Today in the heart of Kisangani preparations continue for the tomorrow’s Congolese Independence Day celebrations. In comparison to recent years there is considerably more hubbub leading up to the festivities. Last year participation in the parade was limited to compulsory appearances by the police and bureaucrats. Some said all the others were frightened by the potential for unrest. Others said that the parade just wasn’t very well organized. In any case, we were coming out of the postwar transition period where a tenuous power sharing government was focused more on getting their faction elected than celebrating much.
This year the President is coming to Kisangani and there has already been a lot of noise. A viewing platform has been built, torn down, and rebuilt again to accommodate the VIPs. (I think they moved it closer to the street for better TV angles.) Soldiers have been drilling in front of that platform all week. There’s a man just now sound checking the loudspeakers, “ok, ok, un, deux, trois, OK OK OK!” I’m not sure how OK has entered into every language in the world and I don’t even know it’s origins in English. Nobody knows who will be in the parade, other than a copious amount of soldiers in green fatigues. I was watching a well made documentary about Mobutu and it is thought provoking. My mind moves to the Congo I’ve known and the enormous Zairean legacy that remains interwoven. In his day, the soldiers dressed to the nines, now they wear new and pressed fatigues. Maybe the dress uniforms will come out for the big day.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch the parade from my apartment or asked to stay off the balcony or to leave my home for the morning. I don’t know whether there will be spot security inspections by the government. Most of these things, if they are planned, aren’t communicated to me. So I go with the flow. I’ll call the UN security people today to find out if I should expect to go visit a friend tomorrow rather than stay in my apartment and have friends over to watch the festivities.
In any case, it’s a change from the usual. It’s a prime time for watching documentaries and reading journalists’ accounts of the last 57 tumultuous years through the inescapably noisy preparations for a newly elected government’s pomp and circumstance in the Congo of the 21st century.
– And now Saturday has come and gone… and not without it’s share of drama…
Brian, you intrigue me. I had to go looking for the etymology of okay.
A simple Google search yielded a Wikipedia entry… and while I don’t condone using Wikipedia as a source in an essay for my composition students… I do find many of the articles on there useful when people have clearly done their homework and written something intelligent with sources. Check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okay
I’m fascinated.