Sadio Kante-Morel: profile of a journalist fighting against the 33 years misrule of Denis Sassou Nguesso

Sadio Kante-Morel: Until she became the flagship rabble-rouser on the streets and halls of France, rallying the Congolese and French-speaking black African Diaspora against the 33 years misrule of Denis Sassou Nguesso and other dictators, Sadio Kante-Morel was a seasoned reporter. She was a stringer with Thompson Reuters and the BBC Afrique in West Africa. It was an occasion that took her to several hotspots on the continent, in particular in the north of Ivory Coast, when it was under the control of the rebels, who are currently governing in Abidjan. And while in Congo, she was concomitantly stringing for Reuters and also collaborating or taking part at regular intervals in TV programmes on MNTV. The programme where she most participated was Point de Press. This programme was anchored by Emery Patrice Orbargui. Sadio Kante-Morel, who is a widow with only one child, is dedicated to her job and also a fearless militant against corruption and against dictatorship. Because of her dedication to her job, she most often neglects herself and doesn’t care about her looks. The dreadlock, eyeglass wearing and chaining smoke lady, is the only high profile female journalist of Congo presently.  Even though, she is now fully dedicated militant in France to see the back of Denis Sassou Nguesso, she remains professionally a journalist. This can be seen through her posts on her Facebook page where she interviews politicians and civil society activists of Congo from both sides of the divide.

Congo is a pathetic country for female journalists and professional women in general. It is a country where the system has destroyed any entrepreneurial spirits in women.  However this aspect will be developed on the chapter on Congolese culture.  The sad thing with the journalism profession in Congo is that, since female journalists such as Solange Samba Touyou, Arlette Soudan-Nonault and Marie Jeanne Colombo, left the profession, Congo no longer has high calibre female journalists capable of handling major economic or political programmes on TV, Radio and also in the print media. Today, most female Congolese journalists, especially those who are on TV and to a certain level radio, are not professionally ambitious.  Their presence on TV or Radio is a stepping stone to getting married or to be seen by powerful old and corrupt politicians or superficial businessmen. Hence in most newsrooms in Congo, whenever there are squabbles amongst female journalists, it is not for professional reasons. But their disputes occur because they want to accompany a minister or a member of the ruling party on mission to the interior of the country. For they are of the opinion that,  luck might smile to one of them and she will be selected as the mistress or second or even fourth wife of the minister or high ranking politician who came to solicit the service of their media house to send them as reporters to cover his activity.

It is a pitiable observation that I have made while in Congo. By contrast, in other Africans countries such as the DRC, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin and Senegal, female journalists are competing with their male colleagues professionally. In Congo, female journalists are instead competing with each to sleep with the most influential politicians, in order to have a RAV4 SUV or a trip to Paris or Dubai. However, Sadio Kante-Morel and perhaps two other journalists, whose profile you will soon read, were the exceptions to rule. Because of Sadio’s devotion to her job, she was expelled from her native country Congo to Mali. Sadio Kante-Morel is a pure Congolese born in the populous neighbourhood of Poto-poto, from Senegalo-Malian immigrant parents. She speaks fluent lingala.

Even though her parents are Muslims, she is not a practicing Muslim and has the liberal behavior of any women born in Christian and animist equatorial Africa. It is refreshing to find an independent and also bold female journalist working professionally, the way Sadio did until her expulsion and this, in a country where women are not professionally ambitious. It is not as though there are no female journalists in Congo. There are a good number of them. However none has been able to singularize herself professionally as Sadio has done within the electronic media. However, the only problem with Sadio, if it is really one, is that, she likes smoking and she also talks a lot. On the positive side, she is not rancorous and professionally, she likes investigative journalism with an insatiable desire for risk taking. She adores being the first on a story or making the breaking news. She was even the one who first broke the news of my spectacular armed robbery and the gang rape of my younger sister on the night of the 9^th breaking September 10^th 2014. The fact that through social media she informed the world about my gruesome attack, it was never appreciated by the hierarchy of the Police and in chief, Jean Francois Ndenguet. She is also digital savvy, in a country where journalists: men and women are on the same level in their ignorance of new media. Sadio Kante-Morel gets angry very fast, but as mentioned earlier, she keeps very little or no grudges. She is perhaps the only journalist in Congo male and female who have received record aggressions and attacks from the Police.

Joachim Mbanza: Profile of the editor–in-chief of Congo’s most professional newspapers

Joachim Mbanza: he is a journalist and editor–in-chief of Congo’s oldest newspaper, La Semaine Africaine. Until Joachim Mbanza decided to cave-in to the pressure of the state, especially to the head of the Congolese Police Force, General Jean Francois Ndenguet, the biweekly that he is managing, was one of the most professional newspapers in the country and also within the central African sub region. The professionalism of La Semaine Africaine may not have changed according to some, but when a media is no longer objective, can it still be referred to as professional? It is a question that, I will like professional of the journalism profession to give me an answer. Although Mr Mbanza is now playing the same role on the side of General Jean Francois Ndenguet as Francois Bikindou, even though in a less assertive role, La Semaine Africain has not yet become a second Troubadour newspaper. And whatever his current allegiances with the regime are, Mbanza remains    one of the most professional and brilliant journalist in Congo. To his discharge, I won’t conclude that, he is a sellout. My conviction is that, his fear of state repression and his desire not become a second Bruno Ossebi or Joseph Ngouala, couple with some lining of greed, may have forced him to collaborate with the very forces and people, who are the predators of free speech and who above all, abhor free and independent press and thoughts.

His regular participation in the live weekly Congo Presse Club programme, hosted by Andre Ondele on Tele Congo is pathetic. It has dented the respect that, a majority of Congolese had for him. And this is truer because, when taking part in Congo Press Club, he is unable to express himself objectively on national and international issues, especially, those that concerns Denis Sassou Nguesso. However, he is an intelligent man. For after professionally soiling himself, just to please the regime on Tele Congo, he redeems himself by coming to take part in a weekly programme on MNTV called Point de Presse, anchored by Emery Patrice Orbargui. The difference between Congo Press Club, broadcast of Tele Congo with Point de Press, broadcast on MNTV is that, the first is a not objective and it is a mere propaganda programme, whereas the second is professionally balanced. And this might explain the reason why; Joachim Mbanza participated every Sunday in Point de Press. In Point de Press, he was   free to express his true professional self. Just like Alphonse Ndongo, Joachim Mbanza has a solid mastery of the Congolese political landscape and that may explain the reason why, he is ambiguous.  While he is accused of collaborating with General Jean Francois Ndenguet, just like Francois Bikindou does, which is not a lie, but he refuses. However the assumed politician and member of the ruling party that he is closed to and that he officially operates as communications adviser is Claude Alphonse N’silou. Perhaps he accepts to be labeled close to N’silou than Ndenguet because the first is less radioactive than the second.

In my opinion, Joachim Mbanza seems to operate like a realist, who thinks that, if you can’t beat the current brutal regime of Denis Sassou Nguesso, you must join them, even if unconvincingly. However, I am totally against such attitudes and opinions now prevalent in the country. The attitude of sitting on the fence is not worthy of a man of the professional calibre of Joachim Mbanza, on whom many Congolese are counting on to provide them with objective information. Furthermore, democracy can’t prosper in a situation where people are not ready to sacrifice themselves for the collective good. However, collaborating with the government as he is doing, doesn’t remove the fact that, he was trained in one of France’s most prestigious schools of journalism, based in Lille. And this has made him to be among the few group of Congolese journalists, who got their training in the free world, as opposed to the majority who studied press and propaganda in eastern Europe under communism or in the former USSR and Cuba, hence he knows his job well. But unfortunately, as mentioned above, he is putting his professional know how in journalism, at the service of Denis Sassou Nguesso, who is a brutal dictator. His weak point, I think, is that, he is not bold enough to challenge the dictatorship through his writings. But one thing is clear; he doesn’t support Denis Sassou Nguesso or the way that he is governing the country.