Ayla McDonald
Reporter
When former President Barack Obama spoke to University of Illinois students last Friday, another political discussion was occurring on Parkland’s campus.
Parkland received a visit from the Hon. Zacharie Bababaswe, a member of the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Africa.
Formerly a Congolese journalist living in Belgium, the Hon. Bababaswe has been a member of the Congolese Parliament for the past decade and holds the title Deputy of the Minority.
Claiming to fund his own travels, Hon. Bababaswe is now lobbying in America, speaking to students and to the Congolese population in the U.S. about the current political state of the DRC.
Having changed power and name many times, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has undergone violent political duress over the past several decades.
Succeeding his late father, the former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila in 2001, the current President of the DRC Joseph Kabila has been in office for the past seventeen years and has twice unconstitutionally deferred elections past his office’s termination date.
With pressure from the U.S., Kabila announced last month that presidential elections will be held for the DRC in December of this year and that he himself will not run for re-election, according to the New York Times.
Sponsored by the International Student Association, a Parkland student club, and by the Congolese Community Association of Champaign, the visiting Hon. Bababaswe gave a lecture about these pressing political matters to Parkland staff and faculty, and to members of the local Congolese community.
The Congolese immigrant population in the Champaign-Urbana area is significant, and although there is no direct partnership between the DRC and Parkland College, many Parkland students hail from Congo.
“In the past ten years, a lot of Congolese students have come to Parkland,” says Amber Landis, a humanities professor and faculty advisor of the ISA at Parkland.
“Parkland classes are affordable and accessible to people whose credentials aren’t recognized in America, or who may be having trouble finding work due to a language barrier. Parkland and the English as a Second Language (ESL) program are good venues for immigrants to this country to find a bearing,” Landis says.
Nicolas Nkiere is a Congolese student at Parkland College who is specializing in Computer Engineering and who plans to transfer to the University of Illinois. Not an immigrant himself but having chosen to study in the U.S., Nkiere says that he was surprised to find such a large community of people from the DRC in Champaign-Urbana and especially at Parkland.
“When I first arrived at Parkland, I would walk down the halls and hear people speaking Lingala, my native language,” Nkiere says. “It was almost like being in a Congolese school. I encounter new Congolese people here nearly every two weeks.”
A handful of Congolese attended the lecture given by the Hon. Bababaswe at Parkland last week, and their reactions to the Deputy were mixed.
During the question and answer portion of the program controversial questions arose about the true political standing of the speaker. Many attendees were concerned about of his recent change of party, having worked for President Kabila until 2014. The speaker was quick to defend his current position of Deputy of the Minority.
Other questions included what plans are in place for the development of the Congo, how dual-citizenship laws will be handled, and who is behind the misery in the Congo.
“The biggest problem in Congo is a lack of compassion and action for peace,” Bababaswe said. “The first enemies of the Congolese are Congolese. Most of our leaders are corrupted; it is hard to fire a group of corrupted leaders.”
The Hon. Bababaswe addressed Congolese students at Parkland, telling them, “I am very proud of those who go to school here. Learn, get diplomas, go back to Congo.”
When asked what young people can do to get involved with the election, the Hon. Bababaswe called to them to organize themselves.
“There are only four candidates under the age of 40 who are running for the presidency, and they have no support,” Bababaswe said.
The elections are set to occur on the 23rd of December 2018.
