In an effort to create awareness about the genocide in the Congo, SUAB teamed with A&T student and film director Kevin Wilson to host a spoken word event Nov. 14 in Stallings Ballroom.

Wilson, a senior journalism and mass communications major from Durham, NC feels passionate about the killings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The African country has been in conflict for over 10 years, in what some would call genocide.

Wilson learned of the conflict during his freshman year, when he met another student at A&T from the Congo. Through his contact with Friends of the Congo, he wanted to simply raise awareness.

Friends of the Congo is an organization that is committed to raising consciousness about the challenges of the Congo.

Students were greeted in a solemn mood set ballroom. Rounds tables filled Stallings, with little to no lights, only candles on each table. The stage was set in the front of the ballroom with blue and red spotlights.  African music was playing softly in the background.

“Intimacy is really important; it helped convey the message I was trying to get across,” said Wilson.

The program started with students lining up for food. After everyone served themselves, Aggies took their seats and prepared for the opening act.

Without some noticing, the first act stood in the middle of the floor, amongst the audience. He opened by singing a brief line of African music.

What sounded like a cry came from the back of the room, causing the audience to divert their attention. Out came a performer dressed in army fatigue costume yelling at a woman, saying ‘Fifteen hundred die every day, one more doesn’t matter.’

He then pulled the trigger of a fake gun, emulating the murder of a Congolese woman.

The proclaimed genocide in the Congo is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War II, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC). In 2008, there were an estimated 5.4 million people killed in the Congo from 1998 until April 2007, according to the IRC.

During this performance, also a person, dressed in all-black representing death, or the grim reaper, picked up the girl and carried her to the front. He laid her down on the floor and proceeding beside the stage.  

After heading towards the front of the room, the soldier performer followed the grim reaper.

“My charge is to give people information,” said Wilson. “It’s an issue of international human rights. It’s important that we are able to branch out of our homeland.”

The soldier character began the first spoken word piece of the night. He compared the blood on his hands to those of American hands. Another student was brought on stage, representing an American who had done business with the government in the Congo for blood diamonds.

The first poet left the audience with something to think about America saying ‘we kill women and kids and wash hands with the money we get.’

What the poet referred to was what many believe is the reason for the conflict in the Congo. Coltan, the industrial name for columbite-tantalite, is a valuable black material with niobite and tantalite. Coltan is used in cell phones, DVD players and computers. American markets export coltan from the Congo.

Some reports have shown that Africa is the fastest-growing market for cell phone contracts in the world.

The next spoken word piece was done by former Miss A&T Ngozi Opara.

Opara spoke vividly the mind of a six-year-old girl who was raped in the Congo then transitioned as the girl grew up.  Her poem was in the form of a letter being read by the mutilated young child. She left the audience with ‘it’s a Congo covered world y’all. We are all affected.’

The New York Times reported on Nov.5, that more than 600 women and girls were recently reported raped along the Congo-Angola border, according to the United Nations. The victims reported being raped by the security forces.

The poems continued telling the stories from those residents of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wilson added variety in the program as he recruited a guitarist and saxophone player to play, while another participant sang.

Also making an appearance on stage in his spoken word form was former Mr. A&T, Austin James. After James, there was a mime performance to gospel singer Greg O’Quinn’s ‘I Told the Storm.’

Many of the audience members gave the performance a standing ovation.

The next poem, and perhaps the crowd favorite, was done by A&T spoken word guru who goes by Champ.

Champ used her knowledge of events and activities that A&T students attend such as Nxlevel parties, the A&T Four, the Twitter pound (#), etc and incorporated the things into her poem.

Throughout the program, the grim reaper kept appearing and picking up those who were killed by the soldier. The grim reaper even spoke to the audience as he gave a poem explaining that death ‘only takes what is given to me.’

Emotional and creative plays on words resonated through many of the detailed poems, such as “there is no kind man in the kind of man that mankind has become” and “sticks  and stones may break your bones but words will crush your spirits.”

The program ended with Wilson telling the audience to close their eyes. As he told a story, he then told everyone to imagine they were onlookers of the rape of the 5-year-old girl in the Congo.

“I was moved towards the end, when he [Wilson] was talking,” said Damani Bediako a senior marketing major from Minneapolis, MN. “Now I’m going to get more information about it [conflict in Congo] and get myself more educated about it.”

Before the audience dispersed, they were encouraged to give donations. All monies collected during the program will be donated to a hospital in the Congo.

The General Referral Hospital of Panzi (GRHP) opened in 1999, originally for delivering babies. But since the conflict has grown, GRHP specializes in providing treatment of survivors of sexual violence and surgical repair for women suffering from fistulas of the urogenital tract.

An information sheet was available to all students who attended, giving details about the history of the Congo, geography, politics the potential.

However, some came simply for the spoken word, not the information.

“I was not motivated to do anything,” said Treka Thornton, a freshman child development and family sciences major from Oxford, NC. “I came for the spoken word.”

“What you decide to do is up to you,” added Wilson. “We should all take responsibility and research it ourselves. It may not be publicized, but it’s there.”

Wilson’s events on A&T’s campus include the Emmett Till play and a documentary about fallen Aggies. His next project will take place in December, where he will be shooting a film titled ‘Pulse of the Congo.’ He has hired a professional crew and will shoot in the swampland of Savannah, GA.

The ‘Pulse of the Congo’ will come out in the spring.

• Jasmine Johnson