I have met and interviewed
Henri Djombo three times. Besides those three occasions, I have met and spoken
with him on a number of other occasions. Most often, I was in the company of
Carine Oyoma, a female journalist, specialized on environmental matters and
working with the state owned national broadcaster, Tele Congo. Today, Carine Oyoma
is married to Leon Juste Ibombo, the current minister of Post and Telecommunications.
My relationship with Henri Djombo could be classified as an acquaintance or one
notch under the grade of full friendship. Professionally, I have met with him twice
in Paris, France. At that time, I was
still working with the French-speaking pan-afro-Caribbean and pan African TV, 3
A Telesud. My third interview with him was when I was working in Congo with
MNTV/ MN Radio. This interview was done on lawn of a wing of his large high
walled compound in the heart of Brazzaville. I was introduced to Mr Djombo by
Nicole Sarr, a Senegalese lady who was managing his communications and also
that of his ministry, in France. What I noticed with Henri Djombo was that, he
spoke very little and was constantly wearing or putting on a wired smile on his
face.
The type of smile put on by
people who are either constantly scheming against someone or is ready to defend
himself. Perhaps that reflex comes from the fact that, he practices martial
arts or working for system that constantly threatens the lives of those working
for it. He also seems to master his subject which was environmental protection.
For he was at the time that I met him, Congo’s minister of Forestry economy.
Currently, he is minister of state for Agriculture. At first, I was intrigued
because he was an author of several books with enigmatic titles. It is not as
though he was/is the only person close to Denis Sassou Nguesso who likes
writing or who was an accomplished author. The other Sassou Nguesso ally who is
an accomplished writer is General Benoit Mondele Ngolo. While Mondele Ngolo is
outspoken and Sharpe tongue, Henri Djombo is not. Among the many books that he
has written, the one that retained my attention was in titled in French: Le
Mort Vivant or in English, The living dead. To me, it was a fascinating and
also an enigmatic title for a book. I asked him why such as strange title? He
only smiled and told me that, he was preparing to write another book.
Detractors of Henri Djombo claim that, his writing ability that has been
developed into a kind of semi-cottage industry was not the fruit of hard work
or any literary ingenuity, but more of intellectual or literary outsourcing. In
other words, his detractors meant that, he is not the author of his books and
plays, but that his books and plays were written by Nzuzi Kadima, a man from
the DRC that he had employed.
Personally, I don’t doubt
his intellectual or literary power or capacity. In Congo, there is always a
conflict in Congolese between those who studied in the west and those who
studied in the former Soviet Union, former Eastern Europe and Cuba. Congolese
who have studied in the west always put in doubt not only the credentials of
those who studied in the former communist bloc, but also doubt their
intellectual capacity. The cold war or
the Berlin wall may have fallen, but it is still well alive in Congo. However,
I was told by one of his former girl friends that, his books were a reflection
of the struggles that he was undergoing within the government. She also added
that, Henri Djombo; contrary to his inoffensive ever smiling looks, hides an
ambitious man who not only loves women, but nurses the secret hope to rule
Congo, one day. Congolese political scene or any accomplished Congolese
political elite, belonging to the ruling Congolese Workers Party or the PCT,
won’t be complete without a salacious affair. While he is not known to be an
assertive womanizer as his colleagues are, his love for aphrodisiacs shows
that, he might be dissimulating a voracious appetite for the opposite sex. He
so love aphrodisiacs to a point that, he has brewed his own brand called “Campec”.
It is, as he told me and others who visits him and that he proudly offers them,
that, “Campec” is a mixture of French Camp-Paris liquor with roots of unnamed
plants infused with traditional Palm wine. He assures his male visitors that, “Campec”
is better than Viagra. Another contradiction that I have noticed with Henri
Djombo is found in his deep freezer.
His claims to fight against poaching
and also against the hunting of endangered animals, but his freezer is full of
endangered animals such as monkeys. I personally found that, disgusting and I
understood the reason why the protection of wildlife in Congo and most of
equatorial Africa was an illusion. This made me doubt whether all the
conventions signed by Congo through Henri Djombo, for the protection of the
forest of Congo basin could be respected by someone like him at the head of
such as strategic ministry, not only for Congo and Africa, but for the world.
For the preservation of the biodiversity of the Congo forest basin was of
strategic importance. Henri Djombo, who is a lover and player of Table Tennis,
also heads the Congolese Table Tennis Federation. He is behind the naturalization
of Chinese table tennis stars that helped Congo defeat Nigeria and Egypt, two
African Table Tennis powerhouses in continental competition. Henri Djombo might
dissimulate and pour it in books that, he writes, but he remains a Sassou
Nguesso loyalist. However, Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is a professional
conspirator and well known coup plotter, doesn’t have 100% confidence in him.
It explained why, when Djombo among others who wanted the post of secretary
general of the ruling party, were all dumped by the president. Sassou Nguesso
preferred to offer the post to the little known Pierre Ngolo.
The educational profile and
matrimonial background of Henri Djombo could portrait him as a real communist.
For he did not only study in the former Soviet Union, precisely in Leningrad
now called Saint Petersburg and also in Bulgaria, he is married to a Russian.
But like all former communist who have converted to market economy, he loves
material processions. His yard looks like that of a luxurious SUV car vendour.
As to whether this man born in 1952 has a political future in Congo after Denis
Sassou Nguesso is gone, it is difficult to predict. His long stay at the head of the ministry of
forestry where he is alleged to have grown rich because of corruption and
couple with the fact that, he is the author of several books denouncing the
very system he has been working for, gives him ambivalent categorization.
However, given how Denis Sassou Nguesso is hated, I think, it would be
difficult for him to have any future.
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