ZuluRomeo10 to Logistics
Two weeks ago I was at a fabulous dance club here in Goma, DR Congo, with my 28-year-old coworker, Issa. I asked him to go dancing after a.) deciding he is a badass and b.) finding out he is an R&B singer. It was loud in the club but we still managed to talk by shouting. I asked the usual pleasantries and then went right to the heart of the matter. That matter was: What exactly gives Issa this glow of badassness, and how did he get that way?
Issa shared his perspective on life, and let me tell you, it is far from normal here. Most people in eastern Congo give me a five-minute personal rundown that sounds something like this: “I am so poor. I can’t find a job. I want to go to college in the United States. I have so many dreams. Can you help me accomplish them? I would like to be business partners with you. It is impossible to get ahead in this country with so much corruption. And the war. My house burned down last year. My wife is sick. My child has malaria. Give me money. Give me scholarship. Give me biscuits. I want to marry a white person. Be my wife.” Most foreigners fulfill some of these requests on a regular basis, but it’s hard not to get sick of being treated like the Bank of America.
Fortunately, Issa is not a mooch. He’s a logistician. That means he works in the logistics department of our company. He manages transportation — 30 drivers, 20 cars, who’s leaving, who’s coming, who’s driving down a road lined with bandits, who’s in an accident, who’s held up by bandits, who can’t figure out how to work the thuraya, who is going to miss her plane. Logistics is the department for badasses, a small and elite army that protects us and procures everything from satellite phones to beer for my press conference. They give us code names, like ZuluRomeo10, and check in every night at 7 p.m. to make sure we’re alive. The term logistics evokes maps, walkie talkies, lists of rebel commander cellphone numbers, ray ban sunglasses, and neat, sturdy dudes who don’t panic, ever. Issa’s boss has a motto for his team posted up on the door to his office: Strong Partners, Flexible Solutions. Logistics is an attitude, and a lifestyle.
Issa is true to the image. He’s famous for coming to a recent house party in a white suit. He’s assertive, confident. He doesn’t smile a lot, and he always looks busy. Right before our interview, I heard that the rebel leader who is causing a civil war in this province was overthrown. Shocked, I chattered to Issa about all the possibilities. “Are you worried?” I asked. “No,” he said phlegmatically. “Do you know how many times we have heard he was overthrown? I am just living my life.”
You can listen to our interview (in French) with the link above, or read the translation below.
Hero Q&A
African Heroes: Okay, so, we talked about a lot of things last weekend, but specifically I said: “You look very busy and very confident whenever I see you in the office, and I am very impressed with your demeanor. Especially here, [in DR Congo], It’s seems difficult for people to find a job and earn money. People tell me all the time that they live on around $100 a month, they have to hustle all the time, and life is so hard. They say they wish they could live in the United States.” And you had a response. Tell me the story you told me that night.
Issa Muhima Bach: Okay, if I remember correctly, what I told you that night is really just about my personality. I said I can’t stand people who say they’re waiting to move to the west. Because here, people have the means and the capacity to achieve what they want from life if they work hard. I mentioned the way people have traditionally thought:
“You have to wait, because God will make it happen.”
No. God will not act in your place. You have to be brave. Work hard.
I said, yes, there are people who say it’s difficult to find a job in Congo, in Africa. But me, I never had that idea. When I finished my studies, I was still very young. I got a job at Medecins Sans Frontiers Holland, working on vehicles because I had an associates degree in auto mechanics. I worked there for 5 years. Then I went back to school and earned an associates degree in information technology. I decided to try and work as a consultant for various NGOs, because my whole career I had worked for an NGO. I did that for a while. And after I got my degree I got a job with the NGO we currently work for. I knew then that this would be a good job and I hoped to advance my position within the company.
To get back to your question, I will compare my path to that of my peers, who always say: “I’m smart, and I need money, and I have to find a scholarship to study in the west.” Maybe they need that. But, sometimes I detect a certain laziness in that statement. It’s sort of like saying that you would be doing much better if you just were another person in another place with different history, but you’re not. You’re you, here, now, and you have to always fortify yourself now for a better future, for your own history. And it’s just those people who I tell that I have no interest in living in Europe. Never. I would hate to live abroad. But what I would like to do is visit Europe for two or three days, or go there for a professional training, and then return to Congo.
In my career with NGOs, I can’t just move about here and there, whenever I want. I am already married, even though I’m young, and I must save for the future of my children. I’m not in a position just to make money for myself because I have to save for my family. For this reason I really don’t ever plan to move out of my country.
AH: But you said at the club last weekend that you wanted to move to another country and work for an NGO as an expat.
Issa: Yes. In another African country maybe, but not in the west. Because all the young Africans dream of living in the west — in the U.S., Europe, or Australia. But me, no. I can enjoy myself traveling around Africa. This conversation is one example of when I tell people that I am proud to be African, especially Congolese.
AH: Why? Explain to those who are listening/reading, who don’t know Africa, why you are proud to be African.
Issa: It’s not to say that Africa is better than any other continent, it’s just that I have been hearing all my life all the stories about the west. That everything that comes from the west is better than what comes from my home. In reality it’s not true. Here, I am free. For example, if I want to travel a bit, around Africa or my country, I can. If I want to develop my intellectual capacities, I can certainly find people to exchange ideas with.
[phone call]
Okay, I have to go meet my friend because he is waiting for me. So I will get to the point. If there’s a small message about Africa that I can give to people who are reading this/listening, they must know that as an artist, because I am a musician, I tell people all the time that men die, but culture never does. One has to value his own culture. I’m saying that Africa is fabulous, as long as you have an open mind, and you see la vie en rose. Because if you see la vie en rose, it’s always en rose. And if you have a really negative perspective on life, it’s always going to be bad for you. It’s really very simple: Work very hard, cultivate your mind, and you will see that all goes well.
AH: One can say always in cases of success like yours that it’s all because of a comfortable childhood. It’s an argument used all over the world, that if you were raised with money, you grow up with the idea that anything is possible, full of hope for the future. But you have told me that you are not a case of someone who was brought up bourgeois or rich. Did you learn to value hard work and a positive attitude from your parents or was it something you came up with on your own?
Issa: I got 50% of my attitude from my parents influence and the rest I learned on my own. As you say I don’t come from a bourgeois family, my father started out working as a chauffeur. Now he is also a logistician like me. And we didn’t have sufficient means to live on when I was growing up. But according to my principals, one can come from a rich family and die poor. And one can come from a poor family and die rich. It’s just a matter of courage, and developing one’s capacities.
AH: And you have two kids right?
Issa: Yes.
AH: What do you think about all the young men our age, 28, or something like that, who don’t have wives, because they don’t want to make the commitment, who don’t have children, of course. They don’t have any responsibilities because they say it would interfere with their personal interests. [No offense meant to my unmarried boys reading this, I just can’t resist asking a classic question that concerns women everywhere.]
Issa: You have to go through a period of being affronted with problems, because man is measured by what he does in the face of problems. In reality, an experience is the accumulation of challenges one faces over a given period, and the solution one implements. That’s what I call “an experience.” Therefore, I don’t fear my responsibilities. I must prove time and time again that I am a responsible father, and I must arrange things so that my family’s situation is always improving. I always say to people that they need not fear facing responsibilities. You can’t tell yourself it’s impossible. You have to try before you decide that. If you find that you have certain difficulties, well, that’s part of any experience, so look for a solution. If there isn’t one, then you may decide that the situation is truly impossible. But if you haven’t tried, the solution is simple.
