La main gauche nettoie la droite (proverbe Ngombe, Basonge – République Démocratique du Congo (RDC)). – L’homme et la femme s’entraident.
The left hand cleans the right (Ngombe and Basonge proverb – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)). – The man and the woman help each other.
Vous êtes encore dans l’eau et vous essorez déjà vos vêtements (Proverbe Mongo – République Démocratique du Congo). – Ne vous croyez pas trop vite vainqueur.
You are still in the water and you are already wringing out your clothes (Mongo proverb – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)). – Don’t think yourself winner too quickly.
The Guinea of Sekou Toure was the first country to say ‘NO’ to the General de Gaulle. Sekou Touré, proud descendent of one of the great African leaders who fought colonialism, Samori Touré, said, on 25 August 1958, Sekou Touré said: “Il n’ya pas de dignité sans liberté. Nous préférons la liberté dans la pauvreté à la richesse dans l’esclavage.” [There is no dignity without freedom. We prefer freedom in poverty to wealth in slavery].
After Sekou Toure said ‘No‘, De Gaulle did not take it lightly and reacted harshly to crush the new Guinean state, and ensure that no other African countries followed the Guinean example. The Washington Post back then, observed how brutal the French were in tearing down all what they thought was their contributions to Guinea: “In reaction, and as a warning to other French-speaking territories, the French pulled out of Guinea over a two-month period, taking everything they could with them. They unscrewed light bulbs, removed plans for sewage pipelines in Conakry, the capital, and even burned medicines rather than leave them for the Guineans.” Imagine that, they unscrewed light bulbs! It is said that they even poured cement on water pipes!… the French reacted like a really angry boyfriend who had been thrown out.
Maurice Robert, head of the African cell for the Service de documentation extérieure et de contre-espionnage (SDECE), France‘s external intelligence agency from 6 November 1944 to 2 April 1982 said in an interview, « Nous devions déstabiliser Sékou Touré, le rendre vulnérable, impopulaire et faciliter la prise du pouvoir par l’opposition. Une opération de cette envergure comporte plusieurs phases : le recueil et l’analyse des renseignements, l’élaboration d’un plan d’action à partir de ces renseignements, l’étude et la mise en place des moyens logistiques, l’adoption de mesures pour la réalisation du plan. Avec l’aide d’exilés guinéens réfugiés au Sénégal, nous avons aussi organisé des maquis d’opposition dans le Fouta-Djalon. L’encadrement était assuré par des experts français en opérations clandestines. Nous avons armé et entraîné ces opposants guinéens pour qu’ils développent un climat d’insécurité en Guinée et, si possible, qu’ils renversent Sékou Touré. Parmi ces actions de déstabilisation, je peux citer l’opération Persil, par exemple, qui a consisté à introduire dans le pays une grande quantité de faux billets de banque guinéens dans le but de déséquilibrer l’économie. » [“We had to destabilize Sékou Touré, make him vulnerable, unpopular and facilitate the seizure of power by the opposition. An operation of this scale involves several phases: the collection and analysis of information, the development of an action plan based on this information, the study and implementation of logistical means, the adoption of measures to implement the plan. With the help of Guinean exiles who had taken refuge in Senegal, we also organized opposition groups in Fouta-Djallon. Supervision was provided by French experts in clandestine operations. We have armed and trained these Guinean opponents so that they develop a climate of insecurity in Guinea and, if possible, overthrow Sékou Touré. Among these destabilizing actions, I can cite Operation Persil, for example, which consisted of introducing a large quantity of counterfeit Guinean banknotes into the country with the aim of unbalancing the economy.”]
Thus, the strategies to destabilize Guinea were, among others, 1) Make Sekou Toure weak and impopular by financing and arming his opponents; 2) using exiled Guineans in neighboring Senegal, training them militarily to create zones of insecurities in the country to eventually topple off Sekou Toure’s government; 3) economically weaken the country by using fake currency.
There are numerous examples of how these strategies were used in recent years: in Cote d’Ivoire during the presidency of Laurent Gbagbo with the armed rebellion financed from external forces, terrorist forces’ attacks in the AES countries, and much more…
One Sunday, at worship, the pastor of a small village says :
– Next week, I will give my sermon on lying. To learn more about this sin, I invite you to read and prepare the passage from the gospel of Mark, chapter 17.
The following Sunday arrives and as he prepares to take the pulpit to preach, the pastor asks the question to the congregation:
Who among you has read St Mark, chapter 17 ? And everyone raises their hand.
The pastor smiles and says:
– The gospel of Mark contains only 16 chapters. So now you are all ready to hear my sermon on this sin that is lying!
The original in French is found on Nouchi.com . Adapted and Translated to English by Dr. Y. Afrolegends.com
On vous invite à accompagner à la chasse, parce qu’on a vu vos filets (proverbe Ntomba – République Démocratique du Congo (RDC)). – On est aimé quand on a beaucoup de choses.
We invite you to go hunting, because we have seen your nets (Ntomba proverb – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)). – We are loved when we have many things.
Two weeks before his murder, on January 4th 1961, Patrice Lumumba wrote from prison in Thysville (now Mbanza-Ngungu) to Rajeshwar Dayal, a Special Representative to the UN Secretary General. In prison, Lumumba was accompanied by Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, two political associates who had planned to assist him in setting up a new government. They were fed poorly by the prison guards, as per Mobutu’s orders. In one of Lumumba’s last documented letter, he wrote to Dayal who was the head of the United Nations Operation in the Congo: “In a word, we are living amid absolutely impossible conditions; moreover, they are against the law.”
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LETTER TO M. DAYAL, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL
Thysville, January 4, 1961
Mr. Special Representative,
On December 27 last, I had the pleasure of receiving a visit from the Red Cross, which occupied itself with my plight and with the plight of the other parliamentarians imprisoned together with me. I told them of the inhuman conditions we are living in.
Briefly, the situation is as follows. I am here with seven other parliamentarians. In addition there are with us Mr. Okito, President of the Senate, a Senate employee and a driver. Altogether there are ten of us. We have been locked up in damp cells since December 2, 1960, and at no time have we been permitted to leave them. The meals that we are brought twice a day are very bad. For three or four days 1 ate nothing but a banana. I told this to the Red Cross medical officer sent to me. I spoke to him in the presence of a colonel from Thysville. I demanded that fruit be bought on my own money because the food that I am given here is atrocious. Although the medical officer gave his permission, the military authorities guarding me turned down my request, stating that they were following orders from Kasavubu and Colonel Mobutu. The medical officer from Thysville prescribed a short walk every evening so that I could leave my cell for at least a little while. But the colonel and the district commissioner denied me this. The clothes that I wear have not been washed for thirty-five days. I am forbidden to wear shoes.
In a word, the conditions we are living in are absolutely intolerable and run counter to all rules.
Moreover, I receive no news of my wife and I do not even know where she is. Normally I should have had regular visits from her as is provided for by the prison regulations in force in the Congo. On the other hand, the prison regulations clearly state that not later than a day after his arrest a prisoner must be brought before the investigator handling his case. Five days after this a prisoner must again be arraigned before a judge, who must decide whether to remand him in custody or not. In any case, a prisoner must have a lawyer.
The criminal code provides that a prisoner is released from prison if five days after he is taken into custody the judge takes no decision on remanding him. The same happens in cases when the first decision (which is taken five days after a person is arrested) is not reaffirmed within fifteen days. Since our arrest on December 1 and to this day we have not been arraigned before a judge or visited by a judge. No arrest warrant has been shown to us. We are kept simply in a military camp and have been here for thirty-four days. We are kept in military detention cells.
The criminal code is ignored as are the prison rules. Ours is purely a case of arbitrary imprisonment. I must add that we possess parliamentary immunity.
Such is the situation and I ask you to inform the United Nations Secretary-General of it.
I remain calm and hope the United Nations will help us out of this situation.
I stand for reconciliation between all the children of this country.
I am writing this letter secretly on bad paper. I have the honour to be, etc.
Patrice LUMUMBA,
Prime Minister
Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso’s leaders met on July 6, 2024 in Niamey, Niger, as part of the first summit of the Alliance des Etats du Sahel (AES – Alliance of the Sahel States). During the summit, the three leaders signed a confederation treaty aimed at strengthening the links between the three nations in terms of defence, and other aspects such as the economy, infrastructures, and more. They reinforced their mutual defence pact. This is a pivotal moment whih marks a new era, and we rejoice for Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, and the whole of Africa.
Below are excerpts from Al-Jazeera.
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The military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have hailed a newly signed treaty as a step “towards greater integration” between the three countries, in the latest showing of their shift away from traditional regional and Western allies.
During a summit in the Nigerien capital of Niamey on Saturday, the three leaders signed a confederation treaty that aims to strengthen a mutual defence pact announced last year, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
The signing capped the first joint summit of the leaders – Niger’s General Abdourahmane Tchiani, Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore, and Mali’s Colonel Assimi Goita – since they came to power in successive coups in their bordering West African nations.
… Speaking at the summit on Saturday, Tchiani called the 50-year-old ECOWAS “a threat to our states”.
… “We are going to create an AES of the peoples, instead of an ECOWAS whose directives and instructions are dictated to it by powers that are foreign to Africa,” Tchiani said.
Burkina Faso’s Traore also accused foreign powers of seeking to exploit the countries. The three nations have regularly accused former colonial ruler France of meddling in ECOWAS.
“Westerners consider that we belong to them and our wealth also belongs to them. They think that they are the ones who must continue to tell us what is good for our states,” he said.
“This era is gone forever. Our resources will remain for us and our population’s.”
… For his part, Mali’s Goita said the strengthened relationship means an “attack on one of us will be an attack on all the other members”.
… The Niamey summit also came a day before the United States is set to complete its withdrawal from a key base in Niger, underscoring how the new military leaders have redrawn security relations that had defined the region in recent years.
… French troops completed their withdrawal from Mali in 2022, and they left Niger and Burkina Faso last year.
Meanwhile, US Air Force Major General Kenneth Ekman said earlier this week that about 1,000 military personnel would complete their withdrawal from Niger’s Air Base 101 by Sunday.
The US is also in the process of leaving a separate, $100m drone base near Agadez in central Niger, which officials have described as essential to gathering intelligence about armed groups in the region.
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Un faux pas de celui qui précède avertit ceux qui sont derrière (Proverbe Bayombe – Angola, République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), République du Congo, Zambie). – Un homme avertit en vaut deux.
A misstep by the one in front warns those behind (Bayombe proverb – Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Republic of Congo, Zambia). – Forewarned is forearmed.
A few years ago, after the horrors of the electoral crisis in Cote d’Ivoire and the bombing of its presidential palace with the capture of President Laurent Gbagbo and First Lady Simone Gbagbo, I watched a video interview of the Franco-Cameroonian journalist Charles Onana who was talking about his book “Côte d’Ivoire : le coup d’État, Duboiris, 2011 (with a preface by Thabo Mbeki).” At the end of the interview, Onana stated, “… Quand vous avez un pays riche qui est convoité par des multinationales, par des groupes mafieux, par des états, etc, vous devez décupler votre intelligence pour défendre votre pays. … En face vous avez des équipes de think-tanks qui sont là pour penser comment destabiliser le pays, donc les Africains ne peuvent pas faire l’économie d’un travail acharné, d’un travail surhumain pour s’en sortir … Pendant que la crise se calme ou s’apaise, les autres continuent de travailler pour vous destabiliser, ils refléchissent à d’autres stratégies, mais il faut que [les Africains] apprennent à refléchir à differentes stratégies de manière à ce que le Président de la République ne se retrouve pas toujours seul à penser à tout, seul à reflechir à tout, …” [When you are a rich country that is coveted by multinationals, by mafia groups, by states, etc, you must increase your intelligence tenfold to defend your country. … On the other side, you have think-tank teams that are thinking ways to destabilize the country, so Africans cannot avoid hard work, superhuman work to be free … When the crisis calms down or subsides, others continue to work to destabilize you, they think other strategies, but Africans too need to think different strategies so that the President of the Republic does not always find himself thinking not the only one think all by himself, …]
With the New Scramble for Africa, African countries should have think-tanks, the enemy has think-tanks strategizing over decades, how come we, Africans, do not? Even in times of peace, we should be strategizing… as we heard the French general, it is clear that they are already planning the defeat of Africa, and the return of Africans into their fold in 10 years… how come? When Sekou Toure said NO to the General De Gaulle and Guinea gained independence, not only were the French busy destabilizing his regime politically, militarily, arming his local opponents, but they even flooded his economy with fake currency to destroy his own free Guinean Franc (as he had said NO to the slave currency that is FCFA); the attacks were non stop for several decades, and honestly, are still going on. Thus, Africans, we need to gain our independence, and for our independence to be complete, we need to have strategies for the immediate day-to-day events, but also long-term, over 20-50 or even 100 years. It took China 100 years to get back Hong-Kong and Macau from Great Britain and Portugal… that happened because of a clear vision and strategy of defense against the enemy and reclaiming of lands.
Soyons comme les poils du chien: ils sont tous tournés dans le même sens (Proverbe Bantandu – République Démocratique du Congo (RDC)).
Let’s be like the hairs of the dog : they all face in the same direction (Bantandu proverb – Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)).
African Heritage 