Life on the streets is grim and desperate, said “Business,” a homeless teen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DR Congo) capital, Kinshasa.
“Your body ends up worn out,” he said, describing a doomed path to limbo, ending up like “a prostitute grandmother, something which isn’t supposed to exist.”
A 19-year-old with big ambitions, Business — a translation of his French street name — is one of several dozen homeless youths who have found refuge in rap.
Photo: AFP
Their haven is Mokili Na Poche, a small cultural center in the working-class district of Bandalungwa that holds out a rare lifeline to Kinshasa’s street children and teenagers — an abandoned population estimated by aid groups to number more than 20,000.
Known locally as shegues, many are pushed onto the streets due to dire poverty, or because their families have accused them of witchcraft.
Their lives are often marked by violence, drugs and prostitution, as well as by deep suspicion from Congolese society.
However, Mokili Na Poche, which opened in November last year, encourages the unschooled homeless youths toward creative pursuits, such as making bags out of scavenged plastic or making music.
Business, whose real name is Junior Mayamba Ngatshwe, is keen to seize any opportunity on offer.
Chadrack Mado, another street-dwelling youngster, said he comes to the center so that “tomorrow I don’t become a kuluna,” referring to the local term for Kinshasa’s notorious machete-wielding gangsters.
The DR Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast mineral wealth. About two-thirds of the population of 100 million people live on less than US$2.15 per day, the World Bank said.
A newly built recording studio caters to the musically inclined among the youngsters who visit Mokili Na Poche. Business and his friends are regulars.
“I’m trapped, I’m trapped,” the youngster rapped into the mic in the Lingala language, rhyming about how he had left conflict-torn eastern Congo only to end up on the streets of Kinshasa.
A barefoot 16-year-old known as “Bloodbank” accompanied the song with a rhythm tapped out on a discarded plastic bottle, and beat-boxed through pouted lips.
Business later said that his dream is to follow in the footsteps of Congolese music greats such as Fally Ipupa, drive a fine car and visit the US.
Life on the streets is hard, he said, adding that some homeless youths were supportive, but others tried to undermine him.
“There really are witches among us,” Business said.
However, he is not discouraged.
“Music is something I’ve had since I was in my mother’s womb,” he said.
Congo has a rich musical tradition and some groups, such as Staff Benda Bilili, comprising handicapped people, have risen from the streets of Kinshasa to international prominence.
Several of the people at Mokili Na Poche have already recorded an album, with an adult musician, although they were not paid.
Mokili Na Poche director Cedrick Tshimbalanga said the violence and desperation dominated the lives of youngsters living on the street in Kinshasa.
“All of them have a blade or a pocket knife to protect themselves,” he said. “There are children that go days and days without eating.”
In the courtyard outside the cultural center’s tiny recording studio, several young people with bodies covered in scars rested quietly in the shade.
Few knew their real age, but they appeared to range from about seven or eight years old to adolescents in their late teens.
The music they produce is often upbeat and aggressive, but not violent, Tshimbalanga said.
“They want to rebel against the way society treats them,” he said.
The center has started putting together an album of the rap songs, Tshimbalanga said.
Bloodbank, whose real name is Obed, said that music gave him the motivation to “keep going.”
He said he had been on the streets for as long as he could remember.
When asked about his life, he responded with an impromptu rap in Lingala about how when he has money, he has friends, but when he is broke, he is completely alone.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Sri Lanka’s fragile economic recovery could be hampered by threatened trade union strikes over reduced benefits for government employees in this year’s budget, the IMF said yesterday. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s maiden budget raised public sector salaries, but also made deep cuts to longstanding perks in a continuing effort to repair the island nation’s tattered finances. Sri Lanka’s main doctors’ union is considering a strike from today to protest against cuts to their allowances, while teachers are also considering stoppages. IMF senior mission chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer said the budget was the “last big push” for the country’s austerity