Tropical Cowboys by Gondola Ch. Didier

Author:Gondola, Ch. Didier
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2016-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

Vieux Paurret

I met Paurret for the first time at La Voix de Dieu, the church of the late Sakombi Inongo in Bandal, where Paurret still works as a watchman. Sakombi had served in Mobutu’s regime as minister of information and its chief propaganda mouthpiece. Accordingly, Kinois nicknamed him “Buka Lokuta” (Spewing Lies), a moniker that stuck with him even (and especially) after he had become a born-again Christian and pastor. In 1993, after Paurret’s house had been irreparably damaged during one of those flash floods that regularly afflict Kinshasa’s populace, Sakombi, whom he knew through Kabaidi, offered him the job. On my way from downtown Kinshasa to Binza-UPN, where I lived, I would occasionally stop in Bandal to visit Vieux Paurret and just see how he was doing. These visits usually came at the cost of a few 500-franc bills,25 as my host would often find subtle ways to solicit financial assistance. On one such visit he greeted me with a broad smile and erupted with something to the effect of “I prayed this morning for your visit, and here you are!”

Paurret had learned to cut kamô (see chapter 5) under Vieux Eboma’s tutelage; before acquiring the nickname “Paurret,” everyone had known him as “Monganga” (Doctor).26 Eboma taught him where to get ingredients (usually from Senegalese vendors at the central market), how to mix and cook them in a cast-iron skillet to produce powerful nkisi (burnt powder), and how to administer them to power-craving Yankees. Before long, Paurret was running his own kamô shop in Kintambo, collecting money from Bills. Sometimes, he recalled, he would try out his own kamô by inciting other township Bills to fight. Tripping someone (croc-en-jambe), shoving, or just spitting in someone’s path was enough to start a fight and test out his own kamô.

In 1949, at age seventeen, Paurret fell under Booth’s spell. He started to orbit around Booth, running errands for him, repairing his bike, until he was finally drawn closer, into Booth’s inner circle of éboulementaires. The two remained friends and reunited briefly after independence in 1960, when they both came back to Kinshasa—Booth mellowed with age, broken by solitary confinement and with waning vision, and Paurret wiser and sober but still a rebel without a cause (see figure 6.3).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.