Lynn iPulse Student Newspaper

He traveled more than 7,000 miles to come to Lynn University. He had never been here before, but Lynn held the hope of his future. As the son of a Zimbabwean refugee and a victim of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s war, coming to study abroad was a dream come true.
Bernard Londoni, a senior in Lynn’s international relations program, was not going to take this opportunity for granted. Londoni is involved in several aspects of the university, from working as an admissions ambassador, to being the President of the Student Government Association. Londi is currently in Washington D.C. and will be presenting at the United Nations Week 2008. Recently Londoni shared his story with the iPulse.

Q: Why did you choose to come to Lynn?
A: I didn’t have the chance to visit Lynn Campus while I was applying to schools in the U.S. I was moved by what the recruiter, Juan Camilo Tamayo, presented about Lynn when he came to Zimbabwe for a college fair with a couple of other American schools in 2004. Also, Lynn was the only school which awarded me a comprehensive scholarship.
Q: What do you hope to achieve at Lynn?
A: I came to Lynn with a great dream to get my degree. With the help of dedicated teachers and caring people in this community, I have been able to overcome some challenges.
My hope is to graduate at Lynn with the highest possible GPA I can and to pursue my graduate school in global affairs or public policy.

Q: What campus activities are you involved in?
A: I’m the Student Government Association President. Given that I have high responsibility, I am limited my involvement in other things but contribute a lot to the International Affairs Society.
Before I became the SGA president, I was the president of the International Affairs Society, an active member of the Honors Colloquium, Rotaract Club and the Resident Hall Association.

Q: What difficulties did you endure coming to Lynn?
A: As a son of a refugee in Zimbabwe, I had a serious financial crisis given the fact that my family lost everything at the time of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
It was hard for me to afford even a single dollar to pay towards my education. Fortunately, Lynn University assessed my academic credentials, and I was awarded the most prestigious university scholarship: the Presidential Scholarship.

Q: How is the DRC different from the USA?
A: The DRC is different from the USA in so many ways. First, the culture: I struggled a lot during my freshman year with cultural differences, but when one lives in a community, one learns how to be a part of that community.
Although the DRC is a land full of economic potential, it is regarded as a poor country due to the bad governance of our leaders. The political will in the U.S. is far better than in the Congo. We still have to work on a lot of things to make our government work for the people.

Q: What is the culture like in the DRC?
A: Congolese people, like most Africans, believe in African culture. We are the people of culture, and we truly value those cultures. We value people, we respect each other and we give great respect to adults and parents.

Q: What are the main political issues in the DRC?
A: Ethnic conflicts are the main political issues in the country.
The other main political issue today is what Congolese call “Regionalism.” This is the process by which leaders who are in power concentrate power in the hands of people who are originally from the same area they were born.
The last thing I can mention is corruption and the inability to empower those who have the aptitude to bring about real reforms. The people in power want to keep power until they die and don’t want to be challenged.

Q: What do you think are the solutions to these issues?
A: I believe in the power of unity. It is the notion of unity which once again can bring Congolese together to reconstruct their country.

Q: What is your hope for the future in Africa?
A: My hope is that African leaders change their ways. We need new leaders from new generations who have the understanding of current world politics.
One of the things I encourage African countries to do is to train more young people men and women. I believe that if a country fails to provide necessary leadership, a country and its people suffer.

THE CRISIS IN THE CONGO
The Epicenter of Africa’s Greatest Conflict and First World War

A capture of life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A vast country with immense economic resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) has been at the centre of what could be termed Africa’s world war. This has left it in the grip of a humanitarian crisis.
The five-year conflict pitted government forces, supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Despite a peace deal and the formation of a transitional government in 2003, the threat of civil war remains.
The war claimed an estimated three million lives, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition. It has been called possibly the worst emergency to unfold in Africa in recent decades.
The war had an economic as well as a political side. Fighting was fuelled by the country’s vast mineral wealth, with all sides taking advantage of the anarchy to plunder natural resources.
The history of DR Congo has been one of civil war and corruption. After independence in 1960, the country immediately faced an army mutiny and an attempt at secession by its mineral-rich province of Katanga.
A year later, its prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, was seized and killed by troops loyal to army chief Joseph Mobutu.
In 1965 Mobutu seized power, later renaming the country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko. He turned Zaire into a springboard for operations against Soviet-backed Angola and thereby ensured US backing. But he also made Zaire synonymous with corruption.
After the Cold War, Zaire ceased to be of interest to the US. Thus, when in 1997 neighbouring Rwanda invaded it to flush out extremist Hutu militias, it gave a boost to the anti-Mobutu rebels, who quickly captured the capital, Kinshasa, installed Laurent Kabila as president and renamed the country DR Congo.
DR Congo’s troubles continued. A rift between Mr Kabila and his former allies sparked a new rebellion, backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe took Kabila’s side, turning the country into a vast battleground.
Despite coup attempts and sporadic violence a fragile peace has held since the formal end of the war. But the Kinshasa government has no control over large parts of the country and tension remains high in the east.
Moreover, the lot of DR Congo’s citizens is little improved. The Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, said in 2005 that 1,000 people were dying every day from war-related causes, including disease, hunger and violence.
Source: BBC News

HISTORY OF THE CONGO
Extensive European Exploitation and Oppression

Portrait of King Leopold II.

The country’s history is a tragic story of an incredible potential that’s been brutally dashed by foreign interference and home-grown oppression. The incredible richness of Congo (Zaïre) in terms of natural resources has been the country’s downfall. First the population was horribly exploited by ivory and rubber traders during the country’s private ownership by Belgian King Leopold II.
‘Dr Livingstone, I presume.’ The self-promoting adventurer and explorer Henry Morton-Stanley allegedly spoke those words after his famous journey into Central Africa in search of the good Dr David Livingstone. Legend has it Dr Livingstone was surprised to find he was considered missing.
After this ‘coup’, broadly publicised in newspapers around the world, Stanley continued along the Congo River, staking out the huge territory on its south bank for the Belgian King Leopold II in 1881. The Congo then enjoyed the dubious position of being the only colony ever to be owned by one man.
King Leopold II, monarch of one of Europe’s smallest countries, proceeded to exploit one of Africa’s largest countries, amassing a vast personal fortune without ever once visiting the country.
Hideous crimes were committed against the Congolese by King Leopold’s rubber and ivory traders. These crimes included raiding villages and taking all the women and children captive as an incentive for the men to bring back ever-greater supplies of rubber from the forest. Those who did not bring back their quota often had their hands chopped off.
All the while, in one of the earliest examples of a public relations campaign, King Leopold II passed off his Congo venture as a shining example of disinterested benevolent rule aimed at ‘civilising the Negroes’ and keeping the ‘cruel Arab slave-traders’ at bay.
Eventually, the Belgian government agreed to buy the territory from the ailing King, but even then conditions for the Congolese scarcely improved.
In a museum in Brussels dedicated to glorifying Belgian exploits in its former colony, documentation of these horrible atrocities is conspicuously absent.Source: Lonely Planet