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By Paul Ndiho

The coffin carrying the remains of slain Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba has returned to his home for an emotionally charged tour and burial more than six decades after his assassination. 

Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba’s remains have been returned to his home more than 60 years after his assassination.  A carrying Lumumba’s remains — a tooth that ex-colonial power Belgium handed over to his family last week — from Brussels to Kinshasa for a nine-day trip around the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The coffin and an accompanying delegation then flew to the central province of Sankuru, where the country’s first post-independence leader was born in the village of Onalua in 1925.

Jean Jacques Lumumba, an activist and recipient of the International Award for Fighting Corruption, is the grandson of Patrice Lumumba and was among the family that received the remains. He spoke to VOA from Paris about the significance of the remains and the family’s quest for justice.  Jean Jacques Lumumba, is a great grandson of Lumumba.

“Lumumba family suffered repression in the name of the brother. We would have all wanted to see this day while in grief the emotions. Still, it’s so for the Congolese people for whom the death of Lumumba and its comrades represent the beginning of this cycle of impunity, of the dawn of our focus to independence until today.” 

After resting in his native village, the coffin of the former Belgian Congo’s first post-independence prime minister began its memorial pilgrimage to the northeastern city of Kisangani.

A single tooth is all that remains of the young scholar and nationalist politician whose life and career was cut short in a dark struggle for leadership and control of resources in the central African country.

Lumumba’s body was dissolved in acid after being killed, but a Belgian police officer kept the tooth as a trophy.

In 1958, Lumumba launched a political party, the Congolese National Movement, which won national elections in May 1960, a month before independence.

“Justice is the only practical option to a bright future. You know the memorial for millions of victims of yesterday and today who was to be respected and honored Congolese life justice and Lumumba family-like justice. “

From Kisangani, the coffin will be taken to Katanga in the southeast, where a secessionist movement raged after independence and Lumumba and his aides were tortured.

The burial ceremony is planned for June 30th in Kinshasa, which is D-R-C Independence Day.

By Paul Ndiho

A Glencore subsidiary has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribery after admitting to giving inducements to African officials. The mining conglomerate anticipates paying over one-billion dollars to settle corruption and market manipulation violations.  

A subsidiary of British mining and trading giant Glencore formally pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery concerning oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Sudan. The Swiss-based multinational company expects to pay up to $1.5 billion dollars to settle bribery and market manipulation wrongdoings.  Subsidiaries in the U.S., Brazil, and Britain subsidiaries have now pleaded guilty to criminal offenses. 

Glencore CEO Gary Nagle said in a statement issued to reporters.  “We recognize there has been misconduct in this company historically. We’ve worked hard to correct that,”

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in May said that a $1.1 billion agreement with the U.S. will resolve a decade-long scheme to bribe foreign officials across seven countries.  And separate criminal and civil charges alleging one of the company’s trading arms manipulated oil prices at two of the largest U.S. shipping ports.

“The company has agreed to plead guilty in each case. With the first plea, Glencore has agreed to pay approximately $700 million in penalties for its decade-long scheme to bribe foreign officials in seven different countries. The second plea involves Glencore’s U.S. commodities trading arm, Glencore Limited, which used a scheme to manipulate fuel oil prices at two of the busiest commercial shipping ports in the United States over eight years. As a result, Glencore has agreed to pay approximately $485 million in penalties.”

Leonce Ndikumana, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts and co-author of the book “On the Trail of Capital Flight from Africa:  the takers and the enablers” says in the last five decades, Africa has lost more than $60 Billion dollars, which is more than the continent has received in foreign aid, foreign direct investments and remittances to corruption.

“In the case of Angola, about one hundred and three billion dollars have evaporated from nineteen eighty-six to twenty eighteen through capital flight for Cote d’Ivoire. Over 50 billion dollars have left the country unaccounted for. And those represent resources that could have been used for development. So and what we find is that in these countries, there are institutional and economic factors that drive capital flight. In the case of South Africa, we profiled a phenomenon that is under scrutiny in the case, which is the state of the subject of state capture.

Ndikumana argues that African citizens should be concerned because the capital flight is funded and fueled by money from minerals and oil resources that belong to the African people, but end up enriching private individuals embezzling those funds.

“You find private individuals who are very powerful and. Connected with the party, the government was able to enrich themselves by leveraging corruption and bribery and networking with key individuals.”

Glencore Energy is to be sentenced in November after admitting to paying more than $28 million in bribes to secure preferential access to oil and generate illicit profits between 2011 and 2016.

The company still faces Swiss and Dutch investigations.  But after sweeping changes that culminated in the exit of CEO and top shareholder Ivan Glasenberg in 2021, the November sentencing will likely wrap up a multi-national inquiry. 

Are you looking for what job you can get with solid coding and computer skills? In Kenya and elsewhere in Africa, these are some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs. Female coders in Mombasa, fascinated with the intricacies of computer coding, want to inspire other young women to consider careers in this field.
For more, I am joined by Ruth Kaveke, Co-Founder and Executive Director of PwaniTeknowgalz, currently pursuing her master’s in technology, innovation, management, and entrepreneurship at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.

By Paul Ndiho

Tunisians took part in a demonstration organized by the National Salvation Front, a coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups, to protest President Kais Saied and an upcoming July 25 constitutional referendum. Paul Ndiho has more.

Hundreds protested in Tunis Sunday on day two of protests against a constitutional referendum called by President Kais Saied that his opponents say is likely to cement his hold on power.

The Salvation Front, a coalition including the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the largest party in a parliament that Saied dissolved in March, organized the demonstration.

It followed a similar protest on Saturday, called by the Free Constitutional Party over the referendum, and a strike on Thursday by a powerful labor union over government economic reform plans, which brought much of the county to a standstill.

The president’s supporters say he is standing up to elite forces whose bungling and corruption have condemned Tunisia to a decade of political paralysis and economic stagnation.

The country’s main political parties say they will boycott the referendum. But, opposition to Saied remains fragmented, as shown by the separate demonstrations at the weekend.

Protesters on Sunday marched through central Tunis, watched by a heavy police presence. Meanwhile, on Saturday, the judges in Tunisia extended their national strike for a third week in protest against a decision by Saied to sack 57 judges on June 1.

President Saied accused them of corruption and protecting terrorists – charges that the Tunisian Judges’ Association says were mainly politically motivated.

Saied’s moves have heightened accusations at home and abroad that he has consolidated one-person rule after assuming executive powers last summer and setting aside the 2014 constitution to rule by decree.

President Uhuru Kenyatta welcomes the leaders of seven nations comprising the East African Community (EAC) bloc to discuss the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s violence-torn east. The meeting is being attended by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, President of Burundi Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit, and the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Felix Tshisekedi. Paul Ndiho has more

On Thursday, flights, public transportation, and business were disrupted across Tunisia as travelers waited with their luggage at Tunis-Carthage International Airport after flights were canceled due to the vast public sector strike to demand salary hikes and concessions on looming reforms. Paul Ndiho has more.

Many subsistence farmers in Africa lack access to local markets, let alone international buyers. So there is a huge problem, but it also offers an opportunity for Technology Startups.
In Nigeria, Winch Farms is a Technology company driving efficiency in the supply chain by providing a platform where subsistence farmers and food producers get direct access to markets without the activities of middlemen.
Earlier I spoke to Riches Attai, the CEO and Co-founded of Winch farms in Lagos, Nigeria.

In recent years, the rain forest on Mount Gorongosa in Mozambique has been growing back, thanks to a previously foreign crop: coffee. Workers at Gorongosa National Park, helping to restore the mountain vegetation by planting coffee. Paul Ndiho has more

Mozambique was among five countries elected on Thursday to hold a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2023 and 2024. VOA’s Paul Ndiho has more

Mobile app developers in Africa are scrambling to release more and more apps, many of which are primarily aimed at solving their local problems. For example, in Zambia, young software developers create applications to address their needs in many areas, including mobile banking, information gathering, farming, healthcare, and education.

For more insight, I spoke to Bright Kunda Molumba, a self-taught app developer and founder of New Age Developers in Lusaka, Zambia.