What is the (in)sense of elections in Congo?

Officially, Congolese President Joseph Kabila's mandate ended in December 2016. However, he did not resign. Across the country, Congolese people took to the streets to protest against this. Before that, the people protested that Kabila wanted to tinker with the constitution so that he could run himself for a third, unconstitutional term. In every protest, Kabila's regime cracked down, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of political prisoners.

On New Year's Eve 2017, Congolese also took to the streets en masse in several cities to demonstrate against Kabila's illegal presidency. To prevent the outside world from getting wind of this, Kabila's regime cut off internet and text messaging traffic for three days. The demonstration was once again brutally put down. Eight people were killed and hundreds wounded.

On 26 January, the FMS is organising a Political Café. The central issue is Congo's future. Will elections contribute to a peaceful and democratic Congo? What are the Congolese doing to bring about change? And what role can the international community and you as a citizen play in this? We will start the evening with the short documentary 'Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth'. Then the speakers and the audience will search for answers to the crisis.

When:       Friday, Jan 26, 2018
                          20:00 - 22:00 (walk-in from 19:30)

Where:              Humanity House
                          Prinsegracht 8, The Hague 

Access:        Free, sign up via the online registration system is required.

About the speakers

• Nadia Nsayi works as a policy officer for Central Africa at Broederlijk Delen and Pax Christi Flanders. Nadia specialises in the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has a particular interest in Belgium's policy and the role of Congolese civil society.
• Alphonse Muambi is an author, critical opinion leader and lobbyist. He is from Congo but now lives in The Hague. In 2006 and 2011, he acted as an international election observer in Congo on behalf of the Netherlands. Muambi is also a speaker and participates in (inter)national forums on Africa. He also publishes essays in newspapers such as Trouw and wrote the book 'Democracy you can't eat'.
• Angélique Mbundu is a lawyer, entrepreneur and owner of a consulting firm. Angélique has a wealth of experience in both the public, private and non-profit sectors. She is a board member of the organisation Yangambi and artistic director of the iAfrica Film Festival. Moreover, she is a founding member of the African Young Professional Network (AYP) and duo-chair of the Dutch branch of the Africa 2.0 network.
• Rapper Badi (Badibanga Ndeka) lives in Brussels but describes himself as "a man without a country". On his identity, he says the following: "Am I Belgian or am I from Congo, or am I just a Belgian with black skin... Son of the colonies, child of slavery, adopted by Europe..."
• Moderator of this programme is Kiza Magendane. Kiza is an Amsterdam-based writer of Congolese descent. He studied political science and is a publicist for OneWorld, de Volkskrant and NRC.

Political Café is an initiative of the Max van der Stoel Foundation (FMS) in cooperation with Yangambi.

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