Bang Bang Bang Read online

  Stella Feehily

  BANG BANG

  BANG

  NICK HERN BOOKS

  London

  www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

  Contents

  Title Page

  Original Production

  Article by Brian O’Connell

  Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Note on the Text

  Characters

  Bang Bang Bang

  About the Author

  Copyright and Performing Rights Information

  Bang Bang Bang was produced by Out of Joint and first performed at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton on 5 September 2011. The production subsequently toured around the UK. The cast was as follows:

  SABHBH

  Orla Fitzgerald

  MATHILDE

  Julie Dray

  SOLIDER/COLONEL MBURAME/

  Babou Ceesay

  INNOCENT

  STEPHEN

  Dan Fredenburgh

  BIBI/WOMAN WITH SICK BABY/

  Frances Ashman

  MAMA CAROLINA/FEMALE SOLDIER

  CHILD SOLDIER/AMALA/

  SCREAMING CHILD

  Zara Brown

  Pena liyambo

  Akleia Louis-Frederick

  Jessica Richardson

  RONAN/MICHAEL

  Paul Hickey

  VIN

  Jack Farthing

  Director

  Max Stafford-Clark

  Designer

  Miriam Nabarro

  Lighting Designer

  Johanna Town

  Sound Designer

  Andy Smith

  Movement Director

  Mark Murphy

  Associate Director

  Des Kennedy

  Assistant Director

  Kamau Wa Ndung’u

  Costume Supervisor

  Mary Horan

  Dialect Coach

  Penny Dyer

  In December 2008, during my second time working as a reporter for the Irish Times in Eastern DRC, a moment of culinary surrealism among the drunken soldiers and the child killers caught me by surprise.

  In Lushebere farm, about six kilometres outside the commercial centre of Masisi in North Kivu, I watched as Muda Hikiamana wrapped two rounds of cheese and examined forensically the $5 dollar note handed to him. I’d stumbled upon one of the remotest commercial cheesemakers in the world. He also happened to be operating his business in the middle of a war zone, surrounded by four different militias and thousands of displaced persons. Through a local contact, I’d been told to wait there for General Edmo Gandi, from the FDLR militia group, one of the most feared and despised rebel groups in existence, made up of some of the perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 when one million Rwandan nationals were killed. In any circumstances, it would have been bad manners to leave without sampling the produce. Behind several disused buildings, Muda, the cheesemaker opened up a large store room where hundreds of rounds of Goude cheese were stored in rusting shelves, ready for shipment all over central Africa.

  The factory had been there since 1974, and the land was leased from the local clergy, who took a sizeable chunk of his profits in return. In so far as possible, the business had operated from then until now, despite the continuous cycles of violence that have raged in this province of Eastern Congo. In the late 1990s, following large influx of Hutu fighters from Rwanda, many of whom would later form the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), the factory ceased production, re-starting again in 2001. There were temporary stoppages also when the Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP) – the band of mainly Tutsi militia under the command of renegade General Laurent Nkunda – made advances in the region in recent years. ‘My grandfather and my whole family worked in this factory,’ Muda told me. ‘Thankfully the machines have not been stolen following each round of fighting so we have been able to re-start. From here, the cheese goes to Goma, and then onto Rwanda, Kinshasa, Uganda and all over Africa.’

  When I visited in 2008, Masisi was under the control of the Congolese army (FARDC), the FDLR and various other local militias, while the UN’s MONUC force also maintained a battalion on a hillside overlooking the area. At night, rifle fire could be heard on the hillsides outside our compound and the army were a largely inebriated and ill-disciplined bunch, in contrast to the rebels, who could be seen marching through the streets at dawn training child soldiers. Fourteen-year-olds in Eminem T-shirts and Nike runners manned border crossings or carried RPGs through the forests. There was a Mad Max feel to the whole area – at one point a sixty-kilometre journey took two days to complete, such were the security concerns. Cheesemaker Muda told me, proudly, there were ten employees working for Goude cheeses, producing one hundred and five rolls a week, which generated revenues of $2000 a month. Like any obsessive food producer, when I asked Muda what ingredients made his cheese so sought after, he remained tight-lipped, ‘Ah, that is a professional secret,’ he said. I casually remarked that Ireland did alright on the cheese front too. ‘Ours though is the better quality.’

  The real reason for me to be at this farm was not to sample cheese but to try get an insight into the minds of the rebel commanders and conduct a face-to-face interview. It was, in hindsight, a precarious position, and we had to make a judgement on whether or not our contact was trustworthy when he said the rebels would speak to us and guarantee our safety. As we chatted, my driver pointed in the direction of a laneway where we’d come from. Three khaki dressed rebels with AK-47s spread out along the road, and signalled for us to shadow them down a narrow path.

  I was conscious too that I was about to shake hands with one of several manifestations of evil operating in this perpetually aggressive part of the world. These rebels had fled Rwanda after the genocide, many of them having committed horrendous multiple acts of murder. They were now involved in a proxy war the world had continued to ignore, and which still raged over a decade on. I wanted to know what his role was in the Rwanda genocide and whether it was true the rebels were now being funded by other African states with vested interests in an unstable Democratic Republic of Congo.

  So, what does a killer look like? The ironically named General Gandi was wearing a Bush Tucker Man type hat and carried a large walking stick. He was well fed, attentive and thorough. Before sitting down on a grass embankment, he asked for a list of questions, which he then methodically went through. Most he answered in a roundabout way. His forces were fighting to be allowed back to Rwanda and their struggle went back as far as the 1970s he stated. ‘The Rwandan government’s goal,’ he said, ‘is to come and conquer North and East Kivu. They are interested only in diamonds and gold.’

  We talked at length – he even posed for photographs. His English was impeccable and he reiterated over and over that he was simply a freedom fighter caught up in a struggle for land. His people were displaced. His role was to lead them home.

  Only two questions he wouldn’t answer – who funded his rebel group, and why exactly did he have to leave Rwanda so abruptly in the 1990s?

  Brian O’Connell

  Brian O’Connell is an Irish Times journalist, author and broadcaster.

  Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo

  A Chronology of Key Events

  1200s Rise of Kongo empire, centred in modern northern Angola and including extreme western Congo and territories round lakes Kisale and Upemba in central Katanga (now Shaba).

  1482 Portuguese navigator Diogo Cao becomes the first European to visit the Congo; Portuguese set up ties with the king of Kongo.

  16th–17th centuries British, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants engage in slave trade through Kongo intermediaries.

  1
870s Belgian King Leopold II sets up a private venture to colonise Kongo.

  1874-77 British explorer Henry Stanley navigates Congo river to the Atlantic Ocean.

  Belgian Colonisation

  1879–87 Leopold commissions Stanley to establish the king’s authority in the Congo basin.

  1884–85 European powers at the Conference of Berlin recognise Leopold’s claim to the Congo basin.

  1885 Leopold announces the establishment of the Congo Free State, headed by himself.

  1891–92 Belgians conquer Katanga.

  1892–94 Eastern Congo wrested from the control of East African Arab and Swahili-speaking traders.

  1908 Belgian state annexes Congo amid protests over killings and atrocities carried out on a mass scale by Leopold’s agents. Millions of Congolese are said to have been killed or worked to death during Leopold’s control of the territory.

  1955 Belgian Professor Antoin van Bilsen publishes a ‘30-Year Plan’ for granting the Congo increased self-government.

  1959 Belgium begins to lose control over events in the Congo following serious nationalist riots in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa).

  Post-Independence Turmoil

  1960 June – Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasavubu as president.

  1960 July – Congolese army mutinies; Moise Tshombe declares Katanga independent; Belgian troops sent in ostensibly to protect Belgian citizens and mining interests; UN Security Council votes to send in troops to help establish order, but the troops are not allowed to intervene in internal affairs.

  1960 September – Kasavubu dismisses Lumumba as prime minister.

  1960 December – Lumumba arrested.

  1961 February – Lumumba murdered, reportedly with US and Belgian complicity.

  1961 August – UN troops begin disarming Katangese soldiers.

  1963 – Tshombe agrees to end Katanga’s secession.

  1964 – President Kasavubu appoints Tshombe prime minister.

  Mobutu Years

  1965 – Kasavubu and Tshombe ousted in a coup led by Joseph Mobutu.

  1971 – Joseph Mobutu renames the country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko; also Katanga becomes Shaba and the river Congo becomes the river Zaire.

  1973–74 – Mobutu nationalises many foreign-owned firms and forces European investors out of the country.

  1977 – Mobutu invites foreign investors back, without much success; French, Belgian and Moroccan troops help repulse attack on Katanga by Angolan-based rebels.

  1989 – Zaire defaults on loans from Belgium, resulting in a cancellation of development programmes and increased deterioration of the economy.

  1990 – Mobutu agrees to end the ban on multiparty politics and appoints a transitional government, but retains substantial powers.

  1991 – Following riots in Kinshasa by unpaid soldiers, Mobutu agrees to a coalition government with opposition leaders, but retains control of the security apparatus and important ministries.

  1993 – Rival pro-and anti-Mobutu governments created.

  1994 – Mobutu agrees to the appointment of Kengo Wa Dondo, an advocate of austerity and free-market reforms, as prime minister.

  1996-97 – Tutsi rebels capture much of eastern Zaire while Mobutu is abroad for medical treatment.

  Aftermath of Mobutu

  1997 May – Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, aided principally by Rwanda, capture the capital, Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo; Laurent-Desire Kabila installed as president.

  1998 August – Rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda rise up against Kabila and advance on Kinshasa. Zimbabwe, Namibia send troops to repel them. Angolan troops also side with Kabila. The rebels take control of much of the east of DR Congo.

  1999 – Rifts emerge between Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) rebels supported by Uganda and Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) rebels backed by Rwanda.

  Lusaka Peace Accord Signed

  1999 July – The six African countries involved in the war sign a ceasefire accord in Lusaka. The following month the MLC and RCD rebel groups sign the accord.

  2000 – UN Security Council authorises a 5,500-strong UN force to monitor the ceasefire but fighting continues between rebels and government forces, and between Rwandan and Ugandan forces.

  2001 January – President Laurent Kabila is shot dead by a bodyguard. Joseph Kabila succeeds his father.

  2001 February – Kabila meets Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Washington. Rwanda, Uganda and the rebels agree to a UN pull-out plan. Uganda, Rwanda begin pulling troops back from the frontline.

  2001 May – US refugee agency says the war has killed 2.5 million people, directly or indirectly, since August 1998. Later, a UN panel says the warring parties are deliberately deliberately prolonging the conflict to plunder gold, diamonds, timber and coltan, used in the making of mobile phones.

  2002 January – Eruption of Mount Nyiragongo devastates much of the city of Goma.

  Search for Peace

  2002 April – Peace talks in South Africa: Kinshasa signs a power-sharing deal with Ugandan-backed rebels, under which the MLC leader would be premier. Rwandan-backed RCD rebels reject the deal.

  2002 July – Presidents of DR Congo and Rwanda sign a peace deal under which Rwanda will withdraw troops from the east and DR Congo will disarm and arrest Rwandan Hutu gunmen blamed for the killing of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

  2002 September – Presidents of DR Congo and Uganda sign peace accord under which Ugandan troops will leave DR Congo.

  2002 September/October – Uganda, Rwanda say they have withdrawn most of their forces from the east. UN-sponsored power-sharing talks begin in South Africa.

  2002 December – Peace deal signed in South Africa between Kinshasa government and main rebel groups. Under the deal rebels and opposition members are to be given portfolios in an interim government.

  Interim Government

  2003 April – President Kabila signs a transitional constitution, under which an interim government will rule pending elections.

  2003 May – Last Ugandan troops leave eastern DR Congo.

  2003 June – French soldiers arrive in Bunia, spearheading a UN-mandated rapid-reaction force.

  2003 President Kabila names a transitional government to lead until elections in two years time. Leaders of main former rebel groups are sworn in as vice-presidents in July.

  2003 August – Interim parliament inaugurated.

  2004 March – Gunmen attack military bases in Kinshasa in an apparent coup attempt.

  2004 June – Reported coup attempt by rebel guards is said to have been neutralised.

  2004 December – Fighting in the east between the Congolese army and renegade soldiers from a former pro-Rwanda rebel group. Rwanda denies being behind the mutiny.

  2005 March – UN peacekeepers say they have killed more then 50 militia members in an offensive, days after nine Bangladeshi soldiers serving with the UN are killed in the north-east.

  New Constitution

  2005 May – New constitution, with text agreed by former warring factions, is adopted by parliament.

  2005 September – Uganda warns that its troops may re-enter DR Congo after a group of Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army rebels enter via Sudan.

  2005 November – A first wave of soldiers from the former Zairean army returns after almost eight years of exile in the neighbouring Republic of Congo.

  2005 December – Voters back a new constitution, already approved by parliament, paving the way for elections in 2006.

  International Court of Justice rules that Uganda must compensate DR Congo for rights abuses and the plundering of resources in the five years up to 2003.

  2006 February – New constitution comes into force; new national flag is adopted.

  2006 March – Warlord Thomas Lubanga becomes first war crimes suspect to face charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. He is accused of forcing children in
to active combat.

  2006 May – Thousands are displaced in the north-east as the army and UN peacekeepers step up their drive to disarm irregular forces ahead of the elections.

  Free Elections

  2006 July – Presidential and parliamentary polls are held – the first free elections in four decades. With no clear winner in the presidential vote, incumbent leader Joseph Kabila and opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba prepare to contest a run-off poll on 29 October. Forces loyal to the two candidates clash in the capital.

  2006 November – Joseph Kabila is declared winner of October’s run-off presidential election. The poll has the general approval of international monitors.

  2006 December – Forces of renegade General Laurent Nkunda and the UN-backed army clash in North Kivu province, prompting some 50,000 people to flee. The UN Security Council expresses concern about the fighting.

  2007 March – Government troops and forces loyal to opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba clash in Kinshasa.

  2007 April – DR Congo, Rwanda and Burundi relaunch the regional economic bloc Great lakes Countries Economic Community, known under its French acronym CEPGL.

  2007 April – Jean-Pierre Bemba leaves for Portugal, ending a three-week political stalemate in Kinshasa, during which he sheltered in the South African embassy.

  2007 May – The UN investigates allegations of gold and arms trafficking by UN peacekeepers in Ituri region.

  2007 June – War could break out again in the east, warns the Archbishop of Bukavu, Monsignor Francois-Xavier Maroy.

  2007 June – Radio Okapi broadcaster Serge Maheshe is shot dead in Bukavu, the third journalist killed in the country since 2005.

  2007 Augus – Uganda and DR Congo agree to try defuse a border dispute.

  2007 – Aid agencies report a big increase in refugees fleeing instability in North Kivu which is blamed on dissident general Nkunda.

  2007 September – Major outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

  2008 January – The government and rebel militia, including renegade Gen Nkunda, sign a peace pact aimed at ending years of conflict in the east.

  Renewed Clashes

  2008 April – Army troops clash with Rwandan Hutu militias with whom they were formerly allied in eastern Congo, leaving thousands of people displaced.