BOUNDARIES ARE BROKEN

Was Njaba sincere when he said, “The church at Rethy was only for the Lendus?” At the time he said that, we didn’t take it seriously, but it was true that the highly respected Alure pastor, Balonge, had recently passed away. His wife was also gone. The former assistant pastor, a Lendu, had taken his place and had moved from a mud and wattle house with a thatched roof, into the permanent brick house with a tile roof, Pastor Balonge’s former home,

When Ellen had openly asked Njaba, and all the others who were in the big kitchen, “Where, then, will I go to church?” was their initial silence an eloquent answer? It may have been a clear indication that having missionaries fellowship with them in their church, was no longer seen as desirable. She was told, “You just don’t understand tribes”.

Was it possible that the church at Rethy was turning into an organization to be owned by one tribe, and had lost the focus of following and serving Jesus Christ as the head of the church? Was the presence of the foreign missionary seen as a deterrent, or maybe an obstacle, to accomplishing their tribal ambition?

I wondered why Lawi had told me the story of the two brothers and the conflict they had. He told me the story when I went to his house, thinking to solve the problem of the dorm cows breaking out of their pasture on a moonlit night, and entering his garden. I took with me a wad of money. The cows had definitely found the barbed wire fence a weak, boundary.

By the number of repairs, I counted on my way to Lawi’s house, the boundary had already failed a rather large number of times. I was responsible for maintaining that fence. In fact, it had already been repaired by Silavano and the dorm crew that very day.

It was certainly a boundary that was little more than an inconvenience, a long row of wooden fence posts weakly supporting three, often repaired, strands of sagging barbed wire. The wire was thin, with widely spaced barbs, a soft wire, easily cut, a wire that could be useful in making bicycle repairs. To take the shortcut across the cow pasture, the middle and bottom two strands of wire were simply wound together to facilitate stepping through the fence. It also made it easier to lead goats under the fence to tie them to clumps of grass where they could graze in the cow’s pasture.

The story Lawi told me, when my cows broke through that fence and entered his garden, was somehow motivated by the situation that had arisen. The boundary between my cows and his garden hadn’t worked very well. According to his story, the permanent division of the land between the two brothers, from whom the different tribes had descended, was marked by an axe driven into a huge rubber tree. His story concluded that “the axe was still there”, though I doubt it. The tree, if it was still there, would have grown in diameter and engulfed the iron.

Lawi, the story teller, was older than Balonge so I am sure I cannot ask him why he told me that story. I am certain that there was much he knew, that I did not. I can, however, relate some of what has happened since that time. After 25 years I have recently received a letter from Charlie Lonu, relating some events that have since happened at Rethy.

In Lawi’s story, the bitter, unquenchable hatred between the two brothers, representing the origin of the Lendu and Alure tribes, was initially over the loss of possessions, the hunter’s prized spear head and his wife’s beautiful, colored, beads. Though the items were recovered at an unthinkable cost, there was no repentance, no forgiveness, and no love offered. How could there be. The baby was dead.

The natural, human, selfish desire, is to own more, to exercise more authority, and to become the greatest, ever lusting for more pleasures and a longer life, having no regard even for the lives of others. Dividing the land between the brothers was the solution in the story, but the tribes have since mingled. The Alure and Hema herdsmen now occupy land that the gardeners, the Lendu, claim as their own.

My fence hadn’t been much of a boundary, neither the cows nor the goats respected it. The people on opposite sides of the fence didn’t respect it either. Anyone who pleased used the shortcut across the big pasture and passed through, over, or under the fence.

At that time Mobutu had been the recognized authority in the land. The soldiers had been paid. The civil authorities had enforced rules and administered justice, making people pay fines and taxes. A few years later Kabila led the rebellion to overthrow Mobutu, whose then unpaid soldiers looted the people they had been assigned to protect. As Kabila’s forces continued to advance towards Kinshasa, over a thousand miles away, he left behind him no authority at all. A government didn’t exist. The fence was gone. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. No one could see the axe in the tree.

Tribal loyalty was the only law for a while, yet, when Kabila began setting up his own government he placed soldiers loyal to him in the former military camps. There was again a semblance of order. However, in remote areas like Blukwa, the Lendu and the Hema continued to seize what they wanted, burning houses, driving away or killing their enemies. Even the world recognized the need to establish order in the area. A UN peace-keeping force was established; in Bunia, near the airport. The Blukwa area was avoided.

I don’t recall if we, as foreign missionaries, got permission from AIM to return to Africa. However, since we had been forced to leave Zaire, and hadn’t yet completed the normal term of service, we had returned. We found some of the same people exercising authority at the Mahagi border post, but when a high ranking soldier from Kabila’s army came through, he was clearly the one they feared and obeyed. The army was in charge.

The old soldier’s camp between Rethy and Kwandruma had been abandoned, the site was overgrown, and what was left of the mud and wattle houses was hidden in the weeds. Kabila’s soldiers had been stationed in Kwandruma instead. Many of the people were cooperating with the new authorities, some were just ignoring them, but others saw the young soldiers as having no authority over them, at all.

Human government is instituted by God and we are instructed to submit to the regulations established to punish evildoers, and to praise them that do well. However, when people consider loyalty to their tribe above obeying God, and there is no king in the land, then everyone does what he pleases.

After the missionaries were told by the CECA church authorities to evacuate, very likely because of their concern for our physical safety, a spiritual influence was removed. Areas dominated by one tribe or the other focused on their tribal loyalty, and abandoned the allegiance they had once professed when they became Christians. There was extensive destruction of property, and the conflict between the tribes intensified. The Alure and Hema were driven out of the area around Rethy and many houses were burned. Love was lost, the axe forgotten, the borders not respected, and there was no government to intervene.

The two brothers in Lawi’s story found no repentance, no forgiveness, no love, only stubborn, angry pride. For them the axe in the tree solved the problem. That boundary had not been honored for centuries.

The letter from Charlie Lonu was written a month ago. He says:

“Peace to you. We have peace here now in Bunia. But in Djugu in general there is no peace. Up to now people are killing each other in any way here and there. During the sixth month, everybody ran away from Rethy, Kwandruma, and Nioka Foret, all. The people ran to Zali, Budza, Goikpa. The soldiers of the government entered many into Kwandruma. They started burning houses from below at Terali and upward to arrive at Lokpa.

Now all the people have finished to go back to Rethy, Kwandruma, Lokpa, Ndeke and Nioka Foret. The soldiers went to place their camp at Koda. Their thinking was that they had come to destroy Koda, because among the hundred soldiers many of the young men were Hema. They know that this Koda is in the home area of the Lendu. Now for a Lendu to arrive at Bunia is hard. The Hema, they control the Lendu from on top of trucks. Fighting is all the time at Blukwa and this and that side of it.

A miracle has happened at Koda. You know the big clouds that come together all the time at Koda, but these clouds came with very much strength and strong wind that broke up the soldiers’ camp to throw down their houses and all their things and this gave the soldiers that they all wanted to leave that place and go back to Bunia. They said they would not stay again there in Djugu.”

He continued in his Kinguana letter to tell us that our gift arrived too late to help Lakana’s wife who died in December, and gave details as to how he had helped their children and others. And for Pierre’s wife he would give her gift when he went there in December. Lakana and Pierre had worked faithfully for us many years earlier.

Lonu Charlie also shared that CECA 20 had selected a new president, and the transition of responsibility was done in the large new church in Bunia. Reverend Lalima, at 83 was retired.

There was another paragraph from Charlie giving news of Rethy:

“The governor just appointed is a Muzungu, (a white man) who arrived at Rethy to study how this fighting would be able to finish. All the tribe of Lendus had a meeting in Kwandruma and all that was said was reported in the big house that you, (actually Mark Sudman) built for the games of the children at the dorm. Now all the meetings of the church, marriages, and official announcements of the state take place there. Now all the people understand the value of the work you did, Koda, RTK, and the many houses you built.

Lonu Charlie concludes by saying:

“Thanks and God bless you.”

Charlie’s letter was to express his thanks for the small gift we had sent in a hand carried letter for him to distribute to our former employees at Rethy. Twenty-two years have passed since we evacuated and he has delivered gifts to Rethy a number of times, always sharing the news.

We heard earlier that the Koda Hydro plant had failed, first it was due to the lack of proper speed and voltage regulation that the 400 KVA generator burned out, and then the turbine itself became nonfunctional since the blades had been worn away.

Ubechen earlier wrote after receiving a “prime d’encouragement” gift to RTK workers. God had blessed the radio work and there were now eight FM stations. The volunteer speakers received the gift as thanks for their faithful work.

He also sent these details in his e-mail:

For the moment, KODA does not have a director with whom to speak directly. Longama takes over the suspended Director of Safari for problems created by the people of Rethy. You understand Koda’s middle better than me. But, the first phase of Koda ended in a total breakdown. The dam did not work for a few years.

Mr. Toni Viedeman, a German, raised 380,000 euros for the rehabilitation of Koda. The dam resumed operation in 2010.

If you still had the strength to return to the Congo, CECA 20 would
entrust you with the management of Koda …

But, there is no credible person who can talk about Koda with you for now.

Yours,

Ubechen Jang’ay

Even with news directly from Congo there are still questions. Why are the church meetings held on Dorm Hill in what we called the Rainy Day Room? What happened to the church building Njaba said was only for the Lendu? With the Koda dam in Lendu territory, have the distribution lines been extended to Ndrele, a nearby Alure town? With a Muzungu appointed as governor has there been any progress in settling the tribal conflicts?

We do know that God has multiplied the number of FM broadcasting stations that started at Rethy as RTK, Radio Tangazeni Kristo, the radio that announces Jesus Christ.

Only God can build His Church and bring peace and good will to men. Human efforts end up like a broken, barbed wire boundary.