26
CC: ADKDW member NTONE EDJABE is an author, DJ and curator. In 2002, he founded the multi awarded cultural platform Chimurenga. In 2021, he is part of the podcast series Learning to Listen, curated by Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz at ADKDW.
WHO KILLED KABILA Text: Ntone Edjabe
Mboka epanzani sango eeeh eh Mboka epanzi ngai sango Balobi, akoti lopitalo eh Balobi, ba moni ye nga Ngaliema eh Balobi, akende Bruxelles oh Balobi, ba moni ye na Anvers oh Balobi, akende Paris eh Balobi, ba moni ye na Geneve Balobi, akende na America eh Parti Etat, efuteli ye ticket oh The town is spreading rumors about me. They are saying: He is in hospital. They are saying: He was seen in Ngaliema. They are saying: He has gone to Brussels. They are saying: He has gone to Anvers. They are saying: He has gone to Paris. They are saying: He was seen in Geneva. They are saying: He has gone to America; he has received his departure ticket. — Les Rumeurs by Franco et le TP OK Jazz
On January 16, 2001, in the middle of the day, shots are heard in the Palais de Marbre compound, the residence of President Laurent- Désiré Kabila. The road bordering the presidential residence, usually closed from 6pm by a simple guarded barrier, is blocked by tanks. At the Ngaliema hospital in Kinshasa, a helicopter lands and a body wrapped in a bloody sheet is offloaded. Non-essential medical personnel and patients are evacuated and the hospital clinic is surrounded by elite troops. No one enters or leaves. RFI (Radio France Internationale) reports on a serious incident at the presidential palace in Kinshasa. Rumor, the main source of information in the Congolese capital, is set in motion. News spreads like wildfire in the city. A Jeep equipped with rocket launchers takes position in front of the largest mobile phone company, STARCEL. At the RTNC (Congolese national radio and television station), the programs continue as normal until Colonel Eddy Kapend appears on the screen, haggard eyes, dry lips, to order the military to keep the troops calm and to close all the country’s borders. He gives no explanation. He promises more later but does not reappear until January 23, 2001, when he is captured on camera in the guard of honor at the official funeral of President Kabila. A communication war begins. Officials in Brussels, Paris, London and Washington, citing credible sources in Kinshasa, successively announce the death of Kabila at the hand of Rashidi Muzele, one of his bodyguards. Kinshasa admits to the shooting but says that Kabila was wounded and is receiving medical treatment outside the country. Zimbabwe, an important ally of the Congolese government, announces the death of the president before retracting. On January 18, 2001 at 8pm, live on national television, the Congolese minister of communication, Dominique Sakombi Inongo announces the death of Mzee Laurent Désiré Kabila on that day (18 January 2001) in a Harare hospital in Zimbabwe. The official investigation that follows fails to finger a single suspect. 135 people – including 4 children – are arrested and tried before a special military tribunal. The alleged ringleader, Colonel Eddy Kapend, and 25 others are sentenced to death in January 2003, but not executed. Of the other defendants 64 are jailed, with sentences from six months to life, and 45 are exonerated. Twenty years later rumors still proliferate. Suspects include: the Rwandan government; the French; Lebanese diamond dealers; the CIA; Robert Mugabe; Angolan security forces; the apartheidera Defense Force; political rivals and rebel groups; Kabila’s own kadogos (child soldiers); family members; and even musicians. The geopolitics of those implicated tells its own story; the event came in the middle of the so-called African World War, a conflict that involved multiple regional players, including Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
