My beloved Congo,
The joke of the African continent
The world’s gold, diamond, and coltan mine
Rwanda’s concubine

This country of mine,
Poisoned with the swine that is Western policy
Westerners and Asians exploit the riches
But live behind gated communities
With underpaid Congolese security

So they’re closing the door
On fractured Congolese faces with one hand,
While robbing her of her resources with the other
And no province is safe
Because some of our own,
Corrupted Congolese leaders,
Are involved in this race

But even they can’t keep pace
In the face of our Rwandan aggressors,
Annexing our spirit
To their sickened, stricken, sinister soul
To such an extent that to now call eastern Congo,
You must dial Rwandan area codes
While they toy with the possibility
Of introducing Rwandan currency in the east

The United Nations talks of peace
Knowing full well
That peace can only be attained
Through violence

Jean Pierre Bemba
Becoming the Congolese Prime Minister
Can only happen through violence

Child soldiers
Fighting in fear
Of retribution on their families,
Join in the spread of violence

Raping my mother country
And spilling her black coltan blood
Only continues through VIOLENCE

But when I talk to you
About Congolese genocide
With Western compliance
Your response - silence!

I know
Because I used to be just like you,
Sittin’ there smilin’
While other folks lie dyin’
Even bought my wife-to-be a diamond
And probably spilled the blood
Of a distant cousin for it
And chose to ignore it

But now I’ve visited Congolese refugee camps
To find that
There’s not even any refuge for refugees
Abandoned Congolese mothers and children
Living in tents
Made out of empty rice bags
While lice drags through their hair

And their daughters
Living in despair,
Start having babies
At 12-years-old
With 50-year-old married men
With no humility
Who pay them $.25
For their virginity
And the possibility of exchange for AIDS
While the World Bank
Gives this absentee father of a government aid

But I’m searching for a cure for both diseases
Because 4,000,000 have died in 4 years
And too many orphans are shedding tears

As they start dying in the street
At 11 years old
Because even though it’s hot on the outside,
Their inner spirits are cold
From walking around starving in a capital city
That barely has paved roads

And eating ½ a meal a day
Can’t heal that
Living on less than $1 a month
Won’t heal that
And since you only see
Israel and Palestine on the news
Y’all can’t feel that

So I’m hoping that a thousand words
Can be worth a picture
Because this image of the Congo
May not fit your stomach
But it’ll fit your fingers with diamonds,
Your ears with gold,
Your cell phones with coltan,
While newly discovered Congolese oil
Heats your house when it’s cold

But y’all still don’t give a damn
Even when I talk to you
About Congolese with polio,
Walking as if their left knee
Was glued to their left hand

See there may be a cure for measles and malaria
But there’s no medicine for misery
In a country being steered
In the wrong direction
With children dying
From all types of infection
And 12-year-old girls condemned to death
Because rich married men,
Don’t use protection
And all of their relationships
End in rejection
It’s like the entire country’s suffering
From a lethal injection

A second genocide in less than 100 years
That’s gone without mention
Along with the fact that we’ve gone 12 years
Without an election
On the Congolese street
Called the “Avenue of the Future”,
…That’s where my father was tortured
And nearly died in detention
So you’ll have to forgive me
When I say that our future looks bent in
The eyes of the people

And I’m also pissed off because,
They say, “Long live an independent Congo”,
But I don’t remember when it ever was

The international community correctly condemns Congolese corruption
By questioning where the ministers bought their cars from
But the world’s ears become deaf
When I ask where our invaders got their arms from?

This is the Congo damn it!
And ain’t none of it funny
Americans who work here
Say it’s a great place to make money
Folks with connections from Bush to Bin Laden
Steady robbin’ this country of her resources
Through Lebanese liaisons
Living in the land of internationally sanctioned genocide
Where
Pathetic US
+ Putrid UN policies
= Pesticide

Claiming that they’ve finally brokered peace
But don’t let them fool ya
’Cause up ‘til today
We’re still diggin’ up body bags in Bunia

Because their role in the Congo
Supports nothing but violence
Our continual purchase of Congolese riches
That never benefit the masses—compliance
Possible experiments with untested AIDS drugs
On unsuspecting Congolese—in the name of science
Poems like this to try to wake us all up—a simple act of defiance
All I’m asking for my beloved Congolese people—self-reliance
But when I ask you to help me heal the hurting heart of Africa,
Your response—SILENCE!

(Written in Kinshasa, 2002)

• Urban Music Award winner Omékongo Dibinga, M.A., is a motivational speaker, rapper, and poet. He is the Founder & CEO of Free Your Mind Publishing. A first generation Congolese-American, Omékongo writes and performs in English, French, Swahili, and occasionally has used Wolof. He has released 4 CDs, 2 books, and 1 DVD. He is the host of “Flava,” an international satellite hip-hop radio show in Asia, Europe, and Africa. He has performed/lectured in the United States, South Africa, England, Congo-Kinshasa, Tanzania, France, Cuba, and Canada. His work has been televised in over 130 countries. For more information, please visit
• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Congolese poet Omékongo wa Dibinga shares three of his poems with us exploring the attitudes towards Africa, aid and development. For more information see

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover
But it has become appallingly clear
That you can judge an entire continent
By its media coverage

You can color a whole continent dark
With the paint of poorly placed perception
When you rely on the media
To teach you your Africa lessons

Because I come from a continent,
That the world thinks is a country
And to put it bluntly,
We’re all HIV positive
Until proven negative
In the eyes of the media

It’s like Africa is either one big safari
Or Kalahari with seethin’ heathens
With no sense of religion
And home to animals and animism

Because TV renditions of African afflictions
Have created a depiction
Of a land of savages
Where the world’s most dreadful diseases
Exceed the law of averages
And since American TV
Only shows the ravages of a select few nations
Most Americans juxtapose the mother of civilization
With phrases like “damnation” and “starvation”

So if we don’t control our own images,
We can’t expect to see
A true representation of our beauty

Most non-Africans believe that the most
Africa has given to the world
Are phrases like “Hakuna mtata”
And “Asante sana squash banana”
Along with exotic vacations in remote locations
‘Cause I’ve never heard an American TV news station
Even say we’re made up of 54 nations

In the eyes of the media,
We’re just underdeveloped wannabe Caucasians
Still searching for civilization
If you buy the media’s interpretation
Of who we are
But am I taking this too far?

Because to me,
The real problem be the WB, ABC, & NBC
Which are the real WMD:
Weapons of Mind Destruction

Because too many people
Including many Africans
See what they see
Through the smart bombs they call TV
And it’s not just the newscasts,
It starts at age 3

Because I grew up
Watching images of Bugs Bunny
Dressed in grass skirts and black face
Speaking in “African dialects”
And every 10 years,
There’s a new version of Tarzan on the TV set

And I don’t know about y’all,
But I recall seeing gorillas pass for Africans
In those “Tin-Tin” cartoons
And if you remove
Marvin Martians’ helmet from Looney Tunes
He’s probably an African illegal alien
Or a fallen, faithless, famine-stricken African child
With his stomach protruded

And it’s these convoluted characterizations
That have helped in creating grown-up policy makers
Who partially base their opinions of our homeland
From films such as “Congo”,
“Gorillas in the Midst” and “The Air up There”
And we can’t forget “Tears of the Sun”
Which left too many tears on the sons and daughters of Africa,
Searching for a beautiful representation
Of our native land

But that won’t happen until we Africans
Take responsibility for our portrayal
Because the betrayal of our friends
From FOX, CBS, and CNN
Means we will never see-an-end
To caricatures of the continent of human creation
Which has been made to look
Like she’s on her deathbed
And ready for cremation

But we will show the world
That our Mother Africa is strong, vibrant and defiant
Because the pulse of nearly a billion people can never die
When WE control what the world sees,
So we must never comply
To pictures painted by pessimists on TV of our homeland
For we are the pulse of Africa
And we will now show the world
How proudly we will stand!

• Urban Music Award winner Omékongo Dibinga, M.A., is a motivational speaker, rapper, and poet. He is the Founder & CEO of Free Your Mind Publishing. A first generation Congolese-American, Omékongo writes and performs in English, French, Swahili, and occasionally has used Wolof. He has released 4 CDs, 2 books, and 1 DVD. He is the host of “Flava,” an international satellite hip-hop radio show in Asia, Europe, and Africa. He has performed/lectured in the United States, South Africa, England, Congo-Kinshasa, Tanzania, France, Cuba, and Canada. His work has been televised in over 130 countries. For more information, please visit
• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

What does development aid really mean?
Does it mean managing money to mobilize against HIV
Or driving through southern Sudan in an SUV?
Does it mean the improvement of life,
Since many join the development enterprise to improve their lifestyle?
Does it mean giving 1/10 of 1% of your GNP
And having 1/3 of that funnel its way to those in need,
Since most of the aid goes to pay aid agency staff salary?
What does it mean?
Development aid is well-intentioned
But in this new millennium we have to learn our lesson
Because I'd rather have no aid than slow aid or low aid
If it means that development agencies will give funds
To governments for pipelines and pesticides
But indirectly support a genocide
Or have we forgotten the extreme case of Rwanda,
Where 80% of development aid went to the pre-genocide government
Even though all of the signs of the genocide were in place
But agencies for aid
Paid it no mind as long as that well-water became potable
...or that fertilizer ferry became floatable
... or that minimal rise in literacy became notable
Just noticeable enough to give uplifting quotable statistics on report backs to donors
Please!
Misguided, top-down development enforces the politics of exclusion
Because in collusion with repressive governments,
The poorest of the poor never receive assistance in fields like subsistence farming
And it's quite alarming
Because aid agencies never realize their agency in societal conflicts
Because they claim to take an "apolitical" approach
But they fail to see how misdirected, top-down aid can encroach
On a politically fragmented society
And exacerbate it by further disempowering the disempowered
Primarily by working with government-appointed elites
So we have to rethink development
Because many of us don't understand what to "develop" meant in the first place
I'm calling for a structural adjustment program of Structural Adjustment Programs
And other policies that claim or claimed to assist developing homelands
Because development doesn't mean that we can have Afrikan Growth & Opportunity
When the resources we use don't come from our own community
It doesn't mean fancy dinners in classy hotels
With money given to decrease mortality rates for newborn children
And if aid can’t be given to a government
Without a care for ensuring the rights of every child, woman and man
Then I'll be damned before I say that everything is “ok” with development aid

It's time to ensure that our dollars are being spent on education and public health
As opposed to Safari vacations and private wealth
For foreign experts and host government hierarchies
And if we can have vouchers at home
Why not have developing country vouchers
So good governments can choose the best development projects for their land
Instead of generic plans from those claiming to know what's best for the destitute?
Development aid can't be looked at as a Wall Street business transaction
Where investors are only worried about the comeback
We need to come back and revise our strategy
Because we'll all be glad to see the day
When development aid is not only concerned
With promising statistics on cocoa revenues, crop distribution,
And more village midwives
Because few lives will be improved or saved
Unless the poorest of the poor truly receive the majority of the aid
So until the day when underdeveloped development dreams
Are redeveloped for developing countries
Development aid will never be what is seems
And if we continue to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to this preventable predicament
Then the poorest of the world's poor will continue to ask:
"What does development aid really mean?”

*Partially inspired by Dr. Peter Uvin’s Aiding Violence

• Urban Music Award winner Omékongo Dibinga, M.A., is a motivational speaker, rapper, and poet. He is the Founder & CEO of Free Your Mind Publishing. A first generation Congolese-American, Omékongo writes and performs in English, French, Swahili, and occasionally has used Wolof. He has released 4 CDs, 2 books, and 1 DVD. He is the host of “Flava,” an international satellite hip-hop radio show in Asia, Europe, and Africa. He has performed/lectured in the United States, South Africa, England, Congo-Kinshasa, Tanzania, France, Cuba, and Canada. His work has been televised in over 130 countries. For more information, please visit
• Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org