Ota Benga Alliance For Peace, Healing and Dignity

Following is a talk given in French by Ernest Wamba dia Wamba on January 12, 2009, at a ceremony commemorating the 5th anniversary of the Mbongi a Nsi. An English translation is attached.

1. L’histoire qui a commencé avec la rencontre inaugurale avec les Européens, au 15ème siècle, continue toujours sa trajectoire : de la traite négrière aux formes modernes de servitude, se focalisant sur la réduction des habitants à n’être que de la main d’œuvre la moins chère possible ou simple objet de l’humanitarisme—fondé sur la charité—mais pas vraiment une partie intégrale de l’humanité avec laquelle avoir une relation égalitaire de solidarité.  read more »

Mandisi Majavu is with the Africa Project for Participatory Society. On December 16, 2008, he conducted the following interview by email with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, who directs the Ota Benga Alliance's sister organization in Kinshasa, the Ota Benga Center for Human Dignity.  read more »

Due to technical difficulties, otabenga.org has been unavailable for some weeks. We regret this lapse and will do all we can to prevent a repetition. Meanwhile, some of our posts may be a bit behind-the-times.

Terna Gyuse, Africa Regional Editor for Inter-Press Service interviewed Ernest Wamba dia Wamba by email on November 17, 2008.

Gyuse: Ethnicity is often put forward as the key factor in the conflict in this region. You have a different view: what is the conflict really about?
Wamba dia Wamba: Strictly speaking, ethnicity or tribalism is a particular mode of functioning of a State--the colonial one that organized, conquered, or colonized people administratively by dividing them into tribes.  read more »

Reposted from Afrik.com, November 1, 2008.

Le média doit participer à une gestion durable des massifs forestiers du Nord Congo

L’organisation Tropical Forest Trust et la Congolaise Industrielle du Bois - la première compagnie forestière au Congo, pays où vient de s’achever le 6e Forum mondial du développement - sont à l’origine du projet de radio pygmée Biso na Biso. Le média communautaire devrait émettre à partir de janvier dans la concession forestière de Pokola, dans le Nord Congo. L’une de ses missions sera d’intégrer les Pygmées dans les efforts de gestion durable des forêts. Précisions de Norbert Gami, coordinateur du programme.  read more »

As events unfold in DRC, the usual questions are being asked: who is responsible for the current war within the war, which never really ended in 2003, and its ensuing humanitarian crisis? In the pages of one of the most respected dailies of Kinshasa (Le Potentiel), well-known philosophers have offered conflicting ways of looking at, and analyzing, the conflict.  read more »

Following is an interview on October 31, 2008, by Pambazuka News editor-in-chief Firoze Manji with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, founder and director of our sister organization, the Ota Benga Center for Human Dignity in Kinshasa, DRC. The interview will appear in a forthcoming issue of Pambazuka News, but we are posting it early because of the critical events now taking place in the DRC.  read more »

Reposted from The Independent/UK October 30, 2008.

What is rarely mentioned is the great global heist of Congo's resources

The deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe is starting again -- and you are almost certainly carrying a blood-soaked chunk of the slaughter in your pocket.  read more »

A paper presented at the 5th International Conference of La Via Campesina, Maputo, October 16-23, 2008.

Preamble: Looking for some principles and avoiding the syndrome of discovery

In order to live one needs to eat and in order to live one needs more than just food. In a world ruled by worshippers of the Market, it has come to be accepted that principles of justice, solidarity shall take second rank to everything else. Indeed that is why one hears more and more often of the distinction between justice and social justice as if calling for the former will not automatically cover those most affected by the growing disappearance of justice and equality.  read more »

The problem of the DRC remains almost the same: externally influenced decisions always call for more and more external interventionism. As far as I know, there has not been a real sum-up of UN peace missions in the DRC since the 1960s. The presence of MONUC [United Nations Mission in the Congo] prevents the leadership from taking the necessary measures to build a real army and a real policy for defending the country. Especially when one sees that certain members of MONUC have been accused of involvement in looting resources, one should be very careful in bringing more UN troops.  read more »