{"id":54851,"date":"2025-07-12T15:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T15:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/visit-dr-congo-a-vacation-in-absurdistan-campaign-of-nothingness\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T17:52:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:52:21","slug":"visit-dr-congo-a-vacation-in-absurdistan-campaign-of-nothingness","status":"publish","type":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/opinion\/visit-dr-congo-a-vacation-in-absurdistan-campaign-of-nothingness\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit DR Congo: A vacation in absurdistan campaign of nothingness"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is an explanation if you don\u2019t understand. DRC\u2019s tourism campaign is a parody, underlining the absurdity of launching a global rebrand while the country collapses internally.<\/p>\n

And how, you ask, does this brilliantly failing government intend to put its tourism campaign on the world map? Through football, of course. Because nothing screams \u201cpack your bags and visit our war-torn, infrastructure-less country\u201d like having a shiny logo slapped on the jersey of FC Barcelona, a club whose players have likely never heard of Ituri, let alone spell Kivu without Google Maps.<\/p>\n

After all, if Rwanda could do it, why not DRC? Rwanda, that neighbor with actual roads, real hotels, working hospitals, gorillas that aren\u2019t hunted for dinner, and an airport that isn\u2019t a museum of missed flights.<\/p>\n

I love the country that never misses an occasion to miss the point, as a matter of necessity.<\/p>\n

{{Not to impress or compete}}<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s \u201cVisit Rwanda\u201d campaign is not about impressing DRC. It wasn\u2019t a flex. It wasn\u2019t a competition. It was a vision. Rwanda signed deals with Arsenal, Paris Saint Germain, Bayern Munich and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u2014not because it wanted to beat Congo in a PR contest (how do you compete with a black hole?), but because it had something to offer. A place to visit, where you don\u2019t need a UN escort or a will notarized before your trip.<\/p>\n

Let it be understood: Rwanda’s promotion is development-driven. It’s part of a broader national strategy involving tourism, investment, and soft power\u2014not a playground rivalry with any failing neighbour.<\/p>\n

But Kinshasa\u2014oh brilliant Kinshasa\u2014watched Rwanda and said: \u201cHold my Primus beer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Monaco and Barcelona are on speed dial. The idea? To launch \u201cVisit DR Congo\u201d, not with a tourism policy, not with domestic reforms, not with security guarantees, but by outsourcing all vision to European footballers who may end up needing bodyguards if they ever dare to actually visit. What\u2019s next? A UEFA trophy tour through Walikale?<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t help but wonder: what exactly are they advertising? The thrill of potholes the size of small craters? The excitement of never knowing if the road will vanish into the bush mid-drive? The adrenaline of brushing shoulders with armed FDLR genocidaires or Islamist ADF terrorists at a checkpoint where your passport means less than a chicken?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where things turn not just tragic, but embarrassingly misinformed. The entire logic behind Kinshasa\u2019s sudden love affair with jersey-sponsoring football clubs is based on a fantasy competition with Rwanda\u2014one that exists only in the Congolese imagination.<\/p>\n

Rwanda\u2019s strategy wasn\u2019t a reaction to anyone. It was a deliberate effort to project its own development vision to a global audience. When Rwanda launched \u201cVisit Rwanda,\u201d it did so to enhance its soft power, attract investment, expand tourism, and brand itself as a forward-looking African country.<\/p>\n

It competed, yes\u2014but against its own history of tragedy, against its own goals, against its limited resources, and against global indifference. DRC, in contrast, is not competing with Rwanda. It is competing with itself in the art of national regression.<\/p>\n

The obsession with Rwanda mirrors not geopolitical rivalry, but a form of inferiority complex, where the DRC conveys its failures by projecting jealousy.<\/p>\n

Even worse, DRC has chosen Rwanda as its imaginary enemy instead of its actual challenges\u2014corruption, impunity, insecurity, and a political class that uses genocide survivors as scapegoats.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Burundi. Oh dear Burundi\u2014another neighbor that isn\u2019t even pretending to compete. Instead of opening its borders to Rwanda and tapping into regional tourism flows, Burundi blocks borders, sulks in state-sponsored sulking, and occasionally reopens gates like a drunk teenager slamming a door during an emotional tantrum.<\/p>\n

Burundi fails itself, and it fails others\u2014especially those who could benefit from a regional tourism corridor. Unlike Kenya or Tanzania, countries that developed tourist experiences with professionalism and stability, DRC and Burundi appear to confuse tourism policy with performative patriotism and self-sabotage.<\/p>\n

Rwanda built itself into a destination. DRC is building logos on shirts while its airports don\u2019t have running water. And Burundi? Burundi can\u2019t even decide if it wants to be on the tourists\u2019 map.<\/p>\n

On a serious note, Burundi\u2019s political introversion is as detrimental as DRC\u2019s performative chauvinism. Both miss opportunities that Rwanda and East African giants have seized through regional integration and stability.<\/p>\n

{{Attractions in the DRC beyond imagination}}<\/p>\n

Ever thought about where sense goes on safari? The DRC’s tourism brochure, if ever printed, would read like a dystopian travel novel:<\/p>\n

Wildlife? Oh no, we don\u2019t have animals anymore. The forests are rich, yes, but in meat-deprived cities, monkeys, antelopes, and even gorillas have long since migrated\u2014from the jungle to the stomach. In a country where cannibalism is accepted live on camera, primates are endangered. Try finding a giraffe, buffalo or a hippo. We\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n

Nature? We\u2019ve got that. Lush, virgin tropical forests. But don\u2019t expect to see them on wheels. You\u2019ll certainly need a helicopter. Or divine intervention.<\/p>\n

Hospitality? The only beds reliably available are in the pockets of Kinshasa\u2019s corrupt elite. Maybe \u201cVisit Goma\u201d. Hospitals? Mostly signs on buildings with expired medicine and no power. Schools? Yes, chalk still exists\u2014on walls with no teachers, students or hope.<\/p>\n

Security? Oh, it\u2019s bustling or buzzing. With bullets, bombings, and bizarre militia groups in their hundreds. Congo has certainly perfected the art of outsourced chaos: FDLR genocidaires? Check. ADF terrorists? Present. Wazalendo patriots? Everywhere. Burundi\u2019s troops? Why not?<\/p>\n

European mercenaries and Belgian \u201cadvisors\u201d? Bienvenue. American contractors? Bring in the drones. But whatever you do, don\u2019t ask where the Congolese army is. They\u2019re either hiding or looting.<\/p>\n

You will not be disappointed as a visitor to see disorder. The list of non-state actors, and foreign forces operating in DRC reads like a United Nations blacklist. Tourism doesn\u2019t thrive in a theatre of proxy wars and warlordism. Perhaps, in the country you are visiting.<\/p>\n

And President Tshisekedi wants you to visit. Yes, he does. Because in his mind, if he can\u2019t fix the country, at least he can rebrand it.<\/p>\n

{{The Rise of Mediocrity}}<\/p>\n

Yes, it happened\u2014from pizza to presidency: It\u2019s an inspiring story, really. Once upon a time, in the peaceful streets of Belgium, there lived a man who couldn\u2019t deliver pizzas on time. So he returned to his home country and delivered a political catastrophe instead.<\/p>\n

This biting character sketch emphasizes the absurdity of unprepared leadership inheriting a fragile state and making it worse\u2014through cluelessness disguised as charisma.<\/p>\n

President Felix Tshisekedi, the man who couldn\u2019t deliver a Margherita, is now the proud commander of a country where nothing gets delivered\u2014not peace he tore into pieces\u2014not services. The people from Goma to Bukavu cannot visit each other by road unless they transit through Rwanda.<\/p>\n

Yes, in 2025, if you want to travel from one Congolese city to another, your best option is to exit the country, pass through Rwanda, and re-enter. A tourism campaign that relies on another country\u2019s infrastructure. If this isn\u2019t topmost wit, what is?<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s most incredible is how Tshisekedi and his propaganda elite\u2014a circus of clowns including Patrick Muyaya, Muhindo Nzangi, Julien Paluku, Justin Bitakwira, and that walking contradiction called Denis Mukwege\u2014have managed to turn reality into fiction and fiction into governance.<\/p>\n

{{Mastery of Miscommunication}}<\/p>\n

In most countries, governments fight to disarm rebels. In DRC, they create, finance, arm them\u2014and rename them. Enter the \u201cWazalendo\u201d, a militia movement turned PR stunt, a Frankenstein of Tshisekedi\u2019s own making. A patriot is someone who loves their country. In Congo, a patriot is someone who burns villages, kills civilians, and gets rewarded with weapons.<\/p>\n

Now that\u2019s something tourists should see! \u201cVisit Congo,\u201d the poster should say, \u201cand witness how a government creates its own enemies for fun and foreign aid.\u201d<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget the FDLR genocidaires, now official partners in national security. Yes, the same criminals who helped orchestrate the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. In Congo, they are now allies, guests of honor in the battle against Tutsi-looking Congolese. Why send them to The Hague when you can house them in North Kivu and pay them in minerals?<\/p>\n

This is not just a moral scandal\u2014it\u2019s a structural one. DRC rewards impunity while punishing citizenship. No amount of branding can mask a policy of ethnic betrayal.<\/p>\n

And since we\u2019re talking about rebranding, let\u2019s talk about why Tshisekedi is so obsessed with these football deals. It\u2019s not about tourism. It\u2019s about appeasement. Specifically, domestic appeasement of Rwanda-haters. In a country where hating Rwanda sells better than soap, Tshisekedi\u2019s camp figured if you can\u2019t govern, at least you can entertain the mob.<\/p>\n

Regrettably, populism in DRC has shifted from rhetoric to policy: manufacture an enemy, ignore governance, entertain the masses with political scapegoats.<\/p>\n

\u201cVisit DRCongo\u201d is not for foreigners\u2014it\u2019s a dog whistle to a population fed daily doses of anti-Rwanda propaganda, fed on state TV, public speeches, and university lectures turned into witch hunts.<\/p>\n

Kinshasa\u2019s political elite believes that slapping a tourism slogan on Barcelona\u2019s shirt is a way to reclaim African dignity. Not by building roads or schools. Not by improving health care or uniting the country. But by trolling Rwanda.<\/p>\n

They don\u2019t even understand that Rwanda didn\u2019t start with PSG. It started with planning. With cleaning streets, building parks, securing villages, protecting wildlife, and training hospitality workers. In DRC, tourism starts with a press conference and ends with a disappearing budget.<\/p>\n

{{The Tangible Sightseeing}}<\/p>\n

If you’re curious about how to institutionalize failure and corruption at the highest levels, DRC is your classroom. Come for the corruption, stay for the spectacle. The presidential family runs mines\u2014like backyard kiosks, warlords run provinces like mafia bosses, and millions vanish without an audit.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no better country to study the logistics of looting dressed as governance, where public funds are public jokes, and national reconstruction is just a catchphrase tossed between champagne glasses in Kinshasa\u2019s gated villas. Visit DRC and observe how state-building is reversed and the national interest auctioned to the highest bidder\u2014if not burned in advance.<\/p>\n

DRC is a country where political decay is not accidental, but systemic and profitable.<\/p>\n

To the world, \u201cVisit DRCongo\u201d is a punchline. To Tshisekedi, it’s a policy. To the Congolese people, it\u2019s a cruel joke. To regional peace, it\u2019s a ticking time bomb.<\/p>\n

But still, if you’re feeling adventurous (and expendable), do visit. Come and see a government that governs by excuses. A nation rich in minerals, poor in principles. A political class that thrives on commotion, calls it patriotism, and brands it for tourists.<\/p>\n

Bring a drone, not a suitcase. Pack courage, not curiosity. Don\u2019t ask too many questions. Just come. Learn. And maybe cry.<\/p>\n

Or laugh. That might be the only thing working in DRC these days.<\/p>\n

Visit DRCongo: Where satire writes itself.<\/p>\n

\"DRC\u2019s<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is an explanation if you don\u2019t understand. DRC\u2019s tourism campaign is a parody, underlining the absurdity of launching a global rebrand while the country collapses internally. And how, you ask, does this brilliantly failing government intend to put its tourism campaign on the world map? Through football, of course. Because nothing screams \u201cpack your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":2000090748,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[75],"byline":[271],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54851","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":2000090748,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/vrd-973c3.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/vrd-973c3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/vrd-973c3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/vrd-973c3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/vrd-973c3.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/vrd-973c3.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/54851","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=54851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/54851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000090748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54851"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54851"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}