A Jungle Adventure — A Post-Script
After a couple of days in Gisenyi, I needed to wend my way back to Zaire, as term was about to start. I found myself at the crossing point into Zaire, at the edge of Goma. Back then it was a model village, lush and thriving. Now after years of Kabila’s misrule, it is in ruins.
It did not surprise me that the officials received me with obvious hostility. But I knew that this was a pose. The Congolese _ I’ve always disliked calling them Zaireans, a name imposed upon them by their criminal president Mobutu. He had decided that the colonising powers had brutalised the country and plundered its resources. I am in charge now, I can do all that by myself. He decreed that the country changed name from République Démocratique du Congo, to Zaire, a practically meaningless appellation. And in one swell swoop he decreed that everybody had to get rid of their given “European” names, and adopt authentic African ones. He started with himself: He changed Joseph Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sesse Seko. This is a little piece of satire I made about it then:
Mobutu phones the president of Senegal, Léopold Sedar Senghor the respected elder statesman of Africa, a well-known French scholar and writer. He had written extensively about négritude, his political philosophy, which would later inspire Black Power.
Mobutu: Papa Senghor, c’est moi, Joseph Désiré Mobutu. I want you to be my godfather. I want an authentic African name.
Senghor: Mobutu, cessez, c’est con. (Mobutu stop this nonsense, it’s insane)
Mobutu: (Delighted) Merci, papa. Mobutu Sesse Seko. Great name.
But I have shot off a tangent.
I arrive at the post, and after five minutes, typically the ice has thawed, and we were chatting like old friends, the guards and I. Of course there’s no problem with us, you can go through, there are nice hotels in Goma. The
Immigration man was scanning my passport. Suddenly his expression darkened. There is a problem, he explained, I need to stamp your passport, but the stamp is locked up. Before I opened my mouth to say, Then unlock it, he explained that the key of the drawer was with their boss. Before I opened my mouth to say, Then please ask your boss, he shook his head sadly. The boss, he explained, he has a woman in town, and he’s gone to visit her. Everybody laughs heartily. I saw no cause to open my mouth this time. My new friend put me out of my misery. Sometimes he comes back after an hour, sometimes he stays with her the whole night. So, do I have to wait here until he comes? When a problem arises, he says philosophically, there’s always a solution. And what’s the solution here? I ask.
“Simple. You take your passport, go to Goma, enjoy yourself, and before you proceed to Kisangani, you come back here and we will then stamp it.”
