Chapter Twelve
June 3, 2021: My personal physicians have just given me a most alarming report, prefaced, however, with a bit of good news: my heart health remains excellent, meaning that I need not fear the infarction that carried off my father (and Eliyahu Josephai). But years of heavy smoking, prompted by constant stress, have created a condition known to the medical fraternity as “squamous cell,” or “NSCLC,” cancer, which has spread to my lymph nodes.
Naturally, these doctors were fearful that I might tirer sur le messager {shoot the messenger}. This fear prompted them to deliver their verdict as a quartet. (There are four of them.) It also prompted them to avoid pronouncing a definitive death sentence. Instead, les lâches {the cowards} have given me “anywhere from a few months to several years.” When I asked about treatments, they shrugged in unison, like a comedy team.
Among other effects (such as the necessity to wind up my affairs and to arrange the succession), this news means I no longer have the leisure to complete my memoir in the rambling, discursive fashion I have hitherto employed. Assuming that “a few months” is the most likely prognosis, I do not even have the luxury of indulging in a complete enumeration of the accomplishments of my reign, let alone penning un grand peroraison {peroration} of my almost-four decades in office. The following will have to suffice.
Among many projects to modernize the country, I am especially proud of Le Quartier Central, in Fort Chaltin. The erection of office and residential towers was begun in the mid-1990’s, and accelerated during the 2010’s. My critics will say that, in the aftermath of the 2007 plot to kill me, I bowed to their demands. As usual, that narrative is falsely self-serving. Anyone who wishes can consult Hans Motonnier, my ministere des affaires economiques, who will show them copies of contracts with the construction companies dating back to more than a decade before 2007. But those are the kind of facts the CPLN and my other critics choose to ignore.
Of several other modernization projects, I am perhaps proudest of the schools already mentioned, plus three regional medical centers, which now offer millions of our citizens state-of-the-art care. Finally, there is the half-built industrial park on the northern outskirts of the capital. Alas, I will probably not live to see the completion of this two-hundred hectare complex.
The plan includes a state-of-the-art automotive assembly plant, as well as an ISASMELT facility which, to anticipate, will use waste water to generate sufficient electricity to meet the needs of F.C.’s 1.2 million residents. These two facilities will give the lie to CPLN slanders about Ngongo’s reliance upon foreign-made goods and overseas processing of our natural resources. In Uganda, by contrast, copper ore is shipped from the mines to the Chinese city of Jinja, where a smelting plant was recently built. Everyone assumes that the Chinese consortium that owns the mines is shipping the ore back to the home country for smelting, and on to China’s legion of customers.
Our Fort Chaltin facility will also give the lie to those who claim my administration is cavalier about the environment. As everyone knows, the copper concentration process requires tremendous amounts of water. However, the aforementioned use of waste water from the smelting process to generate electricity means that, in effect, we will be wasting much less than smelting plants elsewhere.
Furthermore, in the new Fort Chaltin facility, the primary fuel to be used is coal, rather than coke. Although coal and coke are both types of fossil fuel, the difference between the two is that coke is mostly carbon, whereas coal contains mostly water and less than half the carbon content of coke. Thus, little Ngongo will be doing our bit to reduce climate change.
Another short diversion, this one historical. As the reader may suspect, over the years of my rule, necessity has sometimes given way to choice. Having had to deal extensively with copper-related matters, the history of that metal, especially in Africa, has become a hobby, of sorts.
I must inform those readers who think that Europeans were the first to introduce the smelting of copper to Africa that they are badly mistaken. They, the Europeans, were late by almost four millennia: copper smelting is thought to have been practiced in Nubia during the early Old Kingdom period (c. 2686–2181 B.C.)
I believe the first European-sponsored copper mine in Africa was begun four millennia later, in the 1680’s, on the “skeleton coast” of what is now northern Namibia. After that, in 1852, the O’okiep enterprise, founded by Cornishmen whose own mines had fallen on evil times, opened. Remittances from miners in Namaqualand helped to sustain those left behind in Cornwall, but many of the transplanted workers, themselves, succumbed to accidents and disease.
The O’okiep workings used a 50-inch Harvey engine to pump the water up from the shafts, after which it (the engine) was used to turn a water wheel. Remuneration followed the old Cornish “tut and tribute” system, by which some of the miners were paid according to the amount of rock they broke (“tut”), but others, more fortunate, by the value of the ore they produced (“tribute”). In 1876, a 148-kilometer railway was completed from the O’okiep mine to the useful harbor at Port Nolloth. (At the height of its prosperity, Port Nolloth boasted a 22-piece brass-and-reed band.) The O’okiep enterprise, having metamorphized into the Cape Copper Company, fell victim to the exigencies of World War One, closing in 1919. The railway also shut down, but not until 1941.
Cornishmen were not the only Europeans to figure in the twentieth-century copper industry in Africa. By 1921, in what is now the DRC, the Union Miniere completed a giant smelter in Katanga province, at Panda (or “Jadotville”). Most of the Belgians who ran the Katangan operation were trained in the U.S. or Australia. Thereafter, it was the big French banks that carried the company through the periods of crisis caused by precipitous declines in the world price of copper.
Meanwhile, the English developed their own thriving copper industry, in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia-to-be). The copper mines of both Congo and Rhodesia were (like Ngongo’s) concessions, financed by numerous European and American shareholders. The Americans (latecomers to the colonial scrum) invested heavily in the Northern Rhodesian mines. Thus, the African copper industry has long been international …
Can any of my ignorant critics boast a comparable depth of knowledge?
Although time precludes further enumeration of my accomplishments, I am proud to have been compared, as a modernizer, with Paul Kagame, the ruler of neighboring Rwanda. I am also proud to share this man’s belief in the necessity of sustained rule in Africa. In 2020, I completed my sixth term in office, and began my seventh, which, alas, I am now unlikely to complete. I am already senior to another neighbor, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, who began his own reign in 1986, a year after me. (I don’t count my namesake, that madman in the CAR, or any of those other petit poisson sénile {senile small fish}!)
But I am proud of the comparison frequently made between Kagame and myself, as long-serving rulers. He and I share a belief in stable rule as the ne plus ultra {leading priority} of African governance. Unlike myself, however, the Rwandan President is a recent convert to the idea. In 2013, denying the rumor that he would seek a then-illegal third term, Kagame warned, “Those who seek a third term will seek a fourth and a fifth.” And then, in 2017, he did just that! His current policy is called Nzaramba, meaning, “I will stay for long.” In power since 1994, PK could potentially rule until 2034, which would be forty years. If anyone must break my record (which currently stands at thirty-six), let it be M. Paul Kagame!46
An old man’s life should end in peace. Ha! Last year, alas, in 2020, Covid-19 struck, disrupting supply chains around the globe, including Ngongo’s. When, in August-September, 2021, Hurricane Ida ravaged the mighty U.S., I was consoled by the thought that hurricanes, at least, are one natural disaster that spares Africa (although our poor continent is not spared by cyclones!).
There is one final achievement that I must use my brief remaining time to note. I refer to a speech I delivered just two months ago. Rather than summarizing or paraphrasing this short address, I will quote it, verbatim:
From Copper to Coltan:
An address to the Economic Federation of Central-African States meeting in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 15 April 2021.
by Festus S.O. Nkwema
My dear brothers and sisters,
Habari za asubuhi! Good morning!
Those who have branded me an enemy of progress conveniently ignore the fact that it is under my watch that Ngongo has transitioned from copper to coltan. As technology advances in the “rich world” (now including China), little Ngongo has become a major supplier of coltan, an essential component in cellular telephones and other devices, not to mention jet engines, turbines, etc. etc.
And lest Ngongo be included among the states that suffer from the “single-resource curse,” we have continued to produce industrial-scale quantities of copper. Thus, under my leadership, our economy remains sufficiently diversified to withstand the price oscillations of fickle world markets.
Nor have I failed to maintain my country’s self-sufficiency in food production. By shrewdly making mutually beneficial arrangements with several prominent international NGOs, Ngongo has not succumbed to the blandishments of the IMF, the World Bank, or various UN agencies, whose self-serving demands for “structural adjustment” have left in their wake a trail of ruined economies across the global south.
Furthermore, had it not been for the interference of those pernicious running dogs of neocolonialism, the CPLN, Ngongo’s economic progress would have been even more remarkable. Since we finally settled their hash, in 2007, our annual GNP growth has accelerated exponentially. From an average annual rate of 6.7% in the years 1985-2006, it has risen to 23.4%, between 2008 and 2021. And when I, or my successors, manage to stamp out the residue of insurrection (most of it stage-managed from Nairobi and other centers of retrograde neo-colonialism), Ngongo will surely become the earthly paradise to which our resources, including human ones, so richly entitle us.47
Brothers and sisters, Nakushukuru! I thank you.48
Note 46: FN’s claims of being a modernizer involve technical matters that are, once again, “above my pay grade.” It is possible that his knowledge of the development of copper-mining in south-central Africa owes something to Owen Letcher’s and R.D. Dawe’s books on the subject, published, respectively, in 1932 and 1998. (See booklist, infra.) He obviously learned a great deal from Peter Obi, as well.
My efforts to confirm FN’s point about the dates of the Fort Chaltin contracts by communicating with Hans Motonnier were unsuccessful; the Minister never replied to my emails.
Regarding FN’s laudatory portrayal of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, according to most accounts, education in Rwanda is broad, but shallow. And a recent biographer writes of Kagame: “The ultimate control freak, the class geek has created a state in his own image: introverted, suspicious, unaccountable, and a prey to sudden violence.”
Note 47: FN persistently dismissed as slander the accusation that he was, himself, enslaved by neocolonialism. The evidence against him included not only his longtime liaison with his half-French paramour, Isa Poirier, and his failure to nationalize the copper (and coltan) industry, but his addiction to imported luxury automobiles.
Was this last accusation “slander”? Whereas his admired Robert Mugabe favored a pet blue Triumph he had bought in Ghana, FN’s brands of choice were Mercedes and Cadillac. After years of complaining about official “hearses,” Mlle. Poirier was later seen barreling around the capital in a custom gold-plated Mazda Miata.)
Note 48: Fittingly, some might say, these were the final words Festus Nkwema managed to dictate before his terminal agonies. His death took place during the early hours of February 14, 2022. Ten days later, Russia invaded Ukraine, triggering hyper-inflation across the globe, including in Ngongo, where the price of a loaf of bread reached U.S.$16.)
Email exchange with Mihajlo Horvat:
As FN’s health declined, signaling his impending death, I decided to contact “Mike” Horvat. If I waited, I feared, even a ruthless mercenary like Horvat might share the superstitious dread of speaking ill of the dead. By 2021, having recently “retired” (reportedly at the urging of Paul-Auguste Nkwema), Horvat was living in luxurious obscurity in Cap d’Antibes, France. (This was, coincidentally, the abode of retired solider Francois Abiero. See my email exchange with Abiero at the end of Chapter Three, supra.)
It was Julius Nkwema who provided me with Mike Horvat’s email address. Since I asked Mike two signally important questions, in order for the reader to understand his replies, I think it advisable to include complete texts of both our emails.
—RS
Dear Chef de Securite’,
As you may be aware, I have been commissioned to edit the memoirs of one of your longtime employers, Ngongo’s second President, Festus S.O. Nkwema. To give a full and accurate picture of his long, complex reign, I am trying to contact some of the people who played leading roles in the history of Independent Ngongo (1960-the present). To that end, I would be grateful if you could see your way toward responding to two specific questions:
—Why, having faithfully served FN’s predecessor, Alphonse Batakoudou, as Chef de Securite’, for 25 years, did you agree to stay on in the service of FN, when he was rumored to have personally executed AB?
—How did Pierre Tshombe manage to escape from his captivity by La Force NKN during the night of July 14-15, 2007? I ask because his capture, like everything else you did in Ngongo, was so efficient that the escape seems improbable.
Thanking you very much for your time and possible assistance,
Sincerely,
Ron Singer
Fort Chaltin, Ngongo
November 21, 2021
Mr. Singer,
You flatter me grossly, sir! Since we old policemen, so often reviled, are far from immune to flattery, I will attempt to answer both of your questions.
As to why I continued to serve, after Batakoudou’s 1985 demise, I can recall three principal motives. Besides the obvious, mercenary one (my service, under both Presidents, was amply remunerated), I greatly enjoyed the work. Finally, Monsieur, as a professional, I cared deeply about the welfare of Ngongo. (I am certain that FN’s memoir does not stint on the constant threats to the nation’s security that we faced together!)
Your second question can also be answered more simply: Pierre Tshombe’s jailer was bribed. It was a rich bribe, 10,000 CFA. (If, as I suspect, you are an American, you probably know that this amount would have been the equivalent, in 2007, of above U.S $35,000.) But the miscreant paid for his greed with his life, and the money wound up in Ngongo’s coffers!
You will excuse me, Monsieur Singer, if I greffer {piggy-back} onto your questions with one of my own, which is actually a business proposition. I, too, am contemplating the authorship of a memoir, and I wonder if you might be interested in serving as combination editor and ghost writer. If this proposition interests you, I will, of course, provide further details. But since I am a robust 74-year-old, and I expect the Nkwema memoir will occupy you for at least a few more years, there will be ample time for the partnership I am offering to come to fruition.
Sincerely,
Mihajlo “Mike” Horvat
Cap d’Antibes, France
December 10, 2021
What can I say? I was flabbergasted! As to Horvat’s replies to my questions, I must have recourse to a platitude, “depending on whom you believe… .”
Mike’s connivance in AB’s murder can be seen as an attempt either to right Ngongo’s ship of state or to save his own skin. As for Pierre Tshombe’s escape, the amount of the bribe (CFA 10,000) has been confirmed by several sources. But they also agree that the actual recipient was Mike Horvat, and that the careless jailer, tortured, poisoned, and then asphyxiated, served as his scapegoat. The money, of course, never found its way into the nation’s Treasury. One source opines that the CFA 10,000 served for a down payment on Horvat’s Riviera estate. —RS
FN’s running narrative about his marriage contains such blatant contradictions, and his sons’ versions are also so contradictory, that I thought it advisable to try to obtain Sarah Abete Nkwema’s perspective.
Paul-Auguste informed me that his mother currently resides in the duplex penthouse of a high-rise apartment building in Fort Chaltin’s Quartier Central. (Shortly before his death, FN willed the deed to this apartment to Sally.) Paul also provided me with Sarah Nkwema’s contact information.
After several email requests for a meeting went unanswered, I tried her cell phone, but my call went immediately to Message, which informed me that the first lady was in seclusion, and that anyone who had business with her should contact Paul-Auguste. So I was back where I started, and must leave it to the reader to attempt to infer from the accounts of FN and his sons the truth about the marriage.
—RS
Epilogue
(press release appearing in the newspaper, Le Chronicle ngongien, 21 February 2022)
I am honored to announce that I have just been named Official Candidate of the newly formed Parti Ngongien Democratique (PND) to contest next month’s Presidential election. Should I emerge victorious, as independent Ngongo’s third Head of State, I pledge to uphold the legacy of my late father, Festus S. O. Nkwema, who labored tirelessly for almost four decades on behalf of the citizens, rich and poor, of our great nation.
—Paul-Auguste Nkwema
The End
AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ngongo Chronicle could not have been written without access to the resources of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library. I owe special thanks to the helpful and congenial librarians in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division.
The first two books in the Uhuru trilogy also drew upon the resources of the Schomburg Collection. Additional research for all three books was done at the Stephen A. Schwarzman branch of the NYPL, both in the Wertheim Room for NYPL Fellows, and in the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division. Finally, my “expertise” in Mineralogy is actually not mine. Geologist John Slack kindly took the time to correct many gaffes, minor and major, about minerals.
SOURCES (1)
Atkinson, Ronald. A History of the Western Acholi of Uganda, c. 1575-1900 (Northwestern University doctoral dissertation, Evanston, IL, 1978).
Behrend, H Alice. Lakwena & the Holy Spirits: War in Northern Uganda 1986–97 (James Currey, Oxford, 1999).
Bruder, Edith. The Black Jews of Africa (Oxford University Press, 2008).
Carollo, Fr. Bruno. Lwoo Proverbs, Acoli & Lango (Comboni Missionaries, Kampala, Uganda, 1998).
Danwatch, “Impacts of Copper Mining on People and Nature”
Daughton, J.P. In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Ocean Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism (W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2021).
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Glaser, Clyde. The ANC Youth League. Ohio Short Histories of Africa (Auckland Park South Africa, 2012)
https://www.glencoretechnology.com/.rest/api/v1/documents/3f912fe463bebc7f0de40789ad95b319/XTpaper_Mopani_MSUPyromet05.pdf
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4199-there-is-no-perfection-only-life
google translator: English to French, Acholi, Lugbara and Swahili.
Gwyn, David (pseudonym). Idi Amin, Death-Light of Africa (Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1977).
SOURCES (2)
Harris, Bronwyn. A Foreign Experience: Violence, crime and xenophobia during South Africa’s transition. Violence and Transition Series, Vol 5, August 2001.
http://www.csvr.org.za/docs/racism/aforeignexperience.pdf
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Letcher, Owen. South Central Africa… with special reference to the Mineral Industry (African Publications, Johannesburg, 1932).
Melady, Thomas Patrick. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: Selections From His Writings (F.A. Praeger, 1964)
Moller, Bjorn. Religion and Conflict in Africa, with a Special Emphasis on East Africa (Danish Institute for International Studies, DIIS, 2006).
Ngomlokojo, Jalobo Jacan. The Acholi, My Souvenir (typeset and printed by Rutsam Computer Services, Kampala, 1999)
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Schatzberg, Michael G. Mobutu or Chaos? The United States and Zaire, 1960-1990 (University Press of America, Lanham, MD; & Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia, PA, 1991).
Sebina-Zziwa, Abbey et al. Emerging Land Related Issues in the Acholi Sub-Region: Northern Uganda (Makerere Institute of Social Research, sponsored by the United St301ates Institute of Peace (USIP, Washington D.C. March 2008).
Ron Singer, “Talking with Norm Rush,” Peace Corps Writers (July 2008).
Ron Singer, “Their Countries of Origin,” Transnational Literature (2014).
Smalberger, John M. Aspects of the History of Copper Mining in Namaqualand 1846-1931 (C. Struik, Cape Town, 1975).
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Wells, H.G. The Complete Short Stories (Ernest Benn Limited, London, and St. Martin’s Press, Inc. New York, first published 1927, 22nd edition published 1974). Quotations are from p. 91.
Wikipedia: multiple entries for, e.g., Acholi, Lugbara, Ngbandi, copper, the virus of 1968-70, etc. —e.g. for copper smelting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISASMELT
Mopani_Copper_Mines
Wrong, Michela. Do Not Disturb. (4th Estate, London, 2021).
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