Congo Rangers

Category: Rangers | Date: Aug 15 2006 | By: admin

This is a short interview carried out by Conrad Thorpe with Kakule Ngereza, a young ranger in Virunga National Park. The interview took place in the shade of a Candelabra Euphorbia tree. The young man Kakule and Conrad sat on the chassis of a vehicle drawn, water tank which was now ruined and filled with bullet holes.

Kakule on an early morning run at Ishango

CT: Tell me about your Father.

KN. My father was the chief of the people in the village of Mayele, close to Congo’s Rwenzori Mountains

CT: What happened?

KN: The wa-NALU movement carried him off.

CT: When?

KN: I remember it well. It was on 23 March 1999. I was 15.

CT: What did they do with him?

KN: I think they slit his throat.

CT: What did you think of the NALU?

KN: I didn’t feel anything for the NALU. My father was a really good man. My mother lives in Mutwanga, she cultivates the farm, she stays at home and goes to church. I have two brothers Kambale (‘Mbale) and Salomona. There were lots of NALU who came into the village that day, they caught my father and they wanted money. They tied him up, they took me too, but after 20 minutes I got away I ran for my life and they couldn’t catch me.

CT: Why did they catch you, I mean you were still a boy?

KN: They had caught me and used me to carry the things they had stolen.

CT: After you got away what did you do?

KN: I stayed on at school, life was tough after my father was taken, there was little food and no money. I never left school until I got to the fourth form, then I left and I bought and sold charcoal for meagre profit.

CT: So what happened during all those years before today?

KN: Well, some years later in March 2005 I saw a bunch of thugs in the bush, in a place called Maksabu, which is on the main road to Beni. I slowly befriended them and eventually I asked them what their plan was. ‘We’re robbers’ they said, ‘we rob cars and people’. I saw them with an RPG and AK47’s. They told me that they wanted to attack the Park car that belongs to the National Park Director. The people living in the Park then were led by bad man called Kitobi who encouraged them to enter the Park and cut down the forest and cultivate crops, this all took place at a place called Nyaleke[2]. I don’t know if the people will pay the thugs but I suspected they would. The people wanted to kill the Director.

CT: So what did you do with the information?

KN: I had a friend who was a Ranger. His wife used to buy charcoal from me and occasionally he came too. One night I secretly told him that I had been told, by a young man, that thugs were planning to kill the Director and they lived in a camp. At that time my friend was a body-guard for the Director and rode in the same car.

CT: Why did you tell him this information?

KN: I told him this because the same sort of people killed my father.

CT: What did your friend say?

KN: He said I should show him this camp. So I told him I knew where the camp was. You know, I thought I might still find my father and hoped I might get information from the thugs that would lead me to him. Eventually I realised that it wouldn’t happen, so I decided to tell the Park men.

CT: Tell me how it happened?

KN: The thugs drink and get drunk and one night they went off and I went to their camp with my friend, we rode on a motorbike and arrived at 9PM when most people were asleep. We hid my friend’s rifle under his coat and I carried a mallet. At first I went in and left my friend outside the camp. When I went in I found no one, then I called my friend in. We found the RPG, lots of ammunition and a photo album all hidden underneath some beans. We took everything and torched the hideout and we got home at 11PM. So the Director of the Park and Dr Mwamba came to know of the story and they asked me, do you want money or work? I told them I did not do it for money but that I would be very happy to have work.

CT: So what took place?

KN: They gave me work and I was happy. But I also wanted a weapon so no one will burn me with bullets again, I will burn them with bullets instead. I also thought that if I took money they would have thought I was one of the bandits.

CT: What happened to you after Mutsora?

KN: Well I came Ishango. Even today, 6 months after being employed as a Ranger, I do not have a Ranger’s number, they gave me a Ranger’s uniform but I have never been paid a cent and I have no soap.

CT: What do you want?

KN: Other Rangers get money, I get nothing. I started work in Virunga National Park and initially I stayed in Mutsora the Headquarters at the bottom of the mountain. I stayed there for a while because I was too frightened to return home. My Mother doesn’t know where I am, because I never went back. I never told her.

CT: What do you think they (Park authorities) will do with you now?

KN: Now I think they will send me to Mt.Tchiaberimu to look after Gorillas.

CT: Would you like that?

KN: Yes, very much because it gets me away from here, it makes me a better Ranger and I protect a rare and beautiful animal.

CT: Have you ever seen a gorilla?

KN: Never.

CT: Was what you did, a good thing?

KN: I think what I did was a good thing and God helps me to be strong and one day I’ll tell my Mother. I want to work and I’m with my friends here. But I just want to help my family with money, help my Mother buy clothes and put my younger brother through school. But now I can’t, because I don’t get paid even though I wear a uniform. I’m a Congo-mani (a Congo Man), I want to live my life and help my country, I have no money and I don’t know anyone out there.

CT: What will you do if they send you somewhere far from here?

KN: I’ll go where I’m sent.

CT: When you were a child did you think you’d become a Park guard, a Ranger?

KN: No, I thought I’d do business but God had a different plan for me.

CT: And how are your brothers?

KN: Mbale, my elder brother, he is now chief of the village of Mayele. Chief where my Father used to be Chief.

CT: How do you feel about that?

KN: Very Proud.

Kakule Ngereza (KN) was born in Mwendo, North Kivu, D R Congo. He’s 21.

Interview was conducted in Kiswahili at the Ishango Ranger Training Camp, in Virunga National Park. Kakule Ngereza was trained by me in September 2005 at Ishango. He is a remarkable young man, physically fit and as keen as mustard. He has irrepressible morale and humour. He was selected, on his own merit, for Advanced Force training, training that would have elevated him into the elite of Virunga’s Rangers, indeed of the country’s Rangers.

But it wasn’t to be, he fell very ill and nearly died. But we got him to a hospital in time and though he was saved he could not attend the course. For me and for Rob Poppe, my number two, this was very disappointing. And for Ngereza? Well I haven’t asked him yet, he is still recovering and in February 2006 in is a safe house some way from Ishango. Whilst naturally reticent, he remains one of the most courageous young men I had the pleasure to meet, anywhere.

I have changed some names to protect identities.

Conrad Thorpe

Notes - October 2005

Typed - January 2005