{"id":54609,"date":"2025-06-23T15:21:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/when-hrw-plays-blind-man-s-bluff-with-hate\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T15:21:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:21:34","slug":"when-hrw-plays-blind-man-s-bluff-with-hate","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/opinion\/when-hrw-plays-blind-man-s-bluff-with-hate\/","title":{"rendered":"When HRW plays blind man\u2019s bluff with hate"},"content":{"rendered":"

For an organization that prides itself on objectivity, its chronic allergy to nuance, cultural context, and the bloody consequences of romanticizing violent actors is more than just intellectual laziness. <\/p>\n

It is complicity. Willful, dangerous, and unforgivable complicity.<\/p>\n

Take, for instance, the tragic tale of Delphin Katembo Vinywasiki, alias Idengo Delcato, who died under unclear circumstances on February 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

HRW was swift\u2014feverishly swift, in fact\u2014to amplify speculation that the M23 or the AFC (the armed forces aligned with M23) were involved in his death.<\/p>\n

I can imagine even the body wasn\u2019t even cold. The toxicology results were not yet in. But the report was ready. <\/p>\n

Because nothing sells quite like the mythology of a rebel group being the root of all evil in eastern Congo, especially if it has Tutsi fighters.<\/p>\n

What HRW and its copy-paste echo chambers failed\u2014or refused\u2014to do was examine who this man really was.<\/p>\n

Delcato was not merely \u201can engaged artist,\u201d as some noble phrase in their press release claimed. <\/p>\n

He was a hate-monger in lyrical form. His song, \u201cDawa ya Mututsi\u201d (translated as \u201cThe Cure Against the Tutsi\u201d), was not a misguided metaphor. <\/p>\n

It was a genocidal anthem. It was the soundtrack to ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

Imagine, for one second, if someone recorded a song titled \u201cThe Cure Against the Arabs\u201d or \u201cKill the Blacks\u201d in any other part of the world. <\/p>\n

Would Human Rights Watch praise the composer as a committed artist? Would he be labeled a “symbol of resistance”? <\/p>\n

Would journalists line up to mourn his passing without first reckoning with his lyrics that danced on graves and incited bloodshed?<\/p>\n

But in Congo, it seems, the Tutsi are fair game. Songs targeting them? Artistic expression. Massacres of Banyamulenge? Tribal conflicts. Hate-filled pamphlets? Local color. A deadly doctrine of ethnic purity under the mask of patriotism? <\/p>\n

Merely a case of contested nationhood. It is a moral collapse so cavernous that it echoes.<\/p>\n

Delcato was not just a musician with a microphone; he was a militarized mouthpiece. <\/p>\n

He played a central role in the FAR-W, one of the \u201cWazalendo\u201d (patriotic) militias propped up by none other than Minister Muhindo Nzangi Butondo.<\/p>\n

Yes, that same government official who coined the term \u201cWazalendo\u201d to rebrand a stew of armed groups\u2014Mai-Mai, ADF, FDLR\u2014as righteous defenders of the nation. <\/p>\n

Groups so patriotic they massacre civilians, loot villages, and torch schools with anthems like Delcato\u2019s booming from Bluetooth speakers tied to child soldiers\u2019 waists.<\/p>\n

But the same M23\u2014who call for negotiations, openly state their grievances, and refrain from hate speech\u2014are labeled \u201cterrorists\u201d by Kinshasa\u2019s palace of glass and smoke. <\/p>\n

Apparently, patriotism in the DRC means never having to say you\u2019re sorry for hate or homicide\u2014as long as your enemies are Tutsis.<\/p>\n

And where was LUCHA in all of this? The \u201ccitizen movement\u201d that basks in international grants and moral high ground? <\/p>\n

Silent. Eerily silent. Delcato was their member. Their child. Their mobilizer. <\/p>\n

But once his genocidal lyrics began to gain traction\u2014once he crossed the line from activism to armed ethno-nationalism\u2014they fled the scene like patrons from a burning theater.<\/p>\n

Not a word of reckoning. Not a whisper of accountability. <\/p>\n

Just the sound of keyboards typing out the next grant proposal to some European donor blissfully unaware that \u201ccivil society\u201d in Congo has become the polite term for militia-adjacent nationalism. <\/p>\n

LUCHA\u2019s silence is not just cowardly; it is damning. <\/p>\n

It signals a deeper rot\u2014the ease with which so-called human rights groups slip into ethnic partisanship while still collecting checks for preaching tolerance.<\/p>\n

Let us ask an uncomfortable question: what if Delcato had released a song titled \u201cThe Cure Against the Luba\u201d, or \u201cDawa ya Muhutu\u201d? <\/p>\n

Would he still be called a “symbol of resistance”? <\/p>\n

Would HRW still flash their cameras and tweet their condolences?<\/p>\n

No. Because the international community\u2014especially the Western liberal institutions that drive discourse\u2014has a twisted and selective memory. <\/p>\n

The suffering of Tutsis is background noise. Their massacres are minor chords. Their dignity is negotiable.<\/p>\n

This is not accidental. It is rooted in the exoticism and intellectual laziness of foreign NGOs who cannot be bothered to understand the region\u2019s history beyond the Wikipedia version.<\/p>\n

For them, it is easier to align with whatever narrative pours from Kinshasa\u2019s press machine. <\/p>\n

Easier to label M23 as Rwanda\u2019s stooges than to unpack the legitimate claims of Congolese Tutsis in the Kivus, who have been hounded from their homes, lynched in marketplaces, and now demonized in death by songs like Delcato\u2019s.<\/p>\n

It takes effort\u2014ethical and intellectual effort\u2014to investigate the ideological role of artists in conflict. <\/p>\n

It requires acknowledging that art is not always resistance; sometimes, it is incitement. It demands cultural competence. <\/p>\n

And above all, it demands courage\u2014the courage to tell donors, presidents, and movements: your martyr is a menace.<\/p>\n

Delcato is mourned today not because of what he said, but because of who he targeted. <\/p>\n

If he had sung about exterminating another group, he would have been arrested or at least disavowed. <\/p>\n

But since it was Tutsis\u2014those forever foreign, perpetually suspect, unwanted citizens\u2014his bile passed as ballad.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch is not alone in this complicity. <\/p>\n

Several journalists, think tanks, and regional analysts suffer from the same disease: the allergy to complexity. <\/p>\n

They know full well that ethnic hate is being laundered through \u201cpatriotic\u201d rhetoric in the DRC. <\/p>\n

They know that figures like Muhindo Nzangi are arming militias while dressing up their violence in flags. <\/p>\n

And still they pretend that Congo\u2019s woes are imported. <\/p>\n

That M23 is the virus. That Rwanda is the only villain.<\/p>\n

This intellectual fraudulence has a cost. It emboldens hate-preachers like Delcato. <\/p>\n

It grants impunity to ethnic supremacists. It legitimizes genocidal propaganda disguised as protest music. <\/p>\n

And it exposes, most tragically, how easily the international community can be manipulated\u2014how quickly it forgets Rwanda 1994 until the next genocide rears its head.<\/p>\n

Delcato\u2019s death is tragic, but not because he was a resistance hero.<\/p>\n

It is tragic because the hatred he vocalized is still alive\u2014still thriving\u2014in the policies of ministers, in the lyrics of new \u201cartists,\u201d and in the reports of organizations who cannot distinguish activism from atrocity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time we drew the line.<\/p>\n

There is no excuse for hate\u2014no matter how musical, how artistic, or how tragically dead the author may be. <\/p>\n

If Delcato had been a German musician calling Jews \u201cvermin\u201d in lyrical form, he would have been rightly condemned. <\/p>\n

If he were an American rapper calling for Latinos extermination, no NGO would dare praise his artistic merit. <\/p>\n

But since he sang in Swahili, from a remote corner of Congo, about Tutsis\u2014he is misunderstood. He is \u201ccomplicated.\u201d He is mourned.<\/p>\n

We must stop mistaking bigots for freedom fighters. <\/p>\n

We must stop tolerating genocidal lyrics as cultural resistance. <\/p>\n

We must demand more from movements like LUCHA and hold ministers like Nzangi accountable for their ideological grooming of militias.<\/p>\n

And Human Rights Watch? If it cannot bring itself to understand the weight of history, the complexity of local dynamics, or the horror embedded in songs like \u201cDawa ya Mututsi\u201d\u2014then perhaps it should consider a new line of work.<\/p>\n

Maybe fiction writing. At least then, their fabrications wouldn\u2019t cost lives.<\/p>\n

It is no longer enough to mourn victims of hate once their killers act. <\/p>\n

World must also learn to name, denounce, and disarm the merchants of hatred before they become martyrs of confusion.<\/p>\n

If international organizations continue to shower praise where condemnation is due, they will not be defenders of human rights but midwives to the next massacre.<\/p>\n

\"HRW<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For an organization that prides itself on objectivity, its chronic allergy to nuance, cultural context, and the bloody consequences of romanticizing violent actors is more than just intellectual laziness. It is complicity. Willful, dangerous, and unforgivable complicity. Take, for instance, the tragic tale of Delphin Katembo Vinywasiki, alias Idengo Delcato, who died under unclear circumstances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000089666,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[75],"byline":[271],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54609","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-homenews","byline-tom-ndahiro"],"bylines":[{"id":271,"name":"Tom Ndahiro","slug":"tom-ndahiro","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":271,"name":"Tom Ndahiro","slug":"tom-ndahiro","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000089666,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/image-29.png","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/png","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/image-29.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/image-29.png","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/image-29.png","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/image-29.png","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/image-29.png","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/54609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/opinion"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/54609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000089666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54609"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54609"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}