Independence: Illusion or Reality?
Congo after 61 years
At the risk of sounding like a nihilist and totally pessimistic individual, I would like to put forward the notion that we are today stuck in an illusion called independence. This illusion shields -us even just for a day- from the harsh and brutal realities of our lived experiences. However, independence day and the celebration of independence day should be a day of reflection. A reflection on how far, we as a people have come, where we are going, and whether we have achieved the goals that we set out during this great historical turnaround.
Freedom is meaningless if it is not freedom enjoyed by free, autonomous agents. The yearning for freedom is a yearning, that is quenched only through the fulfillment of it. One becomes truly free when they no longer feel chained or bound when they are able to exercise their right to self-determination. The aim of independence was to first and foremost get the right to self-determination. The right to define the self and more so to determine the path that this self will be taking, a path that is not predetermined, but one that is conscious of its aims, and objectives.
The African continent today is faced with a whole plethora of challenges because the path that our leaders took was pre-determined. They became mere figureheads and pawns in a larger more controlled global playing field, and today we are at the receiving end. This dictatorship over the continent produced a myriad of challenges, and these challenges would not have existed if our leaders both past and present had made active efforts to restore our right to self-determination.
At the core of the colonial project was the aim to redefine the African or to echo the words of Y.V. Mubimbe it was to reinvent the African. The aim of this project was not only for the extraction of resources but to intellectually isolate and economically frustrate the African individual. Mind you I say individual because the communal nature of African polities did not allow for complete and total domination, the aim was to divide and conquer.
Independence was symbolic of a paradigm shift in the conceptualization of what is meant to be African. It was the time to redefine or at least to regain an identity that was ripped away from the Africans. This also meant that the onus was now on our leaders to establish policies and frameworks that would carry the African ethos and help African states to develop. The aim was to create a new identity for Africans.
This identity was going to be reflected in our political, social, and economic spheres. However, failure to do this has led to the state at which our economic, social, and political life of Africa is today. A primary example of this failure to reproduce a new national identity is the DRC. The DRC is not only failing its people because of its colonial history, or the corrupt kleptocracies that dictated over the country for more than 50 years. The DRC is the way it is today because of the lack of identity, an identity that is void of or is not reflective of the countries culture and values.
I put forward this notion of culture and values, as a prelude to the following questions. What does it mean to be Congolese today? Who is the Congolese individual? What are their desires, aspirations, hopes, wants, and needs? What is the Congolese Ideal? What is the Congolese man willing to do to achieve these things?
At the root of this inquiry, is the notion that for us to truly achieve this notion of self-determination, we needed to answer these questions. For example, for America to become the Global hegemon that it is today, its founders had embedded in its constitutions and other legislative documentation the very ideals upon which the American state was established. These principles led to the development of the American Dream, a principle that is even lived by non-Americans. Embedded in the American constitution and in its social genetics is a strong identity, and through this strong identity, America and all its inhabitants have managed to lead the globe on social, political, and economical matters for decades.
The Congolese state has for decades failed to develop because of the lack of this most basic agenda. Now, I am not trying to compare the US and Congo. However, in looking at the US, we see a model of development that is desirable and one that has managed to work over the past 400 years that the American state has existed. Regardless of their internal historical struggles.
The independence euphoria in Africa is not finished, every year around the continent, people of all African countries celebrate the day they become ‘free’ people.
The 30th of June marks the day that Congo D.R. officially declared independence from the tyrannical Belgian rule. Being the jubilant country that it is, this day was marked by mass celebrations, and with the release of the famed “Independence cha-cha” anthem by Grand Kalle and African Jazz in 1960. That jubilance is still continued to this present day and granted people should be proud and happy but why?
Why should we celebrate an illusion, when Congo is still classified as a failed state when the GDP per capita of the country has not risen in decades when the level of corruption is one the highest on the continent. The Congo is still experiencing high rates of mortality both from the State's inability to build proper infrastructure and also the rather arrhythmic turmoil happening in the East.
That is not all, the Congo is also boasting an archaic educational system that is not preparing citizens to compete on a continental talk less of a global stage. However, it is not all doom and gloom for one of Africa’s biggest countries, it had recently experienced its first-ever peaceful transition of power, after a brutal 18 years of kleptocracy under J.Kabila.
Tshisekedi has ushered in a new form of democracy in the country, he has allowed the media to operate freely, he is taking active steps to fix the decaying infrastructure of the country albeit at a small pace but alas Rome was not built in a day. After a brutal power struggle between him and Kabila during his first few months, Tshisekedi somehow managed to overcome the shadow of his father (the late Etienne Tshisekedi) and prove that he is the right man for the job.
However, I believe that once again, as it was during the independence era, the approach to development should be changed. The new direction for the Congo is once again directed towards the ‘how do we compete on a global level’, every policy thus far is centered around a society that I argue is not ready for such faced paced development.
The DRC still needs to address the issues that had retarded its progress, and this is far beyond just stopping the war in the East or ending corruption. Rather can be done by implementing a grassroots approach at empowering all levels of society. Like J.Nyere’s Ujamaa policy, the approach to African development should start from those who are most impacted. It requires major investments in agriculture, as well as the primary and secondary sectors of the economy. There needs to be a downsizes of government and serious budget cuts in government spending to allow for investments in sectors such as education, health, and public welfare. Now more than ever we need a more Sankaraist approach to societal development.
In conclusion, I am not saying we should be jubilant but rather that this jubilation should mean something. The congo has one of the highest rates of migration in the world, what independence is to be celebrated when the inheritors of the land are foreigners, pariahs in distant lands. The celebration of independence can only be complete when we are able to celebrate the achievements of the Congo. At the same time, we do celebrate the efforts of individuals like Dr. Denise Mukwege, Mutombo Dikembe, and many others who are actively investing their time and resources into improving the Congolese society. Is there still hope? Yes, there is, there is always hope and this hope is also for all other African countries. Independence euphoria blinds us from the realities that we face, somehow, inasmuch as people are jubilant and happy even if for one day, there needs to be a collective consciousness around the realities of what is taking place on the ground. In this way we being to think towards creating a better tomorrow. Freedom can only be celebrated when all peoples are equal access to the most basic societal infrastructures.
