The Congo River, the second largest river in Africa, runs through the Democratic Republic of Congo, providing one of the only means of long-distance travel in a country that has little infrastructure.

These days, Buddhism is often thought of simply as a religion with a multitude of rituals and deep philosophies. However, it is much more than just that. It is a way of living, of relating to others and the environment. In fact, Buddhism is about knowing the impact of our actions on the lives of those around us and the environment, and developing tools to transform these interactions into wholesome, positive and beneficial ones.

Coming from this very perspective, His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche trains students in a variety of ways to ensure that this paradigmatic shift occurs within our minds. Rinpoche teaches us that in order to be truly happy and at peace, we need to shift our minds from our quite selfish and insular way of thinking, to one that is focused on others rather than ourselves.

One way that Rinpoche does this is through the use of documentaries. These can be on any topic, from the spiritual evolution of great masters of varying traditions and belief systems, to those on the human condition and the suffering people go through. When we understand and meditate on the suffering of others, we come to truly appreciate what we have, are less desirous of wanting things, develop compassion for those in dire circumstances and cultivate a sense of renunciation. These, when combined, will propel us on our spiritual path.

The Bodhisattva Chenrezig represents compassion in Buddhism, without which one cannot gain enlightenment. One of the methods to attain this compassion is to meditate on the circumstances of those who suffer.

One such documentary that Rinpoche has shared with students is Congo, Hulk Through Hell. It is included below, as is a student’s analysis of the documentary. Do watch the documentary and see what people have to go through just to get from one city to another, and what sort of suffering they have to endure. Contemplate on their lives, and you will begin to appreciate what you have and start developing compassion for the daily plight of others around the world.

The Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is situated in Central Africa

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country in Central Africa. It is considered the 11^th largest country in the world, and the second largest in Africa after Algeria. It has a population of over 78 million, making it the 4^th most populous country in Africa. The territory as it stands now covers the sites of the ancient Kongo, Luba and Lunda Kingdoms, which ruled between the 14^th to the 19^th Centuries.

In the 1870s, when European colonisation of Africa was at fever pitch, the country was taken over by King Leopold II of Belgium as a private state. Later in 1908, Belgium formally annexed the country, which then became known as the Belgian Congo. The country gained its independence on June 30, 1960 and was officially renamed the Republic of Congo.

Over the years, the country saw heavy warfare between different ethnic groups, backed by foreign powers, notably the First and Second Congo Wars. After the first war, the country was renamed to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The second war involved nine African countries and approximately 20 unaffiliated armed military groups. These wars led to the deaths of around 5.4 million people and devastated the country.

Though the country is immensely rich in natural resources, it severely lacks political stability, infrastructure (addressed in the documentary), and suffers from chronic issues of corruption. The country’s economy relies heavily on the mining of its resources, which it exports all over the world.

About Congo, Hulk Through Hell

The documentary portrays the journey of the Gbermani, a hulk or boat on the Congo River, providing one of the only means of travel between Kinshasa, the capital, to Kisangani, the third largest city. The documentary was produced by Tony Comiti as part of the Impossible Routes series for France 5 TV. Read more about the documentary below:

VIDEO: Congo, Hulk Through Hell

A Student’s Perspective

After students watched the documentary, Rinpoche asked them to answer some simple yet powerful questions to see how much they learnt and to gauge how much their minds have changed watching the documentary. Below are some of these questions and answers about the documentary.

How much is the payment?

• 40 Euros (a month’s salary in the Congo; approximately US$44.35 or RM185.60).
• For the boat owner, a trip is worth 80,000 Euros.
• As a comparison, a journey from Singapore to Jakarta (1,028km) by sea ferry is 35 Euros / US$38.80 / RM185.57, and takes 32 hours only (Singapore – Batam, 40 mins, 16 Euros; Batam – Jakarta, 31 hours, 19 Euros).

What are the difficulties?

• Waiting a month on-board ship to depart – tiring, frustrating
• Possible revolt by passengers – outbreak of violence or riots.
• Exposed to the elements – rain, sun, etc. (no cabins for passengers).
• Paying bribes for fuel – 30 cans, 200 litres each.
• No mechanic – boat engine remained idle for several months.
• Cramped space, no place to sleep, some passengers only have space for sitting for the entire duration.
• Passengers not paying the fare can cause the boat owner to lose money, crew not getting their salaries paid, not getting enough to pay for the fuel, parts of the engine and formalities to reach Kisangani.
• Passengers not paying the fare until they reach the destination, because of the amount of time the journey is taking. One reason given was that they need the cash to feed themselves. The insecurity for the boat owner is whether the passengers will have enough money left for the fare.
• No markers, navigation charts or maps on where the dangerous parts of the river are. The only maps available are remnants from Belgian colonists from the 1950s and the markers are not updated, with most of them no longer there at this time. The captain has to memorise every section of the river (which is an incredible feat and necessity).
• Repairing the boat when it gets damaged.
• Fixing the engines when they fail.
• Delays causing the journey to take a very long time, especially when the boat’s engines fail or when the boat runs aground getting stuck on sandbanks.
• No electricity on board.
• No communication with the outside world.
• No fresh water on board, except limited amounts sold for drinking.

What are the dangers?

• Illnesses – typhoid, malaria, etc.
• Accidents involving sleeping passengers where the hulls of the barges and boats are fastened together – bodies getting crushed from barges banging each other.
• Accidents – injury and death from mooring ropes bursting during departure at port.
• Death – drowning, getting chopped up by propellers if they fall off while defecating.
• Falling overboard (if a passenger trips or slips while walking).
• Boat capsizing – debris like tree trunks on the river can pierce the hull of the boat anytime, or hitting a rock.
• Getting caught in a war zone, armed attacks by warring groups, being shot at from shore.
• No life vests and lifeboats onboard, not mandatory in the Congo.
• No insurance for passengers.
• Getting killed, falling overboard at night without anyone knowing and informing the next of kin.
• No radio on board to call for help.
• Overloading, causing the boat to sink.
• High risk of catching fire, flammable goods on board, people cooking using charcoal stoves.

“God save us from accidents, engine failure, illness and death.”

What are the deceptions?

• Boat owner deceiving passengers about leaving, blaming the fuel supplier.
• Fuel supplier deceiving the boat owner that petrol tankers are not available (for a few weeks) – boat owner has to pay bribe (rampant corruption).
• Passengers deceiving boat owner by not paying fare, hiding among the crowd, only 36 passengers have paid for the boat fare.
• The river is also deceptive, it may appear calm but is full of hidden dangers.

“The Congo is like a siren that bewitches and sends men to sleep, hiding the dangers.”

What are the hardships of this journey?

• Delays in departure, delays during the journey (boat running aground, getting stuck on sandbanks, engine failure) and uncertainty of arrival.
• Dangerous and unhealthy living conditions on the boat, falling overboard, accidents, falling sick, no food, drinking dirty water, bathing in dirty water.
• If there’s no medical personnel on board, sick passengers are forced to wait till they reach Kisangani for treatment. Delays extending the duration of the journey prolong the wait for medical treatment and increase the risks.
• No space to stretch out, sleep and to move about.
• Getting food without having a stove or kitchen equipment.
• Finding space to set up a stove and cook.
• Drinking dirty river water if they can’t afford drinking water, increasing risk of falling sick.
• Not having enough money to pay for food and water if the journey is delayed and takes too long.
• Boat travelling in the pitch darkness of night to make up for lost time, using a torchlight to see.

Why do they travel this way?

• Plane fare costs six months salary – too costly for the poor.
• Land routes impassable, no roads, too dangerous to pass through war zones.

How long is the trip supposed to be?

• 12 days originally, but in the video, it took 12 days just to reach Bandaka (described as the mid-point but is barely half of the entire journey).
• The entire journey took a month to complete.

How do they get food?

• Every day, river traders (villagers on boats) climb on to sell fresh food.
• Fishermen along the way.
• Rarely, there will be enough raw food for everyone.
• They have to cook their own food, which is difficult for people without stoves.
• People without stoves or cooking utensils get food by buying from those passengers who can cook.
• Passengers conduct business on the boat, selling essentials such as drinking water, soap, cakes, salt and others. Some passengers also sell cooked food.

What are the foods they have?

• Garden vegetables
• Forest fruit
• Fresh fish
• Monkey meat – monkeys are actually protected animals and off-limits to hunters
• Monkey meat seller says, “It’s part of our culture. We’ve always eaten this animal. It’s ours. God created it so we can eat it. So, we eat it and it’s good.”

Where do they get water?

• From the river, for washing but those without money and who can’t afford clean drinking water, will drink dirty water from the river and run the risk of catching diseases and falling sick.
• The water for bathing is also the same water they poop and pee in.
• Enterprising passengers sell clean drinking water on board at 100 Congolese Francs (US$0.060 or RM0.25) per litre.
• Water for cooking is also from the river.

How do they wash and go to the toilet?

• ‘Shower’ areas are at the back of the boat.
• Passengers get water for cleaning by dropping a container on a line into the river, and pulling the container in to get river water to fill up plastic pails.
• Passengers defecate into the river by holding onto the rail.

How do they treat the sick?

• There’s no doctor or a sick bay on board.
• Medical help is available only by chance if there is a doctor or someone on board with medicine.
• Most on board have never seen, let alone been treated by, a doctor.
• Passengers have to pay for the medicine for treatment.

What medical facilities/personnel do they have?

• A passenger on-board, Marie, who by chance is a nurse – more on Marie to follow below.

Is the medical personnel regular or by chance?

• By chance

How many passengers?

• Estimated 2,000 passengers – 800 on board the bridge + 900 on two barges (when departing Kinshasa). An additional 200 come on board at the village of Maluku (two days from Kinshasa)
• They are travelling to: visit relatives, attend a marriage/funeral, find fortune (getting work in the diamond mines that are deep in the interior of the Congo). These are some of the reasons given.

What is the length of their journey?

• 1700km
• Kinshasa – Bandaka – Lisala – Mbumba – Kisangani

Additional Points of Note

The situation in the Congo where there is little to no working infrastructure — “Rice, palm oil, spices, transported by human labour since the cranes have long since stopped working.”

Human Capital

The captain in one scene describes the passengers as “capital”, and the Roganya fishermen describe how having many wives and children are a necessity to be somebody. This is so sad because even in a place where people are poor and have no material wealth, samsaric people feel the need to accumulate material property and in the case of people and communities in poverty, accumulating material wealth means accumulating people as their property.

About the Boat

• The name of the boat is MB Gbemani, pronounced as “Bey-mah-nee”.
• The 100m-long cargo freighter carries passengers for whom there are no cabins on board.
• Everyone sleeps on the bridge and with so many people on board, it becomes a floating slum.
• The captain is really skilled – he navigates the 1700km river journey entirely by memory.
• The captain shows his skills when he manages to free the boat when it ran aground on a sandbank.
• The boat mechanics also show great skill and ingenuity when they are able to patch a broken hull with cement and when they repair the old engines without having any new spare parts.

Faith in God

• They have strong faith and pray to God in the Christian way.
• Faith gives the people hope, it keeps them going.
• The question of having blind faith is raised when a passenger says, “God will protect us” when warned not to put his legs in the gap between the hull. Later, another man has an accident with a deep cut in his heel when the barges come together and his foot gets trapped.

Barter Economy, Trading Goods by Exchange

• For rural villagers and those who live along the riverbank, very few of them ever get to go to the city. So they barter food in exchange for batteries, medicine and clothes.
• It is good for passengers too. They don’t have to use money, being able to exchange whatever they have for food.

Marie the Nurse

• An unemployed nurse.
• When a combination of weather and worsening sanitary conditions make passengers fall sick, Marie is suddenly appointed the ship’s doctor by the captain to treat passengers.
• She studied medicine and is qualified, passing with 62% in her final exams.
• Marie treats a child diagnosed with typhoid for free for the first intravenous treatment.
• Marie treats a badly-injured passenger by stitching a cut without anaesthetics or antibiotics. She worries about the risk of infection and gangrene.

A Birth on Board

• A passenger helps to deliver the baby.
• The mother had nothing. The military stole everything from her on their way to Kinshasa.
• She only had old clothes from another child. The mother had no blankets or covers for the cold.
• She also had no money for food, no provisions and no shelter. Seeing that she has nothing, passengers come together to help the mother.
• A passenger said, “When we saw her in that state, we all wanted to do something to help, even if we’re not family. That’s the way it works in the Congo. We all help each other. Family comes with misery. Whether you have a family or not, where there’s a problem, there’s a solution.”
• During the course of the journey, two more babies are born on board the boat.
• The captain said, “I often see it (babies being born) and every time, it’s wonderful.”
• The baby is named Gbemani after the ship.
• Because of the fighting, it was too dangerous for the camera crew to travel further so the captain asks them to disembark at Bandaka.
• A few weeks later another boat sank because it was overloaded. 140 passengers died from drowning.

Roganya Fishermen

• These fishermen use a generations-old method of fishing – using their bare hands, the fishermen dive into the rapids where the rocks are, looking for fish trapped in the rocks and rapids.
• A fisherman tells how his older brother and younger brother were killed when the current threw them against the rocks. Their bodies were never found, swept away by the strong current.
• Despite the danger to their lives, the fishermen won’t stop fishing. To them, fishing is their life.
• To reduce the need for the fishermen to dive into the rapids and rocks so often, they fashioned a snare made from wood. It works well and the fishermen share the day’s catch among themselves.
• The fishermen sell part of their catch, and the rest is to feed their families. The money they make from selling the fish is for the women and children so they can pay for school.
• A dozen families live in the village which has no electricity.
• The fisherman that was interviewed had three wives and 13 kids.
• If the dozen families living in the village are like the fisherman with three wives and 13 children, then the fishermen have to catch enough fish to feed about 200 people, including themselves.
• The fisherman who was interviewed said, “To me, my wives and children are like owning a big diamond. Our ancestors were the same. If you only had one wife, you’d feel bad. You need to have a second and a third wife too, then you’ll be ok.”
• Village males practise kabobo, a form of martial arts to build strength and courage. It’s a question of brute force and has particular meaning to the fishermen. As a mark of respect for the river, kabobo is a way to build up the strength to take on the river’s strong currents. Kabobo is taught to the children from a very young age. The fighters are encouraged to be fearless and aggressive. Without it, there is nothing they can do, meaning they will grow up fearing danger and injury. The kabobo practice is a symbol of developing courage to overcome fear and survive the harshness of life.

For more interesting information:

• When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’
• Thailand’s ‘Renegade’ Yet Powerful Buddhist Nuns
• Why I Left Everything to Become A Buddhist Monk
• The “One God” Theory Comes from Greek Mythology
• Kwaidan Movies
• Buried Secrets – Did God have A Wife?

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