Ota Benga Alliance For Peace, Healing and Dignity

Dear All,

I am responding to Ernest's [Wamba dia Wamba] message upon his return from Lower Congo and the sense of urgency he conveyed--especially with regard to the work of healing the country and his involvement with a network of people eager to figure a way out of the catastrophic situation in which the country finds itself.

After I read it, I felt really down and, briefly, could not figure out why. After all, there was nothing specifically bad or negative. My initial reaction was to remind Ernest that OBA's fundraising capacity is not up to par, for now. I felt that such a response did not respond to what I felt I was being called to do.

Then, in the evening I started reading a book written by Françoise Laroussinie (Tête en l'air: Du soleil pour les enfants malades). One of her children was Cécile, who died of a brain tumor in 1975. The book is difficult to summarise because it is a story which goes way way beyond just describing how Cécile died after a two-year battle, or how out of that battle she started a school (sort of ) in one of the Centers in Paris for treating children with brain cancers, so that while they are being treated, they can continue some school activities, however hard it may be.

When she realizes that Cécile is so sick that she will lose her, her mother is shaken up because she thinks that she has not been as generous as she could have been with Cécile, and she begins to splurge on her. Not just on things, but also on quality time with her. For some reason, in my head, Cécile was like the DRC, and I was like Cécile's mother. I know, it sounds very far fetched, but you do have to understand that, for a few years now, I have lived with the knowledge that the DRC is a terminally sick country. Ernest and others have been warning that a state of emergency should be declared. To no avail. Surely, I keep telling myself, one should be able to do more than one is already doing.

Those who are supposed to see how sick the country is (the so-called leaders) cannot be bothered. In fact, they are convinced they are doing a good job...because that is what they are being told by their international masters. But the tragedy is NOT with the leaders, it is with us, well-meaning people who, little by little, accept the unacceptable or, at least, get so accustomed to the unacceptable that it no longer bothers our consciences.

Describing the DRC as in a state of emergency may sound to some like rhetoric, but it is not. However, repeating it over and over and still seeing no change in mindsets could make one sound just like the usual talker, academic, activist....saying their stuff (as one is expected to). Worldwide, we belong to the privileged. Ernest could have chosen to step out of Kinshasa. He opted to stay and risk everything, because that is the only thing he felt he could do. Remember when Ernest wrote about Marx dying of hunger at the British Museum Library?

I keep racking my brain about how to change things, how to fund-raise in more efficient ways, but also in ways which are rooted in solidarity and not charity.

To finish, here is the quote the mother of Cécile chose under the dedication (it is taken from Fernando Pessoa):

Toute âme digne d'elle-même
souhaite vivre la vie à l'extrême.

Se contenter de ce qu'on vous done,
c'est se conduir en exclave.

Demander davantage,
C'est se conduire en enfant.

Conquérir un peu plus,
c'est être fou...

(A soul worthy of itself
Wishes to live life to the fullest.

To be happy with what one gives you,
is to behave like a slave.

To ask for more,
is to behave like a child.

To conquer a bit more,
is to be mad.... )

The other thought that came as I read was that, in fact, the entire Planet has become sick, but those who are supposed to know how sick it is do not have a clue. Interestingly, it took FOUR MONTHS for doctors, yes in France, to finally understand the cause of Cécile's symptoms. As a footnote, one of the symptoms was regular violent vomiting, something Dr. Spock had warned in his book was a sure sign that there is something wrong in the brain. And so with the Planet, so with the DRC: all kinds of diagnoses have been made, but the one which would, might (???) lead to real caring, to real healing, does not happen because the nature of the system is not pro-life, but pro-death.

At the end of the book, there is a series of organizations, associations which have grown out of parents trying to change the relationship between caring in hospitals, the children and the parents and schooling. Tête en l'Air is one of the organizations (co-founded by Cécile's mother). It is a beautiful example of a slow but steady transofrmation of the mindset AGAINST what is established.

Take care, jd