• Congolese have mixed feelings on what they are celebrating
• Great natural riches either mismanaged or unexploited
• Will Joseph Kabila’s rule herald a new dawn?

More than 50 per cent of DR Congo’s people were born after 1960, the year of independence from Belgium.

They don’t know much about the Belgian Congo or the 80 years of colonial rule. The ‘new Congo’ they know of leaves them with mixed feeling even as it celebrates its 50th anniversary on June 30.

This Golden Jubilee is meant to celebrate the achievements the country has dreamed of, but the majority of Congolese are ambivalent over the significance of the event.

For the officials and the so-called “Fathers of independence”, who inherited power from the Belgians, the Jubilee is a great event. But for the younger generations, it is almost a non-event.

They consider the government’s investment of millions of dollars in the celebrations to be a misnomer in a country suffering from acute economic malaise and underdevelopment.

Jean-Pierre Tshibanda was born on June 30, 1960, the exact day of independence. He will be 50 years old on the Jubilee day. He has mixed sentiments about the 50 years of independence.

A big country

“What I can say is that I am proud to belong to such a big country called DRC in Central Africa, but at the same time, I regret the way the country has been managed. People live in great poverty while the country is so wealthy,” he says.

Tshibanda’s sentiments are shared by the majority of Congolese people.

Kamanda Kabongo, also 50 years old, is a taxi driver living in Kinshasa. He used to hear from his parents how life was better during the colonial period. Indeed, there are many in that generation who refer to Le bon vieux temps (the old good times) whenever they talk of the high cost of living today.

They like to say: “We had good schools and good hospitals and we did not suffer from hunger but, nowadays, we are lacking the minimum we need to live.”

Of course, this exaggerated nostalgia does not quite capture the rapacious colonial rule of the Belgians. It is a pointer to the massive disappointments the Congolese have endured since independence.
Kabongo was not surprised when his 25-year-old son Dunia asked: “Tell me dad, what is the government planning to celebrate exactly?”

Kabongo’s taxi business does not earn him enough money to educate his five sons, two daughters and two nephews.

His wife does not earn much either despite spending most of her time in the local market in Kinshasa’s Masina district.

Awful traffic jams

In the course of his taxi work, he has to deal daily with the awful traffic jams of Kinshasa as well as the diversions caused by road projects in various parts of the city.
Indeed, there have been a lot of infrastructure projects going on in the city, but residents link them primarily to the government’s desire to make Kinshasa look good for the visitors attending the Jubilee celebrations.