The minimum you must know

The Democratic Republic of Congo probably cares about peace more than most other Central African nations because there are uninvited Rwandan troops who crossed the eastern border. Rwanda is a very small landlocked country but may pose a considerable threat. But the Congo government is openly eager to maintain their country's sovereignty, and resolve the incursion peacefully. There have already been successful Congo - Rwanda peace talks led by neighboring countries. Hopefully the matter is becoming fully resolved as a result.

The Congo is geographically one of the largest countries in Africa, but has fewer miles of coastline than almost any other on the ocean. The country is consequently more focused on protecting inland natural resources than seaways, such as desert areas and forestry.

Like many other African countries, the Congo gained independence from Europe at the start of the 1960s. Belgium was deterred away from colonization. Peace followed for several decades. But significant conflicts occurred around the turn of the 21st century. The first was following the downing of Rwandan President Habyarimana's plane near Kigali Airport in 1994. This writer believes historical accounts that a surface to air projectile was responsible, and that the incident wasn’t accidental, because approaching a million people lost their lives around the same time. There were two larger conflicts that followed in 1997 and from 1998 to 2003. Those conflicts together cost more than five million lives, including that of Congo President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

There's no way to know without visiting Rwanda. But this writer wonders if Kigali street signs unintentionally incited the population against one another. Well intentioned humanitarian workers deterred aids with some of the most thoughtless linguistics ever produced. They should be covered over with something peaceful, that linguistically saves lives, if they haven't been already. And Kikongo patterning may have inadvertently incited English-speaking people in Rwanda, the same way local language patterning may have incited people in Germany and Haiti. Words with “Ki” in them throughout the Kikongo language appear unintentionally dangerously close to words with the letters “ll.” Even when governments and the local population are attempting to save lives, and patterning peacefully, as they are now, the word “kill” can be found by combining words and statements written around town and in local language newspaper articles with greater frequency than otherwise. Even talented linguists cannot avoid this aspect of the Kikongo language. There may be every intention in the writing to save lives and yet the language can accidentally imply the opposite as words become combined. Perhaps the country can start using the letter 'C' instead of 'K" as a way to pattern more helpfully.

There may also have been unhelpful global balance of power innuendo in the “Kigali” town name as well. “Ki gal li” sounds a lot like “ok gal lie,” which was accidentally suggestive to English-speaking governments visiting the region that they might find illicit romance there not permitted in their own country. The letters “KG” sequentially in the town name was particularly unhelpful because it may have implied to NATO officers that gals would be from the non-NATO side, and equally to KGB officers that gals would be offered by the NATO side - when neither side really had that intention, and simply looked that way because of an innocent town name unavoidable by people in the region. This writer wonders if decades of well intentioned humanitarian aids workers across the continent posted signs to deter foreigners and locals from soliciting interpersonal activity in Africa without realizing that the wording risked patterning conflicts among the populations there. The intention of everyone involved was to save lives. It still is to save lives today - including saving the lives of the peaceful men and women being solicited. Everyone there was probably unaware of unintentional patterning that could have led ordinary people to challenge each other unnecessarily.

Here is a peaceful introduction to pattern recognition for people in the region to help save lives.

Those events in Rwanda spilled across an open border into the Congo, which was ruled until 2019 by a conquering leader named President Joseph Kabila. He wasn’t legitimately elected but saved a lot of lives in the Congo by creating and maintaining order more peacefully but equally deterrently before relinquishing power in a peaceful general election to living Félix Tshisekedi, who has been in office ever since. The current president has probably also saved a lot of lives on all sides, which is obviously the right thing to do, because he is a very talented public speaker. He creates hope for a much brighter and ethical future. He extols a very ethical vision for his country. Probably the Congo is peaceful today in part because of him, and millions of lives are continued to be saved. His rightful lead was contested with unsuccessful protests. But he clearly enjoys broad enough domestic support necessary for government continuity.

(The President of Congo might consider varying the spelling of his last name for linguistic reasons already explained such as to “Tshisekedy or “Tshisekethi.” Or he could use his other last name Tshilombo” instead.)

The Congo has had a tumultuous history, and therefore cares more than others about diplomacy. The President of the Congo started his presentation with a quote that, "The goal of the U.N. is not to take us to heaven but to keep us from hell," reflecting his modest expectations from talks locally and perhaps even globally. But his presentation was very optimistic in another sense anyway, because he joined the vast majority of world leaders in patterning "peace." This writer hopes that peaceful global diplomacy can be far more successful than the quote implied, including for the Democratic Republic of Congo.