For the last few days, I have been preparing a series of posts about the economic causes and human consequences of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As I have gathered my research, worked the Web and thought about what I would write, several things – a book and a movie – jogged my memory. As I did my research, I came across a website for an organization working to help victims in the DRC.
To excuse myself from the depressing process of categorizing the horror, I thought I would take a few minutes to talk about these three sources of important information that might give you, the reader, a better understanding into the tragedy that continues to unfold in central Africa. The book is The Mission Song, the movie is Hotel Rwanda and the cause is V-Day.
The Book: The Mission Song
The Mission Song is a book published a few years ago by the British spy novelist, John Le Carré.
Set against the background of the chaotic East Congo, the story involves the planning of a Western-backed coup in the province of Kivu, told from the view of a hapless interpreter. Although the events are fictional, the book evokes a detailed picture of the political and racial tensions of the region, highlighting the greed and amorality of local bureaucrats and Western interests, and calling attention to the apathy of the British press about the continuing humanitarian crisis of the Congo War.
Bruno Salvador is an orphaned child of a Catholic Irish missionary and a Congolese woman. Leading a life as an interpreter in London, he is recruited by a shadow arm of the British government to help in a coup to overturn a Congolese leader and capture quantities of coltan. His conflict between the love of his native country and the duty to his adopted country sets the struggle that this character must overcome.
As with most Le Carré novels, you wont find a happy end in this tale of woe. Published in 2006, the story is prescient in describing the economic roots of the continuing conflict in central Africa.
If you haven’t read The Mission Song, I would urge you to pick up a copy.
The Film: Hotel Rwanda
Released in 2004 and starring Don Cheadle, the movie tells the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda. Though set in Rwanda, it sits literally and figuratively in the heart of the conflict we are witnessing today in the DRC. Rent it from Netflix or buy it at Amazon.
The Call to Action: VDAY
V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sexual slavery.
In September 2008, V-Day Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo in partnership with UNICEF and organized two day-long events. For the first time in the history of the DRC survivors of sexual violence publicly speaking out against their rapes and the impact of violence on their lives. In front of authorities from the government of the DRC, the United Nations, various Embassies to the DRC, representatives from North Kivu civil society, and campaign activists, seven women told their stories of rape and issued a call to the world to put an end to the sexual violence that has afflicted hundreds of thousands of women and girls in the country.
Focusing on sexual violence in the eastern DRC, V-Day focuses on the crime of rape and its use as a weapon of war to torture and humiliate women and girls.
V-Day is blunt in describing the horror in the DRC. Their words brought home to me the impact of this terrible conflict in human terms. This isn’t just about ethnic rivalries and economic exploitation gone very wrong. They tell the story of the destruction of the human soul.
Read the book, watch the movie and most importantly support the cause.
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