How some Congo Brazzaville elite are exploited by DRC Musicians

Since most successful Congo Brazzaville men and even women like’s praise, Congolese musicians sing their praise in their songs. It explains why musicians from the DRC have discovered a market niche in Brazzaville. Before recording any new track in Kinshasa, DRC musicians simply cross the River Congo and start knocking at the doors of each Brazzaville elite, who naturally, mutually hates each other and start looking for money. It is the highest bidder’s names that will be song in the record that will be released. It also explains why most Congolese musicians from the DRC, who were famous on the continent before the Nigerians came and stole their top spot, usually make profit for their records even before they are released on the market. Hence DRC musicians such as Koffi Olumide, Fally Ipupa and Fere Gola have made a kill by specializing in singing the praise of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, Claudia Sassou, and the Lord Mayor of the Brazzaville Greater City Council and other dignitaries of the regime. 

Paris-Brazzaville:who killed Marien Ngouabi?

He continued: “In fact, I refused to become president because my time had not yet come, therefore, it was Joachim Yhombi-Opango who was co-opted to take over the military committee and title of head of state, with the main objectives being to restore peace and order and also return power to civilians”. Jean Marie Tassoua, former warlord and former minister of Energy and Hydraulics, told me that, Marien Ngouabi had become too family oriented and too tribal and that was the cause of his death. The claims of Jean Marie Tassoua aka General Diap, dents a little bit the nationalist and ant-tribal and anti-regionalist image often attached to Marien’s many positive qualities. Others also claims that, when Marien Ngouabi discovered that, his family and tribe were having an excessive influence around him and he wanted to relinquish power, hence he was killed by his own very people.   What Jean Marie Tassoua never told me was whether President Denis Sassou Nguesso took part or not, in the assassination or fomented the violent death of Commandant Marien Ngouabi.  However in Brazzaville and elsewhere in the country, many are of the opinion that, there is no way President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was at that time, minister of defense and also in charge  of security could not have known that, his boss was not only in danger but risked being assassinated. 

In clear terms, most people in Congo are of the opinion that, it was Denis Sassou Nguesso, who assassinated Marien Ngouabi. But it must be pointed out that, no major or minor actor during that period has actually come out besides what President Denis Sassou Nguesso had written which is wafer thin to explain the cause of the death Marien Ngouabi. Be that as it may, one should not lose sight that, Congo is a country were lies, character assassinations and blackmail has been elevated into a profession. In other words, Congo is a country of professional liars. This is the only country in the world where lies can be transformed into truth and truth into lies. Hence, on the assassination of Marien Ngouabi, it will be almost impossible to know the truth and I have also abandon the search because I have tried and had a bewildering array of sometimes contradictory information.  Sometimes you begin to wonder whether all your interlocutors wanted Marien Ngouabi dead or that, they are all too afraid to say anything or also that, there a feeling of collective guilt. The funniest one was in 2009, while I was interviewing General Emmanuel Ngouelondele, who was a close friend and collaborator of Commandant Marien Ngouabi, who still has a wrist watch offered to him by Marien Ngouabi, I asked him bluntly: “who killed Marien Ngouabi?”

He replied: “Go and ask your friend Denis Sassou Nguesso”. For there is also a rumor in Brazzaville, which has it that, one year before the assassination of Marien Ngouabi, Emmanuel Ngouelondele was sent to Paris by Denis Sassou Nguesso to explain or ask for France’s support in their planned  coup d’état against Marien Ngouabi. For Marien Ngouabi had become too nationalistic in the eyes of the French, hence they wanted him eliminated. Those claiming that, Emmanuel Ngouelondele know something about the assassination of Marien Ngouabi also points out that, today; the Lord Mayor of the Brazzaville Greater City Council is Hughes Ngouelondele. Hughes Ngouelondele is the son in law to the President and also the first son of the retired General Emmanuel Ngouelondele. 

Paris-Brazzaville : Did Sassou Nguesso take part in the assasination of Marien Ngouabi and others?

Until those deaths are fully investigated and the culprits known, named, punished and publicly shamed, the future of Congo will always be on the brink.  As concerns the death of Marien Ngouabi, there are legions of speculations and suspicions regarding the death of one of Congo’s most popular leader. One such speculation was narrated to me by a military officer, still in function in Congo. He claimed that, it was President Denis Sassou Nguesso who assassinated Marien Ngouabi. His claims were music to my ears until one day; he related to me a story that I thought was convincing, but not solid enough to nail current President Denis Sassou Nguesso. While his story was not entirely convincing, it nonetheless has some cohesion, which warranted me to share it, in this book. This is so because Marien Ngouabi’s death along with the deaths of Bishop Emile Biayenda and Alphonse Massamba-Debat remains one of Congo’s greatest unsolved political deaths, since independence. Those deaths are clouded in a lot of mysteries, speculations and suspicions.  But while Denis Sassou Nguesso is being accused, two other people have completely absolved Denis Sassou Nguesso regarding the assassination of Marien Ngouabi.

The two people who told me point blank that, Denis Sassou Nguesso had nothing to do with the assassination of Marien Ngouabi are Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa and a certain Mr. Mavougou. Mrs. Lydie Hortense Kourissa claims might be dismiss on the ground that, she is the niece of the President of the Republic of Congo. However, I believed her when she told me that, Denis Sassou Nguesso had nothing to do with the assassination of the one who contributed in making him (Denis Sassou Nguesso) to become what he is today. She added that: “On the day when Marien Ngouabi was killed, I saw how the President was crying and he was devastated”. Crying is not enough to absolve a person who is suspected for having committed a crime.  On the other hand, it must be sadly pointed out that, crying could also mean several things at the same time.  For it could be that, he was crying of joy or of sadness. Nevertheless, I believed what Mrs. Kourissa told because, she is a practicing Christians. The second person to absolve President Denis Sassou Nguesso was Mr Mavougou, he told me: “there was no way Denis Sassou Nguesso could have been able to assassinate Marien Ngouabi”.

He added: “Marien Ngouabi was killed by his own very brothers of the Kouyou tribe who were his praetorian guards and they are the ones who asked Denis Sassou Nguesso to succeed Marien Ngouabi because, they had not agreed amongst themselves or selected the rightful person to replace Marien Ngouabi”.  Here again, there is a detail that, Mavougou forgot, but that Denis Sassou Nguesso brought up in his book in a weird and wonderful way. He wrote in Denis Sassou: Le Manguier, le Fleuve et la Souris, published in 1997, he (Denis Sassou Nguesso) doesn’t mention or corroborate what Mavougou told me, but he (Denis Sassou Nguesso)writes that: “as minister of defense, he was designated as interim president from 18^th of March 1977 to April 2^nd of the same year”.  And during this period, he continued: “I was not ready to assume the post of President of the republic and more, I sensed that, there were others within the army who were better disposed than I to assume the function of president”.