They Drink it in the Congo
Page 2
Tony Simon no longer on the scene then?
Stef We split up when I went to SOAS.
Tony He always was against you doing a Master’s.
Stef How d’you know that?
Tony You have a Kenya Airways sickbag on your wall. With handwriting on it.
Stef It’s an aide mémoire.
Kat, a young black British intern, knocks and enters with drinks.
Hey Kat.
Kat Anything else?
Stef Thanks, Kat.
They watch Kat leave. Tony looks at Stef.
Tony Wow. Can we get the Amerindian in, I do like truf—
Stef gestures ‘enough’, cutting him off.
Stef We do have a press launch in a week. And I would love your expertise.
Oudry Suffering from nail fungus? You are not alone.
Stef Oh this bloody junk mail filter’s playing up
Oudry Nearly one point eight million people in the UK suffer from nail fungus.
Stef Delete.
Oudry But there is an answer. Fungo-Clean / is a new powerful anti-nail fung—
Stef There’s a meeting – Delete! Come tomorrow and I won’t ask again
Tony Look, I will come to this meeting but
Stef Brilliant
Tony But please don’t expect anything more
Stef I think you’ll really see how much this means to people.
TWO
YOU FORGOT MANY THINGS ABOUT CONGO
Parliament. Meeting room.
Most of the Congolese are dressed beautifully. People are both putting hands up to speak and speaking over each other.
Luis We have to destroy Congolese government!
Nounou No more destroy anything!
Victor There needs to be help to create the proper system.
Stef Sorry guys, one at a time please, we only have the room for an hour and a lot of people came twenty minutes late.
Maurice Parliament security takes fifteen minutes!
Luis Congo government is causing this!
Diaspora 2 You know old mothers were not raped until Ugandans and Angolans came in dere
Diaspora 1 You forgot many things about Congo
Anne-Marie Brothers sisters please!
Stef Can I just remind you again. This meeting is about your suggestions for a festival celebrating Congo – yes?
Diaspora 2 On the newspaper front today the Evening Standout one person stabbed
Oudry Telephone call
Diaspora 1
Diaspora 2 In Congo, one person stabbed every minute probably.
Victor
Stef No sorry, we must talk about the festival, we have very little time.
Diaspora 2 So you won’t listen to me now!
Nounou Let her speak! You want us to keep order like a town meeting. But let us speak, it is from the heart! You look after children here, you forget ours!
Applause.
Stef I understand that, Nounou, I really do. It’s why I’m here.
Luis
Diaspora 2
Nounou We are here so British government can hear us. Women raped every day, hundreds of women raped y’know
Stef I know, I do know / but what I need
Luis Not the only rape in Congo, British multinationals are rape our country everyday. British Virgin Islands the tax haven for our mineral wealth to fly from our hands.
Stef What I really need are suggestions / for the festival
Luis And you have this festival saying ya ya ya, it’s so terrible in the Congo, here is a sad film, here is a bad picture of a boy, I wipe a tear
Stef Let’s celebrate Congolese culture / for once.
Luis But don’t stop mining my diamonds, my coltan for my cell phone, my laptop, don’t stop mining my gold, don’t stop mining because we are all rich from this. Isn’t it?
Some applause, not Anne-Marie or Nounou.
Stef I hear that. I don’t disagree with you. We are all linked by a deep concern for Congo. And I am proposing a positive way to channel that.
Victor We have this before, Miss Cartwright, with respect – people come to the Diaspora and interested to help, for three weeks, they say, ‘We must do something.’ And then – end of campaign, move jobs, they get bored. Now we help, uh, who uh, Angola! Now a flood in Pakistan. So why you’re different?
Stef Because I’m not going away.
Maurice It’s your job! If your job end you go away!
Stef It’s more than a job.
Diaspora 2
Diaspora 1
Luis Excuse me, Miz Stephanie, I can’t read your badge.
Stef Cartwright.
Luis Miz Cartwright, you are an MP?
Stef No, I’m not an MP.
Luis So you have no power?
Stef I’m co-ordinator of this festival but no elected power, no
Maurice Why should we listen to you then?
Stef Because together we can have some power.
Maurice
Stef (pointed) I’m sorry I don’t understand you.
Luis What is your salary?
Stef We are getting British charities, Congolese charities / to work together
Luis What is your salary?
Maurice Yes. What salary?
Stef Mine, is that relevant?
Luis Yes.
Victor You can tell us, Miss Cartwright, how much they pay you?
Tony Fellas, there’s a festival to organise, she doesn’t have to answer / that
Stef It’s fine, Tony
Luis How much?
Stef I’m paid about the average / wage I’d
Luis Say!
Stef Alright, if I worked a whole year – which I hope I do, cos it means we’ve been a success – then it’d work out about. Twenty-eight thousand pounds.
Luis Aha ha ha hah
Tony About a quarter of what she could be earning
Diaspora 1 A nice life for some eh
Tony It’s really not much in London
Diaspora 2 We know how expensive London thank you, sir!
Tony She’s a Cambridge graduate, seriously employable
Stef Tony!
Tony She’s chosen to do this for peanuts
Luis More than many Congolais earn here
Nounou Peanuts he says
Diaspora 2 Yes, not me personally but many people earn less
Luis No, personally I earn more also but many don’t
Maurice I am the same.
Diaspora 1 My brother in Brussels is earning very well.
Maurice
Anne-Marie Eh, listen, this is great rudeness.
Tony Can we stick to English?
Anne-Marie Respect please, it is fine to be angry, but don’t give Congolais a bad name
Luis She is paid and she doesn’t know anything about Congo.
Oudry Telephone call
Stef I don’t claim to know everything about your country but I’m not ignorant either. I’ve read every book I can find
Maurice
Oudry Telephone call
Stef Can we have all phones off, please!
Look I do know this is weird. I’m not from there. What can I tell you about your country? All I can tell you is that I mean what I’m doing.
I was in South Kivu six months ago visiting the International Medical Corps. There was a rape attack on a village. We were the first outsiders to the site of the attacks. They took me as an emergency pair of hands. I met a man who had been forced to sexually
assault his own daughter. He had a hole in his head. It was the strangest colour almost like a tropical fruit. Five minutes left – I’ve found some rumba bands who are now based in Belgium
Luis The only people who are really doing anything in London are the Combattants de Londres.
Anne-Marie
Stef A Congo festival’s got to have a rumba band, hasn’t it?
Luis And this group of men, the Combattants de Londres.
Maurice They stand up and say the truth
Anne-Marie
Luis They are working for a free Congo.
Anne-Marie
Maurice
Nounou
Anne-Marie
Luis
Anne-Marie
Tony English please.
Victor
Anne-Marie These men are all Mobutist
Luis No no you listen
Anne-Marie His father had a job in the past government. Now his family has no power
Luis This woman is not the normal Congolais, she has lost her culture
Maurice She wants to be European.
Anne-Marie Power is all they care for, not their country, not the people
Maurice Stop your nonsense of lies
Anne-Marie Sad men
Luis I refuse to be abuse and lied about. This festival is not for Congolese!
Luis and Maurice exit, voices erupts, the meeting is finishing.
Stef Well, thanks, everyone. You’ll be hearing more this week!
People leave.
Nounou and Stef, Victor and Anne-Marie remain.
Victor
Anne-Marie
Victor
I heard your organisation is funding a woman’s refuge in Goma. My organisation sent digital imaging to a hospital in Goma last year.>
Anne-Marie
Victor
Anne-Marie leaves.
Nounou One man who does much for Congo – have you talked with Pastor Joshua?
Stef Pastor Joshua. From New Jesus in Tottenham?
Nounou He is a good way for bringing the Congolais.
He leaves. Stef and Victor remain.
Victor Would you be interested in a Congolese poet?
Stef A Congolese poet? Absolutely
Victor Who writes in English?
Stef That’s exactly the sort of thing
Victor I know one. But it is quite, in secret.
Stef That’s great, Victor. Thank you.
THREE
GOD IS TECHNOLOGY
New Jesus Church in Tottenham Hale.
Pastor Joshua addresses his loud congregation.
Pastor Joshua God is technology!
When a revelation is coming it is like a cell phone, driiing driiing, in your heart. A good relationship with God, the frequency is ve-ry good, the signal is ve-ry strong. You are living a bad life, in conflict with people, your reception will be bad. I say for you to get connected because technology is holy!
Stef is outside reading her tablet.
Oudry Get Connected! With New Jesus Church, Tottenham Hale!
Pastor Joshua Please, brothers and sisters, no prayers of anger against individuals. No malice.
Oudry Find Pastor Joshua on LinkedIn.
Pastor Joshua The Lord commands us not to curse but to bless him to be vengeful on our behalf.
Oudry New Jesus Website Question of the Day:
Pastor Joshua And God wills us to send money as well as prayers.
Oudry How different would your finances look if Jesus was your accountant?
Pastor Joshua On the church website you can donate through direct debit, Moneygram or Western Union to help our mission in Kivu.
A room in the church. Stef and Pastor Joshua alone.
Pastor Joshua I know Anne-Marie, her Papa Albert comes to church, but he is ill today. Yes, I worry she is a lost woman.
Stef Lost?
Pastor Joshua She stirs the trouble. And she has no God.
Stef Pastor the reason I’ve come to you. Is our festival cannot function without Congolese community leaders.
Pastor Joshua But of course, you will not have the same ideas as we.
Stef If our committee isn’t at least one-third Congolese, the festival doesn’t go ahead.
Pastor Joshua Really it is the churches in the diaspora who can help. New Jesus has a mission in Kivu, a school. We send medical equipments.
Stef Yes. you do a lot, it’s why I got in contact.
Pastor Joshua Excuse me, I am going to have a yoghurt.
Stef Okay
Pastor Joshua After service I like a pro-biotic yoghurt. Would you care for one?
Stef Oh. Uh
No.
Pastor Joshua It’s a drinking yoghurt, not the uh, y’know, spoon / yoghurt
Stef No, thank you, but that’s kind
Pastor Joshua Do you know how the bacteria in a probiotic yoghurt works?
Stef I don’t.
Pastor Joshua Well.
I don’t either.
Stef Ha, okay, I thought for a moment you were going to say y’know, ‘Well it’s like the problems of the Congo,’ ha
Pastor Joshua No, why would I say that?
Stef I know, you wouldn’t.
Pastor Joshua It’s got nothing to do with Congo. It’s just a yoghurt.
Stef No, I know.
Pastor, your support would be so important for us.
Pastor Joshua You have my support.
Stef Really?
Pastor Joshua Ye-s, very much so.
Stef Brilliant. We have a press launch in three days, but more important at this stage would be to have you at a committee meeting.
Pastor Joshua I really don’t have time for meetings
Stef Well, we’ll say you have given us your blessing?
Pastor Joshua I have not blessed anything.
Stef Not actual blessing but.
We can tell other Congolese in London that you
Pastor Joshua Ah no.
Stef Sorry?
Pastor Joshua I do give you my support. I will pray for you.
Stef So we can say you support us?
Pastor Joshua Mm? No. Not my name on anything
Stef Why not?
Pastor Joshua You have my prayers.
Stef You support us but we can’t tell anyone?
Pastor Joshua My name and my image really belong to the church.
Stef Pastor, there is a horrific wound in your home country. And I am trying to get people, British people to look at it. Because once they’ve looked at it they won’t be able to pretend it’s not there. Can you at least put your name to that?
Pastor Joshua Y’know. You have this festival about Congo.
But all you can really find out about.
Is yourself.
Or your own country.
FOUR
HE WILL DIED HERE
Stef’s office. Tony and Kat.
Tony You’ll be too young but. It was a tropical fruit drink basically. And there was this advert with a monkey and, I think a marmoset.
And they sang / ‘UmBongo UmBongo’
Kat Yeah, I looked it up but why does everyone ask about it?
Tony People don’t know much else about the place.
Kat After the stuff I had to read today, I’d rather I didn’t know anything about the place.
Tony Did you not ask to work on this then?
Kat Sustainable waste solutions you need a Master’s.
Tony What’s this sickbag she’s had framed?
Kat Oh, she wrote it on the flight out of
Congo. She didn’t want to write on her phone because of. Y’know. So she has it there to sort of. Remind her how she felt.
Tony Can I read it?
Stef enters.
Stef Hello, sorry to keep you.
Kat Huw Bennion wants to speak with you about that message / from Les
Stef Thank you, Kat, we don’t need to talk about that now.
Kat is a little put out. She leaves.
Tony I enjoyed the meeting. Imagine if you told them what you really earned
Stef I did.
Tony Jesus, lucky your dad left you the flat, eh?
Stef When did I tell you that?
Tony Just. Presumed.
Stef My dad would be proud of this, he loved Africa.
Tony Didn’t he want to be buried there? Buried in Kenya on your old land?
Stef Yes well. He did but. The people who own it now said we couldn’t.
Tony Where is he buried?
Stef He’s buried in Surbiton.
Now. Victor, who was there yesterday – lovely guy – knows a Congolese poet who writes in English. That’s a start, right?
Tony Sure
Stef We can’t announce any acts at the press launch. But the story is:
Festival of Congolese culture. Kicks off a campaign backed by Parliament. Congolese here will help run it. Finish with loose informative Q’n’A about the crisis / and the festival.
Tony Stephanie.
I said I’d come to the meeting.
Stef begins tapping on her smartphone.
And it’s obviously very. Horrific. And I do have every sympathy. But.
Sorry. No.
Stef
Tony I did tell you.
Stef
You did. Thank you.
Oudry Messenger:
Stef It’s been great to see you again. I understand.
Oudry Kat, could you come in please
Tony Good luck, y’know, it’s just not for me
Stef No.
Tony So y’know. Sorry. Not to say that you and I can’t
Oudry Look worried and tell me I should read that email.
Stef Where’s my kiss?
She kisses him on the cheek and gives him a long hug.
Tony Right.
Stef Back to the day job then.