Anani Rabier Bindji’s own African reality is a travesty

However, one name comes up regularly as the assassin of Marien Ngouabi. It is the name of Denis Sassou Nguesso. How true is the accusation? Why doesn’t Denis Sassou Nguesso absolve himself in a book as he does best, when attempting to market an idea? Why does he want to shoulder such as a responsibility and a responsibility that might live on long after him to hunt his family?  I am personally left in a kind of wilderness. I can’t accuse him for the information gathered on the death of Marien Ngouabi is fraught with lies, inaccuracies, vengeance and outright refusal to cooperate. Anyway, from what I have heard from Anani Rabier Bindji, I am confused. He certainly might hold the secret or the missing link to the death of Marien Ngouabi and also all those who are connected with the death of Marien Ngouabi or who took part. But, the problems with Anani Rabier Bindji are double. He is caught between speaking the truth and also preserving what he calls African reality. But the question that I asked him and that he refused to answer was this: does African reality imply telling or hiding the truth? Anani Rabier Bindji’s own African reality is a travesty, as most intellectuals have done before him or a currently doing.

For Anani Rabier Bindji thinks that, Marien Ngouabi never really knew what he wanted, which might means in my interpretations that, his (Marien Ngouabi) disappearance was a kind of salvation to many. But it doesn’t mean that, he supported his assassination.  Anani Rabier Bindji is also ambiguous. On one hand, he told me Denis Sassou Nguesso is an assassin and on the other, he wants to help Denis Sassou Nguesso in his plans to change the constitution, a project that will make him elongate his stay at the head of Congo and also extend the secret on the cause of the death Marien Ngouabi. These kinds of ambiguity and retention of information regarding the death of Marien Ngouabi that has made me to be reticent and also stop from ruling as many in Congo, who claim that, Denis Sassou Nguesso is the assassin of Marien Ngouabi. It doesn’t in anyway mean that, I am absolving Denis Sassou Nguesso, but I am also not going to accuse him either.  One thing is certain, one day, the truth shall be known and it will help in the national reconciliation of Congo and put her back on the path of glory. In 2009 when I was visiting Congo as a reporter, Chryst Bonaventure Engobo(retired)  was the Director of Presidential Protocol.

Currently, he is the deputy secretary general of the National Security Council of Congo. He has replaced the renege Colonel Marcel Nstourou.  Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo (retired) is quiet and elegant man and also above all intelligent for an average Congolese military officer or at least those that I know. He is a very humble and effaced man and not puffed up with pride or show and tell and brutes of the caliber of General Jean Francois Ndenguet. He is a loyal servant of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and also very patriotic. However, he has a certain admiration for communism especially the Cuban government. He is also a ma of principle who above all respects his words. One thing that I have noticed with this lover of Congolese music especially that of neighboring Kinshasa or the Democratic Republic of Congo is that, he is taciturn and seldom speaks about politics. He is nonetheless accused r considered by people of his hometown of Owando and also some southern Congolese as being a stooge of President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is also accused of being so loyal to Denis Sassou Nguesso to the point of causing or sparking the 1997 civil war that ended the regime of Congo’s only post independence democratic elected president, Professor Pascal Lissouba. However on this point just as in the case of the assassination of Marien Ngouabi, there are two schools of thought. The first are of the opinion that, Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is responsible for the 1997 brief but violent Congolese civil war, while a second school of thought is of the opinion that, it was late Colonel Aboya who was responsible. But whoever was responsible is not the subject, but according to Toussaint Mavougou, Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is as secretive as a feline. But, I must note that, he is a good man who also admires late Marien Ngouabi, but seldom speaks about him in mythical terms as does others from Owando and its surrounding villages. He has chosen his camp, even though, some say at the detriment or at the expense of his own. To his credit, he is the one who really introduced me into Congo and also made me to love that wonderful country.

Paris-Brazzaville : My journey to Congo

The question that, I have always asked is this:  should the aforementioned leaders be forcefully overthrown or assassinated in order to give democracy a chance within the sub region?  It is a difficult question to answer. Furthermore, while I condemn leaders of the sub region, it is also honest to say that, without the help of western nations, these governments won’t have been in power for the length of time that they have. As far as I am concerned, it was during the period that, I do refer to as the turbulent phase of Telesud that Rynelle Kourissa, came to me again and insisted that, I should go and help her grandfather, Maurice Nguesso to set up his media house in Brazzaville.  While I accepted Rynelle’s proposals, what really made me to leave Paris for Brazzaville was a meeting that I had with Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa at the Champ Elysees, located at 133 avenue des Champs-Elysees.  Our meeting was or took place in the restaurant section of the shopping mall. I can’t recall the day exactly, but all what I know is that, she called me and we booked an appointment for 4 pm. Mrs. Kourissa nee Lydie Hortense Nguesso is the eldest daughter of Maurice Nguesso.

And between the two Nguessos, that is Maurice and Denis, they have 48 children and countless grand children and great grand children. Lydie Kourissa is the oldest of them all. She therefore wields enough influence within the clan. But since she is a born again Christian, she is very meek and thrown aback. Christianity has whittled down any ounce of pride that, she might have had. Lydie Kourissa is light years away from the superciliousness demonstrated by her brothers, sisters and by her cousins of the ruling Nguesso family. She prefers to be called or identified only by the name of her husband, Mr. Jean de Dieu Kourissa MP. It is another feature that marks her out differently from her sisters who are married, but seldom carry the names of their husbands. It was with this soft spoken and respectful lady that I made an appointment, but strangely, I forgot to honor it. I could only remember that, we had an appointment, when she rang me again at around 6:30pm.

When she rang me, she told me this: “I have been waiting here since 3:30 pm and our appointment was at 4pm and now it is 6:30pm. If you don’t want to meet me, please tell me, for I am going back to Brazzaville tomorrow”. I just told her this: “Please I am sorry and I am on my way. I took a taxi from Conacq Jay to the Drugstore and met with her. I was so worried to have kept her waiting for too long, to a point that, I never argued much with her. Whatever she told me, I accepted. That was how my Paris work and stay ended and my Brazzaville adventure began. That was toward the end of 2010. But I began working officially for MNCOM in August 2011 and I held several functions within the media house before finally settling as the Director of MNTV and also Director of Studies and Planning of MNCOM, the parent company and name of the media group. But prior  to that meeting with Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa and also the propositions and encouragement from Rynelle Kourissa as already mentioned, I had been coming to Congo since 2009 to cover some events, in particular, the pre-Presidential elections campaigns of 2009.  The person who facilitated everything was Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo. Colonel Engobo is a highly secretive man who was one of the aide de camps of Commandant Marien Ngouabi.