EP 1 Andrée Blouin: 'Africa’s Most Dangerous' I Women And Resistance 🌍

In this conversation, Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla discuss Andree Blouin's life, the legacy of Patrice Lumumba, and the broader struggle for African independence. 

They reflect on her personal journey, the challenges faced by women in the political landscape, and the importance of activism and historical awareness in shaping the future of Africa. 

Aya and Adesoji emphasise the need for unity and empowerment among African people, particularly women, to continue the fight for true independence and justice.

Takeaways

*Patrice Lumumba's speech was a pivotal moment in African history.
*Andree Blouin's personal experiences shaped her political consciousness.
*Women played a crucial role in the independence movements across Africa.
*The struggle for independence was marked by significant sacrifices and challenges.
*Historical awareness is essential for future generations to avoid past mistakes.
*Activism must continue to address ongoing injustices in Africa.
*Unity among African people is vital for true liberation.
*The legacy of colonialism still impacts contemporary African societies.
*Empowerment of women is key to societal progress in Africa.
*The fight for independence is ongoing and requires collective effort.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Women and Resistance
00:48 The Legacy of Patrice Lumumba
11:57 Andree Blouin's Political Awakening
20:05 Childhood and Identity in Colonial Congo
27:58 Life in the Orphanage and Struggles for Freedom
33:35 Struggles of Survival and Identity
38:04 The Fight for Independence in Guinea
43:10 The Tumultuous Times of Lumumba's Leadership
51:03 Personal Sacrifices and Activism
56:45 The Legacy of Resistance and Call to Action

Welcome  to Women and Resistance, a powerful podcast where we honour the courage, resilience, and revolutionary spirit of women across the globe. Hosted by Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla...

You're listening to Women and Resistance with Aya Fubara Eneli Esq and Adesoji Iginla—where we honour the voices of women who have shaped history through courage and defiance...Now, back to the conversation.

That’s it for this episode of Women and Resistance. Thank you for joining us in amplifying the voices of women who challenge injustice and change the course of history. Be sure to subscribe, share, and continue the conversation. Together We Honour the past, act in the present, and shape the future. Until next time, stay inspired and stay in resistance!

Transcript

Adesoji Iginla (00:02.702)
Greetings, greetings, and welcome to another episode of Women and Resistance. And I am your host, one of your hosts, Adesuji Iginla. And with me as usual is Sister Aya Fubera NLE Esquire. And how are you, sister?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:24.642)
Good evening. I'm excited to be here with you this evening.

Adesoji Iginla (00:29.578)
Okay, know, African customs out of the way. Today we're going to be looking at the interesting life and times of Andrea Bolin. And who is she? First and foremost.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (00:48.704)
Well, that is an interesting question to start with. And I think I want to start sharing who I am by reading a speech that until recently many people had no idea that I was a part of. And so if you will give me a second here, I will.

Adesoji Iginla (01:16.814)
He's due.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:18.976)
up that speech and you can hear the words for yourself.

So this is a speech that Patrice Lumumba, someone I hope you all know, and if you don't, I certainly encourage you to go and research and study upon because he was a true son of Africa, a true Pan-Africanist, and his life and death

are very instructive in terms of the struggle that is ahead of us as African people as we fight for our liberation.

This is a speech that was given on June 30th, 1960, delivered during the DR Congo Independence Ceremonies. The English translation was first published in 1961. And...

This is a translation of that speech, which was given in French. And like I said, up until very recently, very few people knew of my involvement. And it's indicative of how African women are written out of history.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (02:48.962)
Men and women of the Congo, victorious independence fighters, I salute you in the name of the Congolese government. I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks to mark this June 30th, 1960 as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts.

a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom. Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country with which we are in equal terms,

No Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering, and stinted neither strength nor blood.

Our struggle was filled with tears, fire, and blood. We're deeply proud of this struggle because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us. That was our lot for the 80 years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh.

and too painful to be forgotten. We have experienced forced labor in exchange for salaries that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings, or to raise our children as dearly loved human beings. Morning, noon, and night.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (05:06.56)
We were subjected to jeers, insults, and blows. We were Negroes who will never forget that a Black was addressed as...

Not because he was a friend, but because the polite vu was reserved for white people alone. We have seen our land seized under the terms of what was called the law, which in reality recognized only the right of might. We have seen that the law was quite different for a white and for a black.

indulgence for the former, cruel and inhuman, inhuman for the latter. We have witnessed atrocious sufferings of those banished for their political opinions or religious beliefs, exiled in their own homeland. Their lot was truly worse than death itself. We have seen that in the towns

The travelers' huts for Blacks were set aside for us, whereas sumptuous houses were reserved for the whites. That a Black was not allowed inside the European schools, nor in the restaurants, nor in the so-called European shops. That a Black traveled in the hold of boats.

at the feet of the whites in their luxurious cabins. Who will ever forget the massacres where so many of our brothers perished, the cells into which those who refused to submit to a regime of oppression and exploitation were thrown. All that, my brothers, we have endured. But we who have been elected by the votes of your representatives,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (07:10.614)
the representatives of the people to guide our beloved country. We who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression, we declare to you that all this is now ended. The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our dear country's future is now in the hands of its own people. Brothers, let us commence together.

a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity, and greatness. Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for everyone a fair enumeration of their labor. We shall show the world what the Black man can do when working in freedom, and we shall make the Congo the center

the sun's radiance in all of Africa. We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children. We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble. We shall stop the suppression of free thought and see to it that all our citizens enjoy to the fullest extent.

the fundamental freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights. We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and ensure for each and every one a rightful place in society without regard to race or creed. We shall safeguard all persons and property throughout the land.

We will restore the ancient laws of our land to their full force and value and ensure that our country's soil truly benefits its children. We shall institute in the country a peace based not on guns and bayonets, but on concord and goodwill. And for all that, dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own huge forces,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (09:33.896)
and tremendous wealth, but also on the assistance of many foreign countries, with whom we shall enter into treaties of friendship, provided that those foreign countries refrain from imposing on us any policy, whether political or economic, which we consider contrary to our national interests. In this domain, even Belgium

which has finally come to understand the meaning of history. Even Belgium, which no longer opposes our independence, is ready to give us its aid and friendship. And for that we hold nothing against it. That is why together, Belgium and Congolese, we have agreed to end colonial rule and establish cooperation between our two countries.

both independent and sovereign, I have no doubt that this cooperation will be advantageous to both countries. Thus, Belgium's support, which we welcome, and that of any country willing to help us, will be accepted on the condition that it is not imposed on us, either politically or economically.

In this new Congo, which my government will create, we shall cease to be a nation of beggars and achieve social justice. And all this, dear compatriots, we will be able to do if all of you, without exception, assist my government, to which we ask you to give your most vigorous support.

ask all of you not to think from any sacrifice, not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our great undertaking. Finally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of your fellow citizens and of foreigners who have settled in our country. If the behavior of these foreigners leaves much to be desired.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (11:57.3)
our justice will promptly expel them from the country. If on the contrary, they conduct themselves properly, they must be allowed to remain in peace, for they also are working for our country's prosperity. The Congo's independence marks a decisive step toward the liberation of the entire African continent. Our government strong

national, popular, will be the salvation of our country. I call on every Congolese to help us create a national economy and to ensure our economic independence. Glory to the fighters for national liberation. Long live independence and African unity. Long live the independent and sovereign Congo.

Adesoji Iginla (12:58.082)
Well, it's interesting that that speech resonated not just in Africa, but also outside the continent. And it will become the hallmark of the reason why he basically, that is Lumumba, would spend only six months as leader in Congo before he was deposed. So the question is,

Most people do not know that you penned that speech.

Adesoji Iginla (13:33.59)
My question would be, how did you reach that political consciousness? Because at that time, there were few and far women in the political eye. But then again, it's reminiscent of the times we lived in. We're talking about colonial times now. So the question again is, how did you reach that political consciousness?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:04.236)
Such a simple question with such a long, complex response. I'm not sure I can give it full credit in the time that we have. And so I definitely encourage you to read about me. In the last year or so, there has been renewed interest in who I am.

powered not just by my book that I wrote, which was stolen from me a couple of times. And my daughter Eve was able to regain the rights of my book and republish it. At first published it in 1983, three years before my death in 1986 from cancer. And of course the new movie.

Adesoji Iginla (14:38.435)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (14:59.584)
documentary if you want to call it that the soundtrack to a coup d'etat definitely a documentary that begins to tell a little bit of the story but not the entire story of how I came to be and also how I came to be erased and now be this rediscovered

Adesoji Iginla (15:26.318)
COVID.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:28.628)
I was born in 1921 on December 16th. Funnily enough, my children, two of my children, also were born on that same day, December 16th. I was born in an area now known as the Central African Republic, but at the time that I was born, it was known as Ubangi Shari.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (15:57.28)
Where do I start? With what informed my political consciousness? I will start in the middle, perhaps, and over the time we have together, weave together the entire story.

I am what they will call a Matisse.

Adesoji Iginla (16:20.193)
autism it is.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:20.202)
In the United States, I would have been called a mulatto. My father was a white man and my mother was an African woman. Well, really an African girl.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (16:39.522)
She was merely a 13-year-old when my father, who was an elephant hunter and an entrepreneur in Africa, a place where non-descript average white men and women could come to and reign as kings and queens in a way that they couldn't in their own homelands.

And he was a guest at one of our dances. My mother used to perform the tam tam dance. Beautiful full moon. And my mother was one of the best dancers, if not the best. As he would describe her. A young, beautiful girl. With pointed breasts.

Her body still forming, not yet a woman. And she danced gloriously and she had a beautiful smile, a smile that I had never seen in anyone else. And as she danced, she caught his eye with this smile of hers. And he was intoxicated by her. She was already betrothed to someone else.

another African.

who was one of the Africans in an elite position within colonial Congo, well, colonial rule in that time of my administration and the time of my people when my mother was first sighted. And he had paid a rather handsome dowry to my father who was a chief.

Adesoji Iginla (18:25.142)
administration.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (18:40.896)
But recognizing how young she was, it was agreed upon that he would not take her immediately as his wife, but that he would wait. He was going away to France for training for a couple of years, and upon his return, then he would marry her. But my father was insistent that he must have her. And so he offered

much a much higher dowry than what he had already paid which would enable my grandfather to return the dowry to Abel who was the first man who was betrothed to my mother and he instead would marry my mother and not wait for her to get to maturation but he took her as a 13 year old as his wife

They were married under traditional rights and the customary cloth was laid out in the hut, which is what they called our homes. And he took her that night. And the next morning, he presented the women of our village with proof that she was a virgin.

and then proceeded all of the fanfare and the traditional celebration of marriage.

And my mother became pregnant with me, too young to even understand the changes in her body. As she began to throw up, even as she catered to him. And finally, he took her to a mission to get checked out. And that was where they announced, pronounced that she was pregnant with me. I was to be the only child of my mother.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:50.198)
the child bride.

Adesoji Iginla (20:52.844)
Okay, so

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (20:55.146)
as a Matisse.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:00.606)
In colonial times when the colonizers did as much of what they could to separate the blacks from the whites, I was not to have been. Some of you may have read or heard of Trevor Noah's book called The Born

Adesoji Iginla (21:17.154)
Bonnie crime. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:20.33)
I was born a sin.

And initially, my father allowed me to be with my mother in our village where she took care of me with the help of the other women and men in our village because we truly believe that it took a village to raise a child. My father proceeded to now marry a white woman, Henriette.

Adesoji Iginla (21:42.658)
residual idea.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (21:52.778)
and upon his return with his white wife.

vexed, she vexed, maybe he also, by the presence of this Matisse, this child born of sin, born of the union of black and white that should not have been. When I was a mere three years old, he snatched me from my mother. She had no rights to me.

both because he was a male and also because of his stature as a white man.

And despite her struggle and effort to keep me, he took me away and delivered me to a mission run by nuns, white nuns, at the mere age of three. And I was not to see my mother again for another six years.

Adesoji Iginla (22:57.39)
Before you continue, would you be able to raise your microphone a bit?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:05.238)
Absolutely, can you hear me better now? Or do I need to go even louder?

Adesoji Iginla (23:12.686)
Just for a little bit.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:14.846)
Okay, is it louder now? Much louder.

Adesoji Iginla (23:19.052)
Yep, I'll get feedback from the audience, but you continue.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (23:26.708)
And so,

There began the end of my life as I first knew it as an African. I was behind walls, high walls with broken bottles embedded at the top to prevent the escape of any of the people, the children who were locked behind these walls.

Behind these walls, there were buildings, one for the Matisse, those children born in sin. And then there were also buildings that were set aside for some of the fully Black African children who were kept away as well from the Matisse. Not only still segregated, but in an orphanage.

Adesoji Iginla (24:26.03)
but was still segregated in an orphanage.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:31.488)
But not only were the Blacks and the Matisse separated, even the Blacks were separated based on their ethnic groups. They did everything they could to make sure that they kept us divided and that we could never come together. We were not allowed to speak our native tongues. And so I grew up speaking French.

Adesoji Iginla (24:43.36)
Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (24:59.52)
They did not really teach us how to read and write. We learned catechisms and...

our religious lessons by rote. We learned how to copy down things and to say things without even understanding what it is we were saying. They beat into us their religion and the idea that we were less than and our very bodies were sinful. Our very existence went against

Adesoji Iginla (25:19.032)
meaning. Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (25:38.754)
the religious laws because blacks and whites were not to procreate.

It was, I was behind those bars for 14 years, most of the time, racked with hunger, as were many of the young girls there, actually all of us. We were fed discarded goods that the Belgians could not sell, but it allowed them to also

convinced themselves of their generosity that they were providing for these group of sinful kids. The food was rotten and there wasn't even that much of it. And at some point in my life, just out of sheer hunger, I began to lick and eat the clay off of the walls with which the buildings had been constructed.

So if you can imagine what eating clay can do to your body as you feel your intestines and your stomach with clay. And soon I got very, very sick. There were many other atrocities. We got beaten all the time for no good reason. We had no mosquito nets, even though the nuns did. We slept on

material that was infested with bed bugs. We were sorely malnourished. This was to be how I grew up.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (27:29.012)
Although I lived in an African country, I was completely cut off from Africa. The language, the food, the music, everything about my culture was depicted as evil and less than. And we just had no communication really with.

the outside world that we could sometimes see through the gate.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (28:08.014)
One would say that there began my political consciousness, but I would say I was so beaten down. We were taught to be submissive and to think less of ourselves. We were taught to obey and to not think independently. But there was something in my DNA that caused me to always rise up. And so I was considered

the black sheep. And for those of you who still use that terminology, I would encourage you to think about the origins of it and to no longer use it because that is to buy into a notion of your own inferiority. I ended up escaping from this place after much beatings, much hunger, much illness.

Adesoji Iginla (28:38.958)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:05.011)
I did get visited by my father at one point with his wife. He did not hug me. There was no emotion. He did not ask me how I was really doing. And even that visit was under the watchful eye of one of the nuns who was particularly mean-spirited towards me.

Adesoji Iginla (29:19.457)
Mm.

Adesoji Iginla (29:31.362)
Do you remember the name of this nun?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (29:31.371)
Finally.

I do remember her name. I choose not to give her any credit tonight. But as you read my book, I did mention her name over and over again. But today I feel like I do not want to evoke her. You know, we die twice. We die in our physical bodies, but we also die when we're not remembered. And I want her to stay dead.

I want her to stay dead and today I will not lift up her name.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (30:14.696)
I eventually broke out of this prison. My mother did come to visit me.

It was a very joyful time. She was there for a week. She came every morning and she left every evening. The nuns were not happy with this visit, but since my father had arranged it, they could not refuse the visit. She brought me food. She treated me like a doll. Like I wasn't human. was...

She was so proud of having this light skinned.

Cafe Olay child. And she loved to play with my long silky hair.

Adesoji Iginla (31:03.16)
child.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (31:13.888)
At one time I remember her as we sat in the courtyard, taking off all my clothes to examine my body. In the mission, in this orphanage, we were not allowed, even when we took our baths, to touch ourselves really in that way. We had to wash ourselves with a pannier, kind of like a cloth covering us. We were taught to...

to be divorced, if you will, from our own souls, our own bodies. But at the same time, these nuns were going to take control of our lives even after we left that orphanage. And they did this by arranging our own marriages. They did not want us.

Adesoji Iginla (31:46.23)
Hmm

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:05.324)
cavorting with white people, but they also did not want us mixing with black Africans. And so they had another orphanage for boys who were also Matisse. And when it suited the nuns, they would present to us the man we were supposed to marry. A boy also who had been raised by fathers in

Adesoji Iginla (32:12.61)
Huh?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (32:35.06)
an orphanage away from ours. For all of us, that would be the first time that we would see who we were supposed to spend the rest of our lives with. We were ordered to obey our husbands and to procreate with them, even though we had no knowledge of our own bodies and had always been taught that sex, to the extent that they even hinted at it, was a sin.

Adesoji Iginla (32:45.558)
and

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:05.46)
in that way they could still control us. They would marry us off and they had a particular space where they constructed, yes, constructed these very horrible, poor spaces and they would assign these newly married couples to live so that we were still under their control.

Adesoji Iginla (33:16.661)
enclave.

Adesoji Iginla (33:35.734)
and separated away from the population.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (33:35.862)
They tried and separated away from the population still. We were taught how to sew. That was to be how we would make our living. But they were so wicked that at times this mother and these other nuns would steal our needles. We got one needle at Christmas time that we had to use for the whole year to do our needle work. And sometimes they would steal these needles.

Can you imagine a needle and how easy it is to lose it? But they would sometimes also steal them from us, but you were still required to do your work. And so we learned how to take the thorns from lemon plants and we would sharpen them and then make a hole through which we could put our thread. And we would still have to produce the same amount of work with these needles that we had created.

were forced to learn how to do a lot with little. I refused twice to be married. At one point when they decided that we Matisse could now become French citizens, they

Adesoji Iginla (34:39.886)
Mmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (34:55.508)
invited us, really tried to force us to take on new names which did not include the names of our white fathers.

Adesoji Iginla (35:04.822)
others.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (35:07.4)
And most of the girls went along with this. Some of them took on the names of their mothers. But I had been so kept away from even the African side of me. Some of the other girls, their black mothers, their African mothers lived closer to the mission. And so they visited more with their children. They knew a little bit more about their family backgrounds. And I didn't. I did know my father's name and I refused.

to accept any other name. And this was to the consternation of the mothers and of the colonel administrators. But finally, what I agreed to do was to take the T off of my father's I took off the T and kept the rest of the name. And that was the name that was then given to me as a French citizen.

And it wasn't until many, many years later that my father actually gave me his name. When I was 17, I planned to escape from this prison. Before this happened, there was a day we were getting ready to go to mass. That is something that we were forced to do. And I heard these god awful screams.

Adesoji Iginla (36:21.346)
the orphanage.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:36.514)
And as we looked through the slats of the gate, we saw black men shackled, chained, being whipped. And they were saying over and over again, we are French citizens, we are French citizens. And I did not understand what that meant.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (36:56.802)
The mothers tried to play music and drown out these sounds, but we could still hear them. And I remember seeing these black men who would not stop their utterances even though they were being beaten. I've got to tell you about this whip. It's called the Chikote. In other African countries, it has different names. But this is a whip made from the hide of animals.

and the colonizers whipped us worse than animals.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (37:36.86)
And as I sat en masse that day, I marveled at the courage of these men, refusing to bow down, refusing to be quiet, even as their skin was broken and blood was running down their faces and their backs. I think that was the stirring within me as well. But there was to be yet another event. But I will wait and answer any of your questions.

Adesoji Iginla (38:04.692)
Okay. So, in reading your book, you said, and I quote, he who has been colonised, yes, he who has been colonised, yeah, he who has been colonised can never forget. And I'm taking you now to Guinea, you travelling with a husband. So,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (38:12.128)
And this is my book, my country Africa. Yes, I'm sorry. Please go ahead.

Adesoji Iginla (38:33.42)
You're now in Guinea. This is just after the Second World War. Charles de Gaulle has put the referendum in front of people to say, choose between independence or a closer link with Paris.

What was your stance in that moment in Guinea?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:08.034)
As I speak to you now, I am trembling.

the trauma.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (39:19.724)
that has been inflicted on Africa.

and Africans across the globe. It's not one that I want to dwell on, but it's one that my body remembers. It is one that has scarred our minds. I spit on the graves of all of these men that the world has told us to regard as leaders, true leaders. I spit on the grave of DeGaul.

In the 1950s, I joined the Ghanaian Democratic Party. I felt called by Secou-Tourette. I was actually...

Adesoji Iginla (40:06.54)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:12.052)
at the time married to a white man. That is a story that we might not get to today. And I saw a picture of sickle to ray as I was paying for my goods. I had seen his picture before, but that day it was like he was piercing through my soul. It was like he was asking me, why are you on their side? Why are you not with us?

Adesoji Iginla (40:37.059)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (40:41.108)
I had privileges as a Matisse who had been a concubine for a white man, now married to one, and that was actually my second white husband.

Join us, he said. I felt ashamed by the comfortable life I was living compared to my people. This is why I say Africa my country because it is not about these land masses that they have carved up and given different names even when we have renamed them they are still as they carve them up. Africa is my country.

And in that moment, my husband looking at me bewildered. said, I will. I committed myself to our struggle. And so in Guinea, under Sekou Touré's campaign for independence from France, I organized the rallies. I mobilized women contributing to that historic 1958 vote for independence.

I became a leading figure in the party Solidare African, enrolling 45,000 women in a single month and advocating for literacy, health, and women's rights. And if you're listening to me today, if you are enthralled with my beauty or all the names I was called, some of them derogatory, but some of them very much,

celebratory of my work, I ask you, what are you doing with your means, with your comfort? What sacrifices are you making? But yes, I played an integral role in getting women galvanized, politically literate so that they could vote for their independence. And it is based on that work.

Adesoji Iginla (42:36.163)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (42:56.342)
that Patrick Sumumba also called on me to come and assist in Congo in that fight for independence in that area as well.

Adesoji Iginla (43:00.056)
Yeah.

Adesoji Iginla (43:08.43)
So we're now back to where we originally started in terms of the speech and what have you. What was your experience like the moment Lumumba was toppled? I mean let's set the scene. The United States working in tandem with France, Belgium and the United Kingdom

have decided Lumumba based on that speech, especially the fact that that speech was read back to back with the King Badun of the time, of Belgium. Exactly.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (43:47.584)
And they were not expecting that speech. They were not expecting Lumumba to give a speech at all.

Adesoji Iginla (43:53.198)
Yeah. And because that speech sort of, in inverted commas, offended the king. And he basically said, this man is not fit to be head of state. And that speech again also underlined his vision for Congo, which then became the crosses on his back to the Americans, the Western interests, the Western powers.

So I asked her to say, the moment that speech decided Lumumba's fate, how did you feel working within that political atmosphere?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (44:38.252)
Those were tense times. You know, by the time he gave that speech, I had had to flee the Congo. I too had been marked for death. Lumumba knew this. We had a conversation which is outlined in my book where he told me based on reports from various agents that he had been marked for death. And so had I. They saw me as being very problematic. And before he could take government,

They actually said, we are exiling her. She must leave. And he tried to fight. He wanted to fight. And I said, no. The work he was doing was more important. But if I had stayed, I was sure to have died as well. It was a very tense time. You know, the thing about good people, about leaders who truly care about Africa.

Adesoji Iginla (45:25.443)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (45:37.172)
is that love for Africa becomes a threat.

to all others who truly do not want the independence of Africa. They truly do not want us to thrive. They want us to always be in a subservient position. They want always to be in control and to exploit us. And that is why I wrote that speech in the manner that I did. We will work with those who do not want to exploit us. And for Lumumba to say what he said, all of them truths, which could have been put in much harsher terms, because at this point, they were

hundreds of thousands of Congolese with missing limbs. There were millions of Congolese, over six million who had been killed under Belgian colonization. There were whole ethnic groups that had been displaced from where they were and put as prisoners to build

railroads and homes and to run the plant, work on plantations and the mines for these colonizers. He did not even touch on that. We still try to be conciliatory in that speech. And even that was an affront to them. And yes, they saw him as a threat because they saw

that if Congo was to be free and to be in control of its riches, that it would truly spread through Africa. know, the colonizers themselves have said, they've called the Congo the heart of Africa. They have said, if Africa is shaped as a revolver, as a gun, then Congo is the trigger.

Adesoji Iginla (47:12.033)
I forgot.

Adesoji Iginla (47:19.896)
Here we go.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:20.33)
They did not want to lose Congo. You have to understand that the bomb that was used to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the uranium to build that bomb came from the Congo, from the area known as Katanga. And so if you go and read that history, they went on from the minute we voted for independence in Congo to do everything. First of all, they emptied.

Adesoji Iginla (47:28.62)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Adesoji Iginla (47:34.51)
From the Congo, yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (47:49.622)
the coffers of the government. They withdrew all of their services. They even took telephones out of buildings. They wanted to make sure that there was no infrastructure at all on which this new government could be built. And even with that, Patrice Lumumba and the people that he was working with were going to soldier along. And so what did they do? They sewed this gourd. Go and watch that documentary.

Adesoji Iginla (47:51.821)
Yeah.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:19.028)
soundtrack of a coup d'etat. They sewed discord and they turned brother against brother and the greed of Africans was a problem. But also I have to say the naivete of Patrice Lumumba who at one point could have escaped but when they had his wife he chose to turn back.

Adesoji Iginla (48:20.024)
to cool it down.

Adesoji Iginla (48:28.622)
Hmm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (48:45.472)
There were so many mistakes and I share them only to say we must study history so we don't keep on with these mistakes. But you know, there's been another Matisse lately that you all shunned. Her name is Kamala Harris. We don't learn from history. We had an opportunity in the United States of America to support a woman of mixed heritage who would have reigned in a different way. And some of us.

siding with people who sell propaganda and lie and tell all kinds of stories, turn their backs on her. Like me, she was accused of slipping her way to the top. Can you imagine these people accused me of sleeping with every single head of state that I worked with Kwame Nkrumah, Seko Ture, Patrice Lumumba, and so many more.

Adesoji Iginla (49:35.918)
There you go.

Adesoji Iginla (49:42.892)
Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (49:44.074)
What an affront. What an affront. So those were tense times. We didn't know who to trust. And Patrice Lumumba was such an open hearted, wonderful man who wanted to believe that his people and the people surrounding him meant good. He did not understand how quickly greed could be used to turn people around against him. Toshambe, I spit on his grave. Mobutu.

I spit on his grave. These people, irretriever, I mean, in a way that we could never fully understand. They destroyed the hope for Africa.

The question is, what are we gonna do moving forward?

Adesoji Iginla (50:32.206)
Speaking of the question of what we're going to do, I would also like to take you back to a period when you were expelled from Congo. And the inhumanity of those who expelled you meant they kept your husband and your children behind. And the premise was if we exile you without your family, that will keep you quiet in Europe.

So which brings me to this question. Why did you not keep quiet though?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:09.068)
How could I? You know, I met a white man on a boat. A boat where black people had to stay on the deck no matter if it rained or if the sun was hitting down on them. But white people could have cabins. His name was Roger.

Adesoji Iginla (51:22.093)
Raindrops.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (51:31.656)
I fell in love, I was 17 years old. And in two weeks, I agreed to go with him and live with him. Don't judge me too harshly, understand my background. Truly, the white man was God. And my mother had drummed it into me.

that mine was not to be a life of petty trading and working so hard. I needed to live a better life as a Matisse, even if it was as a mistress of a white man, just as she had been. And I went with Roger and I got pregnant and Roger was always hiding me from his people. And...

At a point, I asked to leave to go and stay with my mother while I was pregnant for her to take care of me. And he was supposed to come and get me and our child. And I had a child, Rita, who is now known as Christian. But after that, I did meet and live with and was a mistress for another white man. And then with him, I had a son called Renee.

Renee was this bronze, beautiful, bubbly baby. And Renee came down with malaria. And during those times, the quinine tablets, which helped to heal malaria, were only reserved for white people. And although my son was one eighth black, well, no, one quarter black and three quarter white, as he lay dying,

The colonizers refused to allow him this medication. Even his father initially was indifferent to his plight. I did everything I could through myself at the mayor, my father who eventually came to live with me after he had disowned me.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (53:34.624)
but now no longer had anything to his name because he had given it all during the world wars to support France in their fight. He tried at the last minute to get this medication for my son. They watched my son die. I watched my son die. I was married. I was at that point living with a man who refused to allow my black African mother.

to be in his home, to step foot in his home. And when Renee was killed, because he was killed when they refused to allow him the medication that could save him, that too was a turning point for me. And so when you ask the question about my activism and what led me to continue to fight and not be quiet, I had seen that even when I tried to live by their rules, that

they could not see our humanity and they were willing to let us perish. And I realized that I had to fight back and I did. And those rules were eventually changed so that even black kids, African kids could get much needed medication. Yes, the Queen in law. But there was a time when Lumumba was also being attacked and I was able to escape.

Adesoji Iginla (54:50.816)
You mean the Queen in law? Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (55:02.57)
Well, to leave the country with a speech that needed to be read to the world. And what I did was I put it in my hair and styled my hair so that they did not know that I was traveling out with that speech. It was a very scary time, but I had the courage of my ancestors knowing that I had to be part of this fight. And we were able to get that speech out of the country and to read it.

Again, I had to escape when after that speech was read, was a Czechoslovakian ambassador that assisted me at that time. And again, when they held my family hostage and allowed me to go, I was quiet for a while, but as soon as I could, I did begin to speak again because we must fight. There is no diplomacy with these people.

There is no live and let live. They will not let us live in peace and prosper. And I think that the reason Africa is not free today is we thought we could negotiate our independence. We cannot. We must fight for true sovereignty.

Adesoji Iginla (56:16.706)
Hmm. Speaking of sovereignty, before we close, it's instructive that the head of the CIA at the time, Alan Dolence, said we've won a victory by expelling this woman from Congo. In fact, that's where the title of the episode comes from.

Africa's most dangerous.

If the United States with all its power considered one person dangerous, imagine what we can actually achieve with the voice of one person. Now think of the fact that you were able to galvanize 45,000 people in Guinea to be part of a movement. If every woman were to lift up their voice, Thomas and Kara will often say, women are the mothers of revolution.

So I say that to say this, what would be your call to action to people? I mean, you've given us one, but what would be your final call to action to people who are listening to this and people who will listen to it in future, who would read your book? What would be your call to action to them?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (57:43.212)
You know, I was known as a great hostess. Even when we lived in old years, everybody knew they could come to our home. I always had some stew boiling. I always had a pot of rice. I always had some beer in the fridge. I wanted my people to come together and to fight. And I threw everything that I had in me into this struggle.

when my second husband and I divorced in 1973 and I moved to Paris.

I held myself together because I had children I had to raise. But I tell you, my heart was broken. I did not just die of cancer. I was a very depressed woman. Because with the death of Lumumba, with the rise of people like Mobutu,

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (58:48.15)
And as I watched the CIA and the FBI and all of these other intelligence agencies, including the United Nations, turn their back on our quest for freedom and actually very specifically do things to make sure that they killed up all of our freedom fighters or put them in exile or intimidated them to where they couldn't My hope for an

Africa and independent Africa started to die.

And of course I was a forgotten woman. What would be my call to action? I am reminded.

call it a hymn, call it an anthem, that my black brothers and sisters in the United States of America sing. Lift every voice, lift every voice, lift every voice. We cannot cower in silence, our silence will not save us. So my call to action is to lift your voice and even if they kill you, our cries will come from the graves.

from the other side. But to be silent is a very cowardly kind of death because we're still being killed. So my call to action is know your history and lift every voice. Learn an African language, communicate with each other, and pay attention to the tactics. I have to say this. As I did my work around Africa trying to galvanize women,

Adesoji Iginla (01:00:13.368)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:00:32.948)
I saw this particularly in the Congo. Patrice Lumumba had at one point been a salesperson for the breweries for an alcohol company. And one of the tactics that they use is to flood our communities with alcohol. Today it might be alcohol and drugs, but it's a way to keep us in such a stupor. They use, they have a lot of tactics.

One is to pit us against each other based on class. The other one is to keep us uneducated. The other one is to use religion to strip us of our own spirituality and understanding of ourselves. Another one is to despise and diminish everything about the African culture so we become aliens to ourselves. The other one is this alcohol and drugs

And then the other one is tribalism. And I also will be, I have to say this, the other one is patriarchy. Because what I saw, and I write about this in my book, is a system that invited the laziness of black men, but required black women to be overworked.

And in this state combined, we can never come together and create a cogent plan and carry it out for our true liberation. I wasn't just a speechwriter. I wasn't just the chief of protocol for Lumumba. I was a strategist. And that's why I was called the most dangerous woman in Africa. But my sisters...

The same indignation that was in me should be in you. The same courage that ran through my veins, even though there are aspects of my life where even I acquiesced into the indoctrination that had been drummed into me. But I didn't stay there. And I encourage everybody, we must study our history and we must do better. We must learn. We must do better.

Adesoji Iginla (01:02:51.382)
Mm.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:00.726)
We must free Africa, our country.

Adesoji Iginla (01:03:05.742)
OK, could you hold up your book again so that people get a picture of it and that it's important for people to record that aspect in their history? So the title of the book is My Country Africa, Autobiography of the Black Passinara. So there you go. And I enjoy people to.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:03:28.586)
And I loved my off-shoulder dresses. In fact, at one point, one of the ways that they tried to put the score between me and the woman that I was galvanizing was to say I was this, you know, classist person and elitist and I wore couture and all of that. And at that point, I wasn't even getting paid by the Congolese government. was literally working for free. But...

as you have seen with my other sisters that you've covered, we can do and be everything. And yes, I maintained my sense of fashion. I maintained my sense of who I was as a woman. I think there is strength in our femininity as well. And I was never ashamed to be my full self.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:23.116)
Yes, and in addition to your book, I will enjoy people to actually get this book. It's titled White Malice by Susan Williams, the CIA and the Neo-Colonization of Africa. She gets a ton of mention in here as the woman who would step in, know. So, yes, and as custom now, we will tell you who we're going to be talking about next week.

Do you want to do the harness or would like me to do that?

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:04:56.09)
will share because all of these stories of these women, many of whom we have left in the dust really, need to be told and studied and emulated and learned from. And so the next person that I understand you all will be talking about is none other than Tony Cade Bambara, who was also a writer. And it's important as you listen to all of our stories.

Adesoji Iginla (01:04:57.441)
Okay.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:24.204)
to pay attention to all of the tools with which we resisted and fought. For me and for all of the sisters, definitely our minds. I used my pen, I used my voice, I used my ability to strategize. And when I needed to, I used my hair.

Adesoji Iginla (01:05:46.412)
Yeah, that's a Matisse. And yes, it's been a pleasure having you on. And as we say, next week we're going to be talking about Tony Kade Bambara. Again, another fighter using the pen as a sword and weapon of choice. So until next week, sister.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:05:49.494)
Yes.

Aya Fubara Eneli, Esq. (01:06:16.438)
Thank you so much for everyone who listened, for everyone who's going to research, for everyone who is going to lift up their voice.

Adesoji Iginla (01:06:24.726)
And from me, it's been a pleasure and hope to see you next week. And good night and blessings.