One Year Later

Coretti’s life, just a year apart.

She spoke some Lingala, which was useful in the volunteer battalion in Zaire. She taught the boys to sing on march

“Mama a bota nga pona liwa”

“My mother gave birth to me. I was born to die.”

As the situation in Zaire decayed, that song characterised the feeling of the time. The call for humanitarian intervention had already been weaponised. The results were grotesque.

The genocidaires, now on the run, were protected from the repercussions of their slaughter by the Rhodesian army, who called them refugees and protected their camps. To the Red Cross and foreigners, it was impossible to tell refugee from genocidaire. Foreign actors, including China and Rhodesia, exploited this ambiguity to suit their interests.

This made violent confrontation with the beleaguered and radicalised UN-CA battalion inevitable.