Happy Independence Day Weekend to the Congo (DRC). Some of you might already know that the Amin family is fairly close to the First family in DR Congo. This started in 1965 when my father was the only African on a highly classified mission commanding a battalion of the Ugandan army in support of the Patrice Lumumba fighters against the CIA and neo-colonialist Belgium who wanted to take over the country and put their own regime. This so that they could continue their plunder of the rich African country's vast mineral resources. It is this secret mission that would later cause false rumours of self enrichment on purported gold deals. Yet this was a Pan-Africanist mission together with the Cubans and reknown South American revolutionary Che Guevara with whom my father coordinated weapons supplies. A mission that was designed and sanctioned by African leaders including Haile Selassie, Jomo Kenyatta, and Kwame Nkrumah. During the recent Congo war (1998-2004) my father was again contacted by Laurent Kabila. President Amin helped Kabila's government with more than 6000 soldiers who would hold the Ituri front in North Eastern Congo and stop the advance of Uganda's UPDF and Rwanda's RPF. I refrain from that story because war is not like a picnic party and much bloodshed and destruction happened. Including wiping out an entire RPF battallion during one attack. I am told that Paul Kagame couldn't believe his ears when he was given the report, especially when he learnt who had cleared his boys. But fortunately and most importantly, peace was ultimately achieved under the auspices of the United Nations to resolve that conflict. For the record, my father's assistance to Congo is one of the indications that he had no wish to fight his way back to Uganda even when he had the manpower and weapons. He instead organized to help Laurent Kabila quash the invasion by UPDF and RPF when he was asked to help. You won't find any stories about this except in the security circles of Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo. Incidentally when Rwanda and Uganda backed the M23 rebels to again invade Congo in 2013, it was now the Tanzanians, Amin's former enemies, who also came and put a halt to Uganda and Rwanda's ambitions in the Congo. Today, despite the current political challenges that DR Congo faces, we are still quite close to the Kabila First Family and especially the patriarch Kasongo Kabila who is my personal friend. He is actually the elder brother to the late President whose son is now at the helm. Previously, I also spent several years in Congo and that is where I first learnt French and Lingala. And that is why I feel like it is my third country after Uganda and Saudi Arabia. In fact in the Amin family we speak Lingala together more than any other language. So unlike many Ugandans who just dance to Congolese music, we at least know if they are insulting anyone in the music or not before dancing to it. Mzee Kasongo Kabila is now retired from the army (as a general) and is now involved in development for the country through an organisation called Ceprodev (Centre de Promotion pour le Development). The organization focuses particularly in seeking Foreign Direct Investment for infrastructure development like refurbishing roads, river ports, airports, but also agriculture, power generation and telecommunications. I was shocked to learn that despite being one of the richest countries in terms of mineral resources, the Congolese government does not have enough funds to build the country's infrastructure by itself, and the situation is actually forcing them to barter trade their mining concessions for infrastructure development. Basically you help build a road for example, and they pay you with a mining concession. And whatever minerals you find in the mining concession is yours. It is a business model that is said to have its problems but is working for many companies involved in the country's development. As the nation celebrates it's independence anniversary, an event that took place on 30th June 1960, the day when famous pan-Africanist Patrice Emery Lumumba became their first ever indeginous executive Prime Minister, I would hereby like to wish the Kabila family and all the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a happy independence weekend celebration. Meanwhile, I also pray and argue for a good solution to the country's current political stalemate.
By Hussein Lumumba Amin. 30/06/2017
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