Take Action Now To #StopM23 proxy militia in the #Congo! Send a tweet to Ambassador Rice at @AmbassadorRice and/or call the US Mission to the United Nations at 212-415-4404 and demand that the US take decisive action against Rwanda at the United Nations.
Tweets Proposed:
We…
Jomul7
trying to learn to say ah to things. trying to learn how to spell my name. For now, I'm just another wordsmith.
None of these images are my own.
Ask and you shall receive
Submit and surrender!
None of these images are my own.
Ask and you shall receive
Submit and surrender!
Reblogged from storyofalioness|6 notes
Patrice Eméry Lumumba (via storyofalioness)
“
I am the Congo, the Congo has made me. I am making the Congo.
”
Natasha’s project was birthed in response to her experiences in North Kivu, Congo. She describes the town that she had visited a bright and vibrant yet spooky place placed on the fringe of a rainforest with a backdrop of scenic hills and mountain views. Despite its beauty and potential, this area has been unable to clear a choking carcinogenic cough of conflict that it has had since the mid 90’s. As a young woman, who was born in the Congo, Natasha is interested in exploring the relationships between Congolese women and the Congolese land, particularly considering gender-based violence has been at the forefront of blood-mineral fuelled armed conflict. Natasha is also interested in identity and the relationships that the women of the Diaspora have with the land. Natasha likens the land to the women, by drawing on themes and ideas present in patriarchal society that both objectifies and contends the notion of ownership of both land and women. In doing so, Natasha explores these ideas through language focusing on words such as ‘Nzela’ – a Lingala word which can be translated to a line, curve, path, boundaries, the way, wrinkles, borders, gap; which individually hold a wealth of different and sometimes conflicting and contradictory meanings & connotations. Natasha is also a singer/songwriter.AACDD Exhibition
Reblogged from mbokayabakoko|3 notes
Great poem, great message, much needed especially in a time of uncertainty
Le fleuve Congo ou Le Nzai ou Zaire ou Lualaba
Je suis le fleuve,
Ma naissance est un cycle sans fin
Le Divin Etre qui m’a créé m’a fait puissant, majestueux et éternel
Une fois que j’eus creuse ma route, elle est restée mienne
Tout d’abord je m’alimente dans les montagnes de l’Est et de ma petite sœur, rivière Chambeshi
Et pour un moment pendant ma montée, une maigreur s’empare de moi
Mais une fois à Kisangani, le vent change de direction et la nature autour de moi s’épanouit
Elle sait que son roi est arrivé et elle m’adresse tout un chorus qui résonne dans toute la jungle
Même Mami Wata prends en charge de diriger la délégation sous-marine
Je m’élargis à gauche et à droite, je prends du volume et de la vitesse
Les villes de Bumba et Lisala se penchent en me voyant passer dans mon allure fière
Et c’est alors que j’en arrive à mon coin favori : la descente
Assourdissant, fumant et avec pression je descends
Et c’est pour me jeter dans les bras de mon père : Océan Atlantique
Nos embraces ne sont pas pour les cœurs froids,
Elles ont toujours une saveur bien salée
Cette rencontre entre père et fils m’élargis au point d’être un avec mon père
Je me dois donc de vivre entre ma naissance a l’Est et ma fusion a l’Ouest
Et dans ma fougue, il m’est arrive d’emporter des hommes de toute couleur, taille ou sexe
Sur ma peau ils se sont aventures et dans mon estomac ils sont alles y demeurer.
Je suis Nzai, Zaire, Lualaba et Congo et je nourris mon peuple nuit et jour.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBN36vS7zr4&feature=youtu.be
To write or to talk about Congo always brings this tension that one does not know how to deal with. This is a country that doesn’t need any presentation anymore. The negative facts are known: Colonialism, dictatorship, war and war…
“The indigenous peoples of the Congo are all black in color,some more so,some less so. Many are to be seen who are the color of chestnut and some tend to be more olive-colored. BUT THE ONE WHO IS OF THE DEEPEST BLACK IN COLOR IS HELD BY THEM TO BE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL…There are some children who although their parents are black, are born white skinned…And these are regarded by the Congolese as monsters…Given the fact that a black skin is so highly regarded among them,we Europeans appear ugly in their eyes… But they do not want us to call them Negroes but Blacks (Prietos); amongst them only slaves are called Negroes and thus amongst them it is the same things to say negro as to say slave.” - Antonio de Teruel in Narrative Description of…the Kingdom of the Congo (1663-1664) THIS WAS STATED IN THE 1600S BY EUROPEANS VISITING THE CONGO… DO BLACK PEOPLE STILL VIEW THE DARKEST OF SKIN AS BEAUTIFUL?
The more accurate question to be asked is do the Congolese still see the dark complexion as attractive and the even more accurate question to be asked is which ethnic Kongolese groups are represented in this picture? Different ethnic groups have different systems. Again in Africa especially back then we defined ourselves by our ethinicty not our color skin color.
But the main question still remains the same & necessary.
I will definitively say no to this being that I am Congolese and having seen and heard how light skinned get preferential treatment over dark skinned especially in cities but I can’t say the same for villages.
Reblogged from storyofalioness|11 notes
Happy Independence Day Congo!!“Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness.
Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour.
We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.
We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.
We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble.
We shall stop the persecution of free thought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights.
We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and we shall ensure for everyone a station in life befitting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the country.
We shall institute in the country a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill.
And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship.”
- Patrice Emery Lumumba (Excerpt of Independence day speech, June 30th, 1960)
Here’s an idea to all my Congolese people who are Lingalaphone, how about adding Lingala to the list of languages on Wikipedia?
Reblogged from storyofalioness|8 notes