“Let us call a spade a spade”

When President Museveni announced a day of prayer for Uganda which is at a political, economic, social, ethnic and ecological crossroads, it reminded me of what a Congolese man told me when we met in Goma, eastern DRC while on a mission in the Great Lakes region at the start of 2010. He introduced himself as Bosco, a business man in Goma. He told me that Congolese have flocked to churches in search of a solution to their problems, noting that while prayer is necessary it is not a sufficient condition.

Because he attended one of the meetings we held where I introduced myself and my nationality, he spoke to me in Swahili, a common language in eastern DRC introduced by Swahili slave traders. However, realizing that I had difficulties in my responses, he quickly switched to English which he spoke fluently. Let me reconstruct what he said in order to share his views with a wider public.