Only through mediation ─ Women leaders of Congo to Women leaders in United States

Activist
Neema Namadamu

Women must join together now
Excerpting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

Enriched ravaged land

Its people and future ruined by endless war

“We ask for the immediate appointment of a special presidential envoy to work with the African Union and United Nations to forge a peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties involved,” Neema Namadamu pleads the case for her people, her country.

Only through mediation from this level can we hope to establish resolution among the numerous states, rebel armies and special interests that have long fueled this conflict and humanitarian crisis.

It is essential that any action ensures Congolese women—who are uniquely positioned to act on behalf of family and community—have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table.

Neema Namadamu is one of a group of Congolese grassroots women leaders, the Maman Shujaa (in the Swahili language, ‘Hero Women’). In a overview to a petition letter to women leaders in the United States, Neema Namadamu writes: “I was born in a very remote village in South Kivu Province in eastern Congo. I belong to a marginalized tribe. I am crippled from Polio. But none of these things characterize me. I have a vision for my country: a new and peaceful Congo, which compels me. Its destiny drives me.” 

 After Brazil, “Congo is home to the second largest rain forest in the world and 60 percent of all of Africa’s forests.

It has enough hydropower potential to power all of Africa.

It has an estimated 24 trillion dollars of mineral wealth ─ far greater un-monetized wealth than any other nation in the world.

Yet “the mothers of [Congo’s] children live in poverty, in fear of being raped, daily women fear losing their sons and husbands to endless wars.

“We are brutalized in unconscionable ways by monsters wearing military uniforms. … Several months ago, soldiers indiscriminately beat my own daughter.…” For sixteen years, Neema Namadamu says, “War has ravaged my homeland.”

 

Women together

“We as women must join together now because WE CAN,” she writes. “Even in remote Congo, we have become connected to our global sisterhood.

“We who are ONE with the 35 million+ women of the DRC who are ONE with the 3.5 billion+ women of the world stand for an end to all violence and aggression in Eastern DRC. We will not be quiet until real peace is upon us. 

World flags
UN Geneva

“We the grassroots women leaders of eastern DRC call upon our female counterparts in the White House—our sisters Secretary Hillary Clinton, Ambassador Susan Rice, Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and First Lady Michelle Obama—to speak with your President in our behalf and ensure the start of a true peace process in our homeland.

We have had enough. 

We call upon our global sisterhood to take action. 

We will not be quiet until REAL Peace is upon us.

My comment when signing this petition

I sign this petition because with Neema Namadamu I believe we are one. 

We are all wounded when any are wounded ─ denied life and liberty, basic universal human rights ─ in the world; and we must help one another -- nonviolently. 

Only by changing the mode of response − from violence to nonviolence ─ only by working with each other cooperatively and respectfully, seeking to understand one another, our traditions and histories, cultural variations and underlying issues, can we ever, EVER hope to attain peace and justice, insure realization of human aspirations and human rights for all. 

We must want, earnestly desire, commit to peace and justice, rule of law and human rights for all ─ this has not been the aim, attitude or action of the world’s dominant and domineering, arrogantly belligerent (largely but not exclusively male) leaders of the north, south, east or west. Women together must change the paradigm in violence.

Sources and notes

Dissected by the Equator, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly called Zaire, is the third largest country on the African continent. [WorldAtlas search, http://www.worldatlas.com/header_final/search.html?q=DRC%2C%20Congo)

Neema Namadamu, http://www.namadamu.com/

Petitioning Secretary Hillary Clinton 2

From the grassroots women leaders of Congo to the women leaders of the White House

Petition by Neema Namadamu, Bukavu, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the

http://www.change.org/petitions/from-the-grassroots-women-leaders-of-congo-to-the-women-leaders-of-the-white-house

Text of Petition letter

To:

Secretary Hillary Clinton, The White House

Ambassador Susan Rice, The White House

Senior White House Advisor Valerie Jarrett, The White House

First Lady Michelle Obama, The White House

With the M23 Rebels taking cities in North Kivu and threatening instability in an already unstable region, now is our time to act!

After 16 years of war, after 16 years of the systematic rape and torture against women, after 16 years of the world turning our eyes from the complex conflict that rages in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo—it’s time to take a stand and support a comprehensive peace process. It’s time to support our sisters in Congo and say “NO!” to the persisting violence.

In solidarity with the ‘Hero Women’ of eastern Congo I urge you to act swiftly for our sisters in the Congo and call upon President Obama to appoint a high-level Special Envoy to work with an A.U./U.N. appointed mediator and begin a real peace process that addresses both the immediate crisis and the underlying longer-term economic and political interests of the parties. And, it is essential that any action ensures that women—who are uniquely positioned to act on behalf of family and community—have a voice in the peace process and a seat at the table.

Sincerely,

[Signer’s name]

Link: http://www.change.org/petitions/from-the-grassroots-women-leaders-of-congo-to-the-women-leaders-of-the-white-house

  

Change dot org note: On November 20, 2012, M23 rebels seized Goma, a major city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, reigniting a war that has ravaged the region for 16 years. Neema Namadamu and a group of grassroots women leaders who call themselves the Maman Shujaa (in Swahili ‘Hero Women’) are calling on you and U.S. woman leaders Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and Michelle Obama to take immediate action in solidarity with the women of the Congo.

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Making matters worse — U.S. in Africa

U.S.-occupied
Africa - Asia 

“Occupy” not-quite- “comfort women” end thought

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Uganda

From The Independent (Uganda) interview with Columbia (U.S.) and Makerere (Uganda) universities professor of anthropology and international affairs Mahmood Mamdani

Uganda

Uganda in situ

“Even when [Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph] Kony has no more than a few hundred fighters around him, the LRA has become a justification [pretext] for the entry of U.S. forces into the region, leading to its militarization.

Somalia

 Somalia

IN THE CROSSFIRE
Somalia's Displaced

“Everybody knows the solution in Somalia is political not military. Even if there is a military victory in Somalia, it will not be sustainable without a political solution. Every attempted military solution in Somalia has made the problem worse because it has ignored the centrality of the political dimension.

We all know that the Union of Islamic Courts was beginning to turn around the situation in Somalia. It was creating law and order yet it was branded some kind of al Qaeda and demonized by the U.S. The military intervention instead created the political space for al Qaeda to come in. It pushed those in the Union of Islamic Courts unwilling to capitulate into a corner. As they became desperate for allies, al Shabaab was born; which is still more an umbrella of various groups than a single solid organization.”

Somalia in situ

Bid for the region

“… There is a competitive element in this regional bid for Somalia. There is a competitive element to militarization. 

“South Sudan has shown that there is a peace dividend and [a] commercial one after war.

“Ugandan officials have been asking what’s going on since Uganda supported the war but the oil refinery is going to Kenya. We seem to be in place in times of war but clueless when guns go silent.”

South Korean discounted
women casualties of
WW II
900th vigil for redress

End thought on "Occupy"

Mahmood Mamdani said in The Indepedent interview

“The …West is learning from the rest.

“The Occupy Movement was an effect of the Arab Spring in Egypt. They were inspired by Tahrir Square.

“The history of protest in the West as elsewhere is very long; protests were an event. People would come to a particular place, make or listen to speeches, sing and march, and then go home.

What is new in the “‘Occupy Movement’ is [to] go to a place and stay there: the idea … for a small dedicated group to maintain a constant presence like a magnet that could attract others as supporters.”

Not quite

South Korean women's
900th vigil for redress

900th protest vigil

In January 2012 in a protest vigil that began in 1992 (every Wednesday), a group of South Korean former World War II sex slaves and their supporters gathered for the 900th time outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, to demand compensation and an official apology from Japan. Up to the 1945 surrender, Japan had run a system of military brothels using these women, so-called “comfort women.” 

Sources and notes

“Somalia, Museveni, and militarizing the region” (interview, Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati), April 29, 2012, http://www.independent.co.ug/column/interview/5677-somalia-museveni-and-militarising-the-region

“Armed struggle: Mamdani tells politicians to learn from Luwero,” (interview, Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati),  April 21, 2012,  http://www.independent.co.ug/column/interview/5639-armed-struggle-mamdani-tells-politicians-to-learn-from-luwero

Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Dr. Mahmood Mamdani teaches courses on major debates in the study of Africa; the modern state and the colonial subject; the Cold War and the Third World; the theory, history, and practice of human rights; and civil wars and the state in Africa. His most recent publications are: Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror (2009); Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War and the Roots of Terror (2004); When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism and Genocide in Rwanda (2001), http://www.columbia.edu/cu/anthropology/fac-bios/mamdani/faculty.html

Mahmood Mamdani is an academic specializing in the study of African and international politics, colonialism and post‐colonialism, and the politics of knowledge production; an author and political commentator who was born (1946) in Bombay, Maharashtra, India, and grew up in Uganda. In addition to his work at Columbia, he is Professor and Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Mamdani

See also

SOMALIA, MUSEVENI AND MILITARISING THE REGION

Interview by Andrew Mwenda and Mubatsi A. Habati with Mahmood Mamdani

“‘Everybody knows the solution in Somalia is political not military. Even if there is a military victory in Somalia, it will not be sustainable without a political solution,’” http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/81818

Map images from World Atlas

Former comfort women protesting in Seoul , South Korea, beryl-pieces-asia.blogspot.com

Korea's "Comfort Women" Rally at 900th Protest - OhmyNews ...
Korea's "Comfort Women" Rally at 900th Protest: Survivors of Japanese Military ... from Amnesty International, the Korean Women's ... Who stole a 15-year-old girl's chastity?" ...
english.ohmynews.com/ArticleView/article_view.asp?...
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2010/01/south-koreas-comfort-women-stage-900th-weekly-protest/

http://www.usaraf.army.mil/NEWS/NEWS_100110_FORWARD_AFRICA.html
Questions Surround Third U.S. War Theater: AFRICOM
salem-news.com

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Africa USA-made — CRISIS CHAOS CONFLICT PLUNDER clouded by mass media

NGO-Government Co-op
Virtual reality is not REALITY
Editing by Carolyn Bennett

“A whole generation of Acholi people were born and grew into adulthood in government-created camps for internally displaced people,” Juliane Okot Bitek wrote in 2009. She is an Acholi woman who lives in Vancouver, Canada, who also spoke this week with Vancouver’s feminist radio program “The F Word.” Juliane Okot Bitek is president of the Acholi Community of British Columbia Society and a University of British Columbia doctoral student interested in post-conflict narratives of formerly abducted women in northern Uganda. She said that for years the Ugandan people had been dying at an alarming rate. World Health Organization (WHO) figures showed in 2009 that a thousand Ugandans died every week — a catastrophe “in plain view of the rest of the world.”

The Acholi people numbering more than one million at the turn of the 21st century are an ethno linguistic group of northern Uganda and southernmost Sudan. They speak a Western Nilotic language of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family and are culturally and historically related to the neighboring Lango. The Acholi are the descendants of a variety of Luo-speaking peoples who are believed to have migrated from adjacent areas of the southern Sudan into what is now the Acholi district of Uganda three or four centuries ago.

Under the Ugandan president Idi Amin (1971–79), the Acholi were severely persecuted, the men systematically executed for past association with the [British] colonial army and for their support of President Milton Obote (1962–71, 1980–85) [Britannica note].

The people in the northern part of Uganda have suffered at the hands of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and the Ugandan government has failed to protect them, Juliane Okot Bitek said. The international community has largely ignored their suffering. International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo appeared on film wondering, callously, who might have “‘interest in Ugandans, in the Acholis?’” Answering his wondering, he said, “They have no oil [except now oil has been discovered], nothing to win, so how much effort do we have out there? Not a lot.’”

The current generation, Juliane Okot Bitek continued, “has grown up without the strong Acholi culture that for generations held the people together with their traditional values — 30,000 children had been unaccounted for over the years. What kind of people can come through this unscathed? Ours will take many generations to heal from the legacy of Joseph Kony, the LRA and the Uganda government that failed to protect its own people — and the rest of the world that watched in silence.”

NGO-GOVERNMENT CO-OP

Making money on misery and make believe

"Kony2012" 

No clever tactics, as those used by the Invisible Children organization — self abduction, fake homelessness or other antics — are going to change the conditions of life for the Acholi people. The tactics only manipulate and delude. “It hurts immensely,” she said, “to watch commercialism take over in a bid to garner the interests and involvement of young people in these campaigns. “The British Red Cross has joined in the fray by producing a game that allows players to become 16-year-old Joseph who ‘has one goal – to find out from the Red Cross if his mother is dead or alive.’

“Reducing the horrific experiences of hundreds of thousands of young Ugandans down to a game is unconscionable.

“To ask thousands of young people to pretend that they can ‘abduct themselves’ into creating a new reality for the children in northern Uganda is more than appalling – it is manipulative and undermines the horror of the last two decades of Ugandan suffering.… One wonders if such theatrics are reserved for African settings.

“Would anyone in the United States dare to create similar gimmicks to highlight the suffering of the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. city of New Orleans?”

Boys will be boys (?)

Founded in 2005 by three “‘normal’ guys” (Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole) in California who loved surfing, playing sports, goofing around, and making movies, Invisible Children “has raised plenty of money through their unusual tactics. Using technology preferred by the young, “they inspired thousands of young people to sleep on the streets as they did on a  2006 ‘Global Night Commute’ that reportedly attracted well over 80,000 people all over the United States” according to the group’s website press releases.

On a lark in Africa, the “boys” decided to spice up theirs and other young lives. They found the situation in Acholi intolerable and in need their brand of “help,” so they made a film. The half-hour film made by U.S. organization Invisible Children Inc is “Kony 2012” sold and marketed live (in virtual reality) and online in aid of the group’s bottom line and sporting a brand new movement, ‘Stop Kony’, purportedly to profile and push for the arrest of indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony. [Not William Jefferson Clinton, George H. W. or George W. Bush,  Barack Obama or Madeleine Albright or Hillary Rodham Clinton.]

Reality check

Dr. Vincent Magombe, a Ugandan journalist and broadcaster based in the United Kingdom, writes that while there may be some good in what the boys are doing, there are many damaging omissions and “misrepresentations in the film” — and in “the filmmakers’ blanket support of U.S. military deployments in the region, which many Ugandans view with suspicion and distaste.”

Misrepresentations the Ugandan journalist points to are these:

The war in Northern Uganda ended over six years ago and not since then has Kony been active in Northern Uganda. People in the northern part of Uganda now suffer abject poverty, lack of medicine, illiteracy, incurable diseases (e.g., the nodding disease has killed hundreds of children and infected thousands) — problems directly resulting from current leaders’ corruption and poor governance. 


The film fails to mention that Uganda government troops also killed, raped, and maimed civilians in the region (e.g., on several occasions government soldiers pretended to be Kony rebels and caused deaths for some crazy PR aims).

The film fails to show LRA/ Kony menace in regional countries or a similar type combined military operation (Americans and Uganda government, December 2008: a  CIA-led military operation involved a special American-established and armed force, the Ugandan Special Forces commanded by Yoweri Museveni’s son, Muhozi Kainerugaba) that ended two years of inactivity by Kony’s LRA, wrecked hopes for regional peace. Most of the consequent attacks in DRC, Southern Sudan, and now Central African Republic are more to do with a much-weakened LRA trying to escape the wrath of the Ugandan army (now the Americans) and survive another day.

CRISIS CHAOS CONFLICT PLUNDER clouded by mass media has consequences. Vincent Magombe continued.

Politically, financially and militarily strengthened by the Americans— Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni, heading a corrupt regime whose ministers steal millions that could be used to solve the living nightmare of children in the northern part of Uganda, is emboldened in violating the freedoms and human rights of the whole country.

Many Ugandans — especially those campaigning for democracy and political stability — see the military operation against 300 LRA ex-combatants as a diversionary strategy to divert attention from the ongoing national struggle for change. 


Since the new representation of the troubles only points at one culprit, Joseph Kony and his ‘barbaric gang’, Museveni and his regime — who have committed enormous crimes in the northern part Uganda — are being offered an exit route from accountability.

Without democracy and reconciliation in Uganda — as was true of South Africa’s minority White South African regime who had committed more egregious crimes than LRA and Kony and were effectively absolved of the crimes against Black Africans — there will be no peace.  We may start to see many more Kony-type rebel groups mushrooming to fight the Kampala regime.

Though many outsiders think and have the view that Ugandan people are naive and incapable of seeing the wider implications of the deployment of American troops in East and Central Africa, the opposite is true.

Many Ugandans know the U.S. military has encouraged Museveni and his regime to continue militaristic tendencies in the region. 


Ugandans know the Ugandan regime and its military are powerful allies of the United States in Somalia and indeed in the Great Lakes region and that now the U.S. seeks to establish its so-called AFRICOM (African Command) Headquarters in Uganda and continue building a powerful military alliance involving U.S. soldiers and the militaries of the East and Central African nations (Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Southern Sudan, DRC, and Central African Republic).

 

This is not aimed merely to capture Kony but to safeguard and secure the strategic interests of a now declining American Super Power. …

The strategic vision of the American political and military thinkers is to shift and try to consolidate U.S. influence in West Africa and now East and Central Africa where it is much easier to deal with existing regimes and where local people have no real capacity to force the Americans away, as is true of the Middle East.  

Major oil discoveries have been made in Uganda and Southern Sudan and the region is bustling with inexhaustible reserves of other mineral resources. 

The world we live in is complex; in reality, not reducible to clever tactics, clouded causes and sentimental simplicity. Vincent Magombe concludes.

Research will reveal that Invisible Children was among the two or three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who vigorously lobbied in the United States for U.S. military deployment in Uganda and Central Africa. (The other NGOs included Resolve! and The Enough Project).  

Though IC’s awareness raising about one ‘evil man’, Joseph Kony, may be appreciated, Magombe says, Invisible Children must be “held responsible for intended or unintended consequences that may in the long run bring much more damage to Uganda than Joseph Kony and his LRA ever would.”

Sources and notes

“Commercializing Children's Suffering Is Macabre,” By Juliane Okot Bitek, April 24, 2009,

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2005/11/11/UgandanPowerlessness/ http://www.friendsforpeaceinafrica.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=132&Itemid=77

For Invisible Children information on the upcoming ‘abduction’:

http://ncm.newcitymovement.com/2009/04/abduct-yourself-april-25th-rescue-child-soldiers.html

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/theMovement/

Juliane Okot Bitek is an Acholi woman living in Vancouver, Canada. She writes as she lives, thinking about a place to call home much of the time.

See also blackstarnews.com

“Grounding focus in the midst of the Kony 2012 social media storm” (By The F Word, Length: 22:32 minutes March 13, 2012)— “The Kony 2012 film is officially the fastest spreading viral video of all time. On March 5, 2012, the video release launched a campaign by Invisible Children Inc. to promote the charity’s ‘Stop Kony’ movement to make indicted Ugandan war criminal Joseph Kony internationally known in order to arrest him in 2012. The campaign has been wildly popular with youth on social media.

“Since the launch, the campaign has come under much due criticism such as simplifying a complex issue, ignoring the voices of Northern Ugandans (including many female leaders), and promotion of a consumer-based and ultimately ineffective brand of charity, among many other issues.”

Ellie Gordon-Moershel spoke with Acholi Juliane Okot Bitek who has been close to the conflict in Northern Uganda since 1986. Juliane Okot Bitek is “president of the Acholi Community of British Columbia Society and a Ph.D. student at UBC interested in the post-conflict narratives of formerly abducted women in northern Uganda. She is passionate about the ways we can present and represent our own stories in the media, in our communities and in the general society.” More information about The F Word at www.feminisms.org

http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/f-word/2012/03/grounding-focus-midst-kony-2012-social-media-storm

“Joseph Kony viral video campaign clouded in controversy” (Allison Cross, March 7-8, 2012), http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/07/kony-2012-video-controversy/

“The Truth About KONY2012” (By Dr. Vincent Magombe), March 13, 2012, http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=5605

Dr. Magombe is a Ugandan journalist based in the UK

MAPS

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http://www.worldatlas.com/contact/contact.htm

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/af.htm

Maps, graphics, flags, photos and original descriptions copyrighted by and created by Graphic Maps...  

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy