The Student News Site of North Carolina A&T State University

The A&T Register

The Student News Site of North Carolina A&T State University

The A&T Register

The Student News Site of North Carolina A&T State University

The A&T Register

Students celebrate the Congo

The Multicultural Student Center, the History Club, and the Aggie African Coalition collaborated to host events during the 3rd annual Congo Week Oct. 20 here at A&T.   

The purpose of Congo Week was to raise awareness about the devastating atrocities, conflicts, and issues taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.) in Africa, formerly known as Zaire.

 “In the past, it was the whites [Belgians] taking over the Congo and doing the killing, but now it’s no longer just whites killing. Africans are killing each other, and that’s one of the issues we wanted to spotlight during Congo Week,” said Sogbeye Okoro, the Aggies African Coalition President, a sophomore chemistry major from Oakland, CA. Okoro’s parents are originally from Nigeria.

During the presentation, a film screening was shown displaying the history of the Congo. The film portrayed the Belgians colonizing and taking over the D.R.C. and although D.R.C. was granted independence in 1960, issues have gotten worse and tragedies have continued to occur.

The film explained how many African civilians, young and old, have been severely tortured by the Congolese Army as well as other foreign militia.

“We wanted to show this because the history of the Congo is not taught in school,” said Dr. Maria T. Palmer, Director of the Multicultural Student Center.

Africans living in the D.R.C have been brutally hurt by disfiguration and maiming of body parts and also rape. The movie showed graphic, detailed pictures of people, including little children, whose arms, legs and other parts of the body had been cut off with machetes.

Since 1996, over six million people have been murdered.

The speakers during the program emphasized that what Americans consider rape isn’t even a portion of what African women have endured while trying to survive living in the Congo. Women are tortured to a point that is unimaginable for most people.  

Rape in Africa does not only mean forced intercourse, but also sodomized by forcing objects inside a woman’s body to torture her.

A&T Professor Arthea B. Perry pointed out during the presentation, that Africans don’t even have a word to describe rape. Women had to describe what had been done to them. In the Congo, rape is used as an act of war.

Speakers also talked about genocide in the Congo, referring the mass killings of Tutsi people by Hutu extremists in Rwanda.

Students were also informed about the conflicts over natural resources and minerals that are located in the D.R.C. Children everyday are mining for minerals, which are used to create electronics worldwide. It was emphasized how other nations are benefiting from the labor and death of young children.

Congo Week allows students to get information about the occurrence of the crimes against humanity in the D.R.C. that they may not be receiving in class or from the media. Statistics show African-American students have more likely been taught about the Holocaust than of the current issues in Africa.

Actress Tasha Smith’s appearance for the Oct. 21 Lyceum Series forced some of the Congo Week’s events to be squeezed into the night’s events.

“It’s crazy. This [Congo Week] is something that is set in stone and A&T is pushing it under the rug,” said Jessica Hallager, senior sociology major from Philadelphia, PA and also a member of the History Club.

The Congo Week Poetry Night that was scheduled to take place Oct. 21 became a part of the Oct. 20 night’s event. Poets from different organizations provided spoken word that related to the Congo Week presentation. The poems expressed conflicts of rape, black on black crime and the power of black women.

To further their passion on the issues in the Congo, the History Club, Aggie African Coalition and Multicultural Student Center wrote a petition to Congressman Mel Watts asking to fully enforce the Obama Law and to become involved diplomatically find a political solution to the conflicts occurring in the Congo.

The Obama Law, Democratic Republic of Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act of 2006, expresses certain authorities the U.S. holds that pertain to the D.R.C. Among them include the authority to withhold funds from any international agency that support D.R.C. if progress is not being made. This is one major bill that President Barack Obama sponsored that became law.

During the event, African food was served which included plantains, fried rice, tollof rice and beans.

 “I thought the whole thing was pretty interesting,” said Christopher Rice, freshman computer science major from Reidsville, NC. “I learned a lot of things I probably wouldn’t have learned if I didn’t come.”

Congo Week is celebrated nationwide by college campuses, but A&T stared the movement to raise awareness of the real issues of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

  • Karmen Robinson
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