Experiencing cultural differences in DRC

Hi, my name is Brieuc Debontridder and I work for Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I started working at TFM as a consultant from a social consultancy before joining the Resettlement Action Plan unit Management team as the survey team coordinator. I hold a MA of “Media Education, Culture and Society” with a specialization in “Communication for Development.” A travel lover, I did a six-month backpack trip in South America before moving out to the DRC. I’m a Belgian national and speak French, English, Spanish, Dutch and basic Swahili.

As a “Muzungu” (“white” in local language) expat in the DRC, I would like to share with you some thoughts about this intercultural experience. While we usually get a really stereotyped and unified picture of Africa, the reality is quite different.  There is a lot of variety from a region to another. To illustrate my words, here are a few anecdotes that – besides the language barrier and the related (amusing) misunderstandings that we challenge when travelling – I have had the chance to experience in Congo:

• In my early days in Congo, I saw two men knocking their foreheads several times, I first thought they were fighting until I was invited to do so by a local colleague and friend after coming back from my holidays. I then realized that it was a way to greet someone you appreciate and I now feel really honoured when someone greets me this way.

• Part of my job here is to take census of people’s assets and fields. This means that I sometimes need to walk to their field or identify them on a map. Easier said than done! What I didn’t expect is that when a farmer tells you that his field is really close, you actually might have to walk for two hours to get there. You could then try to identify the field on a map to gain time but you would be really naive imagining that local farmers use maps to locate their field. Moreover, if my local colleagues could recognize the exact itinerary we had taken six months before, I would not be able to distinguish a tree from another in the bush and would get lost in less than a minute!

• Calling someone on a telephone in another language has always been a challenge for me and, supposedly, for lots of people. It gets even more complicated when the communication standards are not the same. For instance, it is not common in Congo that people calling you introduce themselves with a “Hi, it’s Serge calling, how are you?” and concludes the call with an usual “OK, thank you, we talk later, Bye…”. They actually don’t use these formulas and would not hesitate to hang up when they assume the message has been given and without having introduced themselves; I’ll let you imagine how confusing it is. So if you ever go to Congo, don’t take it personally if someone hangs up on you.

• Despite these cultural differences, what surprised me the most is that we are fundamentally very similar. For instance, either in a village in the Congolese bush or in a neighbourhood in a Western big city, you find the same group dynamic and the same kind of personal characteristics.To conclude, I would say that though I arrived in Congo trying to remember as much as possible what I learned from my “Intercultural Communication” class, I realized that the most important method of communication is to act as naturally as possible, to be open-minded and to respect and avoid judgement on someone else’s behaviour and culture. It is then sometimes worth exposing your cultural differences to create a contact with the locals.

 

Civil Engineering Abroad

About the Blogger – Crispin Smith is the Deputy RAP Manager at Tenke Fungurume Mining. He is an engineer and planner with rePlan, a planning and architecture firm based in Toronto, Canada. He has been with TFM in the DRC since early 2013. His international experience includes missions in Ghana, the Philippines, Iran, Haiti, Mongolia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tenke Fungurume mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo courtesy of Freeport McMoRan.

RAP stands for Resettlement Action Plan.  It is the unit responsible for dealing with displacement caused by the mine. The mine is constantly growing; pits are enlarged, new infrastructure is built, roads are widened and exploration cores are drilled. Every time the mine expands it creates impacts and the RAP unit is responsible for minimizing, mitigating and dealing with these impacts as they occur. In the simplest cases this requires compensation to project affected persons for lost assets such as trees and crops. In the most involved cases it includes the relocation of entire communities: the design and construction of new houses, schools and clinics; the development of community infrastructure including roads, water, latrines and drainage; the replacement of agricultural lands, the reestablishment (and enhancement) of people’s livelihoods and monitoring. All of this is done in a transparent, inclusive and equitable manner, requiring meaningful input from and ongoing dialogue with affected communities.

My interest in urban planning and engineering evolved from a love of sand castles and an early addiction to sim-city. Civil engineering combined a number of interests (structures, transportation, environment, city building), while planning added a social focus and design element to many of these same issues. The resettlement programs of the mine offer a unique opportunity to put these disciplines and talents to use, designing and implementing projects that will have a meaningful and lasting impact on people’s lives. By working with local contractors and entrepreneurs and hiring residents from the affected communities, the resettlement projects are able to maximize local benefit, providing opportunities for individuals to develop skills and gain income, and allow entrepreneurs to gain experience and practice. In hiring locals and selecting appropriate technologies (pit latrines, sourcing of locally available materials) the project is also increasing the ability of residents to better maintain and look after their future homes, increasing the durability and overall sustainability of the project.

TFM on Curing Malaria

Hi! My name is Shari Knoerzer and I work as the Director for Social Responsibility and Community Development – Africa/Asia for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. I am based in Phoenix, Arizona at Freeport’s headquarters office and travel 3-4 times a year to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to support our community development programs at our Tenke Fungurume Mine (TFM) site. I have been with Freeport for 11 years and got my start working on community development projects at our mine site in Papua, Indonesia where I lived for five years.  I think I have a wonderful job, because I get to work in amazing places that not everyone gets to visit, such as Indonesia and the DRC, and help my company contribute to sustainable development and improve living standards for the communities near our operations.

Indoor Residual Spraying for Malaria

One of the projects I am very proud to work with in the DRC is our integrated malaria control program. The DRC is the second largest country in Africa and malaria is endemic there. In 2003, over 4 million cases of malaria were reported across the country and accounted for nearly 16,500 deaths. Katanga Province, where TFM is based, had the highest case load for any province in the DRC in 2003. In addition, malaria accounts for an estimated 25-30% of child mortality countrywide.

Before TFM started its operations in the area, malaria was the largest cause of morbidity and placed a significant economic burden on the wider community. When people are sick with malaria, they miss an average of three days of work and often times more. As part of the program, TFM conducts an indoor residual insecticide spraying program reaching more than 40,800 households in the neighboring community.  TFM has also provided support to distribute and install nearly 89,000 insecticide-treated bednets supported by international aid agencies.

Other program activities include efforts to improve malaria diagnosis and treatment, and TFM collaborates closely with the Congolese government in all of these activities. An annual malaria prevalence survey, among local school children, is conducted each year to monitor the impact of the implementation of the community malaria program. The October 2012 school survey results at the end of the dry season indicated an average malaria prevalence rate of 22% and a decrease of 71% compared to the 2007 baseline survey. It is truly a significant impact on the lives of the local community.

Part 2: Education in the DRC

About the blogger – Matthew Stroud is head of the Communications Department at Tenke Fungurume Mining, an affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. This is part II of his blog posts on education in the DRC.

After years of war and instability, many millions of families in the DRC have been left with nothing but the daily struggle for survival, where basic needs like food are their main priority. This means that many families are less concerned with education, which is often considered a luxury and not a necessity – only 67 percent of people are able to read and write and 51 percent of women between 15 and 24 years old are literate. According to a recent study by Save the Children DRC, over 7 million children in the DRC do not attend school.

With these thoughts in the back of my mind, I watched the big white school bus finally pull up in front of Kitoto School which was just one of the locations across the Province of Katanga where over 400 students would take the test that morning. The doors opened and the students quietly formed a line in front of the school. They all wore the typical uniform of a white button down shirt and navy blue shorts. One of the professors explained to me that many of the students came from tens of miles away and some had even left before dawn to walk to the bus stop along dirt roads. They lived in mud brick houses with tin roofs, often without electricity or running water. They didn’t have cell phones, calculators or TVs at home. The schools they attended had only the basics – simple classrooms with benches and a chalkboard for the professor.

Their names were called in alphabetical order as they were assigned a spot in the large classroom. There was no laughing or noise as might be expected by a group of 75 twelve year olds.

Everyone was solemn and serious, seeming to understand the importance of this day. At the end of roll call, one student remained. He was not on the list and was told to return home. He bowed his head and slowly walked off down the dirt road. No one made a sound. I was surprised and asked the professor what had happened. He said that the chance to get into Mutoshi was once in a lifetime and that some parents were willing to try anything. They would send their children on the bus to a testing school in the hopes that a spot would be free at the last minute and their child would be eligible to take the test. Even though the professor understood and sympathized, he said that those who were on an admissions test list had already passed a prequalification exam and it was not as simple as just giving away a vacant spot to another candidate.

I was curious about what was on the exam and went into the principal’s office to see if anyone was there. Inside I found the Principal and his team of two professors who were waiting to begin grading the tests. They showed me around their office which was full of old text books and colorful posters on the wall. Next to a map of the DRC was a dictum in perfectly written cursive which said in French, “the elite discuss ideas, average people discuss events and mediocre people talk about others.”  We all shook hands and they let me take a picture. They handed me a blank copy of the exam booklet, asking if I’d like to give it a shot.

About an hour later I handed in my test, having completed only the French language and grammar section. We all sat together as they graded my test on the spot. The questions were tough and I had struggled with some of the complicated grammar rules so I was a little nervous about the grade I would receive. After about ten minutes of discussion they smiled and said together, “Congratulations, you passed the test with flying colors!” We all laughed together and shook hands. I told them that I wasn’t ready to even attempt the mathematics and sciences portions of the test which the students were currently working on without calculators in the room next door.

I left Kitoto School in the early afternoon, after spending six hours with the professors and students.  A few weeks later I learned that 22 students had passed the exam and would be attending Mutoshi Technical Institute in the fall.  I felt a sense of profound respect for those sixth grade students and the professors, all of whom were trying to make a better future despite some of the toughest conditions that anyone outside the DRC could ever imagine.

Matthew Stroud: Education in the DRC (Part 1 of 2)

About the blogger – My name is Matthew Stroud and I am in charge of the Communications Department at Tenke Fungurume Mining, an affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. The Communications Department aims to promote the company to both employees and an outside audience, such as the media and the local community. In many ways our work is somewhat similar to a newspaper or TV show, in that we have reporters, writers and editors who are constantly on the lookout for new stories in order to relay news to our employees, the community and the media.

During my last trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), I had the opportunity to visit a school near our mining operations in Katanga Province. For our company newspaper we have a team of reporters who cover events in the community on a daily basis. On July 4^th, they asked me to come along to meet a group of teachers who were giving high school admissions tests to about 75 sixth grade students. The test would last about four hours and would determine which fortunate students would be selected to attend a prestigious high school called Mutoshi Technical Institute in the town of Kolwezi, about a two hour drive from where they lived. Mutoshi is a boarding school and has a history of producing many of the country’s future engineers.

Together with the team of high school teachers who would be administering the exam, we waited about an hour for the school bus to arrive. It was early morning and we stood in the dusty school yard as chickens raced back and forth. The teachers became impatient when the bus driver called to say he had made a wrong turn and would be about 30 minutes late. This day was decisive for the students and their families because those who passed the test would receive a full scholarship to Mutoshi and the chance for a brighter future. One of the teachers explained to me the challenges these students had to overcome, saying that to understand the importance of this day, it was also necessary to describe the education system in the DRC and a little bit of history.

As a former Belgian colony, many of the DRC’s institutions are similar to that of Belgium. This is the case for education. Primary education goes from the ages of six to twelve years old and is both free and compulsory. Students must then pass a test in order to go on to high school, as is the case for those applying for Mutoshi. High School or secondary school as it is called, lasts another six years and culminates in another exam. Passing this exam allows students to go on to university.

In a country with a population of over 71 million people where there are 700 languages and dialects, four national languages (Lingala, Kikongo, Tshiluba, Swahili) and over 250 ethnic groups, French is the language of instruction in schools and the ability to express oneself well in this language is the sign of a good education. The DRC has suffered from decades of civil war which has left millions of families displaced and children orphaned. During the years of conflict in the DRC many social services, including education had been slowed or even stopped. The result is that schools are not organized by the government; instead they are run by various missionaries, religious associations or international organizations who have taken over day to day education.

*To be continued…

A Lawyer Abroad: Meet Bérengère

Hi, my name is Bérengère.  I am 34 years old, and I am a lawyer.  I live in a town called Fungurume, in the southern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where most of the country’s economic activity takes place.

Courtesy of sec.go

For anything the company does, whether it is digging for copper, or buying the machines to do it, or hiring the staff to operate them, or building new homes for the residents who lived on the mine, you can be sure someone somewhere has written rules on how to do it.  The lawyers’ job is to find out which of these rules apply and to make sure the company follows the instructions when they do.

You might ask why an American lawyer gets to have this role in a foreign company, since the local law is by definition entirely different from the one I learned.  The Congolese company is majority owned by a US mining company.  As such, it is subject to a number of US laws, particularly laws that tell you how to keep your books and records, and forbid you from engaging in unethical business practices.  (As an American, you can be prosecuted in US courts and sentenced to prison terms in US jails for bribing or attempting to bribe a foreign officials.)

 It is also a big part of my role to explain what legal issues affect the Congolese subsidiary to the US parent company, its management, its auditors, who are not trained in DRC law or may not know the local business environment in detail; conversely, I convey to the Congolese company’s legal department the orientations and policies of the parent company.  I was chosen for this role largely because I am both French and American, and I speak, read and write French fluently, so the company felt that I would be a good person to act as a bridge between the Congolese company and its US parent.

Caitlin Hamill: Interview with a coworker

For my second blog post, I thought it would be fun to interview my friend and coworker Debra. Debra is also an intern with Tenke Fungurume Mining, and she is from Lubumbashi, the closest major city to the mining concession (about a 3-hour drive away) and the second-largest city in the DRC. Debra is interning with the Resettlement Action Plan team in the Community Development department, and we have been working together on a project over the past few weeks.

Debra and I in front of a Tenke Fungurume Mining vehicle before going to the field for the day, in front of the RAP (Resettlement Action Plan) office at Base Camp

One day at the office I was struggling to say something in French, and Debra responded in perfect English — “I didn’t know you spoke English!” I said, surprised, and she explained that she actually attends university classes in English, because she is a student at Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation, a university just across the border from Congo in Kitwe, Zambia where English is the official language. Her mother is Zambian and her father is Congolese, and Debra has attended school in both French and English. She speaks five languages (Chokwe, Bemba, Swahili, French, and English), and she is studying social work at university. Next year she is considering starting another concentration in management to gain another set of skills.

When I asked Debra about gender roles in DRC, she told me that girls and women in DRC today have more choices and more opportunity when it comes to schooling, sports, careers, and marriage. Debra plays soccer every Tuesday and Thursday with a women’s team here, and she told me that girls sports programs have generally become stronger in schools in DRC, although it depends on the size and funding of the school. Debra told me that in the past, some tribes would not allow women to marry outside of their own tribe, but that is changing. For her ethnic group, the Chokwe, it is not uncommon for women to marry outside of the tribe and like in the United States, women are getting married later.

In DRC, women can become doctors, lawyers, and really anything else that they set their sights on, but limited economic opportunity and quality of education can prevent both boys and girls from achieving their goals. Growing up, Debra saw a need to help young people—she told me that too many young people drop out of school because they cannot pay for it, or because they are not motivated, and this is why she chose to study social work. After she graduates, Debra wants to work with youth and girls in particular, helping them stay in school and lead healthy, successful lives.

Caitlin Hamill: A Day at the Base Camp

Here at Tenke Fungurume Mining, I live at base camp along with many of the other employees of the mine. At base camp you can find our lodging, clinic where mine employees and their families seek medical care, our mess hall where we eat each day, a gym, social club, outdoor swimming pool, and tennis court, and finally our offices. It is very convenient to eat, sleep, exercise and work in one place. My morning “commute” is a 3-minute walk up a small hill from my room to my office, and I can stop in the mess hall and grab some breakfast on my way.

Base camp is located right on the edge of the small city of Fungurume, and about a 20-minute drive from a town called Tenke. Most of the research that I mentioned earlier takes place in Tenke and Fungurume, where you can find small shops, churches, schools, and a market. The local markets sell a great variety of products. Going to the market is a much different experience than going to the grocery store in the US, but I was surprised to find almost everything that I wanted, and an amazing variety of fresh veggies and fruits.

Congolese food at the Congolese food fair that was held at Bravo Camp during the month of June in celebration of Congolese independence (30 June) – sweet potatoes and fried caterpillars!

When I first came to the DRC in 2011, I really missed peanut butter. Lucky for me, peanuts are grown all over the country, and locally made peanut powder and peanut butter are easy to find in the market (and delicious)! One Congolese dish that I really like is fumbua—wild spinach greens cooked with peanut and tomato sauce flavored with smoked fish. It sounds strange, but it is great.

To get around town, I ride with my coworkers in the Community Development department in one of the big white land rovers. Although some of the main roads are paved and very good quality, to visit smaller villages we must take dirt roads that require 4-wheel drive—sometimes it is a bumpy ride! Many people walk, use bicycles and motorbikes to get around, and for longer distances there are buses that run between larger towns in the province.

My Congolese coworkers speak at least 3 languages — their family’s tribal dialect like Chokwe or Bemba, Swahili, French, and many times English, too! I am constantly amazed when I hear people switch rapidly between different languages, mixing French and Swahili…Even though I studied Spanish and Arabic in school, I am not yet fluent in a 2nd language, and I am still just learning French, the official language in the DRC. I think I have improved quite a bit since I arrived in June!

Meet Caitlin Hamill

Hi everyone! My name is Caitlin Hamill, and I am a summer intern in the Community Development department at Tenke Fungurume Mining, an affiliate of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. I am originally from the great state of Maine, “Vacationland,” as it is nicknamed, but this summer I chose to spend my vacation here at the mine site in Fungurume, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where it is the chilliest part of the dry season (winter).

Me on a bus with families from Kasolondo going home to Lubumbashi as a part of the Kasolondo Repatriation Project.

How and why did I end up here in Congo at a copper and cobalt mine? Well, I am a graduate student in a two-year International Relations masters degree program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC, and I just completed my first year in May.  At SAIS, I am concentrating on International Development.

I am especially interested in how people make a living in places that are not well-connected to the global economy, and how to enable more people to reach a better standard of living. This area of development work is often called livelihoods and job creation, and I came to Congo to intern with TFM because I wanted to learn about how private companies like TFM contribute to economic growth and job creation in developing countries like the DRC.

One of the things I am working on as a part of my internship is researching a livelihoods restoration program for an upcoming resettlement. As the mine expands its operations, our department works with local villages to ensure that if people must be resettled, they are able to restore or improve their livelihoods. For example, if a woman makes and sells donuts in her village, our department must ensure that when her village is resettled, that she can still run her business and make just as much (if not more) income than she did where she lived before.

The upcoming livelihoods restoration program that I am working on will provide resettled people with seeds, tools, and fertilizer since most people on the mining concession grow maize to feed their families. In addition, the program will provide people with “income-generation packages” — these are things like small animals (goats and chickens) that people can raise and sell in the market, or vocational training in catering, tailoring, and other skills.

What I really like about my internship work is going out to the market and talking with people to gather information that helps us plan the livelihoods restoration program for resettled people. To be sure that our program will succeed, we must verify certain assumptions. For example, before we provide people with goats and chickens, we want to be sure that there is a demand for chickens and goats in the local market, so we visit the market, walk around, and talk with vendors and customers to better understand where there are opportunities for income generation.

Introduction: Culture of the DRC

This post was written by Benjamin Katabuka. Learn more about his work as a STEM professional here. 

ETHNIC GROUPS & LANGUAGES

Around 250 ethnic groups populate the Congo. Together, Mongo, Luba, Kongo and Mangbetu-Azande constitute around 45% of the population. The country has about 600,000 pygmies, who are the aboriginal people of the Congo.

French is the official language of the Congo. It is used by the state administration. Approximately 240 other languages are spoken in the country, but only four have the status of national languages: Kikongo, Tshiluba, Lingala and Swahili. Although some speak these languages as first languages, most of the people speak them as a second language after their own ethnic or tribal language. Primary education tends to be in the national language of the region, and the secondary education and beyond, tends to be in French.

MINING

Although the DRC population is among the poorest in the world, the Congo is widely considered to be one of the richest countries in the world regarding natural resources. It untapped deposits of raw minerals are estimated to be worth in excess of USD 24 trillion. For instance, the Congo has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves, 50% of the world’s cobalt and 70% of world’s coltan. The economy of the Congo relies heavily on mining. Most of the smaller-scale economic activity occurs in the informal sector and are not reflected in the GDP data.

CULTURE

The culture of the Congo reflects the diversity of its hundreds of ethnic groups and their differing ways of life throughout the country – from the mouth of River Congo on the coast, upriver through the rainforest and savanna in its center, to the more densely populated mountains in the far east. Since the late 19th century, traditional ways of life have undergone changes brought about by colonialism, the struggle for independence, the stagnation of the Mobutu era, and most recently, the two civil wars. Despite these pressures, the customs and cultures of the Congo have retained much of their individuality. The country’s 70 million inhabitants are mainly rural. About 30% who live in urban areas have been the most open to Western influences.

The Congo is also known for its art. Traditional art includes masks and wooden statues.

FLORA & FAUNA

The rain forest of the Congo contain a great biodiversity, including rare and endemic species, such as the common chimpanzee and the bonobo, the African forest elephant, mountain gorilla, okapi and white rhino. The chimpanzee and bonobo are the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans.

Five of the country’s national parks are listed as World Heritage Sites. The Congo is the most biodiverse African country. The civil wars and resultant poor economic conditions have endangered much of this biodiversity.

However, as result of poor living conditions of the Congolese people, lack of education and armed conflicts, there is a major environmental as well as socio-economic crisis related to the “bushmeat”. The bushmeat is another word for the meat of wild animals. It is typically obtained through trapping, usually with wire snares, or otherwise with shotguns, poisoned arrows or arms originally intended for use in the the country’s numerous military conflicts. A rising population combined with deplorable economic conditions has forced many Congolese to become dependent on bushmeat, either as a means of acquiring income (hunting and selling the bushmeat), or dependent on it for food.

Unemployment and urbanization have exacerbated the problem further by turning cities like the capital city, Kinshasa, into the prime market for commercial bushmeat. This combination has caused not only widespread endangerment of local fauna, but has forced humans to trudge deeper into the wilderness in search of the desired animal meat. This overhunting results in the deaths of more animals and makes resources even more scarce for humans.