Gold Stars, Red Ground Population: 1,354,040,000 (2013) – World’s most populous country (91.6% are Han) Area: 9.6 million sq. km (3,719,275 sq. miles) National Anthem: March of the Volunteers Official Language: Mandarin Chinese Religion: Officially atheism (Other religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Islam and Christianity) Time Zone: GMT+8:00 National Holiday: October 1 (the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949) Currency: Renmibin (RMB) Yuan (1 US$ = 7.7 Yuan) Weights & Measures: Metric System Capital: Beijing Head of State: Xi Jinping (2013-) Economy: World’s second largest economy and one of the BRICS Countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) GDP: $ 6.15 trillion (2010); GDP per Capita: $ 4,700 Literacy Percent: 86 Life Expectancy: 71.8 (2002) Source: China Connection Tours The modern word “China” most likely derives from the name of the Qin (pronounced “chin”) dynasty. Qin Shi Huang (260-210 BC) was the first emperor of China (Fact #1) China is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, and the USA) (Fact #3) One in every five people in the world is Chinese (Fact # 4). Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong Noodle Factory in San Francisco, California (Fact # 5). Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s. It was for emperors only (Fact # 7). The Chinese invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (Fact # 8). Ping-Pong is one of the most popular games in China. But it was not invented in China. It originated in Britain, where it is called table tennis (Fact # 13).

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White, rather than black, is the Chinese color for mourning and funerals. (Fact # 16) China has the world’s oldest calendar. This lunar calendar originated in 2600 B.C. and has 12 zodiac signs (Fact # 69). Source: 74 Interesting Facts about China facts.randomhistory.com/2009/05/04_china.htm Retrieved July 31, 2013

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Nihao! Welcom me to Beijing Caapital Airport! JJuly 24, 2008. Figure B-30 N

Figure B-31 Z Zekeh (Wearingg a Hubei Univeersity T-Shirt) S Stands Behind a Statue of Chairman Maao Zedong (18993-1976)

Wuhan Cityy, Hubei Provinnce, China. Ju uly 28, 2008 There is a feee for the pictture. Visitors can c also take pphotographs with w their own cameraa for a reducedd fee and this is i the picture ttaken with my y camera.

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Figure B-32 A Statue of Maoo Zedong in Wu uhan, Hubei Proovince

Chairman M Mao is the Fouunding Father of the People’’s Republic off China.

Figure B-33 C Chairman Mao's Writing on a Museum M Wall iin Wuhan

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Figure B-34 D Dr. Gbotokumaa and a HU Proffessor Toast at a Reception Din nner

Wuhan, Julyy 28, 2008 At the end of a meetingg with Hubeii University’ss Internationaal Studies staff, Dr. Zeekeh Gbotokuuma, director of the Centerr for Global Studies S at Morgan Statte University (right, standin ng), toasts witth a HU profeessor. The hospitality w was impeccablle. During my y two-day stayy, two Chinesee students were in chaarge of my citty tour needs. On the firstt day, I toured d the city with a studeent majoring inn English. On the second daay, I continued d the tour with anotheer student majjoring in Fren nch. The purppose was to give g those students thee opportunity to practice English E and F French with me. m I was impressed by their level of o proficiency..

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Figure B-35 H Handshake at Wuhan’s W Buddhiist Temple

Wuhan, Julyy 27, 2008 Zekeh shakes hands withh a Monk at Wuhan’s Buuddhist Templle. At the Buddhist Teemple, silence is a virtue fo or meditation aand so smiling g was the only thing w we could do.

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Figure B-36 A Statue of Buuddha (565-483 BC) at the Buuddhist Temple Garden in Wuhan

The Four N Noble Truths (or ( the truth of suffering) off Buddhism arre: 1. Birrth is painful 2. Decay is painful 3. Sicckness is painfful 4. Death is painful. According tto Buddha, onne can stop the t suffering tthrough the Eightfold E Path: 1. Rigght Views 2. Rigght Intentions 3. Rigght Speech 4. Rigght Conduct or o Action 5. Rigght Livelihoodd 6. Rigght Effort 7. Rigght Mindfulneess and 8. Rigght Concentraation (Conze, 1959, 1 86-87)

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Figure B-37 Z Zekeh (2nd from m the Right) an nd Co-Presenterrs at the World Forum for Axiology andd Pre World Congress C of Ph hilosophy (WC CP) Conferencee. Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Chhina, July 24, 2008 2

At Shaanxi Normal Univversity, Xi’an, China, Zekeh eh Speaks at the t World Forum for Axiology annd Pre-World d Congress oof Philosophy y (WCP) Conference, July 24, 20088. The paper title t was, “Neegritude Meetss Daoism: Can Yin-Y Yang Rescue Senghor?” The presenttation in En nglish to predominanttly Chinese sppeakers was lu uckily translateed into Chinesse by Ms. Stephanie, 33rd from the right, next to Zekeh. Z Stephaanie also serveed as tour guide to the US participannts during theirr stay and tourrs of the Xi’an n area.

Figure B-38 Z Zekeh Speaks at a the World Forrum for Axiologgy Conference

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Figure B-39 Y Yin Yang

According tto Daoist thouught, Yin and d Yang literallly mean the shady and sunny sides of a hill, or simply s obscurrity and light. In time, Yin and Yang have acquireed other meannings. Yin also o means blackk (color) or daark, night, passive, neggative, descennding (from th he top to the bottom), cold d, shrunk, weak, femiinine or fem male, earth, the t bottom, closed, consservation, confusion annd disorder, inntegration, waater, matter, seenses or sensaation (the sensible worrld), submissiion, etc. Yang also means w white (color), luminous or light, daay or daylightt, active, positive, ascendiing, hot, expaansive or extensible, strong, mascuuline or male, sky, the toop, open, destruction, disintegratioon, fire, spiritt, domination,, etc. An anciient Chinese text t from the third century B.C. describes thee Yin Yang dualism and d cyclical alternation aas “the round”” or “the Comp plete Way” (E Ebrey, 1993, 77-79).

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Figure B-40 Z Zekeh (Middle)) and Chinese Visitors V in Xi'ann

During US group tours inn Xi’an, Chin na, I (middle)) was often leeft behind due to frequuent Chinese requests for pictures. p It waas clear to mee that for some of theese Chinese, it i was their fiirst time appeearing in a ph hotograph with a blackk person.

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Figure B-41 C Chinese Dragonns Chinese dragons traditiionally symbollize potent andd auspicious powers, particularrly control overr water, rainfall, hurricanes, annd floods. The dragon d is also a symbol of poower, strength, and good luckk. [That is wh hy] the emperor of China usuaally used the dragon as a sym mbol of his im mperial power andd strength. (Wikkipedia, Chinesse Dragon)

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Figure B-42 T Terracotta Armyy in Xi’an – Maausoleum of thee First Qin Emp peror.

A UNESCO O World Heritaage Site in Xi’’an, Shaanxi P Province, Chin na. “The Terrracotta Army or the Terraacotta Warriorss and Horses”” is a collectionn of terracotta sculptures s depicting the armiees of Qin Shi Huang, H the first eemperor of Chhina. It is a form of funeraryy art buried wiith the emperor iin 210-209 BC and whose purpose was to prrotect the empeeror in the afterllife. The figurees…were disco overed in 1974 by local farm mers in Lintong D District, Xi’an, Shaanxi province.” (Wikipeddia, Terracotta Army) A Photo: Zeekeh, July 25, 2008. 2

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Figure B-43 C Chinese Teatim me Ritual

July 25, 20008 Philosophy professors frrom the US take a tour bbreak and geet a short lecture on C Chinese herball tea. We weree returning to X Xi’an after viisiting the fabulous Terrracotta Armyy.

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Figure B-44 Z Zekeh Visits thee Forbidden Citty

Forbidden C City, Beijing, August A 6, 2008. Cité Interdiite (en Fran The Forbiddden City (English)/La ( nçais)/Die Verbotene S Stadt (auf Deeutsch)/Ciudad d Prohibida ((en Español)/ La Città Proibita (in Italiano). In a nutshell, Thee Forbidden C City, which is called c the Palace Museeum now, occcupies the centtral part of Beeijing municip pality and was the impperial palace of o the Ming and a Qing dynnasties. Its con nstruction began in 1406. Over the years after itss completion, 24 emperors ruled the whole counttry for 500 yeears. It occup pies an area oof over 720,00 00 square meters withh 9,000 bays of halls and d rooms. Thee Cining halll and the Shoukang hhall are the plaaces where th he queen and concubines of o the late emperor livved. The Forbbidden City has h been welll preserved since the founding off the People’s Republic. In n 1987, UNES SCO included d it in the list of Worldd Heritage Sitees. Source: THE E FORBIDDE EN CITY/LA CITÉ C INTERD DITE – A Pictu ure book, 2000 – Forw ward, pp. 2-3. http://www.jd dbybook.com Note: Biblioographical info formation was in Mandarin and so I was unable to be precise.

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Figure B-45 T The Forbidden City Is No Longer Forbidden

The Forbiddden City, Beijiing, August 6, 2008.

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Figure B-46 N NIHAO! Zekehh Waves from Tian T An Men S quare. Beijing, August 6, 2008.

The tour off the Tiananmeen Square too ok place undeer the watchfu ul eyes of the Chinese police/soldierrs. In Mandariin, Tian An M Men means “th he Gate of Heavenly P Peace.” For many m people around the w world and forr Chinese human righhts activists, Tiananmen Square S is rem miniscent of the 1989 protests. Froom April 15 to t June 4, 19 989, student pprotesters occu upied the square for seeven weeks. Their T goals were, among otthers, social equality, e a Communist Party withoout corruption n, freedom oof press, freeedom of speech, and democracy. The T Tiananmeen Square Prootests of 1989 9 are also known as thhe June Fourrth Incident, or o ’89 Democcracy Movem ment. The Chinese pollitical leadershhip put an end d to the demoonstrations thrrough the May 20 [im mposition of] martial law and a a crackdoown on June 3-4. This resulted in w what is also reeferred to as th he Tiananmen n Square Ma assacre or the June 4 M Massacre, i.ee., more than 3,000 3 deaths aand over 7,000 injuries (Summarizeed from: Wikkipedia, “Tian nanmen Squaare Protest of o 1989,” retrieved Junne 15, 2014).

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Figure B-47 T Tian An Men Sqquare. Beijing, China, August 6, 2008.

The Tian Ann Men Squaree Massacre too ok place on Ju June 4, 1989. The huge crowd on the square on June 6, 2008 had aalso to do with the commemoraation of that lethal l day. Th he big presencce of Chinesee security officers is unnderstandablee.

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Figure B-48 C Climbing Chinaa’s Great Wall. August, 7, 20 08

Zekeh shakees hands withh a Chinese seecurity officerr at the Great Wall. In a nutshelll, The Greaat Wall is a syymbol of the daauntlessly indoomitable spirit of the Chinese nnation and a cryystallization of the t wisdom of tthe Chinese peo ople in ancient tim mes.…The Greeat Wall extends five thousandd kilometers from east to west iin north China like a gigantiic dragon wrigggling its way across deserts, ggrasslands, and mountains.…In n 1987 the Greaat Wall was insscribed in the listt of the world cuultural heritagee by the UNESC CO….The Greaat Wall continuedd to grow in leength during the Qin (221 BC C-206 BC), Han n (206 BC-220) and Ming (13668-1644) dynassties. The wall as we see todaay was mostly buuilt during the Ming M dynasty until it reached aan awesome len ngth of 5,660 kiloometers, startinng from Shangh hai Pass in the east to Jiayu Pass P in the west by way of Hebei, H Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Niingxia, Source: The Great Wall: Worrld Cultural Siite – a Shaanxi aand Gansu.” (S multilinguual picture brocchure, page 7 of o 95 pages. Noo publication daate. No publisher information.)

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Figure B-49 C Chinese Warriors and Zekeh

August 9, 20008 After climbiing the Greatt Wall, Zekeh plays with C hinese warrio ors at the starting poinnt of the Greatt Wall.

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The Great Wall Climbing Certiificate. August 9, 2008 Figure B-50 T

“NOT A PLU UCKY HERO O UNTIL ONE E REACHES THE GREAT T WALL” On August 9, 2008, the second day of o the Olympiic Games in Beijing, B I climbed the Great Wall off China. I felt like an Olymppic champion myself.

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Figure B-51 F Fun Ride with a Chinese Child d in a Beijing Paark

Beijing, Auggust 8, 2008 A Chinese cchild and Zekkeh have fun in a Beijing P Park, on the inaugural day of the X XXIXth Olymppic Games in Beijing, Chinna. This may have h been this child’s ffirst time to shhare a ride witth an African ttourist.

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Figure B--52 Go Beijing!! Go Olympics!

“One W World One Dreaam” – The Beeijing 2008 Ollympics Them me/Slogan

Figure B--53 Beijing 20008

A Bilinggual Sign at the Entrance off the Olympic Stadium

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Figure B-54 A Chinese Wom man in the Forbiidden City, Beijjing, August 6, 2008

Figure B-55 A Chinese Fashhionista in a Beiijing Park, Auguust 8, 2008

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Chinese Newly Wed Couple in n a Beijing Parkk, August 8, 200 08 Figure B-56 C

For many C Chinese, 8 is a lucky numbeer. Many Chinnese chose 8/0 08/08 and 8:00 o’clockk as the datee and time fo or the occurrrence of man ny things, including buut not limited to weddings, engagementss, special lovee-making, and of coursse, the Olympic Games 200 08 inauguratioon. Good luck!!

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Figure B-57 M Mexican Hatmaania

Beijing, Auggust 6, 2008 Wearing a Mexican hatt, Zekeh han ngs out at B Beijing 2008 Olympic Stadium Areea in Beijing.. The hat belo onged to a viisitor and Oly ympic fan from Mexicoo.

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Figure B-58 A Chinese Childd with Beijing 2008 2 Olympic T Tattoo in a Beijjing Metro on August 6, 2008.

Figure B-59 Z Zekeh Meets Beeijing 2008 Vollunteers

Zekeh and C Chinese Olym mpic Games 20 008 Volunteerrs in Beijing, August A 6, 2008. For vvirtually all of o them, it waas their first photograph and a close contact withh an African.

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Figure B-60 G Good-Bye Beijiing!

Zekeh at Beeijing Airport – Ready to Check C in for tthe 13-Hour Non-Stop N Flight to Baltimore, Maryyland (USA), August A 10, 20008.

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Appendix B

SOUTH KOREA – THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA Quick Facts about Korea Flag: See below (fig. B-61), left, with Yin Yang in the middle Population: 49 million/48,294,000 Capital: Seoul (“The Soul of Asia”) Area: 99,250 sq. km, or 38,321 sq. miles National Anthem: Aegukga (Patriotic Song) Official Language: Korean Religions: No national religion. Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity are practiced. Currency: South Korean Won Head of State: Ms. Park Geun-hye (2013-) Economy - GDP per capita: US$ 19,600 Literacy Percent: 98 Source: National Geographic Atlas of the World, 8th Edition. Electronic version, Accessed on July 1, 2014

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Figure B-61 W Welcome to Koorea!

My Arrival at Seoul Inteernational Airp port on July 229, 2008 from m Wuhan, China

Figure B-62 Z Zekeh Waves frrom the Vicinity y of Seoul Toweer

Seoul, Auguust 2, 2008 A sign next to Seoul Toweer Read, “Hi Seoul S – Soul oof Asia.”

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Figure B-63 T The XXII Worldd Congress Of Philosophy P (W WCP)

Seoul Nationnal Universityy, Seoul, Augu ust 2, 2008. Zekeh Shakkes Hands with w a Fellow w Philosopherr from Russiia. World Congresses of Philosopphy are orgaanized everyy five years by the Internationaal Federation of Philosophiical Societiess in collaboraation with one of its m member societiies. I also had the opportuniity to particip pate in the XXth WCP in Boston, Auugust 1999 an nd XXIII WCP P in Athens, Greece, G 410 August 22013. The theme of the XX XII WCP in S Seoul was, “Rethinking Philosophy Today.” I presented tw wo papers enntitled, “Pan n-Bantuist Globalizatioon and Africann Developmeent: Will Thinngs Fall Apartt Again?” and “Negrittude Meets Daoism: D Will Yin Yang R Rescue Sengh hor?” My paper at thee XXIII WC CP was entitleed, “Diplobam macy and thee Obama Doctrine: Deemocracy, Deemographics and a Cosmocitiizenship.” Hang ing Out with Fellow

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Figure B-64 W Won: The Southh Korean Curreency

Exchange R Rate: $1.00 = 1067.37 1 KRW W (October 6, 22014)

Figure B-65 K Korean Yin Yanng

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Figure B-66 M My First Breakffast at Sofitel, Seoul S

Seoul, July 330, 2008. When in K Korea, do as Koreans. Eaat with choppsticks. I managed to sometimes uuse chopstickss instead of Western W forks inn Korea and China. C

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Figure B-67 E Eating Lunch à la Koreana

August 3, 20008 After a visitt to the Acadeemy of Koreaan Studies (AK KS) in a Seou ul suburb on August 3, 2008, Zekehh (left) enjoys a free meal w with his AKS hosts h on a traditional K Korean diningg table. This dining d table is very low. Ho owever, it is difficult to notice it from f the pho otograph. Resstaurant custo omers are given the chhoice betweenn sitting at a Western W diningg table, and siitting at a traditional K Korean table. I chose the laatter, because I had traveleed to Asia to also learrn new thinggs through prractice. I disccovered AKS S through Charles Reilley of Yale Unniversity’s librrary. He put m me in contact with w AKS director, Proof. Do-Hyun Han (first on n the right). T The AKS’s purpose is “revitalizingg the field of Korean Studiies by conduccting in-depth h research and offeringg education onn related subjjects. Its activvity areas also o include compiling and distribuuting major reference w works such as the Encyclopediia of Korean Culture and the t Digital Enncyclopedia of o Korean Local Cultuure” (From AK KS Home pag ge). AKS is loocated on 323 Haogaero, Bundangg-gu, Seongnaam-si, Gyeong ggi-do, 463-7991, Republic of o Korea.

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Figure B-68 Z Zekeh Visits a Love L Padlocks (Love Locks) Site Near N Seeoul Tower Befotre Headding to XXII WC CP at Seoul Naational Universiity

Seoul, Auguust 2, 2008. In Taiwann, Love Locks are called wish h locks. They arre a custom by which padlocks are affixed to a fence, gate, bridge or simiilar public fixtu ure by mbolize sweethearrts at an increassing number off locations in thhe world to sym their everrlasting love. Thhere is a sign prrohibiting peopple throwing theeir key out from the N Seoul Tower. (Dana Enulescu, “Roome Mayor in n Love Padlock R Row” BBC, Maarch 1, 2007 – retrieved r Augusst 19, 2011)

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Figure B-69 S Seoul Tower

Seoul, Auguust 2, 2008. It is commonnly called Nam msan Tower and a officially ccalled CJ Seoul Tower. It is a comm munication andd observation tower locatedd on Namsan Mountain M in central Seeoul. Its buildding was com mpleted in 19669. The Towerr is 237.7 m or 777ft taall. It marks thhe highest poiint in Seoul. (Source: Wikipedia, “N Seoul S Tower”). My Photo

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Figure B-70 N Namsangol Hannok Village, Seo oul

Seoul, Auguust 3, 2008. Namsangol Hanok Villaage is “a Village of Tradditional Housees in the Namsan Vaalley.” It is a Korean villaage located inn the area off Pi-dong neighborhoood in Jung-guu, a central district of Seouul, South Koreea, where hanok or K Korean traditioonal houses have h been resstored to preserve the original atm mosphere of the t area (Fro om Wikipediaa, “Namsango ol Hanok Village”). M My photo

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Zekeh Cominglles with Korean n Visitors at Naamsangol Hano ok Village, Figure B-71 Z Seoul, August 3, 2008.

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Good-Bye Sofiitel! Bye-Bye Seoul, S “the Soull of Asia” Seou ul, August, Figure B-72 G 5, 2008

Zekeh shakkes hands witth, and says Gamsa Ham mnida (Thank k You, in Korean) andd good-bye too a Sofitel emp ployee in Seooul, before thee bus ride to the Seoull Internationall Airport for a flight to Beijjing, China. Sofitel is a Swiss Four-Star Hotels chhain.

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Figure B-73 Last Good-Byye Handshake at Seoul Inteernational Airport Seoul, August 5, 20114

Zekeh shakees hands withh, and says Gamsa G Hamniida or Thank You to a Korean Seccurity Officeer after find ding a lost camcorder at Seoul Internationaal Airport. Neext Destinatio on: Beijing, Peoples’ Rep public of China.

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Figure B-74 Enjoying a Meeal on a Korean n Airlines Planne during the Flight F from Seoul to Shaanghai, China. The final desttination was B Beijing, China. August 5, 2008

Figure B-75 F Flying from Seooul to Beijing via v Shanghai, A August 5, 2008.

I can’t belieeve I was inn this Airplane when I toook this photograph. “I Believe I Caan Fly.”

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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS AND PERMISSIONS

Arthur K. Bierman, Prof. Emeritus, San Francisco State University, USA: Recommendation Letter Clifford DuRand, Prof. Emeritus, Center for Global Justice, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico Enforex Madrid, Spain: Welcome Letter Prof. Henry L. Gates, Harvard University: Reccomendation Letter Moke Sua, nephew, DRC: Letter Regarding Building a House and Starting a Small Business Gon Sua, my late father: Letter from My Parents Paul Greene, Photographer, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland Terry Helbush, Immigration Lawyer, San Francisco, California, USA Toni Hill, United Nations’ NGLS Geneva, Switzerland: Invitation Letter Jacques K. Kongawi, MD, American Leprosy Mission in Gemena, DRC: Photographs of War Casualties in Gemena Jean-Bosco Kotongo, Cousin, DRC: Letter Regarding Study Abroad Assistance Sarah Liawe, Equateur Province Coordinator and President, UCOP+, DRC: World AIDS Day 2009 Occasion Speech Mons. Guido Marini, Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, The Vatican City: Petitions and Canonization Formula (from the dual Canonization of Popes John XXIII and John Paul II) Alejandro Mayorkas/Leon Rodriguez, USCIS Director, Department of Homeland Security, USA: Congratulatory Message to Naturalized Citizens Jennifer Morgan, Stepdaughter: Letter Prof. V.Y. Mudimbe, Duke University, USA: Preface and Recommendation Letter Fr. Jean-Pierre Ngbaka (RIP!), cousin, DRC: Letter Regarding War Impacts on the Population Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America: Congratulatory Message to Naturalized Citizens L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO, Servizio Fotografico: My Photographs with Pope John Paul II PNMLS of South Ubangi, DRC: World AIDS Day’s Speech 2 Dr. Mohammed S. Sheriff, Ambassador of Liberia to Italy: Foreword

652

List of Contributors and Permissions

Gbanzi Sombo, friend, RDC: Letter Regarding Large Family and Hardships Hubert Togba, UCOP+ Gemena, DRC: World AIDS Day 2009 Testimony Mons. Vincenzo Viva, Rector (on behalf of the late Fr. N. Fumagalli) Pontificio Collegio Urbano, The Vatican City: Admission Letter

INDEX -AAbbé, 59 Abed, 559 Abiola, Irele, 596 Aborigines, 285-286 Abraham, 63, 489-490, 517 Abruzzi, 140 Abstinence, 413, 431 Abundance, 494 Academe, 294, 301 Academia, 250, 295 Academy, 151, 167-168, 192, 204, 298, 635 Accident, 3, 53, 327, 445, 452 Acción, 571 Accoglienza, 117, 547 Accommodation, 271, 307-308, 514 Accra, 36 ACER, 22 Achebe, Chinua, 449, 643 Achievement, 5, 211, 221, 254, 495, 554 Acolyte, xxxiv, 52, 6870 Acropolis, xxxiv, 181183, 185-186, 647 Actie, 310, 570 Action, 53, 61-62, 113, 139, 152, 226, 237, 241, 245, 264, 276, 289, 298, 418, 424, 436, 447, 450, 471, 481-482, 504, 510, 514, 517-518, 534, 551-552, 560, 567, 571, 609 Activity, 7-9, 15-16, 60, 74, 88-91, 93, 103, 105, 108, 132, 151, 192, 194, 224-225, 229, 236-237, 275, 286, 329, 338, 344,

383, 416, 509, 547, 585, 635 Adam, 26, 167, 363, 512, 648 Adaptations, 555 Addis Ababa, 30, 305 Adjani, 448, 456, 465 Administration, 27, 272, 330, 356, 366, 441, 447, 506, 510, 549 Admission, 48-49, 132, 140, 447, 525, 652 Adoula, Cyrille, 8 Adrian, 647 Adulthood, 11 Advancement, 52, 150, 298, 504, 534, 552, 558, 570 Advisory, 64, 300, 571 Advocacy, 60, 226, 248, 416 Aegukga, 630 Aéroport, 589 Aeropuerto, 239 Aeschylus, 183 Affair, 27, 89, 190, 221222, 224-225, 231, 268, 298, 321, 324, 389, 411, 497, 524 Affiliation, 359, 472, 481 Affirmation, 94, 283, 301, 646 Afghan, 548 Africa, xxxiv-xxxvii, 2526, 29-31, 60, 9095, 102, 114, 146, 150, 155, 172, 192, 195, 210, 224-225, 228-229, 244-245, 250, 252, 254, 267, 276-285, 287-302, 305, 310, 314, 317, 321, 330, 335, 344345, 348, 359, 362, 404, 406-407, 410, 436, 458, 466-467, 475-476, 500, 513, 528-529, 534, 554,

556, 558, 571, 580, 592, 603, 645-650 Africana, 210, 254, 295 Africani, 54, 151, 192, 562 Africanism, 36, 222, 296, 318, 590 Africanist, 60 Africanization, 8 Africanness, 223, 277, 561 Afrimpact Magazine, 265 Afrique, 22, 91-92, 321, 541 Afro, 25, 100, 198, 279280, 410, 559, 643 Afro-Arab, xxxviii Afrocentric, 294-295, 342 Afrocentricity, 296 Afrocentrists, 223 Afrophone, 241 Afrosophia, 224, 302 Agca, Ali, 68, 86 Agency, 200, 244, 297298, 308, 567, 572, 602 Agnelo, 48, 109 Agnicourt, 166 Agriculture, 439, 567568 Agwaelomu, 19, 75 Aimé, 24, 228, 300, 405, 528, 589-592, 643, 646 Airfare, 49, 234, 305, 353, 459 Airline, 54, 238, 305, 310-311, 314, 329, 353, 459-460, 462463, 465, 566, 642 Airplane, 101, 341, 465466, 642 Airport, 10, 47, 54, 94, 102, 212-213, 234, 238-239, 287, 293, 310-316, 333-334,

654 338, 341, 344, 372, 401, 403, 432, 456, 459, 463-465, 527, 555, 558, 566, 589, 602, 605, 629, 631, 640-641 Airways, 238-239 Ajani, 449, 459, 465 Aje, 474 Akademischer, 567 Akan, 284 Akassi, Animan, 645 Akenda, 75, 323-324, 595 Aksun, 287 Aksunite, 287 Aktiengesellschaft, 566 Akula, 11, 18, 343 Alabama, 512-513, 534 Alaska, 222, 302, 583 Alaziambina, 341, 382 Albert, 139-140, 144, 494 Alberta, 574 Alberto, 22, 650 Albino, 51 Alejandro, 651 Alexandre, 157 Alexandria, 543 Alexis, 515, 649 Alfred, 649 Ali, 68, 86, 295 Alien, 197, 209, 223, 314, 483, 485-486, 488-491, 500, 502, 508, 549-550, 568 Alienation, 294, 499, 520, 546, 563 Alienness, 489, 499 Alienum, 232, 555 Alighieri, Dante, 88, 147, 471 Aliker, Pierre, 590 Alitalia, 47 Allegiance, 481, 491493, 495, 530-531 Allende, 230, 651 Allgemeine, 522 Alliance, 29, 243, 504, 566 Alma Mater, 78, 121, 447 Almanac, 489, 492, 494495

Index Altar, xxxiv, 15, 52, 55, 58, 68-69, 82, 188, 198 Alumnus, 78 Amaranth, 275 Amato, Card. Angelo, 56 Ambassador, 54-55, 93, 103, 105, 226, 252, 261, 299, 524-525, 534, 540-542, 651 Ambiguity, 117, 547 Amélie, 165-166, 305, 312-313, 577 Amendment, 486, 514 Amerindian, 546, 554 AMICIZIA, 88, 90, 101, 103, 140, 190, 194, 198 Amigos, 136 Amina, 541 Amish, 285 Amitié, 160 Ammunition, 448 Amnesty, 191, 198 Amore, 66 Amour, 52, 68, 147, 650 Amphitheater, 122, 327 Amphitheatrum, 122 Amsterdam, 54, 169, 212-213, 222, 224, 330 Anastasie, 321-322, 345 Anathema, 295, 400, 511 Anaximander, 178 Ancestry, xxxvii Anchorage, 522 Andrea, 98 Andrée, 650 Andreotti, Giulio, 188, 198 Andres, 64 Andy, 265, 331, 362 Anémie, 3, 305, 566 Anfiteatro, 122 Angenga, 7 Anglican, 597 Anglophone, 91, 241, 244, 285, 562 Angoff, William H., 97, 643 Angola, 23, 30 Animation, 9 Animatrices, 10 Anka, 10 Anna, 123

Annals, 647-648 Annapolis, 224 Anne, 555, 560, 648 Anniversary, xxxviii, 64, 525-526, 532-533, 595-596 Ansa, 284, 648 Antagonism, 36, 277, 282, 291, 300, 562 Anthem, 21, 23, 32, 65, 104, 124, 131, 142, 153, 167, 170, 178, 405, 414, 484, 489, 491-492, 529, 573, 584, 588, 593, 597, 603, 630 Anthony, 214-215, 264, 295, 647 Anthropogenic, 227, 293 Anthropologists, 148, 297 Anthropology, 195 ANTILLES, 573, 588 Antiretroviral, 425, 566 Antoine, 398, 402, 444 Antonio, 140, 240 Anuarita, 344 Anup, 649 Apartheid, xxxv-xxxvi, 114, 146, 289, 294, 508, 513, 526, 533, 556, 558 Apéritif, 175, 312 Apes, 284 Apogée, 471, 504 Apology, 238 Appearance, xxxvi, 86, 198, 558 Appetizers, 312, 587 Appiah, Kwame Anthony, 295 Applicant, 132, 211, 306, 483 Appointment, 64, 202, 207, 224, 231-233, 272, 306, 308, 345, 445, 482-483, 559560 Aquariums, 567, 579 Arab, xxxvii, 25, 127, 410, 511, 548 Arabia, 513 Arabicized, xxxvii Arbeit, 99, 133 Arbour, Louise, 468

Global Safari Archaeology, 644 Archbishop, 8, 19, 53, 60, 70, 77, 105, 110, 182, 250, 295, 323 Archdiocese, 19 Archibald, 504 Archimedes, 178 Architect, 36, 140, 171, 317, 342 Archives, 252, 558 Arco, 55, 58 Arctic, 583 Arena, 502, 535 Argent, 29, 644 Argentina, 61-62, 64-65, 131, 296 Aria, 117 Arigato!, 227 Aristophanes, 183 Aristotle, 138, 240 Arizona, 512, 548-550, 644, 648 Armando, 194, 471, 646 Armani, 287 Armée, 156, 450, 467, 568 Arnold, 283 Arrangement, 30, 49, 59, 128, 138, 141, 147, 319, 325, 330, 332, 334, 337, 345-346, 454, 459, 462-463 Arrindell, Nicholas, 248 Arrival, 49, 151, 197, 203, 238-239, 315, 337-338, 341-342, 346-347, 372, 389, 445, 456-459, 462463, 631 Arroceria, 174 Arrondissement, 155 Artemis, 182, 543 Article, xxxvi, 26, 32, 88, 101, 193-194, 229-230, 289, 291, 294-295, 449-451, 466, 473, 503, 650 Asante, 284 Asanti, 227 Asia, 90, 150, 192, 225, 229, 287, 310, 554, 558, 573, 630-631, 635, 640 Aspremont, 27

Assassination, 27-28, 36, 68, 86, 318, 649650 Assemblée, 560, 589 Assessment, 222, 229, 571 Assessor, 52, 116 Assimilation, 287, 563 Assistance, 58, 90, 99, 117, 138-139, 143, 194, 203, 205, 210, 271-272, 322-323, 325, 338, 413, 424, 431, 451, 476, 484, 490, 547, 566, 568, 572, 651 Assistenza, 117, 547 Association, xxxvii, 8, 26-27, 36, 53-54, 60, 105, 117, 150152, 188, 191-192, 203, 207, 224, 226, 233, 243-244, 294, 296, 298, 322, 406, 411, 413, 415-416, 422-423, 427, 504, 562, 566-570, 572, 579, 643, 650 Associazione, 54, 151, 192, 562 Associazioni, 566 Asylum, 29 Atheism, 603 Athena, 182, 240, 295, 643 Athénée, 466 Athenian, 181 Athinkra, 643 Atlanta, 534 Atlantis, 599 Atlas, 23, 104, 124, 153, 405, 573, 584, 593, 630 Atrium, 590 Attestation, 307-308 Atticus, 181 Attitude, 8, 216, 225, 277, 280, 292, 297, 301, 504-505, 515, 560 Attorney, 203, 317, 324, 514 Audacity, 8, 62-63, 505, 507, 551, 563

655 Audience, 55, 111, 181, 224, 242, 300, 327, 355, 418, 456, 470, 515 Augustin, 345-346 Aula, 180 Austauschdienst, 567 Austerlitz, 156 Australia, 22, 64, 285287 Australian, 152, 293 Austria, 139-140, 142143, 151, 306, 313 Austrian, 139-140, 142145, 223, 241, 563 Authentic, 28, 53, 92, 225, 274 Authenticité, 6, 8, 28, 271, 274, 472 Authenticity, 28, 518, 546 Authoritarianism, 9, 28 Authorization, 326, 360 Autonomy, 8, 193 Awareness, 88-89, 91, 93, 95, 245, 320, 418, 560 Axiology, 602, 610 Aye, 13 Ayuda, 497 Azande, 21 Azzurri, Gli, xxxvii -BBabylon, 543 Badejo, 475 Baggage, 238-239 Bagoloti, 5 Bahamaland, 597 Bahamas, 481, 573, 588, 597-601 Bahamian, 597 Bailout, 510 Baines, 569 Bakakabruk, 10 Bakongo, 33 Balafons, 405 Balkanization, 25 Ballot, 499, 520 Balotelli, Mario, 559 Baltazar, 645 Baltimorean, 522 Baluba, 33

656 Bamanya, 11-12, 17-20, 319, 323, 372-373 Bamo, 274, 441 Bandiera, 104 Bandundu, 21 Bangabo, 5 Bangabutu, 346, 387, 440, 453-454 Bangala, 33 Bangladeshi, 548 Bangui, 23, 272, 339 Bankole-Johnson, W.R., 249 Bankruptcy, 213 Banso, 413 Bantu, xxxiv, 13, 513, 649 Bantuist, 301, 632, 645 Baptist, 578, 597 Baptiste, 11 Barackolypse, 560 Barbados, 222, 323, 573, 588, 593-596 Barbo, 121 Barcelona, 136 Bari, 90, 112, 146-148 Barnard, 552 Barracuda, 293 Barrio, 111 Basankusu, 20 Basilica, xxxiv, 50, 5253, 55, 63, 67-68, 72-73, 81-82, 88-89, 198 Basilique, 89 Basque, 170 Baswahili, 33 Bate, 26, 643 Battery, 274, 324, 340341, 346-347, 456, 460, 465 Battlefield, 28, 292, 458, 468 Battleground, 562 Bayende, 320, 332, 343 BAYER, 22 Bayeux, 155 Beacon, 490, 495, 648 Beans, 7, 320, 331, 492 Beatification, 54 Becerrill, Leticia, 241, 586 Beep, 340 Beer, 313, 316, 327-328, 338, 342, 460

Index Beck, Larry, 262 Begus, Otto, 207 Beijing, xxxiv, xxxviii, 304, 310, 527, 558, 602-603, 605, 616620, 622-629, 640642 Belair, 496 Belarus, 94 Belgian, 13-14, 16, 2628, 46-47, 271, 289, 291, 313, 328-329, 439, 443 Belgium, 2, 14, 21, 2527, 36, 46, 54, 75, 214, 287, 291, 305306, 313, 318, 323, 359, 366, 372, 439, 444, 454, 481, 566 Belgrave, 593 Beltway, 308 Bemba, 30-31, 39, 269, 305, 320, 339, 346, 440, 452, 454, 571 Ben, 127 Bendele, 35 Benedict XVI, Pope, 54, 61, 78 Benefactor, 139, 143, 271-272 BENELUX, 26, 566 Benin, 439 Benjamin, 226, 245 Benz, Karl, 137; Mercedes, 55, 99, 101, 136-137, 316, 524 Bergoglio, Cardinal Jorge Mario, 61-63, 65, 649 Berlin, Irving, 492 Berlin, 25, 131, 296, 556 Bernadette, 163, 421 Bernal, Martin, 295, 643 Bertello, Card. Giuseppe, 64 Bertin, 334-335, 372, 375, 439-441, 444, 446, 455-456 Betis, 172 Bétou, 423 Beverly, 241 Bianse, 456 Bible, 283

Biden, Joseph, 502, 519, 524 Bierman, Arthur, 194196, 504, 651 Bikoro, 18 Bilingual, 98, 205, 471, 624, 643, 646 Bilingualism, 643 Billeau, 644 Billie, 512 Bilolo, 275 Bilsen, 27 Binder, 222 Binghamton, 295 Bingo, 190, 285, 486 Binza, 8 Biometrics, 481-483 Biracial, xxxvii, 289, 504 Birongo, Yves, 325 Birther, 498, 523, 560 Birtherism, 501, 518519, 523, 559 Birtherist, 518, 520 Birthism, 501 Birthplace, 2, 178, 184 Bisengo, 317 Bishop, xxxiv, 11-12, 19, 48-49, 51, 53-54, 58-59, 62-64, 271 Blackness, 223, 277-278, 289, 294, 300, 511 Blackout, 302, 324, 546 Blaxploitation, 100, 546 Bleus, Les, xxxvii Blogspot, 547 Bloodshed, 458 Bloomington, 646 Bloomsbury, 648 Blumenbach, 294 Bobadi, 4 Bobb, 9, 36, 643-644 Bobbio, Norbert, 515, 643 Bobito, 456 Bobutu, 3, 322, 340, 400-403, 444-445, 455-456, 460 Boca, 519 Boch, 96, 99, 133-134 Bodangabo, 451 Boeck, 16 Boehner, John, 486 Boguabe, 2

Global Safari Bogwabe, 2-3, 6, 10, 39, 47, 273, 292, 304, 308, 322, 332, 334, 340, 342, 344, 346, 377, 381, 386, 389399, 403, 439-442, 444-447, 451-454, 456-458, 460-462, 466, 468 Bois, 150, 166, 278, 308, 312-313, 504, 512, 558, 644 Boka, 23 Bokada, 13 Bokassa, Jean-Bédel, 293 Bokonzi, 421 Bokuda, 276 Bolangi, 11, 48-49, 59 Bollywood, 282 Bolomba, 75 Bolongo, 6-7, 10-11, 1617, 19, 75, 110, 269, 318-319, 321, 323, 330, 341, 351, 356, 366, 372-373, 447 Bolumbe, 4 Boma, 287 Bombo, 398 Bomboko, Justin-Marie, 8 Bomboma, 421 Bominenge, 4-7, 10, 269, 318, 335, 341, 400, 441, 443-444, 462, 464 Bondima, 19 BookBaby, 645 Booker, 26, 512, 650 Boomerang, 281 Boppard, 97, 132, 188, 240 Borbon, 170 Bordeaux, 312 Border, 313, 337, 528, 548, 577 Borghezio, 559-560 Bosamba, 458 Bosco, 269, 273, 315319, 321-325, 329330, 332, 350, 464465, 651 Bosele, 440 Bosobolo, 13 Bosongola, 19

Boston, 64, 192, 252, 295-296, 301, 406, 501, 632, 646, 648, 650 Boswell, James, 555, 643 Botolo, 455 Botondi, 227 Botswana, 30, 317 Boubou, 287 Bouchard, MarieAndrée, 650 Boulevard, 36 Bourgeois, 27, 118 Boury, 165-166, 308, 312 Bowen, Francis, 649 Boyange, 6 Boyz N the Hood, 281 Brandeis, 493 Brazil, 22, 131, 293, 321, 559, 603 Brazilian, 131 Brazzaville, 23, 93, 273, 285, 423, 467 Breakup, 196-197 Bregenz, 139 Brenton, 192, 196 Bretagne, 158 Bricolage, 311 Bridget, 647 Bridgetown, 593 Brindisi, 149 Brochure, 99, 181, 309, 331, 581, 620 Brook, David, 551 Brotherhood, 100, 301, 525, 533, 554, 559 Brownville, 548 Bruck, Margaret, 643 Bruno, 317-319, 322323, 332-333, 465 Brussels, 36, 54, 214, 305, 310-315, 366, 454, 558 Buddha, 609 Buddhism, 264, 603, 609, 630 Buddhist, 554, 608-609, 644 Budjala, 4-5, 11, 18, 20, 48, 59-60, 75, 338339, 443, 547 Buenos Aires, 61-62, 65, 649

657 Buffett Rule, 510-511 Bujumbura, 23 Bukavu, 21, 32 Bulletin, 91, 229, 646 Bulunu, 336 Bundang, 635 Bundesrepublik, 97, 131 Bunia, 457-458 Burial, 453-454, 578 Burj, 127, 576 Burkina, 90 Burney, 208, 221 Burundi, 22-23 Busa, 320, 332, 343 Bush, 207, 448, 458, 501-503, 523 Bushman, 280 Businga, 442, 459 Bwamanda, 352, 439, 567 Byzantine, 181-183, 185 -CCab, 102, 331, 468 Cabafair, 453, 567 Cabin, 352, 439-440 Cablecast, 224 Caen, 155 Caesar, Julius, 555 Cafés, 155 Caffetteria, 317 Cahier, 592, 644 Calendar, 78, 226, 556, 604 California, xxxv, 90, 190, 200-201, 204, 233, 305, 341, 453, 566, 603, 651 Californian, 192, 200 Calvaire, 76 Calvary, 76 Calvin, 494 Cambodia, 548 Cambridge, xxxv, 167, 192, 243, 252, 538, 579, 582, 647 Camcorder, 346, 413, 446, 456, 460, 462, 641 Camera, 22, 270, 274, 327, 346, 413, 456, 462, 465, 483, 605 Cameroon, 112, 146, 315, 541

658 Cameroonian, 541, 552 Camille, 19, 319, 351 Campaign, 225, 317, 417-418, 427, 490, 502-503, 505-507, 512-513, 515, 517519, 523, 535-537, 545, 549, 561 Campane, 55, 58 Campidoglio, 117, 547 Campus, 179-180, 193, 207, 222, 225, 244, 297, 323, 325-327, 360, 503, 596, 647 Canada, xxxv, 32, 165, 205, 233, 237-238, 269, 291, 305, 312, 377, 480-481, 528, 567, 573, 575-579, 581, 583, 603 Canalblog, 558 Cancellation, 466 Cancer, 29 Candidacy, 501 Candidate, 59, 138, 150, 196-197, 212, 230231, 245, 319-320, 332, 343, 452, 488489, 499, 501, 504, 510, 515-519, 525, 551, 560 Canis, 583 Cannibalism, 293, 457 Cannibalists, 293 Canoe, 319, 365 Canon, 22, 53 Canonico, 50, 53 Canonization, 54-58, 8187, 651 Canteen, 96 Canto, 104 Cantonniers, 442 Cão, 28 Capacity, 52, 233, 295, 416, 488, 534, 561562 Cape, 103, 458, 560, 595 Capita, 22, 178, 328, 405, 425, 529, 573, 584, 593, 597, 603, 630 Capitalist, 510-511 Capitol, 225-226, 248 Caplan, 290 Capo, 52, 648

Index Cappella, 55 Captivity, 583 Capuchin, 334-335, 337, 339, 341, 343, 378382 Capucin, 384, 420 Cardinal, xxxiv, 8, 16, 48, 51, 54, 56, 6064, 69, 110, 121, 546, 556, 567, 649 Career, 11, 52, 71, 98, 133, 208, 228, 261, 272-273, 400, 464465, 501, 561 Caribbean, 225, 229, 453, 480, 567, 573, 588, 595, 599-601 Carità, 140 Carla, 16-17, 123 Carleen, 261 Carlos, 170, 550 Carlucci, 108 Carmen, 173 Carnegie, 224, 524, 540, 648 Carnivore, 583 Carolina, 218, 244, 330, 512-513 Carpenter, 98, 643 Carrabbas, 496 Cartesian, 508 Casaubon, 282 Casement, 26 Caserta, 100 Cassava, 7 Caste, 558 Casualties, 39, 457, 651 Catalan, 170 Catalogo, 57 Catastrophe, 182 Catechist, 458 Category, 101, 210-212, 268, 464, 551 Cathedral, 89, 313 Catherine, 64, 160, 312313 Catholicism, xxxiv, xxxviii, 63, 178, 445 Catholique, 12, 19, 323, 325, 351, 359, 595 Catwalk, 281 Caucasian, 281, 504, 520 Caucus, 501 Cave, 222, 323, 594-596

Cayman, 215 CAZA, 567, 579 Ceasefire, 30 Cécile, 104, 265, 559 Celebration, 53, 56, 58, 70, 141, 147, 226, 240, 247, 250, 344, 350, 391, 521, 525, 528, 534, 595, 651 Celebrazione, 56 Célestin, 334 Celia, 146-148, 150 Celibacy, 11-12, 59-61, 63, 149-150, 343 Census, 178, 529 Centenary, 208, 528, 589, 594 Centrism, 518 Centro, 88, 96, 99, 101103, 106, 108-109, 111, 114, 118, 120, 137, 190, 560 Century, 13, 63, 150, 162, 185, 188, 198, 225, 234, 278, 282284, 308, 445, 475, 490, 534, 545-547, 551, 555, 558, 590591, 611, 645 Ceralyte, 309 Ceramics, 134 Ceremony, 10, 52, 54-56, 58, 68, 82-86, 105, 171, 181, 304, 330, 416-417, 421, 486487, 489, 494-495, 513, 524, 530-531 Cerimoniere, 52 Certificate, 52, 254, 263, 292, 475, 482, 485486, 489, 491, 495, 498, 502, 518, 530531, 622 Certification, 210-212 Certified, 137, 221, 231232, 480, 486 Cervantes, 237 Césaire, 224, 228, 300, 405, 528, 589-592, 643, 646 Cesaire, 589-591, 646 Césairologie, 646 Cesairology, 224, 646 Chalice, 59 Challenor, 296

Global Safari Champ, 154-157 Champagne, 165, 312313, 495, 521, 525 Championship, 172, 524 Champs Elysées, 307 Chancellor, 131, 226, 244, 411 Chantier, 469-473 Chaos, 9, 466 Chapel, 16, 50-51, 55, 218 Charger, 340, 347, 460 Chargés, 552 Charity, 140, 272, 286, 300, 516 Charmes, 165, 312 Chastity, 11-12, 60, 149 Chateau, 312 Château, 159, 165, 581 Chauffeur, 54, 317, 322, 332-333, 345-346, 386, 403, 439, 442, 444, 455-465 Cheadle, 289 Cheapoair, 306 Chef, 175, 275 Cherbourg, 125, 526 Chicago, 192, 410, 507, 520, 523, 537, 643 Chigi, Palazzo, 197-198 Chikwangue, 7 Childbearing, 475 Childhood, 2, 205, 643 Childlessness, 216 Chile, 64 Chimay, 313 Chimpanzee, 443, 563 China, xxxiv-xxxv, xxxviii, 222, 226, 242, 258-259, 300, 304, 347, 472, 481, 527-528, 554, 573, 602-606, 610, 612614, 619-620, 622623, 631, 634, 640642 Choir, 23-24 Cholera, 422 Chomsky, Noam, 644 Chopsticks, 634 Chorus, 506 Chris, 280-281, 299, 577 Christi, 57 Christiane, 560

Christianity, 405, 448449, 529, 603, 630 Christie, 597 Christine, 2, 442, 448, 457-458 Christophe, 166, 308, 312-313 Christopher, 78, 545, 645 Chukwu, 246 Cicero, 471 Cinepaparazzis, 277 Cining, 616 Cipro, 309 Circuit, 491 Citadel, 182 Cité, 149, 163-164, 616 Citizen, xxxviii, 102, 150-151, 183, 189, 191, 194, 209, 212, 236, 245, 274, 277, 282-283, 306, 315, 326, 328, 472, 480, 484-485, 488-495, 497, 499-503, 505, 507-515, 517-521, 523, 525-531, 533, 535, 537, 539, 541543, 545, 550, 553, 555, 559, 651 Citizenship, xxxv, xxxviii, 101, 225, 235, 282, 480, 484485, 487, 489, 491, 493-502, 509, 514, 518, 521, 526, 528, 533, 545, 547, 550, 572, 650 Citoyen, 23, 274, 497 Citoyenne, 274 Città, 46, 55, 71, 314, 616 Cittadinanza, 500 Ciudad, 584, 586, 616 Ciudadano, 497 Civic, 482-484, 490, 512, 650 Civilian, 458, 467, 488, 493 Civilization, xxxv, 25, 182, 235, 239, 287, 508, 554, 643-644, 646-647, 649 Clandestinity, 415-416 Classism, 558

659 Classmate, xxxviii, 4-6, 10-12, 17, 50, 125126, 139, 167, 204, 276, 287-288, 319, 323, 327, 335, 341, 375, 400, 436, 444, 464, 595 Classroom, xxxix, 14, 16-17, 222, 294, 326, 360, 443-444 Claude, 343, 512 Claudio, 64 Claver, 595 Clavius, 78 Clément, 324, 645 Cléophas, 8 Clergy, 52, 61, 64 Clergymen, 11-12, 48, 50, 82 Clifford, 227, 230, 548, 651 Clift, 209, 648 Clifton, 212, 214, 220 Climate, 23, 224, 233, 255, 517 CN Tower, 29, 567, 576 Cobalt, 22, 25 Coca, xxxvii Coconut, xxxvii-xxxviii Cogitans, 508 Cogitation, 503 Cogito, 508 Cola, xxxvii Colf, 103-104, 560, 567 Colin, 643 Collaborate, 91, 455 Collaboration, 94, 190, 194, 258, 297, 384, 406, 504, 561, 632 Collaborator, 103, 190 Collaboratore, 567 Collaboratori, 103, 560 Collaboratrice, 567 Collection, 159, 367, 509, 614 Collegiality, 64, 525, 533, 561 Collegiate, 279 Collegio, 48, 50, 52, 59, 66-67, 70, 72-76, 78, 88, 96, 139, 143, 198, 560, 652 Collines, 289

660 Colloquium, 296, 323, 528, 589-592, 594596 Cologne, 101, 138-139, 194 Colombia, 167 Colombo, 188, 545 Colonel, 467, 579 Colonial, xxxv, xxxvii, 13, 25-27, 46, 93, 276, 278, 280, 288, 290, 300, 397, 449, 472 Colonialism, 91, 448 Colonie, xxxvii, 36, 313, 484, 529, 546, 566, 578 Colonists, 489, 546 Colonization, 26, 90, 287, 295, 546 Colonizers, 26 Coloredness, 223 Colosseum, xxxiv, 88, 121-122 Colossus, 492, 543 Coltan, 22, 25, 31, 300, 567, 644, 650 Columbite, 22, 567 Columnist, 88, 291 Combat, 3, 291, 413, 473 Combatant, 448, 488, 493 Combonian, 112, 146 Comedy, 178, 280 Comercio, 569 Comité, 22, 567 Commemoration, 256, 594, 619 Commerce, xxxvii, 330, 410, 569 ComminGem, 339 Commissaire, 328, 338, 418, 567 Commissioner, 8, 418, 467, 491, 572 Commitment, 64, 152, 179, 223-225, 227, 229-230, 242, 258, 260, 313, 415-418, 436, 449, 495, 518, 526, 533, 547 Commonwealth, 94, 597 Communalism, 509 Communauté, 94, 341, 567

Index Communicatie, 54, 169, 212, 224, 567 Communication, 25, 98, 133, 151, 169, 197, 204, 209, 212, 224, 237, 268, 295, 305, 315, 343, 445, 476, 569, 572, 637, 643 Communion, 53, 71, 590 Communism, 94, 191, 511, 556 Communist, 114, 488, 618 Communitarian, 509 Companion, 280 Compass, 603 Compensation, 190, 199 Competence, 98, 104, 225, 549, 554 Competency, xxxviii, 234 Competition, 291, 561 Competitiveness, 98, 225, 243, 300 Complexion, 280-281 Comune, 107, 147, 191, 196, 198-199, 507, 551 Concept, 92, 197, 223, 239, 646 Conclave, 51, 61, 63 Concord, 492 Condom, 414, 423, 436 Confederate, 517 Confederation, 321 Confédération, 27, 321, 567 Conférence, 29, 206, 567 Conference, xxxv-xxxvi, 25, 29, 32, 36, 54, 88-90, 93, 113, 117, 148, 192-194, 198199, 208, 218, 224, 228-229, 233, 241, 246, 250, 255-256, 411, 453, 475, 521, 547, 558, 610 Conferenza, 198 Confessions, 449, 648 Confidence, 232, 304, 505, 508, 515 Confirmation, 6, 230, 497, 518, 523, 528 Confiteor, 15

Congo, xxxiv, xxxviiixxxix, 1-3, 9, 11, 13, 18, 21-33, 3539, 41, 43, 46, 93, 167, 198, 204-206, 223, 268-269, 271, 273, 275-276, 285287, 295, 309-310, 320, 329, 343, 345, 361, 413, 421, 423, 427, 445, 452, 457458, 461, 466-468, 471-472, 475, 513, 525, 533, 546, 562, 566-568, 570, 643644, 647, 649-650 Congolais, 21, 23-24, 27, 32, 36, 318, 413, 477, 568, 570-571 Congolaise, 30, 354, 421, 460, 571-572 Congolese, 2, 4, 7-9, 11, 13, 21-33, 35-39, 41, 43, 46, 49, 53, 75, 104, 110, 119, 151, 188-189, 205, 223, 226, 268, 274, 287-288, 298, 308, 311, 313, 315-318, 320, 322, 326-328, 331, 333, 336, 342345, 357, 368-370, 378, 380, 404, 415416, 421, 423, 439, 442-443, 447, 449453, 455-456, 462, 464-468, 470-472, 474, 476-477, 488, 499-500, 509, 513, 526-529, 531, 546547, 555, 557, 559560, 567, 569, 595 Congolization, 26-27, 466 Congregation, 14, 16, 48-49, 56, 109, 208, 578 Congress, 90-91, 93, 114, 179, 181, 299, 301, 304, 324, 510, 527, 549, 566, 572, 602, 610, 632, 644646

Global Safari Congressional, 226, 233, 248, 299, 450, 516, 550, 567 Congressman, 299, 534, 537 Congresswoman, 380 Connecticut, 191, 567 Connection, 8, 26, 47, 58, 62, 96, 122, 137-138, 140, 188189, 224, 243, 289, 440, 445, 463, 525, 555, 603 Conrad, xxxix, 545, 644 Conscience, 359 Conscientia, 359 Conseil, 94, 366, 416, 567, 570 Consequence, 99, 235, 271, 284, 300, 443, 467, 512, 547, 550, 558, 647 Conservation, 579-580, 611 Consideration, 92, 103, 190, 288, 301, 317 Consiglio, 104, 117, 198 Consolation, 502, 555 Consortium, 297 Conspiracy, 321 Consternation, 318 Constituency, 250, 299 Constitution, 28, 30, 317, 322, 484, 486, 489492, 496, 514, 516, 526, 533, 547 Consulate, 306-308, 527528 Consuls, 261 Consultant, 54, 169, 193, 197, 567 Consultation, 426, 449 Conteinyng, xxxix Continent, xxxvi-xxxvii, 93-95, 244, 276, 278, 280, 284-285, 288-290, 292, 294301, 314, 317, 320, 406, 554, 556 Controversy, 61 Convenience, 202, 208 Convent, 332, 342 Convention, 195, 501, 519, 525, 534, 568 Convocation, 5, 209, 260

Conze, 609, 644 Coolidge, 494, 497, 528 Cooperation, 88-90, 93, 190, 193-194, 244, 290, 295, 421, 439, 472, 526, 533 Coordination, 417-418 Coppin, 521 Cordovan, 240 Corinthian, 185 Cornel, 150 Cornevin, 23, 27 Corporation, 137, 566 Corps, 8-9, 53, 55, 71, 225, 567 Correspondence, 10, 149, 231, 268-269, 271 Cortex, 98 Cosmetic, 281, 293 Cosmocitizen, 497, 526, 528-529, 533, 554555 Cosmocitizenship, xxxviii-xxxix, 152, 179, 225, 235, 237, 283, 479, 497, 508, 545, 547, 555, 561, 563, 632 Cosmopolitan, 223-224, 228 Cosmoport, 225, 256, 504-505, 535 Cosmoportism, 224-225, 232-233, 235, 237, 239, 241, 243, 245, 247, 249, 251, 253, 255, 257, 259, 261, 263, 265, 324, 645 Costello, 249 Costume, 10, 280, 286287, 412 Côte d'Ivoire, 89 Counsellor, 213, 419 Countee, 512 Coup, 8, 28, 452, 523 Coupe, 321 Courage, 32, 80, 229, 289, 422-423, 494, 508, 510, 514 Cousin, 270-272, 315316, 321-322, 324325, 328-331, 334, 336, 338, 349-350, 361, 372, 375, 415,

661 436, 439, 441, 444, 456, 464-465, 651 Coutance, 155 Couture, haute, 287; salon de, 325 Covenant, 568 Coworker, 99, 134-135, 436 Crackdown, 548, 618 Cracow, 51, 68 Craft, 644 Cran, 552 Creativity, 311, 647 Creator, 57, 474, 491 Credentials, 222 Credo, 74, 224, 552, 595, 645 Creed, 294, 552, 645 Creole, 588, 597 Crew, 456 Crise, 9, 28, 64, 91-93, 150, 168, 232, 238, 275, 286, 288, 292, 319, 449, 468, 511, 553, 556, 561, 569, 648-649 Cristiane, 566 Cristoforo, 188, 545 Cruelty, 26, 650 Cruise, 599-601 Cuernavaca, 241, 585587 Cullen, 512 Culpa, 61, 646 Cuomo, 115 Curcio, 194, 471, 646 Curia, xxxiv, 108 Currency, xxxv, 22, 28, 38, 65, 96, 104, 124, 131, 142, 153, 167, 178, 269, 316, 405, 529, 573, 584, 597, 603, 630, 633 Curriculum, 10, 52, 98, 193-194, 222, 225, 234, 246, 248, 567 Cushman, 549 Custody, 215 Custom, 73, 99, 315, 463, 527, 558, 603, 636 Customer, 238, 282, 285, 317, 328, 378, 425, 463, 483-484, 635 Cypro, 310

662

Index

-D-

Democrat, 512, 514-518, 522 Démocrates, 319, 572 Démocratie, 571 Démocratique, 2, 29-31, 566, 568, 570 Democratization, 29 Democrazia, 198 Demographics, 179, 632 Demonstration, xxxvixxxvii, 114, 150, 175, 618 Deng, 553 Denial, 227, 232, 280, 549, 563 Denis, 32 Denmark, 306 Denominator, 110 Deolo, 423 Departure, 10, 46-47, 49, 120, 190, 203, 244, 304, 306, 322, 339, 393, 401, 441, 447, 455, 457, 467 Depiction, 277, 289-290 Dépistage, 421, 567 Deportation, 226, 481, 549 Député, 317, 320, 332, 338, 343, 464, 472 Députée, 380 Deputy, 307 Deregulations, 509 Descartes, 508, 644 Designation, 55, 94, 127 Désiré, 8, 36, 38 Desmond Tutu, 295 Destination, xxxiv-xxxv, xxxvii, 46, 49-50, 72, 79, 189, 238, 296-297, 306, 340, 458, 507, 528, 555, 576, 602, 641-642 Deutsch, 96, 131-132, 142, 167, 616 Deutschland, 97, 131, 522 Deutschlandlied, 131 Development, 3, 22, 30, 32, 88-95, 115, 152, 193-194, 208-209, 224, 226, 233, 243, 246, 256, 270, 272, 276, 295-298, 300301, 310, 323, 338,

Dailley, G.D., 579 Daimler, 99, 101, 136137 Dakar, xxxvi-xxxvii, 91, 222, 244, 296, 405408 Dalhousie, 98 Dalit, 100, 198, 559 Damas, Léon G., 405 Dame, 6, 89, 163, 341, 447 Daniel, 650 Danke, 140, 227 Daoism, 224, 242, 603, 610, 632, 645 Daoist, 611 Dar es Salaam, xxxvi, 23, 54, 213, 218, 226, 243-245, 252, 257, 297, 299, 411, 572 Darfur, 299 Darkness, xxxix, 223, 282, 324, 545, 644 David, 243, 249, 551, 643, 645, 647-648 Davidson, Basil, 277, 301 Davos, 324 Dawa, Bobila, 325 Dawili, 345 Deacon, 48, 54, 58-59, 82 Dean, 192, 196, 208, 221, 230-231, 258, 323, 351 Debt, 29, 91, 210 Decolonization, 291 Dede, 337, 340, 418 Defense, 26, 30, 94, 236, 448, 496 Défi, 224, 595, 645 Deficiency, 235, 568 Defilé, 413 Défilé, 344, 430 Deidre, 475 Dekere, 13 Delawala, 644 Demba, 270, 273, 444 Democracy, 27, 30, 178179, 250, 285, 292, 493-494, 514-515, 570, 618, 632, 649

343, 352, 385, 402, 411, 425, 439, 461, 466, 468, 470-477, 526, 533, 549, 568570, 572, 632, 645646 Développement, 30, 92, 320, 439, 567, 570 Device, 340, 446, 460, 483 Dia, 10 Dialect, 21, 280 Diamond, 22, 25, 127, 277-278, 289, 292293, 300, 458 Diarrhoea, 310 Diary, 240, 315, 317, 319, 321, 323, 325, 327, 329, 331, 333, 335, 337, 339, 341, 343, 345, 347, 349, 351, 353, 355, 357, 359, 361, 363, 365, 367, 369, 371, 373, 375, 377, 379, 381, 383, 385, 387, 389, 391, 393, 395, 397, 399, 401, 403, 405, 407, 409, 411 Diaspora, xxxvii, 94-95, 199, 276, 286, 294, 342 DiCaprio, Leonardo, 292 Dictator, 28-29, 293 Dictatorship, 292, 468 Didici, 545, 555 Dietrich, 450 Dignitary, 10, 55, 60, 8384, 108, 261, 338, 411 Dignity, 63, 168, 224, 233, 294, 557 Dimitri, 522 Dindo, 13 Dining, 312, 336, 366, 576, 635 Dino, 457 Diocese, 4-5, 11, 18, 20, 48-49, 59-60, 75, 88, 140, 155, 338, 344, 443, 547 Dionysia, 183 Dionysus, 183 Dipartimento, 117 Diphtheria, 309

Global Safari Diplobamacy, 179, 632 Diploma, 121, 188, 241, 336, 400, 421, 475476, 549 Diplomacy, 235-236, 240, 292, 299, 504, 563, 569 Diplomat, 26, 53, 55, 8384, 102, 188, 226, 236, 293, 299, 526, 556-557 Director, 32, 91, 101, 103, 108, 118, 140, 165, 173, 189, 192193, 196, 208, 221, 224-225, 230, 232235, 241, 244-245, 247-248, 252, 259, 261, 270, 274-275, 281, 289, 305, 346, 352, 387, 402, 413, 415, 420, 440, 489, 493-494, 505, 509, 528, 534, 541, 586, 607, 635, 651 Dirigeants, 265 Diritto, 50 Disbelief, 60, 277, 282, 288, 294-295, 301, 329, 503 Discontent, 279, 649 Discourse, 193, 644 Discredit, 279 Discretion, 11, 414 Discrimination, 416, 419, 425, 475, 504, 514, 546, 559 Disease, 3, 141, 271, 282, 317, 335, 415416, 422-423, 429, 442, 473, 508 Dismantlement, xxxv, 556, 558 Disney, xxxv, 212 Disorder, 611 Displacement, 467 Dissertation, 68, 90, 92, 101, 195, 214, 225 Distinction, 310, 643 Divergence, 13, 550, 553, 648 Diversidad, 571 Diversité, 571 Diversity, 98, 113, 116, 140, 152, 199, 203,

209, 223, 226, 237, 241-242, 244-245, 313, 471, 504, 514, 563, 571 Divinity, 341 Doctorate, 78, 192, 194, 198, 323-324, 341 Doctrine, 8, 179, 632 Docui, 545 Documentary, 26, 28, 61, 280, 293, 449, 548, 645-646 Dollar, xxxv, 8, 89, 281, 310, 316, 325, 331333, 336, 343, 462, 464, 518, 523, 529, 572-573, 597 Dollarization, 311 Dollarocracy, xxxv Dollarship, 498 Dominique, 449, 648 Domitian, 122 Don, 23, 88, 108, 118, 240, 289 Donadio, Rachel, 64 Donald, 246, 299, 518, 560 Donation, 311, 444, 502, 506, 523, 535 Dongo, 292, 334, 338, 344, 353, 380, 382, 386, 391, 393, 401, 403, 430, 432, 439, 441, 443, 445, 447451, 453, 455-459, 461, 463-467, 469 Dongolization, 466 Dormitory, 4, 10, 16-17, 128 Dossier, 191, 198, 221222, 232, 447, 455, 481 Dover, 648 Dowry, 325, 331, 474 Doxycycline, 309-310, 335-336, 374, 376 Doyle, 26, 644 Drachma, 178 Drama, 122, 181, 313, 451, 519 Dreamers, 549, 553-554 Droit, 421 Dua, 13 Duale, 488, 530-531 Dualism, 611

663 Dubai, 127, 296, 576 Duce, 287 Dulles, 54, 602 Dummet, 458 Dungia, 29, 644 Duper, 501, 535 DuRand, Cliff207, 227, 230, 548, 651 Düsseldorf, 324 Duty, 193, 218, 221, 235, 293, 415-417, 419, 443, 513, 545-546, 549 Dynasty, 122, 603, 616, 620 -EEaketts, D., 543 Easter, 7, 52, 54, 56, 140-141 EBONY, 648 eBook, 499, 645 Ebrey, 611, 644 Ecclesia, 57 Echangeur, 318 Economics, trickledown, 64 Economist, 237, 550 Eddie, 281 Eden, 319, 347-348, 363-365 Edinburg, 548 Edison, 553 Edition, xxxvii, 23, 55, 91, 104, 153, 181, 183, 185, 232, 405, 410, 548, 573, 584, 593, 630, 643-645, 647-648 Editor, 88, 91, 229, 505, 568, 591 Educación, 568 Education, xxxiv, 3-4, 7, 10-12, 27, 46, 50, 59, 88-91, 98, 107, 133, 139, 151, 191194, 196-197, 199, 204, 208-209, 211, 218, 224-226, 228230, 232-235, 238, 241, 243-245, 247248, 272, 294, 298, 313, 322, 324, 334, 339-341, 344-346,

664 382-383, 400, 402, 437, 439, 447, 468477, 514, 548-549, 551, 560, 563, 568569, 635, 643, 645647, 649 Educator, 152, 226, 233, 295-296, 471-472, 527 Eduespaña, 172-176, 233-234, 238-240, 527, 568 Edutaining, 286 Eenie, 51 Effort, 23, 25, 31, 39, 116, 193, 234, 238, 241, 284, 292, 294295, 297-298, 301, 418, 455, 466, 475, 495, 502, 554, 562, 579, 609 Égalité, 552, 560 Egide, 16, 421 Egwanga, 59 Egypt, 281, 283, 511, 543 Egyptian, 283, 543 Egyptologist, 283 Ehrlich, Bob, 226 Eiffel Tower, 154, 157 Einstein, 494 Eisenhower, President, 27 Eke, Marcel, 418 Élan, 23 Eland, 580 Election, xxxv, xxxviii, 30, 51, 54, 61-62, 68, 84, 114, 265, 319-320, 332-333, 343, 452, 464, 490491, 499, 501-505, 508-509, 511-514, 516, 518-523, 525, 532-533, 535, 537, 539, 551, 556, 560, 562 Électorale, 30, 567 Electricity, 14, 320, 337341, 343-344, 346, 443-444, 460, 471, 476 Eleftheria, 178 Eleftherian, 178 Eligibility, 480, 482, 549

Index Elimination, 5, 27, 32, 298 Eliminatoire, 5-6 Éliminatoire, 5 Elisabethville, 36 Elisabetta, 559 Elite, 188, 291, 471 Élites, 449 Elitism, 515 Elitist, xxxv, 7 Elizabeth, Queen, 124, 127, 573, 593, 597 Ellada, 178 Ellas, 178 Ellington, 512 Elodia, 454 Elsa, 141 Élysées, Champs, 155157 Emancipation, 282, 504, 517 Emango, 14 Embargo, 290 Embassy, 54-55, 58, 71, 87, 97, 103, 119, 121, 132, 189-190, 212, 234, 241, 243, 252, 299, 306-307, 526-527, 573 Embezzlement, 442, 468 Emblem, 24 Emblème, 23 Emergency, 307, 310, 338, 340-341, 401, 446, 456, 512 Emeritus, 53-54, 78, 227, 651 Emerson, 492 Emigration, xxxv-xxxvi, 146, 198 Emigrazione, xxxvi, 191, 198 Emily, 548 Eminence, 48 Emirates, 127, 548 Emmanuel, 29, 60, 105, 123, 269-270, 644 Emory, 295 Emotion, 283, 508 Emperor, 122, 156, 181182, 185, 293, 603, 613-614, 616 Emphasis, 209, 279, 289-290, 293, 495

Empire, 21, 134, 159, 167, 578 Employee, 90, 139, 238239, 386, 402, 421, 423, 436, 496, 520, 640 Employer, 138, 198, 210, 292 Employment, 96, 99, 101-102, 107, 137140, 147-148, 151, 189-191, 203, 207, 209-211, 307, 471, 476, 480, 491, 514, 527, 551, 568 Enactment, 513, 549 Encyclical, 297 Encyclopedia, 199, 209210, 213, 221, 224, 226, 228, 254, 304, 591, 635, 646, 648 Endowment, 250, 570, 648 Enemy, 198, 279, 289, 422, 492, 504 Energy, 300, 332 Enfer, 646 Enforex, 173-174, 239240, 651 Engagement, 54, 213214, 223, 455-456, 460, 495, 626 England, 53, 124-125, 149, 151-152, 168, 188, 204, 242, 244, 288, 445, 457, 496, 524, 526, 546 Englebert, 320 Enna, 90 Enseignement, 568 Ente, 190 Entebe, 293 Enterprise, 514, 541 Entertainment, 10, 277, 301, 305, 328, 436, 446, 566, 576 Entrance, 195, 329, 579, 624 Entrepôt, xxxvii, 410, 445 Enulescu, 636 Enveloppe, 320, 343 Enyele, 450, 467 Enzo, 106 Ephesus, 543

Global Safari Epidemic, 288, 417, 436, 508 Episode, xxxv, 58, 278, 286, 288 Equality, 3, 32, 191, 298, 473-475, 512, 517, 552, 554, 618 Equateur, 2, 6-7, 10-11, 13, 18, 21, 39, 48, 53, 93, 110, 317, 319-320, 325-326, 331-332, 334, 339, 341, 343, 355-356, 366, 382, 416, 418, 421, 423, 439, 449451, 454, 456, 459, 470, 488, 526, 651 Equipajes, 239 Era, 9, 21, 25-26, 28, 33, 94, 184, 235-236, 241, 244, 300, 308, 321, 329, 494, 500 Eric, 512, 518 Ericsson, 22 Erosion, 442, 444 Errazuris, 64 Erudition, 228 Esclaves, xxxvi, 407, 445 España, 170, 239, 568 Español, 96, 170, 175, 234, 237, 241, 496497, 584, 616 Espoir, 422 Estados, 497, 584 Esteri, 88-89, 194-195, 572, 646 Estimation, 425 Estonia, 306 Etat, 7, 8, 11, 28, 400, 447, 473, 497 Ethics, 138, 167, 202, 204, 224, 253, 290, 463, 503, 646, 649 Ethiopia, 30, 167, 287, 299, 305 Ethiopiques, 647 Ethnicity, 12, 243, 277, 308, 525, 533, 558, 597 Etienne, 546 Etsou, NzabiBamungwabi, 250 110, 250

Etude, 160, 590-591, 646, 650 Études, 160 Eucharist, 53, 56, 63 Euclid, 178 Euripides, 183 Euro, xxxv, 65, 96, 104, 131, 142, 153, 178, 235, 293, 559-560 Eurocentric, 278, 281, 283, 296, 300 Eurocentrism, 95, 223, 277-281, 283, 285, 287, 289, 291, 293295, 297, 299-301, 504, 554 Eurocracy, xxxv Europa, 191 Europhile, 236 Euros, 316, 547 Evacuation, 188-189, 191, 193, 195, 197, 199, 201, 456, 460 Evangelii Gaudium, 64, 644 Evangelization, 48, 63, 109 Evangelizatione, 48 Eve, xxxviii, 350, 363 Everette, 236 Évolué, 36, 46 Evolution, 146, 647 Evros, 548 Exaggeration, 288, 464, 466 Exam, 5, 7, 12, 50, 323, 325, 400 Examination, 4-5, 12, 50, 103, 278, 325, 351, 447, 473 Excellency, 48-49, 322, 568 Exceptionalism, American, 515 Exclusion, 4, 481, 505, 546 Excursion, 11, 18 Exétat, 7 Exeter, 643 Exhortation, 64, 509, 521-522, 644 Exile, 8 Exodus, 548 Expansion, 541, 545 Expatriates, 499-500

665 Expectancy, 23, 142, 178, 529, 573, 584, 593, 597, 603 Expectation, 322, 445, 463, 527 Expedition, xxxiv, xxxvii-xxxviii, 7, 410 Expenditure, 242, 273, 305, 425 Expertise, 195 Exploitation, 22, 26, 3132, 90, 191, 291, 546, 650 Exploration, 229, 546 Extracomunitari, 103104, 559 Extracomunitario, 104, 198, 500, 551 Extravaganza, 172, 454, 519, 521 Ezana, 287 -FFable, 89-90, 476-477 Fabrizio, 189 Facebook, 56, 495, 506, 560-561 Facility, 441, 514, 526 Factbook, 3, 21, 167, 178 Facticity, 223 Factory, 96, 339, 398, 603 Faculté, 12, 323, 325, 351 Faculty, 19, 78, 195, 208, 224-226, 230-231, 234, 243, 246-247, 254, 260, 296-297, 323, 351, 359 Failure, 5, 63, 232, 475 Fairbank, 222, 302 Fairness, 510, 516, 521, 533, 645 Faith, 57, 60-61, 73, 139, 241, 250, 295, 492, 516, 535 Faithful, 51, 56, 62, 64, 338 Faithfulness, 413 Fame, 163 Fantasy, 289 Farhang, 649

666 Farmer, 100, 139, 346, 614 Farrar, 645 Fascination, 286 Fashionista, 625 Fate, 24, 51, 107 Favoritism, 290-291 Fawcett, 644 Fédération, 22, 179, 568 Fee, 7, 49, 99, 140, 210, 212, 270, 275, 307, 310, 329, 333, 336, 447, 455, 464, 481, 496, 514, 528, 605 Fehrnstrom, 518 Fekefeke, 275 Fele, 51 Felicia, 644 Felipe VI, King, 170-171 Feminist, 474, 560-561 Fenby, 650 Ferme, 166, 312-313 Fernandez, 548 Ferrari, 106 Fertilization, 216, 569 Festival, 94, 116, 175, 177, 181, 183, 226 Fetishism, 5 Feudalists, 291 Feuerstein, 139, 144 Fichte, 563 Fide, 48, 66, 73 Fidelity, 80, 431, 492 Fieldwork, 244, 296, 406-407 Fifa, xxxvii, 131, 172, 513, 559, 568 Figaro, 522 Fighter, 291, 457, 466, 513, 526, 533, 546 Figueroa, 22, 650 Filippo, 171 Filosopfia, 107 Finanza, 55, 58, 87 Finland, 306 Fiona, 457 Firecracker, 157 Firefighters, 256, 512 Firewood, 141, 370, 443, 453 Fischer, 142 Fishery, 440 Fiske, 188 Fitzgerald, 569

Index Fiumicino, 54, 102, 212213 Fizi, 467 Flavian, 122 Flavio, 122 Flavium, 122 Flinders, 283 Flippers, 333, 367 Florida, xxxv, 212, 234, 453, 503, 519, 600 Fluency, 188, 193, 562, 586 Flyer, 331, 407, 490, 521, 524 Foden, 293 Folk, 91, 151, 308, 315, 345, 644 Fondation, 413 Fonseca, 644 Fontana Dei Trevi, 78 Foodstuffs, 443-444, 448 Foong, 648 Football, 21, 51, 321, 438, 495, 567-568, 570 Forefathers, 24 Foreigner, 100, 102, 104, 141, 147, 149, 189, 191, 197, 241, 326, 500, 551, 557, 560 Forgeron, 240 Forgiveness, 64, 474 Formality, 211, 463 Formula, 56-58, 643, 651 Foro, 117 Fort, 222, 308, 528, 588592 Fortress, 182 Forum, 304, 324, 572, 602, 610, 645 Foucault, Michel, 644 Foulkes, 597 Foundation, 119, 475, 495, 506, 512, 517 Fozard, 246 Franc, 22, 38, 153, 167, 271, 316, 331, 333, 336-337, 342, 347, 378, 405, 455, 462, 471, 567-568 Français, 96, 153, 496497, 573, 588, 616 Française, 153, 160, 589, 646

Francesco, 56, 342 Francisca, 2, 270, 441442, 446, 454 Francisco, 200 Franco, 333 François, 134, 153, 291, 588 Francophone, 91, 151, 241, 285, 313, 562 Frangala, 471 Frankfurt, 100, 138 Frankfurter, 522 Frankish, 182 Fraternité, 153, 552, 560 Fraternity, 552 Fraud, 332, 343, 512-513 Frederic, 110, 647 Freedom, xxxviii, 24, 149, 168, 178, 193, 317, 412, 473, 490491, 494-495, 507, 509, 513, 517, 525526, 532-533, 545546, 618, 649 Freeman, 281, 644 Freetown, 249 Fremdsprache, 132 Freshman, 10, 286 Friedman, 556, 645 Friendship, xxxiv, 29, 104, 138-139, 141, 143, 145-148, 150, 160, 165-166, 191, 197, 226, 264, 305, 313, 346, 521, 592 Frontières, 426 Fruit, xxxviii, 148, 343, 495 Fuga, 403, 449 Fulbright, 234, 261 Fulfillment, 489, 495 Fumagalli, 49, 59, 96, 652 Fumata Bianca, 51, 68 Funeral, 53-54, 305, 318, 334, 346, 453-454, 463, 604 Fürstentum, 167 -GGa, 9 Gabonese, 99 Gado, 441 Gaia, 64

Global Safari Gala, 174 Galician, 170 Gallicano, 117 Gallimard, 644, 649 Gallotti, 189 Gamsa Hamnida, 640641 Gansu, 620 Gantin, Card., 108 Gap, 65, 91, 436, 511, 551, 643, 650 Garcia, 550 Garvey, Marcus, xxxvii, 512 Gasisi, 4 Gateway, 186 Gauch, 131 Gaulle, Charles de, 94 Gazebo, 334 Gazelle, 476-477 Gba, 51, 521 Gbadolite, 3, 29, 53, 325, 339, 341, 386, 439, 444-445, 448, 468 Gbanzi, 652 Gbanziri, 13 Gbaya, 13 Gbedema, 274, 276 Gbele, 4 Gbosasa, xxxvii, 4-5, 1112, 14-15, 47, 269, 276, 322, 325, 441444, 453, 458 Gboto, 46-48, 53, 59 Gboto-Mbati, 46 Gbotokuma, 46, 48, 68, 87, 91-93, 98, 103, 113-114, 148, 152, 173, 189-190, 193196, 198-199, 202, 207, 210, 221, 223, 225, 227-230, 232, 239, 242, 246, 248, 258-261, 263, 265, 270, 272-274, 283, 308-309, 351, 382, 502-506, 508, 515, 517, 521, 523, 530531, 533, 545, 552, 563, 590-592, 595, 607, 643, 645 Gelena, 402 Gemelli, 60, 310, 373 Gemena, 11, 14, 39, 47, 272-276, 292, 305,

310, 322, 328-330, 332-346, 353, 370381, 383, 385-386, 391, 401, 403, 413415, 417-423, 425, 427, 429-439, 441, 451, 453-454, 456468, 651-652 Gemenaville, 379 Gen, 290, 466 Gendarmeria, 55 Gender, 3, 32, 64, 193, 244-245, 298, 419, 467, 473-475, 559 Général, 371, 413 Generation, 19, 234, 424, 490, 494-495, 506 Generator, 321, 324, 460 Genesis, 146, 516 Genoa, 188, 545 Génocidaires, 290, 301 Genocide, 31, 289-291, 546, 649 Genovese, 185 Gent, 14 Geoffrey, 501 Geography, 246, 285 Geopolitics, 649 Georg, 283, 522, 647 Georgia, 94, 534 Gerald, 290 Gerard, 649 Gerba, 541 Germanophone, 241 Germanys, 94 Germena, 375 Gesellschaft, 568 Gestation, 580 Gettleman, 466 Geun, 630 Ghana, 36, 284, 295 Ghanaian, 292 Gianicolo, 73 Gibney, 61, 646 Gift, 24, 26, 109, 205, 217, 239-240, 311, 414, 457, 522, 591 Gilman, Benjamin, 226, 245 Ginger, xxxviii Gingrich, Newt, 515-516 Ginn, 644 Giorgio, 104, 287 Giovanni, 58, 88, 96, 99, 101, 106, 108-109,

667 111, 114, 118, 120, 137, 190, 560 Girlfriend, 10-11, 94, 99102, 141, 148, 188, 197, 205, 269, 436, 560 Giroux, 645 Giulio, 188, 198 Giuseppe, 64, 334-338, 342-343, 380, 413415, 420 Giza, 543 Globalism, 224 Globality, 225 Globalization, 224, 241, 244, 300-301, 305, 308, 329-330, 345, 385, 406, 449, 508, 556, 590, 632, 645647, 649 Globe, 32, 37, 68, 83, 504, 522 Globetrotter, xxxix Globish, 242, 285, 563 Gloria, 74, 246 Goal, 3, 32, 193, 224225, 233, 245, 256, 276, 298, 321, 402, 417, 473, 476, 526, 533, 570, 618 Gobineau, 283, 294, 647 Goddess, 182, 240 Goenaga, Josehhus, 510, 647 Goethe, 96-97, 132-133, 188, 240, 471 Goma, 21, 291, 466, 468 Gombe, 327, 329, 332 Gomes, 299 Gon, 2, 274, 349, 651 Goodstein, Laurie, 64 Gore, Al, 501, 503 Gorée, xxxvi-xxxviii, 407-409, 445 Gospel, 64, 100, 223, 320, 502, 535, 644646 GosudarstvennoƱ, 569 Gottlieb, 137 Gouvoussis, 181, 183, 185, 647 Gov, 115, 226, 484, 489490, 501, 511, 519, 551, 568, 593 Governance, 209

Index

668 Governatorato, 55 Government, 8-9, 22, 27, 39, 55, 64, 89, 92, 101, 104, 114, 140, 190, 193-194, 265, 291, 320, 322, 324325, 334, 345, 419, 423-424, 442-443, 447-449, 452, 466468, 470, 484-486, 495, 500, 509-510, 514, 516, 528, 549, 559-560, 568, 650 Governor, 25, 251, 319321, 332, 343, 472, 568, 597 Goza, 353, 462-463, 465 Gozo, 5 Grâce, 6, 341, 447, 452, 523 Gracián, 645 Gracias, Oswald, 64, 227 Graduat, 12, 421, 568 Graduation, 10, 213, 218, 273, 394 Granary, 448 Grandeur, 24 Grandmother, 2, 46-47, 53 Grandparents, 2, 46, 218, 273-274, 440 Grandson, 46 Grasslands, 620 Grassroots, 250 Gratitude, 460, 551, 592 Gravity, 288, 450 Grazie, 227, 342 Greece, 178-179, 184, 238, 306, 528, 548, 571, 632, 643-644, 647 Greed, 26, 292, 449, 508 Greenland, 296, 583 Greensboro, 218 Greenwich, 644 Gregorian, 53, 78, 88, 92, 103, 121, 139, 150, 194-195, 198, 228 Gregoriana, 78, 88, 147, 571, 646 Gregorianum, 78 Grenzen, 563 Grimké, 504

Grito, 584 Grocery, 242, 331, 560 Grotto, 163 Groupe, 467 Groupement, 421 Grove, 643 Grundstuffe, 132 Guardia, 55, 58, 80, 87 Guardian, 644 Gudrun, 128-129, 151 Guerilla, 647 Guériniere, 160 Guerra, 584 Guerre, 22 Guest, 54-55, 93, 129, 138, 146, 188, 193, 222, 257, 285-286, 293, 312, 333, 342, 344, 355-356, 358, 378, 382, 415-417, 445, 470, 561 Guestworker, 96 Guevara, 242, 587 Guèye, 647 Guge, 396 Guiana, 560 Guidance, 331, 442 Guido, 58, 651 Guillermo, 587 Gunpowder, 603 Gurus, 227 Gustave, 154 Guyana, 405 Guzman, 550 Gwaka, 18, 59 Gyeonggi, 635 Gynaecologists, 216 Gynaecology, 327 -HHabemus Papam, 51 Habit, 205, 239 Habitat, 567, 583 Habla, 96, 234, 241 Hablo, 241 Hadley, 281, 644 Hadrian, 181, 185 Haftung, 568 Hague, 31, 320 Haitian, 597 Hakuna, xxxvii, 227, 505 Hakuta, 97, 647 Halicarnassus, 543 Hallelujah, 497

Hallett, 196 Han, 64, 167, 603, 620, 635 Hanok, xxxv, 554, 638639 Haogaero, 635 Happiness, xxxviii, 491, 508, 517, 525, 533, 552, 554, 561 Hardships, 100-101, 103-104, 274, 322, 508-509, 560, 652 Harlem, 512, 526, 533, 546 Harmattan, 644, 648 Harmony, 491 Harold, 27 HarperCollins, 649 Harriet, 648 Harvard, 32, 192, 227, 294-295, 501, 503, 538, 596, 651 Hassan, 29 Hasta, 438 Hat, xxxviii, 347, 349, 575, 627 Hatmania, 627 Hatred, 289 Hautes-Pyrénées, 163 Hawaiians, 529 Headquarters, xxxiv, xxxviii, 103, 110, 165, 255, 305, 313, 352, 354 Heartland, 320 Hebei, 620 Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 283, 294, 301, 647 Hegira, 458 Heidegger, 92, 193, 223, 230 Heideggérien, 646 Heinz, 142, 229 Helbush, Terry 203, 210, 651 Hellas, 178 Hellenity, 295 Hema militia, 458 Hemisphere, xxxv, xxxix, 268 Hennessey, 65 Henri, Thierry, 559 Henrix, 13-14 Heong, 603

Global Safari Henrix, Marcel, 13-14 Hepatitis, 309 Heritage, 122, 159, 162, 179, 408, 449, 470, 519, 614, 616, 620 Herma, 139-140, 144145 Hermeneutics, 147 Hermes, 283, 650 Hermetica, 283, 650 Hermeticum, 283 Hero, 36, 318, 448, 622 Herodes, 181 Heroism, xxxvii, 26, 289, 301 Herrnstein, 283, 294, 648 Hervé, 155, 158, 160161 Hevea, 2 Hewabora, 329, 353, 462-463, 465 Hewlett, 569 Heywood, xxxix Hierarchy, 8, 195 Hilaire, 336, 374 Hilfschlosser, 133-134 Hilton, 119, 213 Himno, 584 Hindrance, 475, 497, 511 Hinduism, 529 Hirr, 9 Hispanic, 529, 597 Historian, 91, 277, 283, 294, 301 Historiography, 178 Hitler, 289 Hochschild, 26 Hofstra, 519 Holder, 189-190, 196197, 208, 525, 557 Holenstein, 139 Holiness, xxxiv, 52, 5657, 65 Holland, 169 Hollande, 153, 588 Hollins, 64 Hollis, Burney, 208, 210, 221, 230 Hollywood, xxxv, 95, 252, 276-285, 287289, 291, 293-295, 297, 299-301 Hollywoodians, 277, 280

Holocaust, 26, 31-32, 290 Homecoming, 58, 118, 305, 315, 317, 319321, 323, 325, 327, 329, 331, 333, 335, 337, 339, 341, 343, 345, 347-349, 351, 353, 355, 357, 359, 361, 363, 365, 367, 369, 371, 373, 375, 377, 379, 381, 383, 385, 387, 389-393, 395, 397, 399, 401, 403, 405, 407, 409, 411, 445 Homeland, xxxvi, 47, 205, 293, 303, 310, 350, 480, 484-485, 489, 493, 495, 500, 514, 518, 526, 549, 650-651 Homilies, 9, 507 Homo, 232, 555 Honduras, 64 Honesty, 60, 494 Hopelessness, 61 Hôpital, 371, 413 Horizon, 165, 229, 264, 275, 305, 594 Horoscope, 61 Horror, 289, 292, 548 Horseshoe, 577 Hospitality, 117, 133, 141, 190, 197, 238240, 527, 547, 607 Hôtel, 591 Hotel, 100, 119, 149, 155, 172, 192, 213, 238-239, 277-278, 289-290, 292-293, 299, 301, 307, 313314, 316-317, 327329, 333, 406, 411, 527, 543, 594, 602, 640 Hounsou, Djimon, 292 Houphouët-Boigny, Félix, 89 Household, 510, 529, 550-551 Huang, 603, 614 Hubei, 226, 258-259, 569, 605-607

669 Hubert, 420-421, 423424, 652 Hudlin, 281 Hughes, Langston, 512 Huguette, 330-331, 349 Humanism, 224, 228, 534, 646 Humanisme, 646 Humanist, 228 Humanitarian, 25, 32, 224, 274, 287, 290, 300, 338 Humanity, xxxviii-xxxix, 31, 94, 100, 102, 198, 222, 224, 226, 283, 293-295, 301, 305, 330, 345, 519, 545, 554, 559-560, 562 Humankind, 421, 424, 438 Humberto, 64 Hume, 195 Humility, 197, 551, 557 Hundley, Tom, 548 Hungary, 306 Hunger, 3, 473-474 Hunter, 5, 218 Hurricane, 520, 613 Hurst, 649 Hurston, Zora Neale, 512 Husa, 172, 238-239 Hussein, Barack, 529 Huts, 280 Hutu, 31, 289-291, 301 Hyattsville, 648 Hydropower, 22 Hye, 630 Hymn, 23-24, 104, 178, 492 Hymne, 23 Hyun, 635 -IIberia, 238 Iceland, 306, 583 Identidades, 645 Identification, 55, 296, 306, 312, 326, 344, 448, 483, 485, 512, 520 Identité, 92 Ideology, 28, 278, 406, 497, 509, 517

670 Idi Amin, 292-293 Idiofa, 20 Iesus, 57 Ignace, 402 Ignatius, 78 Ignorance, 26, 100, 235, 326, 416 Ile, 159 Île, xxxvii Illégalité, 326 Illegality, 325-327 Illinois, 319, 490, 501, 645 Illiteracy, 90, 113, 298 Illness, 68, 272, 305, 424, 451 Imagination, 277, 301, 506 Immersion, xxxiv, 95, 106, 128, 132, 150151, 160, 165, 225, 235, 240, 242, 244, 264, 286, 312, 647 Immigrant, xxxv-xxxvi, 65, 90, 94, 101, 108, 116, 146, 194, 199, 211, 226, 268, 314, 489-490, 494, 503, 507, 515, 519, 527, 546, 548-553, 559561, 563, 597, 644 Immigration, 101, 148, 191, 196-198, 203, 210-212, 249, 251, 480, 487-489, 493, 495, 500, 512, 530531, 545-546, 549550, 553, 569-570, 572, 651 Immigrazione, 198 Immunity, 464 Immunizations, 309 Immunodéficience, 571 Immunodeficiency, 568 Impartiality, 290-291 Imperialism, 90, 292 Improvement, xxxvii, 94, 242, 285, 304, 467, 475 Impunity, 468 Impuzamugambi, 31, 291 Imtiyaz, 644

Index Inauguration, 108, 114, 502, 523-526, 536, 542, 626 Incident, 326-327, 461, 618 Inclusion, 474 Inclusiveness, 62 Incorporation, 113, 241 Indépendance, 23 India, 64, 100, 282, 559, 603 Indian, xxxvii, 100, 198, 410, 449, 486 Indianapolis, 496 Indies, 323, 594-596 Indigène, 36, 566 Indigenes, 280 Indignities, 508 Individualism, 508 Indonesia, 280 Inequality, 301, 419, 550-551, 553, 646649 Infection, 415, 418-419, 423-424 Influenza, 309 Infrastructure, 3, 452, 471, 476 Inga, 344 Ingénieur, 464 Ingredient, 175, 236 Inhumanity, 102 Initiation, 225, 474, 489 Initiative, 32, 198, 252, 278, 292, 294, 298300, 310, 418, 467, 566, 568 Inno, 65, 104 Innsbruck, 140 Inongo, 70, 75, 449, 648 Inquiry, 27, 179, 550, 645 Insecurity, 459, 461, 467, 561 Inspiration, 494, 553 Instability, 27 Institut, 160, 274, 339340, 569 Institution, 6, 8, 29, 4950, 64, 74, 78, 88, 91, 133, 175, 197, 208-209, 216, 227228, 234-235, 237, 239-240, 277, 294, 296-297, 301, 339,

346, 419, 447, 452453, 468, 473-476, 503, 515, 527, 549 Instituto, 175, 237, 569 Instructor, 12, 296, 395, 586 Insubordination, 465 Insurgency, 449-450, 466-467 Insurgents, 401, 450, 458-459 Insurrection, 450 Integration, 104, 559, 611 Intel, 22 Intelligence, 97, 235236, 283, 289, 567, 569, 648 Intelligentsia, 8, 315, 470, 472, 545 Intensity, 150, 227 Intention, 25-26, 148, 231, 283, 304, 509, 552, 609 Interaction, 223, 225, 235, 296, 330 Interahamwe, 291 Intercession, 56 Intercontinental, 209, 313-314, 328 Intercourse, 437 Interculturalism, 93, 108, 152, 224, 237, 242, 471 Interculturele, 54, 169, 212, 224, 567 Interdependence, 509 Interhamwe, 31 Interim, 239, 320, 343 Intermedio, 241 Internationalization, 140, 225, 234, 246, 248, 258 Internet, 285, 299, 328, 343, 345, 545 Internship, 11-12, 270, 305 Interpretation, 49, 510 Intervention, 28, 31, 189, 224, 229, 272, 290291, 360, 503, 509, 514 Interventionism, 290 Interventionist, 292 Interviewers, 101, 197

Global Safari Intimidation, 521 Intrusions, 29 Invaders, 182 Investigation, 199, 284, 320, 326 Investigator, 466, 477 Investment, 7, 10, 298, 318, 331, 336, 452 Invitation, 71, 114, 189, 228, 234, 307, 323, 414, 445, 502, 521, 524-525, 527, 536, 651 Ioannem XXIII et Ioannem Paulum II, Beatos, 57 Iowan, 208 iPhone, 28 Ireland, 64, 124 Islam, 178, 405, 529, 603 Islanders, 529 Isness, 554 Israelis, 293 Istanbul, 296, 548 Istituto, 117 Istruzione, 190 Italia, 88, 104, 195, 572 Italian, xxxv-xxxvi, 46, 48, 50-56, 58, 6061, 65, 68, 71, 7374, 79-80, 86-90, 92-93, 95-97, 99102, 104, 106-108, 112-114, 117, 120122, 140-141, 146152, 163, 188-195, 197-199, 204-205, 222-223, 236, 241, 265, 271, 286-288, 314, 334, 342, 380, 496, 499-500, 545, 547, 551, 556, 559560, 562, 566-567, 571-572 Italiano, 93, 96, 104, 107, 241, 342, 471, 616, 646 Italophone, 204, 241 Italy, xxxv-xxxvii, 3, 17, 19, 46, 48, 50-51, 54, 60, 64-65, 75, 77, 87-88, 90, 9596, 99-101, 103107, 112, 114, 123,

132-133, 135, 138, 141, 146, 149-150, 159, 163, 167, 179, 188-192, 194, 197198, 204, 212-213, 238-240, 244, 256, 262, 286-287, 306, 313-314, 317, 324, 334, 340, 351, 372373, 457, 471, 500, 507, 528, 551, 554555, 557, 559-560, 563, 571, 646, 651 Itinerary, 54, 94, 213, 307, 309-311, 456, 527 Ituri, 450 Ivoire, Côte d', 89 Ivorians, 89 Ivory Coast, 26 Ivy League, 78, 88, 227, 310 Iweala, Uzodinma, 289290 Iwewe, 19, 319, 323324, 351 Iya, 10 Iyo, 96, 227, 477 -JJackson, Jesse, 512, 534 Jacques, 39, 184, 330, 424, 558, 644, 651 James, 283, 295, 555, 643, 647 Jameson, 647 Japan, 159, 527 Japon, 425 Jardin, 319, 347-348, 363-365 Javier, 64 Jazeera, al, 547 Jeanne, 322 Jeannôt, 352, 454 Jeffrey, 466 Jehovah, 178 Jenanyan, 270 Jennie, 217 Jennifer, 214-216, 218220, 248, 651 Jenny, 647 Jeremiah, Milford, 260 Jessica, 214-216, 218220

671 Jesu, 571 Jesuit, 61-63, 78, 88, 649 Jesuita, El, 649 Jeunesse, 8, 569 Jew, 289 Jiayu, 620 Jinping, 603 Joachim, 131 Joe, 328, 506, 517, 519 Johann, 563 John Paul II, Pope, xxxiv, xxxix, 50-56, 58, 60-62, 68-69, 71, 77-79, 81-84, 87-89, 105, 110, 188, 198, 227, 236, 486, 501, 507, 516, 534, 545-546, 549, 556, 569, 578, 643, 648, 651 Johnson, Ellen Sirleaf, 297; Samuel, 555, 643 Jola, 405 Jolie, Angelina, 265 Jordan, Everette, 236 José, 315, 317-320, 322, 331-333, 463 Journalist, 29, 113, 256, 470-471 Journée, 344, 413, 415, 419, 430, 569 Joy, 64, 271, 446, 493, 507, 644 Juba, 23 Jubilee, 127 Juju, 547, 647 Jules, 2, 440 Julienne, 325 Jung, 638 Jungen, 167 Jungle, 89, 284-286, 298, 476 Junglobalization, 508 Jury, 12, 183, 490-491 Justice, 21, 25, 197, 203, 230, 492-493, 496, 501, 509, 511-512, 515-516, 524, 526, 533, 560, 651 Juvarra, 171 -KKabange, 418, 450

672 Kabila, 21, 23, 29-31, 33, 38-39, 250, 318, 320-321, 327, 334, 337-338, 341-344, 346, 380, 382, 413, 418, 430, 448, 450452, 458, 466, 469, 471, 546 Kabongo, Emery, 53, 77 Kabosani, 19 Kagame, Paul, 31, 466 Kakabruk, 10 Kalala, Andy, 265 Kalamu, 316, 318, 322, 324, 361, 465 Kalawa, 51 Kalinowska, 650 Kamitatu, 8 Kampala, 23 Kananga, 21 Kansas, 64, 199, 202205, 207, 209, 211, 213-214, 216, 239, 253, 269, 314, 454, 490, 510-511, 514, 551, 557, 569 Kapanda, 75-76 Karawa, 2-3, 5-6, 46, 270, 272-273, 275, 304, 322, 334, 341, 344-347, 377, 381, 386-388, 439-442, 444, 451-454, 569 Karawans, 453 Karma, 198 Karolos, 178 Karosserie, 137 Karthala, 650 Kasahorow, 471, 643 Kasai, 21, 36 Kasavubu, 8-9, 27, 30 Kassela, 100, 138 Katanda, 646 Katanga, 11, 21, 27, 36, 321 Katharine, 492 Kathleen, 65 Katumbi, Moïse, 321 Kawaku, 284 Kayoloma, 396 Kazakhstan, 296 Kebe, 449 Keir, 289 Kembo, 321, 390

Index Kennedy, 93, 115, 548, 569 Kennedys, 115 Kenya, xxxiv, 91, 292, 295, 458, 490, 493, 501, 503, 520, 523, 551, 560 KERCUN, 354-357, 470, 569 Kerilla, Jennifer, 248 Kermesse, 354, 470, 569 Kerry, 93, 115, 236, 242, 501 Macdonald, Kevin, 293 Khalifa, 127, 576 Khan, 282 Khong, 515, 648 Khufu, 543 Kiale, 346-347, 386, 456 Kibasa, 321 Kibonge, 321 Kienzle, 241 Kigali, 23, 289 Kikongo, 28, 93, 358 Kikwete, Jakaya, 411 Kilimanjaro, xxxiv, xxxvi, 299 Kimberley Process, 292 Kimmelman, Michael, 552 Kimmerle, Heinz, 229 Kimpese, 345 Kin, 315, 317, 329, 545, 569 Kindergarten, 475 Kindle, 645 Kindu, 21 Kingdom, 21, 124, 149, 526, 572 Kingenge, 19-20 Kinois, 317, 367 Kinshasa, 7-9, 11-12, 19, 21, 29, 36-37, 39, 47, 49-50, 75, 93, 110, 250, 273, 285286, 292, 298, 311, 313-325, 327-333, 336-337, 339-341, 344-346, 348-357, 359-366, 391, 401, 403, 426, 439, 441, 443, 445-447, 449, 451, 453, 455-459, 461-469, 471, 569, 572, 595

Kisangani, 21, 36, 336, 359 Kisonga, 19 Kiswahili, 93, 244 Kivu, 21, 32, 354, 450, 466, 468 Ki-Zerbo, Joseph, 90 Kizito, 334, 338, 344, 381 Kleeman, 647 Klein, Joe, 517 Kleptocrat, 28 Klerk, F.W. de, 114 Knopf, 649 Komitet, 569 Kommission, 99, 133 Kongawi, 276, 330, 337, 345-346, 424, 454, 456, 460-463, 651 Kongo, 21 Kontos, 284, 647 Koras, 405 Korea, xxxv, 222, 242, 301, 304, 324, 475, 481, 527, 554, 573, 602, 630-631, 634635, 638 Korean, 60, 105, 569, 630, 633-635, 638642 Koreana, 635 Kotongo, 269, 273-274, 276, 334, 349-350, 372, 402, 651 Kowa, 324 Koyekola, 4 Kpala, 13 Kpalanga, 274 Kpongbo, Bokada-, 13 Kramick, 649 Kristof, Nicholas, 32 Kristu, 276 Kuku, 8, 499 Kukulcan, 240-242, 585587 Kumarian, 649 Kungu, 421 Kuwait, 548 Kwame, 36, 295-296 Kwanga, 7 Kyenge, Cécile, 104, 265, 559-560 Kyrie, 15

Global Safari -LLaboratory, 426 Lacey, Marc, 30 Lafitte, Jacques, 558 Lafleur, Laurence J., 644 Lakaabonua, 5 Lakota, 554 Lambert, Wallace E., 643 Lamentin, 589 Landmark, 162, 514, 517 Landry, R.G., 98, 647 Lange, 132 Langhorne, Richard, 647 Langue, 646 Lanham, 643 Laos, 264 Lapkin, Sharon, 97, 647 Lappe, Anthony, 647 Lateran, 65 Latino, 111, 237 Latinophone, 241 Latinos, 223, 529 Latvia, 306 Laureate, 283, 295 Lauren, Ralph, 287 Laurent, 23, 29, 38, 64, 70, 75-76, 287, 318, 546 Laval, 541 Lavoratori, 566 Lavoro, 100-102, 191, 500, 551 Lazarus, Emma, 492 Lazio, 94, 116-117, 194, 198, 499, 547 Leader, 8-9, 27, 29-30, 54, 60, 62, 64, 116, 223, 229, 235-236, 245, 265, 287, 290, 299-300, 318, 320321, 341-343, 356, 380, 434, 445, 448449, 452, 458, 465466, 472-474, 476, 511-514, 517, 526, 533, 561 Leadership, 152, 171, 225, 235, 244, 289, 292, 298, 320, 380, 400, 406, 442, 449, 502, 508, 510-511, 513, 517, 535, 618, 645

League, 78, 88, 227, 310, 321, 495, 520, 539, 559, 570 Lecturer, 196, 226, 465 Legge, 107, 191, 198, 500 Leggett, Carleen, 261 Legislation, 512, 514, 578 Legitimacy, 523 Leibniz, 195 Leki, 273 Lemkin, Raphael, 648 Lender, 291 LENOVO, 22 Leo XIII, Pope, 78 Leone, 292 Leopard, 21, 321, 348349 Léopard, 21, 321, 349 Leopold, 25-26, 28, 287, 594-595, 650 Léopold, 323, 405, 596 Leopoldville, 25, 36 Lesotho, 317 Lesson, 10, 50, 161, 310, 482-484, 555-558, 560-563, 650 Letta, Enrico, 104, 559 Leuven, 359 Levitt, Charles, 292 Lewiston, 645-646 Lexus, 55 Liaison, 91, 570 Liawe, Sarah, 651 Libala, 440 Libenge, 423 Libération, 29-30, 320, 343, 452, 566, 570 Liberation, 29, 62 Liberia, 55, 87, 105, 297, 562, 651 Liberian, 54-55, 58, 87, 105 Libertarian, 509, 513, 517 Liberté, 24, 153, 552, 560 Libongo, 270 Libota, 471 Library, 226, 524, 540, 635, 643, 647-648, 650 Libretto di Lavoro, 500, 551

673 Libya, 511 Licentia, 52-53, 68, 147 Liechtenstein, 90, 151152, 167-168, 192, 204 Lifeboat, 290 Lifespan, 583 Lighthouse, 543 Likimi, 4, 13 Likuba, 7 Lillie, 341, 380, 462463, 465 Limete, 318, 323 Limitations, 210, 216, 242, 313, 442 Lindbergh, Anne, 555, 648 Lingala, 4-7, 9-10, 1516, 32, 74, 93, 96, 194-195, 204-205, 222, 268, 274-275, 315, 317, 320, 326, 338, 355, 358, 378, 437, 456, 458, 460, 470-471, 557, 562, 571, 643, 646 Lingalophone, 562 Lingenau, 139-140, 143, 145 Lingua, xxxiv, 93, 179, 235, 242, 244, 278, 301, 456, 563 LinkedIn, 561 Linnee, 458 Lintong, 614 Liosso, 18-19 Lipanda, 33 Liptak, Adam, 512, 648 Lira, 104 Lire, 96, 104, 190 Lisala, 6-8, 75, 321, 459 Liso, 9 Litany, 56 Literacy, 4, 23, 88, 113, 178, 190, 226, 234, 240, 243, 249, 322, 345, 347, 384-385, 405, 529, 573, 584, 593, 597, 603, 630 Literate, 179, 243 Literature, 133, 178, 227, 230, 283, 494, 595 Literno, 100-101, 198 Lithuania, 306 Littérature, 647

Index

674 Litundu, 33 Liturgy, 8, 52, 68-69 Lobondo, 421 Locke, 195, 512 Lodging, 48-49, 88, 138, 213, 234, 307 Lokumu, 35 Long, Nia, 281 Longevity, 29, 460, 475476 Looter, 22, 461 Looting, 31, 456, 461, 467 Loperamide, 309 Loraine, 134 Loso, 7 Lottery, 51, 553 Lotus, 467 Louisiana, 192, 196, 524, 649 Lourdes, 149, 163-164 Louvain, 323, 359 Lovanium, 359 Loyola, 78 Lozès, Patrick, 552 Luambo, Franco, 333 Luanda, 23 Luanga, M., 411 Luba, 21 Lubukai, 75 Lubumbashi, 11, 21, 36, 273, 320-321, 359 Lucia, 3 Luciani, 51 Levy-Bruhl, Lucien, 283, 648 Luebo, 53, 75, 77 Luggage, 238-239, 310312, 314-316, 333334, 439-440, 457, 459, 461, 463-464, 468, 527, 557-558 Luhanga, 244 Luke, 53, 125-126, 128, 149, 151, 168, 526 Lumumba, Patrice, 9, 27-28, 30, 36-37, 318, 648-650 Lunda, 21 Lungotevere, 120 Lupus, 583 Lusaka, 23, 30 Lusophone, 285 Lutte, 413, 421, 423, 427, 566, 571

Lutumba, Londi, 23-24 Luxe, 339 Luxembourg, 306 Luxemburg, 566 Luxor, 543 Luxury, 15, 99, 155, 240, 313, 316, 321, 331, 340, 444, 451, 468 Luyeye, 333 Lycée, 322 Lydia, 550 Lynden, Harold d’Aspremont, 27 Johnson, Lyndon B., 507, 514, 569 -MMacdonald, Kevin, 293 Mach, Jacob Deng, 553 Machado, Antonio, 240 Machetes, 290 Machiavellian, 29 Madam, 148, 325, 547, 560 Madame, 274, 308 Madeleine, 205, 212, 214-217, 219-220, 251, 269, 454, 540, 575, 577, 587, 601 Madesu, 7, 320, 463 Madrid, 171 Madus, 239 Maes, 13 Mafia, 547 Magazin, 339, 444 Magazine, 64, 198, 265, 320, 327, 553 Magazinier, 2, 6, 46, 440, 444 Magbia, Oscar, 4 Magic, 5-6, 279, 284, 449 Magisterium, 57 Magliano dei Marsi, 140-141 Magnitude, 418, 506 Mahtani, 457 Maintenance, 99, 347, 434, 439, 442, 452 Maître, 14, 317, 319, 323, 332-333 Majesté, 24

Majority, 89, 244, 276, 343, 468, 499, 511, 516, 551 Makambo, 270, 399 Makayabo, 7 Makpanza, 396 Malaca, 175 Malaga, 175 Malaria, 3, 310, 314, 318, 335, 374, 422, 451-452, 473 Malebo, 315, 317, 545 Malia, 506 Maliba, 321 Mall, xxxv, xxxviii, 525, 532-533 Malone, David, 515, 648 Malta, 306 Malula, Cardinal Joseph 8, 250, 546 Mama, 454 Mameli, 104 Mamie, 558 Mamona, 160 Management, 209, 421, 450, 556, 579 Mañanita, 587 Manche, 162 Mandarin, 242, 603, 616, 618 Mandela, Nelson, 114, 294, 513, 556 Mandinka, 405 Manfisango, 75 Mangbau, 19 Mangbetu, 21 Manhattan, 199, 202205, 207, 209, 211, 213-214, 216, 239, 253, 269, 314, 557 Maniema, 21 Manifesto, 8 Manitese, 90, 93, 115 Mankanza, 16, 271 Manny, 548 Manovale comune, 107, 147, 191, 196, 198199, 507, 551 Manovali, 191, 198, 560 Manpower, 63 Manseau, 63 Mansion, 440 Manza, 13 Mao, Zedong, 605-606

Global Safari Map, 34, 347-348, 404, 417, 497 Marabout, 449 Maradiaga, 64 Maranello, 106 Marbella, 176-177 Marble, 29, 185 Marbres, 29 Marc, 30 Marcha, 170 Marché, 330 Marchese, Dr., 189 Marcia, 65, 191 Maréchal, 390, 445, 448, 457 Marges, 645 Mari, Arturo, 68-71 Maria, 23, 47, 60, 74, 108, 139, 143, 299 Marian, 163 Marie, 8, 64, 334, 342, 372, 454, 650 Mariner, 502, 535, 648 Marini, 58, 651 Mario, 61, 559 Markun, 643 Marlow, 548 Maroons, 546, 578 Marriage, 60-61, 63, 141, 148-149, 212, 214-217, 219, 289, 440, 473, 484-485, 488 Marseillaise, La, 153, 588 Marsi, Magliano dei, 140-141 Martinique, 222, 405, 528, 573, 588-591 Marx, 64 Marxism, 62 Mary, 23, 47, 56, 504, 546 Maryland, xxxv, 54, 152, 207-209, 211, 213, 216, 219, 222-224, 226, 241, 243-244, 246, 248, 251, 263, 269, 288, 301, 305306, 308, 318, 323, 330, 344-346, 374, 412, 492, 513, 520, 530-531, 535, 537, 539, 545, 548, 629, 643, 651

Masciantonio, R. 98, 648 Masikini, 6, 269, 272, 317-318, 333, 341, 379-380, 462-463, 465 Maskos, 334 Massachusetts, 192, 252, 301, 501, 646 Massao, 647 Matadi, 21 Matata, xxxvii, 227, 505 Mater, Alma, 78, 121, 447 Mathilde, 457 Matonge, 316-317 Matteo, 104 Matthew, 516 Matura, 57 Maurice, 123 Mauro, 16-17, 123 Mausoleum, 543, 614 Max, 192 Mayan, 584 Maybach, Wilhelm, 137 Mayne, 241 Mayor, 166, 226, 249, 251, 307, 527, 534, 552, 570, 589, 636 Mayorkas, 651 Mayunga, 341-342, 379380 Mazembe, 320-321, 572 Mazrui, Ali, 295 Mbandaka, 11, 21, 319320, 323, 332, 343 Mbanza, 13 Mbati, 46-47, 53 Mbaya, 4 Mbeki, President Thabo, 30 Mbelenga, 77 Mbembo, 310, 334-335, 372-373 Mbey, 320 Mbili, 51 Mbimba, Joseph, 18-19, 323 Mbio, Constant, 464 Mboka, 317, 557 Mboloko, Justin, 327 Mbongo, L’Or, 333 Mbonza, 13 Mbuji Mayi, 21 McAllen, 548 McGeddon, 127

675 McGuiness, B.F., 650 McIntyre, II, Sandye Jean, 223, 260-262 McKay, Claude, 512 McKnight, Reginald, 282, 648 McMechen, 247 Meacham, Jon, 545, 648 Mécanisation, 447, 455 Mechanic, 133-134, 452 Mechanism, 90, 448, 456, 561, 563 Medaglie d’Oro, Piazzale delle, 55 Medal, 261-262 Media, 191, 193, 197, 199, 203, 288-289, 293, 295, 320, 343, 422, 454, 503, 506, 522, 561 Medication, 309-310, 335, 453 Medicus Mundi, 310 MEdische, 310, 570 Meditation, 545, 608, 644, 646 Mediterranean, 175, 239 Meenie, 51 Megalomania, 448 Meister, 240 Mellen, Edwin 210, 221, 645-646 Membership, 60, 224, 233, 236, 243, 497, 499, 563 Memento, 52 Memisa, 310, 334, 338, 344, 346-347, 370, 372-373, 384-385, 463, 570 Memling, 328-329 Memorandum, 27, 210211, 226, 244, 247, 258, 521, 533, 570, 645 Mendez, 241 Meningitis, 309 Mensa, 96, 560 Mentality, 283, 463, 648 Mercedes, 55, 99-101, 137, 316, 524 Merci, 227, 308 Mercy, 56, 215, 218, 273 Merit, 489, 510 Merkel, Angela, 131

676 Mermaid, 176 Merriam, 555 Merrill, Bobbs-, 644, 647 Messager, 91 Messaggero, Il, 55 Messiah, 8, 28 Method, 49, 51, 168, 310, 315, 329, 459, 475, 557, 643-644 Methodist, 208-209, 297, 597 Methodology, 396, 473475 Mettlach, 96, 99, 133135 Mexicano, 584 Mexicanos, 584 México, 241, 584 Mexico, xxxv, 230, 237238, 241, 480-481, 519, 548, 573, 584587, 627, 651 Miano, Leonora, 552 Michel, Thierry, 28, 648; Paul, 312 Micheline, 460, 462, 465 Michelle, Marie, 342, 506, 524, 537, 540 Michelli, Andrea, 98 Microcosm, 225 Microphone, 420, 590 Microsoft, 22, 570 Midwest, 203 Migrants, 549 Milan, 90, 93, 115, 149, 281 Milestone, 493-494, 501 Milimo, 451 Milingo, Archbishop, 60, 105 Militia, 31, 290-291, 458 Millennials, 506 Millennium, 3, 32, 224, 233, 243, 256, 276, 298, 402, 473, 526, 533, 570 Minagende, 13 Mindfulness, 609 Mineola, 648 Miney, 51 Ming, 616, 620 Ministère, 425 Ministero, 191 Ministri, 104, 117

Index Ministry, 89, 107, 189191, 194, 208, 326, 421, 423, 447 Minneapolis, 233 Minnesota, 193, 233 Minori, 117, 547 Minority, 178, 209, 226, 243-245, 282, 285286, 503, 507, 512, 551 Miracles, 465 Miramar, 453 Misappropriation, 569 Miseducation, 294 Misericordia, 56 Misfortune, 5, 239, 460, 508 Misinformation, 288, 294 Misinterpretation, 288 Mismanagement, 442, 468 Misogyny, 290 MISsie, 310, 570 Mission, 4, 25-27, 30-31, 43, 100, 152, 172174, 176, 188, 208209, 225, 233-234, 236-238, 241, 276, 287, 291, 295, 330, 334, 336, 345, 415, 461-462, 527, 546, 566, 570, 572, 651 Missionary, 14, 47, 73, 100, 112, 146, 272, 276, 286, 288, 334, 337-338, 342, 379382, 441, 443 Missionhurst, 14 Missouri, 486 Mitakuye oyasin, 554 Mitsein, 92, 223, 646 Mitterahamwe, 291 Mitterrand, François, 291 Miyoshi, 647 Mobutistes, 319, 572 Mobutu, 6, 8-10, 21-23, 28-29, 33, 36, 38, 77, 206, 250, 271, 274, 292, 317, 325, 328, 341, 349, 359, 382, 434, 445, 448449, 454, 472, 499, 546-547, 644, 648

Mobutuism, 8 Mobutuist, 28 Modernity, 322 Modernization, 471, 473, 475 Modestly, 213 Moduku, 5-6 Mogobo, 19, 75 Mohammed, 87, 651 Moïse, 27, 321 Moix, 647 Mokako, 9 Mokambi, 276 Mokaria, 2 Moke, 274, 276, 334, 375, 399, 423, 441442, 444-445, 453, 459, 651 Mokili, 352 Mokubo, 8-9 Mole, 110 Molongo, 6 Mombole, 6 Monarchy, 159 Monastery, 162, 313 Moncloa, 172, 238-239 Monde, xxxiv, 46-47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 165, 264, 305, 425, 522 Mondialisation, 224, 590, 595, 645-647 Mondjombo, 13 Mondo, 198 Mondula, Léon, 19, Mongala, 6, 318, 321, 341, 567 MONGBELENGA, 421 Mongo, 21 Mongolia, 620 Monk, 205, 313, 608 Monogyny, 301, 646 Monolingualism, 152, 235 Monopoly, 556 Monrovia, 297 Monsengwo, Card. Laurent, 64, 70, 250 Monster, 293, 405, 597 Mont, Saint Michel, xxxiv, 155, 162; Fleuri, 330 Montebello, 581

Global Safari Montes, 242 Monti Parioli, 103, 118 Montpellier, 312-313 Montreal, 233 Monument, 36-37, 154, 157, 171, 287, 318, 371, 554 Monzaya, 450, 467 Mooni, 105 Moonie, 60 Moord, 650 Morality, 463, 646 Morel, 275 Morelos, 586 Moreover, xxxv-xxxvi, 4, 6, 26, 50, 54, 5859, 63-64, 91, 102, 121, 149, 152, 205, 209, 212-213, 222, 224, 236, 238-239, 270, 273-274, 276, 280, 298, 301, 304, 315, 319, 418, 436, 445, 453-454, 473, 487, 491, 498, 502, 520, 528, 554 Morin, 548 Mormonism, 519 Morocco, 29, 547 Mortality, 3, 51, 331, 473 Moscow, 296 Motherland, 301 Motorcycle, 337, 340, 346, 378, 403, 440441, 444, 452-453, 456-457, 460 Motorcyclist, 339, 455, 457, 459, 468 Motorola, 22, 323 Motto, 16, 21, 78, 80, 153, 178, 184, 222, 243, 359, 415, 431, 472, 519, 523, 526, 529, 533 Mountain, 227, 620, 637 Mouvement, 8-9, 27-28, 30, 36, 318, 320, 343, 452, 499, 569570 Movement, xxxvii, 9, 60, 62, 112, 150, 292, 298, 405-406, 450, 452, 466, 501, 504, 511-512, 526, 532-

534, 546, 550, 552, 559, 561, 570, 589, 618 Movie, 277, 281, 418, 460 Movoto, 328, 413-414, 420, 422, 434-435 Mpasi, 23-24 Mpengo, 320 Mpondu, 7, 35 Mubaarak, 522 Mudimbe, V.Y., 223, 227-230, 295, 562, 651 Mugabe, Robert, 292 Mukanyimi, 75 Mukwege, Denis, 32 Multiculturalism, 193, 223, 242, 296, 313, 471 Multilateralism, 515 Multilingual, 50, 56, 92, 95, 222, 235-237, 240-241, 471, 562, 620 Multilingualism, 95-97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 113, 115, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125, 127, 129, 131, 133, 135, 137, 152, 179, 236-238, 471-472, 562 Multiparty system, 30 Mulupwe, 10 Municipality, 616 Murdock, Rupert, 522 Murphy, 281 Murungi, John, 227 Musaragno, Remigio, 88, 108, 118, 138, 189190, 194-195 Museum, 159, 181-183, 185, 606, 616 Museveni, Yoweri, 31 Mussolini, Benito, 287 Mutilation, 25, 568 Mutiny, 27 Mutombo, Dikembe, 298 Mycenaean, 182 Mystery, 147 Mysticism, 239 Myth, 277, 299, 471, 523 Mythology, 122, 240 Myung, 60

677 -NNAFSA, 152, 224, 226, 233, 236, 243, 245246, 248, 296, 453, 527, 570 NAFSAns, 233 NAFTA, 238, 570 Nairobi, 91, 457-458 Namibia, 30 Namsangol, xxxv, 554, 638-639 Naples, 90 Napoleon, 156 Napolitano, Giorgio, 104 Natalia, 139 Nationalism, 64, 508, 511 Nationalist, xxxvii, 36, 318 Nationality, 50, 191, 223, 308, 480, 498, 533, 549 Nato, Benny, 114 Naturalization, 197, 203, 212, 479-489, 491, 493-499, 509, 513, 527-528, 530-531, 569, 650 Naturalized, 489, 494, 500, 503, 514, 518520, 533, 542, 550, 553, 555, 651 Nazi, 193, 289 Ndangi, 271 Ndatala, 270 Ndaye, Mutumbula, 321 Ndjili, 47, 315, 333, 463, 465 Ndombasi, Abdoulaye Yerodia, 30 Ndumba, Fr. Georges, 323, 351 Necessity, xxxvi, 235, 317-318, 329, 339, 419, 561 Negativities, 277, 294 Neger, 279 Negotiation, 30, 208, 241, 476, 511 Nègre, 279-280, 283 Negress, 280 Negrillo, 280 Negritic, 279 Negrito, 280

678 Négritude, 590, 646 Negritude, 222, 224, 230, 242, 279, 295, 405, 511-512, 526, 533, 561, 589-590, 610, 632, 645-646 Négro, 647 Negro, xxxvii, 102, 279280, 283, 297, 301, 546, 572, 578 Negroid, 279 Negrophobia, 280, 282, 301, 519 Negrophobic, 282-283, 295 Neighborhood, xxxvi, 9, 98, 318, 337, 361, 440, 443, 550, 638 Nemici, 198 Nendaka, Victor, 8 Neocolonialism, 292 Neologism, 225, 545 Nephew, 270, 273, 325, 331, 334, 337, 339, 362, 375, 399, 415, 440-442, 444, 453, 459, 651 Nepotism, 449, 547 Netherlands, 54, 167, 169, 212-213, 222, 224, 306, 313, 330, 444, 566 Netizenship, 545, 561, 563, 649 Ngamo, 322 Ngandayala, 318-319, 365 Ngandu, 449, 648 Ngbaka, 4-5, 10, 13-15, 46-47, 51, 204-205, 272, 274, 321-322, 325, 338, 349, 396397, 448, 456, 470, 521, 546, 562, 651 Ngbako, 322, 345, 397398, 441 Ngbandi, 10, 448, 547 Ngbanza, 458 Ngbendu, Kuku, 8, 499 Ngemba, 438 Ngoma, Arthur Z’ahidi, 30 Ngombe, 13 Ngowi, Rodrique, 457 Nguaka, 13

Index Nguasuma, 460 Ngudinga, 398 Nguza, Karl-I-Bond, 546 Ngwaka, 13 Niagara, 577 Nicomachean Ethics, 138 Niento, Enrique Peña, 584 Niger, 13, 279 Nigeria, 105, 160, 167, 285, 295, 320, 596 Nigerian, 102, 105, 114, 285, 562 Niggah, 280 Nigger, 280, 290 Nightmare, 238, 465466, 468, 548-549, 602 Nightshade, 275 Nihao, 472, 605, 618 NIKON, 22 Ningxia, 620 NINTENDO, 22 Niobium, 22 Nisbet, N.B., 647 Nkashama, Ngandu, 449, 648 Nkere, Ntanda, 318, 325, 350 Nkoko, 458 Nkrumah, Kwame, 36, 296 Noah, Timothy, 550, 553, 648 Nobel, 32, 114, 283, 295, 550 Nokia, 22, 323 Noko, 274, 338 Nomber, xxxix Nomen, 46-47 Nomination, 501, 535, 551 Nominee, 518, 525 Nonimmigrant, 190, 203, 500, 502, 508 Normandy, xxxiv, 155, 161-162, 526 Norway, 306 Nothingness, 649 Notification, 48-49, 230231, 482, 487, 508509 Nova, 574 Novice, 147

Novotel, 406 Nsele, 318, 365 Ntaba, 10 Ntanda, 318-319, 325, 327-328, 350, 365 Nusinov, 261 Nwaereka, Romanus, 105 Nwengo, 448 Nyamale, 336, 440 Nyamowala, 310, 334338, 344-346, 372373, 376, 384, 463 Nyanzeko, 421 Nyomo, 9 Nyssen, Wilhelm, 138, 194 Nzabele, 51 Nzadi, 28 Nzanga, 325 Nzange, 13 Nzapa, 10 Nzege, Pierre, 341, 382 Nzinga Kuwu, 21 Nzongola, Ntalaja, 36, 648 Nzumbu, Lo-Ambetima, 16-17, 19, 75, 110, 123 Nzuzi, 75 -OOakley, John, 578 Oath, 24, 481, 486-489, 491-495, 513, 530531, 547 Obama, 64-65, 150, 179, 223, 292, 300, 317, 319, 333, 367, 489490, 493-494, 499, 501-513, 515-526, 529, 532-533, 535540, 542, 545, 549, 551-552, 554, 556, 559-561, 632, 645, 651 Obamabilia, 333, 502 Obamacare, 516-517 Obamaphiles, 505, 535, 537 Obamaphilia, 511 Obamaphobia, 510 Obamarama, 517

Global Safari Obamænon, 224, 232, 320, 324, 459, 502503, 505, 516, 523, 535, 538, 645 Obelisk, 287 Obenga, Theophile, 295 OBiden, 524 Obituary, 454, 523 Obligation, 102, 493, 510 Obstacles, 32, 227, 517 Obstructionism, 510 Occupation, 98, 197, 243, 291, 468 Oceania, 280 Odeon, 181 Odette, 160 Oenology, 165 Officer, 27, 55, 58, 90, 135, 140, 212, 234, 248, 290, 307-308, 315-316, 333, 450, 463, 465, 486, 489, 491, 493, 499, 512, 528, 530-531, 567568, 619-620, 641 Ofori-Ansa, Kwaku, 284, 648 Ogletree, Charles, 538 Okapi, 339, 343, 461, 467 Okonedo, 289 Okra, 275 Olodumare, 474 Olson, C., 225, 647 Olympia, 543 Olympiad, 184 Olympic, 178, 184-185, 304, 527, 622-624, 626-628 O’Malley, Martin, 64, 249, 251 Omega, 581-583 Omen, 46-47 Omnipotence, 448 Onombili, 441 Opération, 28, 31, 291, 570 Ophthalmologist, 104 Opportunità, 117 Opposants, 546 Opposition, 11, 62, 515, 546 Ordination, 19, 53, 59, 63, 77

Organisation, 30-31, 570, 572 Organization, xxxvi, 9, 31, 53, 60, 71, 88, 91, 94, 101, 113, 151-152, 188, 194, 224, 226, 233, 250, 264, 272, 276, 294, 297-298, 301, 310, 352, 413, 415-416, 439, 467, 488, 509510, 547, 552, 566, 568, 570, 572 Organizzazione, 121, 188, 571 Orient, 555, 648 Orientation, 4, 195, 443, 559, 567 Origin, 49, 61, 189, 191, 223, 284, 288, 292, 472, 559, 650 Orlando, xxxv, 212-213 Orpheline, 312 Orthodox, 178, 182 Osawatomie, 64, 510511 Osservatore Romano, L’, 51, 55, 68-71, 7980, 651 Österreich, 142 Osun, 474-475 Oughtness, 554 Outcast, 198 Outcome, 320, 453, 519, 549, 551-552 Outrage, 61, 329 Outreach, 225-226, 249, 346 Oye, 9, 438 Oyebi Lingala? 96 -PPackard, 569 Padlock, 636 Padre, 56, 288, 342 Paella, 175 Paellera, 175 Paese, xxxvi, 62, 198 Paine, 554 Paix, 21, 23-25, 89, 354 Pajamas, 336, 391, 446 Palace, xxxv, 29, 121, 127, 155, 158-159, 171, 317, 584, 616

679 Palacio, 171, 584 Palais, 29, 317 Palazzetto, 121 Palazzo, 121, 197-198 Palgrave, 646-647 Paliwala, Abdul, 545, 649 Palm, 147, 335-336, 392, 396, 398, 447 Panafricanisme, 590, 646 Panama, 111 Panasonic, 22 Panathenaic, 184 Pandemic, 288, 418-419, 422, 424, 438, 508 Pantheon, 644 Panzi, 32 Paola, 373 Paolo, Giovanni, 58 Papa, 47, 273, 328, 413414, 420, 422, 434435 Papacy, 80 Papamobile, 55, 86 Paparazzi, 85, 413 Papoulias, 178 Papy, 334, 339-340 Parade, 226, 525 Paradigms, 92 Parere, Renato, 140-141 Pari, 90-91, 94, 117, 140, 153-157, 159, 264, 281, 305, 307, 552, 644, 646-650 Parish, 4, 11-12, 14, 18, 47, 138, 140, 269, 271, 276, 325, 331, 338-339, 341-345, 347, 413, 439, 441444, 594 Parliament, 8, 191, 292, 299, 317, 320, 332, 341, 380, 419, 513, 575, 589 Parliamentarian, 419, 559-560 Parole, 91-92 Parousia, 414, 438 Parsons, 310 Parthenon, xxxiv, 178, 182 Parti, 28, 30, 320, 571 Participation, 93-94, 224, 241, 243, 254, 296,

680 425-426, 436, 489, 493, 502, 512, 562 Partnership, xxxvi, 3, 240, 258, 276, 296298, 300, 472-473, 527, 569-570 Pasadena, 341 Pascal, 53 Pasika, 3, 53, 445 Pasqua, 56 Passage, xxxiv, xxxvi, xxxviii, 408, 445, 489, 545-547, 549 Passard, Hervé, 158, 160 Passenger, 315, 333, 439-442, 452, 459460, 464-465 PASSERA, 423 Passport, 119, 189-190, 212, 225, 306-310, 313-314, 336, 344, 374, 377, 485-486, 491, 495-498, 520, 526-528, 556-557, 563, 598 Pastor, 19, 341, 344, 380, 423, 534, 578 Paten, 59 Pater Noster, 6, 23, 74 Paternalism, 292 Patricia, 587, 643-644 Patrimonio, 171 Patriotism, 32, 449, 494, 500, 504, 508 Patriots, 496, 524 Patron, 121 Paul, Kegan, 650 Paule, 282 Peacekeepers, 465-466 Peacekeeping, 3, 30, 291 Pearson, 289 PEASIT, 415, 421, 423, 571 Peck, Raoul, 649 Peisistratus, 182-183, 185 Pélagie, 330-331, 361362 Pelé, 321 Pelisa Nguasuma, 460 Pell, 64 Pellet, 130 Pelo malo, 282 Pemba, xxxvii, 410 Penh, 547

Index Pennsylvania, 233, 306, 512 Pensée, 52, 68, 147, 590591, 646 Pentarchy, 30 Pentecostal, 597 Penze, 317, 381 Percenters, 510 Perception, 101, 425, 504 Percorso, 117, 547 Performance, 4-5, 98, 321, 383, 418, 447, 474, 476 Perfume, 147, 339 Pericles, 182 Permesso di Soggiorno, 189, 500 Permethrin, 309 Perpignan, 645 Persecution, 490, 546 Persian, xxxvii, 182, 548 Personne, 52, 68, 147, 421, 424-425, 566, 571-572 Perspective, 59, 91, 93, 100, 141, 193, 210, 229, 265, 278, 301, 517, 648 Perspiration, 553-554 Pertini, Sandro, 113 Perugia, 90 Pesos, 584 Peter, xxxiv, 26, 50-56, 58, 63, 67-68, 7173, 79, 81-86, 8889, 113, 198, 643, 647, 649 Petrie, Flinders, 283 Peuple, 23-24, 30, 317, 320, 571 Pew, 515 Phaedo, 168 Pharaoh, 543 Pharmacology, 334 Phenom, 223, 503, 535 Phenomenon, xxxvi, 3, 10, 31-32, 56, 94, 104, 147, 199, 278, 282, 293, 296-297, 301, 333, 340, 367, 418, 501, 516, 523, 548, 552, 558 Philanthropist, 511 Philanthropy, 227

Philippines, 103, 280, 560 Philippino, 104 Philips, 22 Philosopher, 147, 167, 178, 180, 195, 208, 241, 283, 294, 554, 562-563, 632 Philosophia, 510 Philosophicum, 11, 19 Philosophie, 92, 568, 646-647 Philosophie Bantoue, La, 649 Philosophy, 11-12, 19, 49, 52-53, 75, 78, 88, 92, 133, 150151, 167-168, 178179, 181, 192-197, 202-204, 207, 221225, 227-233, 253, 283, 290-291, 301, 304, 319, 323-325, 351, 373, 505, 509, 527, 551, 554, 562, 571-572, 602, 610, 615, 632, 644-647, 649 Phnom, 547 Phoenix, 548 Physician, 425, 441, 452-453 Pianigiani, 64 Piazza, 56, 66, 78, 88, 121 Piazzale, 55 Picauville, 155, 526 PIER, 224, 254, 295296, 571 Pierre, 23-24, 30, 39, 52, 139, 149, 163-164, 272, 320, 325, 331, 339, 341, 349, 452, 590, 651 Pierrot, 321, 325 Pierson, 280 Pietro, 56, 121 Pigment, 279 Pigmentation, 279 Pilgrim, 51, 149, 163 Pilgrimage, xxxiv, 46-47, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77,

Global Safari 79, 81, 83, 85, 87, 163 Pillards, 22 Pillars, 185 Pills, 374, 376 Pilotta, Piazza della, 78 Pilsner, 342 Pina, 146, 149-150 Pincez, 405 Ping, 603 Piramide, xxxv, 585 Pittsburgh, 239 Pius, 3, 53, 65, 78, 445 Planet, 236, 424 Planeta, 649 Plantation, 2, 275, 331, 440-441, 451, 546 Plasma, 22 Plato, 168 Playwright, xxxix, 555 Plaza, 487 Pledge, 491-493, 547 PLUCKY, 622 Poet, xxxvi, 183, 492, 589 Poitier, Sidney, 104, 280, 501, 649 Poland, 51, 64, 68, 306 Políglotas, 571 Politesse, 558 Politician, 382, 449, 510, 560, 589 Polizei, 135 Pollution, 289 Polygamists, 474 Polygamy, 293, 445, 488 Polyglot, 113, 152, 179, 226, 237, 241, 245, 471, 496, 562, 571 Polyglottes, 571 Polygyny, 301, 646 Polyphone, 562 Pommery, 165, 313 Pompidou, Georges, 157 Ponctualité, 558 Pong, 603 Pont, 157 Ponte, 88, 120 Pontifex, 62-63 Pontiff, xxxiv, 51-52, 54, 58, 61-62, 64, 68, 86, 198 Pontificate, 65

Pontificia, xxxiv, 48, 74, 78, 80, 88, 571, 595, 646 Pontificio, 48, 66, 73, 652 Popemobile, 55, 58, 86 Porta Portese, 102, 286 Portland, 645 Portugal, 46, 238, 306, 571 Portuguese, 2, 6, 28, 46, 50, 74, 83, 92-93, 278-279, 339, 366, 440, 444 Poseidon, 185 Postérité, 24 Posterity, 496 Postulators, 56 Potentiel, 449-451 Poto, 46 Poverty, xxxvi, 3, 272, 298, 343, 455, 473, 515, 560 Povoledo, 559 Power, Jonathan, 291, 649 Pragmatism, 63, 561 Prayer, 6-7, 15-16, 52, 56-58, 74, 443 Precursor, 26, 104 Predecessor, 54, 250, 523 Predicament, 5, 39, 50, 100, 197, 232, 276, 289, 403, 423, 447, 456, 463, 466, 472, 547, 552, 559 Prefect, 48, 56, 109 Prejudice, 100, 215 Prelate, 8, 60-62, 70, 82 Première, 5-6, 275 Preparation, 12, 18, 56, 93, 175, 285, 302, 338, 380 Preparedness, 556 Presence, 148, 239, 250, 326, 338, 344, 380, 421-422, 458, 524, 619 Présence, 644, 646, 649 Presentation, 222-224, 324, 558, 610 Préservatif, 413 Preservation, 182

681 Presidency, 150, 243, 419, 501-502, 507, 515, 517-518, 523, 551, 562 Presidente, 104, 198 Presidenza, 117 Preston, Julia, 549 Pretension, 62 Prevention, 374, 415417, 419 Previdenza, 191 Pride, 2, 288, 296, 555 Priest, 4, 9, 12, 19-20, 27, 48, 54, 59-64, 66, 68, 70, 73, 75, 82, 96, 138, 140, 146, 155, 183, 269, 271, 288, 325, 331, 338, 343-345, 349, 442-444 Priesthood, 7, 11, 50, 59, 62-64, 139 Primavera, 586 Prince, 167, 492 Princeton, 295 Principality, 167-168 Principium, 509-510 Principle, 16, 178, 229, 298, 417, 463, 475, 493, 495, 509-510 Priority, 243, 291, 296, 325 Priory, 53, 125-126, 128, 149, 151, 168, 526 Privacy, 39, 146 Problemi, 90 Procession, 122 Proclamation, 5, 64, 226, 282, 517 Procrastination, 303 Procure, 59 Production, 240, 301, 313, 548 Productivity, 440 Profession, 151, 276, 287, 312, 442, 561 Professor, 12, 19, 50, 78, 90, 92, 138-140, 151, 195-196, 202205, 207, 210-212, 221-223, 227-233, 246, 258, 261, 271272, 294-295, 323, 326-327, 341, 351, 382, 455, 465, 471,

Index

682 473, 505, 538, 551, 562, 596, 607, 615 Professorship, 222, 230 Proficiency, 140, 235, 240, 245, 607 Profile, 56, 209, 265 Progressio, 297 Proliferation, 447, 518 Prominence, 26 Promoteca, 117 Promotion, 53, 221-222, 227-228, 230-233, 384, 552, 561, 567 Promulgation, 415 Propaganda, 48, 59, 66, 73, 279, 295 Propagation, 422, 424 Prophecy, 291 Prophylactics, 413 Proposal, 90, 320, 324 Propylaea, 186 Prosperity, 304, 508 Prostate, 29 Prostitution, 11, 317, 488, 547 Protagonist, 289 Protección, 497 Protectress, 182 Protestant, 338, 342, 345, 519, 529, 572573, 584, 593 Protestantism, 178 Protezione, 117, 547 Prouerbes, xxxix Proverb, 6, 46, 89, 94, 472, 557 Province, xxxiv, 2, 6-7, 10-11, 13, 21, 25, 27, 36, 39, 48, 53, 93, 100, 110, 317, 319-322, 326, 332, 334, 341, 343, 345, 354-356, 366, 382, 416, 421, 423, 439, 449-451, 454, 456, 459, 466, 468, 470, 472, 488, 526, 574, 605-606, 614, 651 Provincialism, 449, 547 Provision, 550 Provost, 202, 222, 231 Proximity, xxxvi-xxxvii, 6, 11, 37, 72, 74, 208, 237, 304, 313, 328, 339, 365, 581

Prunier, 291, 649 Psychosis, 421 Publication, 88, 140, 193, 199, 213, 221222, 224, 228, 232, 254, 304, 319, 324, 342, 459, 473, 495, 502-503, 521, 523, 539, 545, 551, 571, 620, 648 Publius, 232, 555 Puede, Si, Se, 227, 554 Puente, 550 Puglia, 141 Pullman, 313 Punctuality, 4, 558 Pundits, 523 Pupil, xxxvii, 3-4, 6, 1415, 401-402, 413, 440, 443, 455, 458 Purity, 295 Pursuit, xxxviii, 281, 300, 491, 508, 510, 517, 525, 533, 548, 552, 554, 560 Putu, 46-47, 53 Pygmy, 280, 285-286 Pyramid, xxxv, 543, 585 Pyrénées, 163 Pythagoras, 178 -QQaeda, al, 235, 528 Qatar, 548 Qin, 603, 614, 620 Qing, 616 Qualification, 107, 191192, 198, 211, 518, 551 Québec, 205, 269, 541, 574, 581-583 Quest, xxxiv Questura, 189-190, 500 Quietism, 62 Quincy, 280-281, 299 Quirinnale, 113, 198 Quixote, Don, 240 -RRabat, 29 Rabbi, 63 Racism, xxxvi, 101, 104, 112, 114, 116, 146-

147, 280-283, 290, 300-301, 504, 508, 559-560 Racist, xxxv, 216, 280, 282, 290, 517-518, 559-560 Radicalism, 518 Rafferty, 97-98, 649 Rahman, 522 Railways, xxxix Rainbow, 147 Rainforest, 285 Raison, 283, 507 Rajaee, 649 Rally, 30, 502, 505, 513, 525, 535 Ramparts, 182, 492 Rapids, 204, 208 Rassemblement, 571 Rastafarianism, 529 Ratcliffe, 555 Rationality, 289, 295 Raton, 519 Ratzinger, Card., 54 Réalité, 470 Reality, xxxvi, 10, 94, 99, 146, 171, 198199, 241, 243, 276, 278, 285, 288, 290, 293, 296, 300, 308, 311, 415, 418, 505, 525, 551, 559 Realization, 286, 444, 472, 504, 532 Rebel, 31, 39, 290, 320, 338, 403, 432, 448, 452, 456-459, 461, 464, 466, 468 Rebellion, 3, 29, 448, 466, 468 Reccomendation, 651 Reception, xxxv, 53, 77, 174, 188, 197-198, 214, 241, 247, 259, 337, 340, 414, 438, 601, 607 Receptivity, 295 Recession, 511 Recherches, 590-591, 646 Recipe, 175, 511 Recipient, 90, 245, 260261 Reciprocity, 308, 557

Global Safari Recognition, 89, 232, 235 Recommendation, 29, 96, 189, 194-195, 211, 221-223, 227228, 230-231, 310, 455, 651 Reconciliation, 60 Reconstruction, 30, 320, 468, 471, 473, 475, 571 Recorder, xxxviii Recovery, 425, 510 Recruitment, 211, 467 Rector, 9-12, 18-19, 49, 52, 59, 96, 139, 323, 652 Rediscovery, 224 Reductionism, 300 Reenactments, 122 Reform, 26, 59, 61, 6364, 193, 400, 467, 469, 508, 517, 549, 650 Refugee, 31, 189, 226, 289, 291-292, 423, 467-468, 546, 548, 572, 578 Regalia, 294 Régie, 339 Regilla, 181 Regime, 8-10, 28, 114, 250, 289, 291, 341, 382, 448-449, 499, 511, 546 Régime, 9, 317 Regimen, 426 Regina, 74 Régine, 318 Regione, 94, 116-117, 194, 547 Registration, 191, 307, 481, 483, 485-486, 513-514, 520 Rehearsal, 11, 150, 152, 302, 413, 555 Reiley, Charles, 635 Reims, 165, 313 Reinforcement, 344, 432, 450 Reingresso, 189 Reinhard, 64 Reinvestment, 510

Rejection, xxxv, 64, 232, 280, 301, 504, 510, 518, 646 Relationship, 11, 36, 100, 140-141, 146150, 163, 190, 197, 215-217, 292, 298, 417, 560 Relativism, 168 Relevance, 32, 91, 199, 472 Relic, 58, 281 Relief, 465, 514, 549, 568 Relocation, 203 Remedy, 284 Remittances, 95, 213, 298, 334, 346, 446, 452, 455, 553 Remus, 119 Renaissance, 281, 300, 512, 526, 533 Renault, 99, 102, 135 Renegociaciones, 645 Renegotiations, 645 Renewal, 205, 500 Renovations, 333 Renzi, 104 Repacking, 461 Repatriation, 307, 467 Repellent, 309-310, 314 Repercussions, 277 Repertories, 91 Replacement, 442 Representation, 27, 410 Reproduction, 268, 276 République, 2, 8, 13, 2931, 405, 467, 567568, 570 Reputation, 229, 579 Reservation, 63, 307, 329, 459, 462, 493, 602 Residence, 48, 103, 171, 182, 188, 211, 299, 306, 316, 318, 330, 334, 336-338, 341342, 345, 373, 380381, 413, 439-440, 446, 460-462, 480481, 484-485, 549 Residency, 73, 210-211, 347 Resignation, 61, 63 Resistance, 465

683 Responsabilité, 650 Response, 56, 92, 148, 196, 231, 247, 270, 272, 288, 305, 417, 505, 520, 644, 647 Responsibility, 52, 194, 230, 273, 290, 423, 443, 473, 491, 493495, 509, 549, 650 Restaurant, 155, 174, 218, 299, 363, 366, 414, 438, 496, 576, 587, 635 Restrictions, 55, 103, 206, 314, 337, 512, 546 Resurrection, 465 Retention, 5 Rethinking, 632, 645 Retirement, 402, 440 Retour, xxxvi, 408, 445, 592, 644 Retreats, 30 Retrospect, 235 Reunion, 212, 336, 339, 445, 464, 590, 595 Reuters, 98, 457-458 Rêve, 470 Revelations, 302, 475 Revenue, 484-485, 569 Révolution, 8-9, 28, 499, 569-570 Revolution, 33, 159 Révolutionnaire, 571 Rhein, 97, 132, 167 Rheumatism, 3 Rhine, 167 Rhodes, 543 Richard, 283, 317, 548, 643, 647-648 Richter, 236 Rifle, 439 Rigini, 322 Risotto, 561 Rispecto, 550 Rite, 8, 54, 56, 489 Ritual, 391, 615 Rival, 31 Rivalry, 450 Riviera, 29 Robin, 203 Rockets, 22, 492 Rockley, 594 Rodrigo, 140 Rodrigues, 64

684 Rodriguez, 651 Roger, 6, 26, 269, 318, 341, 379, 462 Rogge, 184 Roi, 28, 159, 321, 558, 648 Roja, 172 Roma, 47, 54, 60, 151, 189-190, 192, 500, 560, 562, 646 Romans, 329, 563 Romney, Mitt, 510, 512, 518-519, 522-523 Romulus, 119 Ron, 270, 517 Rossi, Card. Agnelo, 48, 109 Rotman, 98 Roundabout, 387 Roundfire, 650 Routledge, 650 Roux, 160 Rover, xxxvi, 47, 334, 458 Royalties, 213 Royer, xxxvii Rubber, 26, 548, 643 Rubens, 649 Ruberwa, Azarias, 30 Rubin, 62, 649 Rubric, 265 Rusesabagina, 289 Russia, 94, 603, 632 Russian, xxxv Rwanda, 22-23, 29-31, 277-278, 289-293, 301, 466, 572, 649 Rwandan, 30-31, 289291, 466, 571 Ryan, Paul, 519 -SSabbatical, 203, 228, 242, 304, 322, 325, 335, 459 Sabina, 123 Saboko, 441 Sack, Kevin, 553 Safari, xxxiv-xxxix, 47, 58, 150, 188-189, 191, 193, 195, 197, 199, 201, 227, 245, 270, 297, 497, 507, 545, 547, 549, 551,

Index 553-557, 559, 561563, 567, 569, 571, 575, 577, 579-583, 585, 587, 589, 591, 593, 595, 597, 599, 601, 603, 605, 607, 609, 611, 613, 615, 617, 619, 621, 623, 625, 627, 629, 631, 633, 635, 637, 639, 641, 645, 647, 649 Safarians, 555 Safety, 235, 452 Saga, 287 Sahara, 580 Saharan, 92-93, 276, 283, 298, 321, 326, 436, 646 Saint, xxxiv, 54-58, 121, 155, 162-163, 214 Saint Laurent, Yves, 287 Sakombi, Inongo, Dominique, 449, 648 Salaam, Dar es, xxxvi, 23, 54, 213, 218, 226, 243-245, 252, 257, 297, 299, 411, 572 Salary, 196, 202, 206208, 211, 274-275, 322, 325, 440, 455, 473 Salesman, 46, 440, 444 Salespersons, xxxv Sall, Macky, 405 Salon, 281, 325, 331 Salongo, 442 Salvation, 449 Salve Regina, 74 Samaritanism, 289, 301 Sambe, 488, 495, 530531 Samsung, 22 Jackson, Samuel, 280281 Sanatoria, 198 Sanctuary, 182, 185, 407 SANDISK, 22 Sango, Nabina, 330, 356, 366 Sanguma, Mossai, 341, 344, 380 Sankofa, 284, 648

Santé, 413, 423, 431, 566 Santeria, 529 Santorum, Rick, 515-516 Saolona, 269, 305, 440, 452, 454 Sarbanes, 537 Sardines, 2, 462 Sardinia, 75 Sartre, Jean-Paul, 507, 649 Sash, 260-261 Sasha, 506 Saskatchewan, 574 Saskia, 649 Satellites, 22 Satin, 261 Satire, 26, 279 Saudi, 513 Savage, 25, 283-284, 286, 289, 508, 513 Savannah, 446 Savoir, 424 Savvy, 506, 545 Scams, 285 Scandal, 22, 60, 62, 468, 476 Scandinavian, 235, 646 Scene, 62, 327 Schaan, 167 Schengen, 304-309, 311, 313, 527, 557 Scheut, 14, 16 Schiavitù, 117, 547 Schmall, 62 Schmidt, 296 Schnapps, 132 Scholar, 13, 97, 192, 196, 223, 227-228, 236, 242, 282-283, 294-297, 467, 551552, 569, 595 Scholarship, xxxiv, 12, 48-49, 53, 90, 9697, 101, 138, 223224, 226, 230, 241, 245, 270-271, 277278, 282, 295, 301, 322, 331, 473, 560 Scholte, Jan, 649 Schön, Danke, 140, 227 Schrader, 97, 643, 645 Schwarz, 168 Schwarzenberg, 139, 144

Global Safari Schwärzler, 139-140, 143-145 Schweinfurt, 101 Scibe, 275-276, 339, 346, 387, 440, 451454, 571 Scotia, 574 Scots, 124 Scottish, 61 Scripta manent, 279 Scripture, 19, 644 Scuderia, 106 Sculpture, 159, 368-369, 614 Sea, 122, 150, 175, 408, 526, 555, 558 Sean, 64 Seatbelt, 508 Seattle, 233, 548 Seba, 270, 441 Sebastien, 2, 441-442, 445-446 Secession, 27, 36 Secours, 149, 163-164 Secrétaire, 497 Secretario, 497 Secteur, 451 Security, 22, 27, 30-31, 39, 55, 58, 87, 98, 152, 191, 224-225, 232-233, 235-236, 244, 300, 310, 326, 333, 337, 344, 346, 432, 436, 450, 456, 458-459, 463-468, 475, 480, 484-485, 487, 489, 491, 493, 495, 514, 545, 549, 557, 563, 569, 571, 619-620, 641, 649651 Seegesi, 475 Seele, 563 Segregation, 504, 514 Seigneur, 321 Seine, 157, 563 Sele, 8 Selma, 512-513, 533-534 Semanas, 241 Semester, 50, 202, 204, 207, 275 Séminaire, 6, 11-12, 18, 49, 447 Seminar, 54, 88, 151, 167-169, 192-194,

204, 212, 224, 231, 243 Seminarian, xxxiv, 1112, 18-20, 48-52, 59-60, 66-68, 70, 72-73, 75-76, 139, 143, 149, 155, 286, 319, 373, 526 Seminary, xxxiv, 6-8, 1011, 16-17, 19-20, 27, 46, 49, 75, 110, 123, 271, 321, 323, 330, 341, 351, 373 Senate, 319, 332-333, 343, 450, 501, 550, 571 Senator, 150, 305, 315, 317-318, 333, 338, 341, 382, 452, 454, 465, 472, 490, 501, 551-552 Senegal, xxxvi-xxxviii, 91, 222, 244, 261, 405-407, 445 Senegalese, xxxvii, 407, 449 Senghor, Leopold, 323, 405, 594-596, 610, 632, 645 Senghoritude, 224, 595, 645 Sensationalism, 277 Sensibilisation, 433 Sensitivity, 97-98, 268 Sentiments, 49, 59 Seongnam, 635 Seoul, xxxv, 222, 301, 304, 324, 475, 527, 554, 602, 630-632, 634-642 Separation, 268-269, 474, 488 Serengeti, xxxiv, xxxvi Series, 146, 226, 249, 281, 545, 643, 645 Seropositive, 288, 420422, 424, 437 Seropositivity, 416 Servicio, 239 Servitude, 548 Servizio, 68-71, 79, 651 Sese Seko, 8, 499 Settimana dei Popoli, 93, 116 Seville, 235

685 Sexism, 449, 508, 558, 560 Shaanxi, 602, 610, 614, 620 Shaba, 11, 21 Shah, 649 Shakespeare, 151, 204, 394, 471, 563 Shambhala, 650 Shanghai, 127, 620, 642 Shanxi, 620 SharpShooter, 576 Sharpton, Al, 512 Sheila, 64 SHEKINA, 413 Sherer, 548 Sheriff, 54, 87, 105, 562, 651 Shi, 603, 614 Shortage, 243, 389, 452 Shoukang, 616 Shrine, 182, 454 Sickness, 451, 609 Sida, 344, 413, 415, 419, 421, 423-425, 427431, 566, 569, 571572 Siècle, 590-591, 646 Siesta, 240 Sightseeing, 132 Sigma Tau, Phi, 225 Signora, 148, 287 SIKA, 349 SIM, 317, 323, 462 Simon, 23-24, 62, 75, 317, 319, 323, 332333, 649 Sindelfingen, 99, 136137 Siri, 21 Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson, 297 Sisterhood, 100, 301, 525, 533, 554 Sistine, Chapel, 50-51 Sisto, 88, 120 Skepticism, 550, 553 Skill, 2-3, 88, 97-98, 107, 179, 205, 225, 235-237, 240-241, 243-244, 471, 561563, 644, 649 Skol, 342, 460 Skorka, 63

686 Skyline, 576 Skytree, 127 Skyways, xxxix Slater, 235 Slavery, 26, 117, 280, 282, 299, 547 Slogan, xxxvii, 4, 6, 9, 89, 391, 413, 423, 446, 554, 624 Slovakia, 306 Slovene, 104 Slumdog, 522 Smugglers, 292, 548 Snacks, 128, 312, 332 Soccer, xxxvii, 3, 7, 21, 51, 76, 131-132, 172, 215, 321, 328, 349, 413-414, 420, 434-435, 559 Socialism, 511 Socialist, 318, 572 Società, 121, 188, 571 Societas, 88, 571 Société, 179, 338, 346, 462, 568, 571, 646 SOCOTRA, 333, 571 Socrates, 295 SOFICOM, 346, 462, 571 Sofitel, 634, 640 Soggetti, 89 Soggetto, 92 Soggiorno, 189, 500 Soirée, 525 Soldier, 27, 31, 39, 156, 291, 337, 344, 413, 448, 461-463, 465, 467, 473, 499, 546, 578, 618 Soleil, 24, 159 Solidarité, 22-23 Solidarity, 24, 322, 509, 526, 533 Soliloquy, 26, 650 Solomon, 292 Solution, 90, 271, 284, 377, 449, 468, 510 Somalia, 299 Sombo, 652 Somerset, 130 Somnambulist, 10 SONY, 22 Sophie, 289, 560 Sophocles, 183 Sorbonne, 91, 140

Index Sorciers, 425, 646 Soubirous, Bernadette, 163 Soul, 57, 168, 223, 308, 563, 630-631, 640, 644 Souvenir, xxxviii, 163 Souveraineté, 23 Sovereignty, 24, 26, 475, 492 Soviet, 28, 36, 94, 191, 318, 556, 569, 572 Soyinka, Wole, 295 Spain, 170-171, 173, 175-176, 233-242, 306, 313-314, 527, 547, 557, 571, 651 Spanglish, 237, 242 Spanking, 4 Sparkasse, 139 Speaker, 91, 98, 112, 146, 193, 204-205, 230, 243-244, 286, 415, 486, 512, 563, 571, 610 Speculations, 282-283 Speech, 29, 64-65, 91, 108, 150, 282, 292, 414, 417, 501-502, 508, 511, 515, 522523, 525, 547, 551, 609, 618, 651 Sperantes, 508 Speranza, 90 Spero, Ergo Sum, 507508, 545 Sphinx, 543 Spice Tour, xxxviixxxviii Spokesperson, 450, 523 Sponsorship, 210 Spouse, 63, 474, 480, 485 Sprache, 563 Springfield, 490 Stabilisation, 31, 570 Stabilization, 31 Stade, 328 Stadium, 184, 321, 328, 413-414, 420, 422, 434-435, 438, 496, 624, 627 Stadt, 616 Staircases, 159 Stalwart, 62

Stan, 54, 105, 125, 562 Stanford, 295 Stanleyville, 36 Stardom, 501 Stash, 548 Stato, 55, 65 Statue, 119, 176, 182, 363-364, 490, 543, 605-606, 609 Stature, 517 Status, xxxv, xxxvii, 28, 65, 179, 206, 210212, 282, 306, 316, 420-421, 423, 500, 508, 549-550, 559, 580 Statutes, 559 Stepchildren, 215, 217218 Stepdad, 215, 217 Stepdaughter, 212, 215, 217-218, 335, 481, 651 Stephanie, 610 Stephen, 573 Stepparents, 215, 217 Stereotype, 278, 282, 284-285, 289-290, 292-294, 504, 519, 558 Steven, 504 Stiglitz, Joseph, 550, 649 Stigmatization, 416, 422, 425 Stimulus, 510 Stipends, 304 Stith, Charles, 252 Stopgap, 549 Stranieri, 103-104, 117, 189, 547 Straniero, 102, 198, 500 Straus, 645 Strength, 31, 349, 613 Stretchers, 441 Studenti, 54, 88-89, 151, 192, 194-195, 562, 572, 646 Studi, 560 Stump, 515, 519 Stuttgart, 99, 137 Sua, 189, 274, 308, 334, 375, 399, 441-442, 444-445, 453, 459, 651 Suarez, 256

Global Safari Subhuman, 280 Subjection, 475, 648 Submission, 222, 232, 611 Subordination, 27, 475 Subsidiaritatis, Principium, 509510 Subsidiarity, 509-510 Subsidy, 49 Subsistence, 102 Suburb, 264, 552, 589, 635 Success, 5, 163, 232, 234-235, 282, 473, 495, 517, 553-554, 561 Suchocka, Hanna, 64 Sud, 92, 413, 419, 431 Sudan, 23, 299, 553 Suitcase, 314, 316, 337, 459-460, 463 Sunny, 136, 313, 525, 611 Superdome, 524 Supérieur, 274, 339-340, 569 Superiority, 283, 292, 471 Superstar, 280-282, 551 Superstitions, 6; tabbooistic, 61, 449 Supplication, 56 Supporter, 105, 502, 506, 523, 536-537 Supremacist, 283 Supremacy, 448 Surgery, 214, 216, 281, 293 Survival, xxxvi, 151, 271, 459, 561, 563 Survivor, 3 Susan, 284, 458, 555, 647 Suspension, 559 Suspicion, 508, 528, 558 Sustainability, 3, 473 Sviluppo, 89, 92 Swa, 9 Swahili, xxxiv, xxxvii, 33, 74, 91, 227, 244, 297, 358, 470 Sweden, 306 Swiss, xxxv, 28, 55, 80, 167, 640

Swissguard, 80 Sylvester, 458, 648 Symbiosis, 92, 464 Symbol, xxxvii, 122, 159, 282, 284, 316, 348, 489-490, 613, 620, 648 Symposium, 236, 244, 406-407, 552 Syndrome, 278, 284, 301, 450, 568, 571 Synod, 63 Synonym, 498 System, 200 Szalai, 522 -TTaboo, xxxix, 10, 146149, 151, 153, 155, 157, 159, 161, 163, 165, 167, 169, 171, 173, 175, 177, 179, 181, 183, 185, 422, 436, 552 Taca, 300, 571 Tailor, 2, 205, 287, 325, 331, 442 Taiwan, 636 Takaya, 4 Talaswe, 14 Tale, 50, 465 Talent, 228, 490, 494 Tanganyika, xxxvii, 410 Tantalite, 22, 567 Tantalum, 22 Tanzania, xxxiv, xxxvixxxvii, 23, 25, 54, 91, 213, 218, 244, 252, 257, 296-297, 299, 410-411, 572 Tarcisse, 19, 75, 132 Tarot, 343 Tarzan, 284, 288 Tarzanification, 284, 301 Tarzanifying, 295 Tassello, G. 191 Tatiana, 289 Tattoo, 628 Tattooes, 58 Taubira, C., 560 Taurus, 208 Taxicab, 414, 468 Tchinde, Gaston, 112, 146

687 Teacher, 4, 6, 14, 125, 132, 139, 228, 288, 322, 336, 346, 390, 400-403, 441, 443444, 447, 455, 458, 464, 473-474, 527, 571 Teatime, 130, 615 Technology, 22, 25, 216, 268, 278, 295, 312, 343, 473, 476, 569, 646, 649 Tedesco, 107 Teenage, 6, 215, 218, 526 Tehuti, 283 Télévision, 354, 460, 571-572 Tembo, xxxvii Tempels, Placide, 649 Temple, 182, 185, 543, 554, 608-609 Temptation, 66, 99, 149 Tension, 31, 282, 455, 559 Tenure, 60, 205, 207, 212, 221-222, 227, 230-233, 247, 305 Teobaldo, 271 Teotihuacan, xxxv, 585 Terence, 232 Terentius, 555 Teresa, 241 Termination, 295, 485 Terni, 286-287 Terracotta, 554, 614-615 Territoire, 442, 588 Territory, 13, 25, 418, 421, 423, 467, 472, 528-529, 588 Terror, 26 Terrorism, 235, 508 Terrorist, 152, 256, 546, 556-557 Tervuren, 287 Testament, 64, 179, 250 Testimonial, 101, 414, 420-422, 424 Testimony, 422, 488, 652 Tetanus, 309 Tetela, 36 Tetihuacan, 585 Tetracycline, 310, 335336, 376 Tevere, 88, 120

688 Thailand, 22, 548 Thames, 127 Thanatos, 178 Theatre, 91, 183, 272, 576 Thebia-Melsan, Annick, 591 Themistocles, 182 Thenailles, 166, 305, 307, 312-313 Théobald, 8, 271, 274 Théoball, 271 Théobar, 271 Théologie, 12, 323, 325, 351 Theology, xxxiv, 12, 19, 48, 50, 59, 62, 6768, 70, 74-75, 78, 143, 150, 195, 323, 373 Therapy, 218, 425 Thirdworldness, 561 Threat, 235-236, 344, 403, 432, 436, 450, 459, 461, 464, 466467, 528 Throne, 57, 183 Tiananmen, 618 Tiber, 88, 120 Tigress, 280 Timber, 22 Timothé, 441, 459 Timothy, 550, 648 Tippo Tib, xxxviii, 25, 410 Titulaire, 496-497 Titular, 496 Tocqueville, 515, 649 Togba, 420-421, 423, 652 Tokei, 33 Tokende, 413 Tokokoka, 227, 477 Tokyo, 127, 527 Tolerance, 116, 494, 578 Tolingana, 33 Tom, 548 Tomb, 388, 440-441, 543 Tomi, 13 Tomibatela, 421, 427, 571 Tonga, 423 Tongotani, 334 Tony, 91-92 Torney, Judith, 98, 643

Index Toronto, 576 Tortillas, 242 Torture, 25, 31, 499 TOSHIBA, 22 Tot, 52, 139 Toth, 283 Totocalcio, 51 Touchness, 63 Touraine, 160 Tourism, 133, 190, 307, 319, 324-325, 547 Tourist, 51, 121-122, 154, 197, 238, 299, 307, 316, 326-327, 348, 363, 500, 527, 577, 601, 623 Tousignant, 290 Towson, 214, 219, 227 Toynbee, 283, 294, 649 Toyokana, 33 Toyota, 386, 439, 468 Tractatus, 241, 650 Tractor, 3, 53, 445 Trader, xxxviii, 25, 410 Tradition, 13, 51, 130, 179, 196, 556, 578 Tragedy, 3, 178, 235, 291, 301, 649 Traité, 159 Traitor, 289 Tranquility, 496 Transatlantic, xxxvi, 58, 188, 408, 552 Transcontinental, 196, 223, 270, 285 Transcript, 49, 193, 270, 484 Transformation, 182 Transit, xxxviii-xxxix, 312, 315, 555-556 Translation, xxxix, 5, 14, 24-25, 47, 53, 57, 63, 73, 90, 92, 146, 148, 189, 194, 236, 268, 407, 415, 420, 424-425, 450, 483, 522, 555-556, 592 Translator, 483 Transportation, 4, 11, 55, 200, 209, 234, 317, 319, 325, 332, 337, 346, 372, 439, 441, 451-452, 468 Travail, 21, 25

Traveler, xxxv-xxxvi, 306, 311, 329, 464, 555, 563 Travelogue, xxxiv Treatment, xxxv, 100, 140, 277, 290, 333, 415-417, 419, 425, 452-453, 559 Treaty, 65, 159 Trevi, 78 Tribalism, 449, 451, 547 Tribe, 12, 280 Tribesmen, 27, 289 Tribune, 548 Tribute, 524, 540 Tricolore, 24, 104 Tricolored, 25 Trilingual, 496 Triomphe, 155-156 Trismegistus, 283, 650 Triumph, 287, 576 Troia, 116 Troop, 10, 111, 291, 458, 467 Tropiques, 644 Truce, 217 Trump, 518-519, 560 Trustees, 209 Truth, 57, 101-102, 148149, 288-289, 294, 301, 456-457, 491, 510, 609 Tshiluba, 10, 93, 358 Tshisekedi, 546 Tshombe, Moïse, 27 Tubandila, 10 Tuberculosis, 422 Tuition, 7-8, 99, 336, 447 Tulip, 411 Tunisia, 511 Turquoise, Opération, 31, 291 Turzai, Mike, 512 Tutsi, 289-291 Tutsicide, 290-291 Tutu, Desmond, 295 Twerking, 9 Twilight, 492 Twitter, 506, 561 Typhoid, 309 Tyranny, 293 Tzu, K’Uan, 89, 472

Global Safari -UUbangi, 2-3, 13-14, 317318, 322, 328, 339, 341, 345, 352, 380, 413, 415-419, 421423, 431, 439, 447450, 464, 567, 651 Übung macht den Meister, 240 Ufficio, 88, 189, 195, 572 Uganda, 22-23, 29-31, 68, 291-292 Uguaglianza, 191 Ukraine, 94, 180 Umbria, 286 UNAIDS, 288, 317, 436, 572, 650 UNAZA, 11, 325, 330, 359, 572 Uncle, 6, 273-274, 331, 336, 338, 374, 390, 398, 402, 441, 444445, 448, 459, 553 Underdevelopment, 90, 230, 268, 296, 300, 326, 400, 453, 508, 646 Undergraduate, 74, 192, 209, 296, 373 Underrepresentation, 243-245 Unemployment, 101, 146, 317, 455, 519, 561 UNESCO, 113, 122, 159, 162, 408, 614, 616, 620 Unfreedom, 294 Unification, 60, 94 UNIKIN, 318, 322, 325, 327, 330, 341, 359360, 465, 572 Unilateralism, 515, 648 Unità, 113 Unité, 337, 340-341, 354, 470, 569 Unity, 32-33, 417, 470, 507 UniverCity, 324, 645 Universalism, xxxviii, 224, 552 Universalist, 223 Universe, 225, 474

Università, 48, 560, 571 Universitas, xxxiv, 48, 74, 78, 88, 147, 373, 571, 595, 646 Université, 11-12, 19, 140, 318, 323, 325, 351, 359, 572, 595 Universiteit, 14 Unrest, 334, 338, 344, 353, 450, 467, 511 Untouchable, 100, 198, 559 Unum, 472, 514, 519, 523, 526, 529, 533 Uprising, 292, 380, 382, 386, 391, 393, 430, 432, 439, 441, 443, 445, 447-449, 451, 453, 455, 457, 459, 461, 463, 465-467, 469 Urbaniana, xxxiv, 48, 50, 74, 88, 373, 571, 595 Urbano, 48, 50, 52, 59, 66-67, 70, 72-76, 96, 139, 143, 198, 560, 652 Urgency, 415, 496, 517 -VVaccination, 305, 309 Vaccine, 310 Vaduz, 167 Valentino, 287 Vallati, Lungotevere dei, 120 Valori, 90 Vancouver, 305 Vandalism, 461 Vandy, 292 Vangelo, 646 Vanguardia, 237 Vanity, 650 Vann, 27, 650 Vasquez, 22 Vassar, 197 Vatican, xxxiv, xxxviii, 8-9, 47, 49-53, 55, 58, 60, 62, 64-65, 67, 69, 71, 74, 77, 79-80, 84, 87-88, 95-97, 108-109, 139, 188, 198, 286,

689 458, 507, 546, 644, 651-652 Vaticano, 55, 65, 68-71 Vázquez, 650 Vedast, 13 Vegas, Las, 518, 543 Veneto, 106 Venezia, 78, 88, 121 Venezuela, 300 Venice, 51, 90, 121 Venture, 26, 295 Verbum volat, 279 Veretz, 160 Versace, 287 Versailles, xxxiv, 158159 Vervins, 165 Vespasian, 122 Veteran, 163 Veterinarian, 334 Viagra, xxxviii Vicenza, 106 VicePresident, 519 Vici, 555 Vicinity, 160, 363-364, 443, 452, 460, 631 Victims, 32, 64, 547, 552 Victoire, 323 Victory, xxxvii, 30, 156, 172, 320, 333, 343, 501-505, 512, 516517, 523, 533, 535, 556 Vidnic, 321 Vienna, 32, 142 Vietnam, 52, 68 Viewership, 343 Villa, 100-101, 103, 198 Villagers, 2, 6, 93, 398, 442, 457 Villeroy & Boch, 96, 99, 133-134 Villetta, 103 Vincelli, 6, 269 Vincenzo, 652 Vindication, 648 Vintage, 647 Violation, 10, 25, 29, 32, 62, 290, 467-468, 488, 546 Violence, 31-32, 293, 419, 467, 513 VIP, 55, 83-84, 86, 93, 327, 333, 456, 525, 541, 572

690 Virgin, 56, 182, 239-240 Virginia, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 306, 334, 512, 545 Virtue, 289, 507, 608 Visa, xxxv, 119, 189190, 196-197, 206, 208, 210-213, 273, 305-308, 311, 313314, 332, 334, 500, 526-528, 551, 557, 563 Visions, 142, 246 Visitor, 102, 154, 287, 307, 319, 328, 440, 446, 455, 582, 605, 612, 627, 639 Vitro fertilization, in, 216, 569 Vocation, 150 Vodacom, 347, 371, 572 Volkes, Die Sprache eines, 563 Voltaire, 471 Votefest, 521-522 Voyage, 168, 188, 287, 333 Vulgarization, 268, 415 Vuvuzelas, 513 -WWalloons, 46 Wallstrom, Margot, 31 Walt, 492 Walter, 283, 650 Wanda, 374 Warfare, 32, 510 Warlords, 290 Warner, 645 Warrior, 412, 448, 614, 621 Watshiba, 418 Watson, 283, 294 Waya, 336 Waza Banga, 499 Wealth, 22, 26, 28, 31, 205, 494, 515, 559, 650 Weapon, 31, 290, 317, 450, 516, 572 Website, 14, 31, 310 Welfare, 194, 496, 509, 511, 646 Welsh, 124

Index Weltanschauung, 224, 278, 300, 554 Werkstudent, xxxv, 96, 132-134, 136-137, 188, 198, 507 Werkstudenten, 97 Wese Matutua, 47 Westerner, xxxiv-xxxv, 26-27, 278, 282, 284-287, 290, 292293 Westminster, 127 Whitaker, 293 Whiteness, 282, 293, 295 Whitening, 293 Wien, 142 Wikipedia, 23-25, 73, 78, 121-122, 124, 127, 142, 154, 159, 162, 167, 171, 200, 284, 359, 408, 543, 577, 588, 613-614, 618, 637-638 Wikisource, 159 Wilding, 646 Wilhelm, 137-138, 194, 283 Wilson, Woodrow, 467 Wincanton, 53, 125, 128130, 149, 151, 168, 188, 204, 288, 526 Winfrey, Oprah, xxxv, 31, 298, 570 Winter, 140, 163, 311 Winthrop, 545 Wisdom, xxxviii, 182, 229, 283, 472, 516, 554, 620, 645, 648 Witchcraft, 5, 293, 449 Witte, Ludo de, 650 Wittgenstein, 241, 563, 650 Wojtyla, 51-52, 54, 68, 84, 147, 556, 650 Wollsstonecraft, 475, 648 Wolof, 405 Wongolo, 402, 444 Workshop, 226, 246, 456 Worldview, 278, 554 Wotewangi, 464 Wright, Jeremiah, 507 Wuhan, 226, 258-259, 554, 605-609, 631 Würzburg, 101

-XXlibris, 646 Xie xie, 472 -YYa, 9-10, 33, 35, 320, 463 Yaa, 274 Yakamba, 271 Yakata, 18 Yale, 224, 254, 295-296, 635, 649 Yamoussoukro, 89 Yan, Jinfen, 645 Yañez, Humberto Miguel, 64 Yanga, 47, 448 Yangere, 13 Yaoundé, 304-305, 307, 309, 311, 313-315 Yardley, 64 Yasmin, 246 Yeke, 21 Yemen, 528 Yemo, 454 Yergin, Daniel, 650 Yesu, 47 Yin Yang, 610-611, 630, 632-633, 645 Yogo, Dindo, 13 Yombe, 521 Yoruba, 474-475 Yosemite National Park, 201 Youth, 240, 418 YouTube, 56, 506 Yoweri, 31 Yuan, 603 Yuen, 648 Yugoslav, 321 Yugoslavia, 321 -ZZabusu, 322, 344-345, 447 Zain, 347 Zaire, 1, 3, 8-9, 23-24, 28-29, 38, 71, 77, 167, 188, 192, 195, 198, 204-206, 212, 250, 269-270, 272, 286, 288, 291-292,

Global Safari 321, 445, 472, 499, 546, 562, 643, 646, 648 Zaïre, xxxviii, 2, 8, 11, 21-23, 25, 27-29, 31, 33, 35, 37-39, 41, 43, 46-47, 190, 325, 359, 572, 644, 648 Zairean, 500 Zairese, 500 Zairian, 8, 10-11, 25, 29, 35, 75-76, 91, 188189, 194, 212, 499, 526-527, 546 Zairianisé, 8 Zairianized, 8 Zaïrois, 24 Zairois, 8, 274 Zairoise, 21, 25, 32 Zaïroise, 23-24 Zambia, 23, 30, 105 Zanotelli, 112, 146 Zanzibar, xxxvii-xxxviii, 25, 410 Zanzibarians, xxxvii Zarzuela, 171 Zeitung, 522

Zeke, 8, 47-48, 102-103, 146-148, 189, 195, 198, 441, 445, 546 Zekeh, 8, 18-20, 48, 6773, 75-77, 79-80, 83-84, 86-87, 105106, 108-118, 120123, 125-126, 128130, 132-134, 136, 144-145, 155-158, 160, 163, 165, 167, 172-173, 180-181, 185-186, 193-194, 200-201, 216-217, 219-220, 227-228, 230, 239, 246, 248, 251-252, 254-261, 263-265, 270-271, 308-309, 312, 347349, 352-353, 356, 358, 364-365, 372, 379-382, 387, 391, 395, 398-401, 406408, 412, 438, 504506, 530-531, 534535, 537-538, 540543, 575, 582, 585, 587, 589, 591-592,

691 594-596, 598, 600601, 605, 607-608, 610, 612, 614, 616, 618, 620-621, 623, 627-629, 631-632, 635-636, 639-641, 643, 645 Zele, 47 Zèle, 8 Zenith, 523, 546 Zeus, 185, 543 Zibulinette, 558 Ziki, 272 Zimbabwe, 30, 292 Zimmermann, 138-139 Zion, 297 Zodiac, 604 Zografos, 179 Zographos, 180 Zollner, 64 Zongo, 337 Zoo, 287, 567, 579, 583 Zoungbo Lavou, Victorien, 645 Zulu, 412 Zuma, 47 Zuwa, 33 Zwick, Edward, 292