OPINION

Why Congolese independence will be celebrated in Nashville this year | Opinion

The Congo Independence Day event is being organized by the newly formed Congo Renaissance Breath Corporation.

Stellor Nlandu-Khodo and Galen Hull
Guest columnists
  • Dr. Stellor Nlandu-Khodo is the principal founder and president of Congo Renaissance Breath Corporation.
  • Dr. Galen Hull is vice-president of Congo Renaissance Breath Corporation.

On Saturday, June 29, new Americans from the Democratic Republic of the Congo now residing in Tennessee will gather in the Global Mall to celebrate the 59th anniversary of the independence of their homeland from Belgian rule in 1960.

The event is being organized by the newly formed Congo Renaissance Breath Corporation. There will be authentic Congolese cuisine and traditional rumba style music to animate the occasion.

Today there are hundreds of persons of Congolese origin living in Tennessee. In 2008, the Tennessee Office for Refugees, which tracks the number of refugees by country of origin, reported only 16 persons of Congolese origin. By 2017 there had been a dramatic increase in the number from the DRC to over 300 – more than such countries as Iraq, Syria, and Somalia.

Over half of them were settling in the Nashville area. Those of us who have lived in the area for some time understand the attraction of settling in Music City.

What is this all about?

5. DR Congo • Pct. food insecure: 83.9% • Projected pct. food insecure, 2028: 75.2% • Total population: 85.3 million Nearly 84% of the population of the Democratic Republic of Congo is unable to consume the recommended 2,100 calories a day. Recurring violence and conflict in the country has led to significant population displacement, a common cause of food insecurity. Currently, 4.5 million Congolese have been forced to flee their homes and live elsewhere in the country. The typical person from DR Congo eats about 1,159 calories day, a 941 calorie-difference from the recommended 2,100 calories. This is the largest food gap among all 76 countries considered.

But what is propelling these Congolese away from their homeland, and why should you care?

  • Conflict in the DRC. No conflict since the end of World War II has been bloodier – yet few have been more ignored than in the Congo. A United Nations peace-keeping mission, begun in 2010, has been in operation ever since. The UN Organization Stabilization Mission was established to restore peace during a second Congo war, which has reportedly caused more than 5 million deaths, a figure similar to the number of Jews who died in the holocaust.
  • Ebola epidemic. The DRC recently recorded its 1,000th death caused by the Ebola virus which continues to claim lives in eastern Congo amid a climate of mistrust and repeated attacks on health workers. Five Ebola centers have been attacked, some by armed militia. There is an element of mistrust of first-responders to the contagion. A quarter of the people interviewed in a recent survey in Ebola hotspots said they did not even believe the disease was real.
  • Refugees. The UN High Commission for Refugees regional response plan for 2019-2020 for the DRC reports on the humanitarian challenge posed by the mounting number of Congolese refugees in the countries neighboring the DRC. By the end of 2018, the UNHCR reported that there were over 1 million Congolese refugees in seven neighboring countries of asylum.
  • Cobalt and your cell phone.  Lithium-ion rechargeable batteries are used in smart phones, laptops and electric vehicles. Cobalt — derived as a by-product of copper and nickel mining — is the element critical for powering this clean energy revolution.  The copper belt in the Congo and Zambia yields most of the global cobalt production, and demand for the batteries has recently contributed to a boom in cobalt prices.

A time of renewal

Notable Congolese:

  • Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the Nobel Peace prize in 2018 “for his efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war in the DRC.”  Born in the eastern region of the Congo, Mukwege studied medicine in Burundi, where he also worked in a hospital before going to France for training in gynecology. He founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu as a clinic for obstetric care, focused on caring for survivors of the ebola epidemic.  
  • DRC President Felix Tshisekedi, sworn in after winning a disputed December 2018 poll, the first change of government in the DRC via the ballot box since 1960. He had recently returned to Congo from exile to campaign against the sitting President, Joseph Kabila who had been in power for 20 years.

The Board of the newly formed Congo Renaissance Breath Corp and the Mayor’s Office on New Americans wishes to invite the public to join in celebrating Congo Independence and in looking to the future of that country by undertaking a program of renewal and renovation.

For further information about the country and the organization visit the website: https://www.crbcorpo.org.   

Dr. Stellor Nlandu-Khodo is the principal founder and president of Congo Renaissance Breath Corporation.

Dr. Galen Hull is vice-president of Congo Renaissance Breath Corporation.