By: John Soleanicov, KF8 DRC

Since the mid 1990s, war in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken more lives than any other conflict since World War II.  Started in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, the war involved 7 African countries and more than 25 armed groups.  By some estimates, more than 5 million people lost their lives, many from illness and malnutrition.  As a result, eastern DRC  has also become notorious for the widespread use of rape by various parties as a weapon of war.

One of the main epicenters of the struggle, and site of several key battles was Kisangani, the town in which Joseph Conrad’s tragic hero, Kurtz, lost his sanity and his soul.  Last week, I made a trip out to Kisangani to see the “Heart of Darkness” for myself and to help kick-start Kiva lending there.

Kisangani is about 800 miles (1,200 kilometers) northeast of Kinshasa, about the same distance from New York to Chicago.

The first difficulty with working in Kisangani is just getting there.  Despite being the third largest city in the DRC, Kisangani has no road links to the capital or to most of the other regions of the country.  The safest way to get there is via the daily flights operated by the UN, which allows NGO staff to fly at no charge.  Unfortunately, neither the time of the flight, the itinerary, nor the availability of a seat can be confirmed until right before departure.  Luckily, I had no major issues with my flight, save a brief stop to drop off a UN hot shot and his sizeable entourage in Mbandaka, a regional capital on the equator.

Rainforests in Eastern Congo - The view from my UN plane

Peering out my window upon arrival in Kisangani, all I could see were endless rainforests in all directions.  Once off the plane, the all-consuming tropical heat began seeping through all my pores.  This is definitely not Kinshasa. The local language, as in most of East Africa, is Swahili, as opposed to the Lingala spoken in Kinshasa.  The city’s isolation has left it with very few cars, mostly owned by foreign agencies and mining companies.

The preferred methods of transport are bicycles and motorcycles, which zoom by dilapidated and bullet-holed buildings, eerie reminders of the recent war.  It is here that some of the bloodiest fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan troops took place in 2000.

But in spite of its violent past – or maybe because of it – Kisangani, now essentially stable, exudes a surprising aura of tranquility and peace.  The hassling and aggressiveness of Kinshasa are noticeably absent.  Whenever I tried probing Hope’s borrowers about their experiences in the war, I always felt them dodging the question, or bringing the discussion back to their businesses.  They didn’t want to talk about the past; they were too busy preparing for the future.

One after one, Hope’s clients spoke to me about the importance of microfinance, how it is helping them grow their activities and send their children to school.  They also spoke of the tremendous need for more lending in their communities and of larger amounts to help them expand.  I had clearly fallen into the all too common trap of focusing on African tragedy and misery, rather than on its hope and ingenuity.  Despite its terrible past, Kisangani’s future is bright.  With its newfound stability and construction of road connections, activity is picking up.  The demand for microfinance, meanwhile, is huge.

Hope is currently the only functioning MFI in Kisangani, and one of its largest employers.    Its key constraint to growth continues to be funding, and with Kiva coming on line, the organization will be able to reach more borrowers and lend larger amounts.  The first Kisangani Kiva loan was posted last Friday.  To see a list of currently fundraising DRC loans for both Kisangani and Kinshasa, click here.

Unlike Kurtz, I left Kisangani with my sanity intact.  As for my soul, it came out not only intact, but transformed by a newfound appreciation for the human spirit, and its amazing ability to overcome and persevere.

By: John Soleanicov, KF8 DRC

Nope, that’s not a misprint, nor an exaggeration.  You can find the source right  here.  Kinshasa comes in at number 6.  The first time I tried to go grocery shopping, I thought I had the exchange rate wrong.  $20 for a small piece of beef?  That can’t be right.  Well, it is.

Can this really be one of the most expensive cities in the world?

Home of the largest UN peacekeeping force in the world, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been flooded with foreign troops, aid workers and diplomats, many with generous per diems. This, combined with Congo’s poor infrastructure and lack of production capacity, has resulted in prices that match or exceed those in most developed countries. (Note: Luanda, Angola is ranked even higher, at number 1, for similar reasons.)

It is possible to purchase locally-produced items at more reasonable prices (and this how local Congolese are able to survive) but not in the center of the city, where expatriates live. Getting to areas where food is actually affordable is difficult and can be unsafe, especially after dark. The center, meanwhile, is dotted with expat-oriented grocery stores filled with imported goods at exorbitant prices.

This all came as quite a shock to me during my first days in Kinshasa, and I remember going through a mini-depression after realizing that, with my soon-to-be-grad student budget, I could not afford to buy the basic items I needed. This, I thought, must be what it is like to be poor. Seeing things you need to buy, for yourself or for your family, which you simply cannot afford. For the first time, I was able to identify, albeit on a very limited and fleeting basis, with being poor. It’s not a good feeling. To still meet my budget, I have been forced to adapt. And this, as far as I can tell, is what most Congolese do.

There are virtually no jobs in Congo. Outside the government, the aid community, telecoms and mining, there are very few opportunities for employment. The jobs that do exist (especially in the mining sector) are increasingly at risk due to the global downturn. Unemployment benefits? Forget about it. If you want to survive in Congo, you become an entrepreneur; it’s not a choice, it’s literally your only option.

I’ve lived in New York, Chicago, London, Mexico City and Cairo, but the hustle of Kinshasa puts all these cities to shame. On a typical day, everywhere you go, people are on the move, buying and selling, taking goods from one place, dropping them off somewhere else, loading impossible weights on their heads, jumping in and out of shared taxis and buses. But these individual activities remain tiny, and very few people seem able to escape subsistence living because they can’t access the necessary credit to expand.

Microfinance in the DRC is still in its nascent stages and even if you take all the MFIs in the country, they are only beginning to scratch the surface. It is challenging work but of the upmost importance for the livelihoods of millions of Congolese. There is much to be done.

To see DRC loans currently fundraising on Kiva, click here.  If there aren’t any listed check back soon!

By John Soleanicov, KF8 DRC

I could feel the beads of sweat rolling down my face.  Sitting in a makeshift police station under a tent, I was surrounded by three Congolese policemen and my accuser, a young man that could not have been past his mid twenties.  My crime: videotaping in public.

As I was returning from a group visit with Hope’s Kiva Coordinator, Robert, I wanted to capture the infrastructure realities of Kinshasa (more on this in a later post).  The young man noticed I was taping and began to follow our motorcycle.  You can actually hear him in the video.

Once we arrived at our destination, he made a big scandal, refusing to let us leave peacefully.  Since he was clearly not a police officer, Robert suggested going to a nearby police station to settle the matter “officially.”  Having heard horror stories of the notorious corruption of Congolese police, I feared the confiscation of my camera, passport, or worse.

After an hour of discussion, the police decided that I had done nothing wrong.  Surprisingly, we were allowed to leave freely.  While the overall experience was quite frightening, it did provide me with several invaluable lessons:

Not all Congolese police are corrupt. I was shocked by the correctness of the police officers and happy that I trusted Robert’s instinct.  While corruption in their ranks continues to be a problem, perhaps this is a sign that reform is in the works.

Photography is taboo in the DRC. Before coming to Kinshasa, I had read that photography of government buildings was illegal.  However, aversion to cameras appears to be far more ingrained in Congolese society.  After years of repression under the Mobutu regime, photography has come to be seen as a tool used by those seeking to usurp the state or to report dissident activities.

This last point, of course, has implications for Kiva.  If you look through loans posted by Hope DRC, you will sometimes notice people hiding from or trying to avoid the camera.  One of the big challenges of implementing Kiva in the DRC is convincing people to have their pictures taken.  Once the reason for the picture is explained, however, people seem far more receptive to the idea.  (Note: Hope DRC is in the process of including a client waiver in all their group loan contracts, which will inform borrowers about the use of Kiva photos).

In one case, one of the younger group members actually had his own digital camera (used for his business).  Once the group warmed to the idea of Kiva, everyone suddenly wanted a picture with the mundele (the word for white person in Lingali, the local language of Kinshasa).

The Mundele

As with many of the challenges of DRC, there are signs of progress and change – one photo, and one Kiva loan, at a time.

To see all DRC loans fundraising on Kiva, click here. You can also join the Lend DRC lending team here. John Soleanicov is serving as a Kiva Fellow with Hope DRC (KF8).

Not long after my Kenya Airways flight slalomed into N’djili Airport, I began to hear the noise.  Drum beats.  Cheering.  Flag-waving masses of people.  “Wow,” I thought, “what a welcome.”  I had heard the Congolese were welcoming, but this is a bit over the top!

A Hero’s Welcome – Note the caravan of fans at the top right!

It turns out the ad-hoc parade wasn’t for me (Bummer!) but for the coach of one of the club football (soccer) teams here in Kinshasa.  Nevertheless, the conglomeration of people and noise proved to be an ideal introduction to this pulsating metropolis.  With 8 million souls, Kinshasa is considered by many to be the largest french-speaking city in the world.  It is the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the third largest country in Africa, bordering almost all major conflict regions on the continent.

Usually, when I tell people I’m heading to the “Congo,” I get the same almost-scripted reaction.  Puzzlement, worry, doubt – “why would anyone willingly go to the DRC?”  I suppose the Congo has come to be seen as a basket case, a land of war, violence and suffering.  What I see, however, and what I hope to convey through this blog over the next two months, is Congo as a land of opportunity, a land of hope.

Let me be clear.  Congo has issues.  Power outages, crime, rampant corruption, the DRC ranks 181st out 181 countries on the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report.  But with tremendous challenge lies tremendous opportunity.

Rich in mineral wealth, and relatively stable since elections in 2006, the DRC seems to have finally turned the corner after centuries of violence and exploitation.  This is where you (Kiva Lender) come in.  By lending directly to entrepreneurs in the DRC through Kiva you are, in a way, reversing history, connecting with the Congolese on a basis of dignity and mutual respect.  So be sure to keep an eye out for DRC loans this summer and beyond, as the MFI I am working with, Hope DRC, plans to ramp-up its Kiva lending!

John Soleanicov is serving as a Kiva Fellow with Hope DRC (KF8).