An eye back to my life story

I’m Jean Marie Mpinda; I was born in 1980 in a beautiful country called Zaire actually changed into The Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C). Zaire is situated in the middle of Africa between seven countries .

Life was very good for my family because my dad was working for the government and he was the most respected person in the government. A few years later (from 1986 to1994), things started to change.

The president Mobutu Sese Seko Kukung’bendo Wasabanga started to direct the country into a wrong direction. Some people lost their jobs and those who were working couldn’t get enough money to survive. In 1995 the first manifestation was made up by students from the University of Kinshasa (The capital city of D.R.C). Every student went on streets to protest against what the Mobutu’s regime was doing. More than hundred cars were burned, ten Police men were killed and a lot of government departments were destroyed by students. Students got angry because teachers did not want to teach anymore pretending that they were not getting payed.

In 1996, my father (Francois Mpinda) joined the opposition and started fighting against Mobutu’s regime in order to stop the protestation but it was unsuccessfully.

In 1997, President Mobutu was chassed from power by Kabila and become the new president of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In order to stabilise peace in the country, Mr Kabila decided to arrest all the people who worked during Mobutu’s regime and those who were in opposition. Kabila established a list which contained names of people they were going to arrest or kill. On that list was my father’s name(Francois Mpinda ) and some other political statute names. When Mr Francois found out that information, he decided to live the country with no delay. He took with him his wife and kids except me and my youngest sister who was only two years old. From that day, everything was changed for us, live was no better for us because we hided all times after my family left.

C'est juste le debut!