I live in deepest Most locals get around on foot. Only if
they are very well off do they take a moto (motorbike taxi). Goma also has a
special kind of commuter indigenous to our town – the chukudu driver. Chukudus are huge scooters
made from wood. They are used to transport heavy goods to the market, to the
port and around town and they can carry up to 500kgs – that’s half a ton!
I don’t really commute as such. I get
around town on foot (only in some areas and only during daylight hours), by moto or by large white NGO 4x4. My office
is really close to my house and I usually walk which takes about five minutes.
Five minutes of scrabbling over lava, inhaling dust, shaking kids hands,
dodging motos, and saying
‘bonjour’. Past the palatial grounds of the International Red Cross, and
the men sitting across from their gates each morning hoping to earn a few
francs as a day worker. Past the dilapidated, weed- eaten building that houses
Goma’s High Court. Past the little roadside shacks selling mobile phone cards,
the mamas with babies on their backs and huge
tubs of pineapples balanced on their heads, the man who sits under a pock-holed
umbrella repairing shoes, and the soldiers sitting guard outside the home of
the Army General. Past all that I find the office of the international NGO
where I work, and the gates are opened to me by the smiling guards. ‘Jambo
mama’ they say. Nope, not much room for books,
podcasts or crosswords on my commute. But if I were able to take the bus or tram or
train to work in Congo, I would be listening to the amazing Congolese band, Staff Benda Bilili. Staff Benda Bilili are a group of
paraplegic musicians living on the streets of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa. This
is how they are described on the back of their album Trés Trés Fort: "Four
senior singer/guitarists on makeshift wheelchairs are supported by a young,
all-acoustic rhythm section and a 17-year old prodigy performing infectious
guitar-like solos on a one-string electric lute he designed and built himself
out of a tin can." ‘Benda Bilili’ means ‘look beyond
appearances’. Their music is at once melancholic, funky and playful. Their
songs talk about Congolese life – being a street kid, the need to vaccinate
your kids against polio, and the importance of family and African pride. My
favourite song is called ‘Tonkara’ (Cardboard): I once slept on cardboard Good luck hit me, I bought
myself a mattress It can happen to you, to
him, to them A man is never finished Chance can hit you without
warning It’s never too late in life Someday I’ll make it too Staff Benda Bilili on My Space Imogen Prickett is an aid
worker, communicator, writer, blogger & photographer living in the
Democratic
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