You're In The Army Now
Brazzaville is a militarized city. Camouflage, army green and pumped biceps are visible on most city blocks. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is a former defense minister. The president has stationed soldiers in the Republican Guard- recruited from his village of Oyo- all over the city to ensure his personal safety. They wear purple berets, and I have learned not make eye contact with them and cross to the other side of the street if I see them coming toward me. My Congolese co-worker at the embassy, as well as other friends in the city, told me these loyal yet dense men don’t speak French all that well because of their poor education. They use the gun first and ask questions later.
Soldiers in Brazzaville have a reputation for smoking pot and swilling alcohol. I smelled the unmistakable whiff of weed one night last week when a friend and I passed a group in uniform loitering on the street corner. The smell of marijuana is easy to detect, and this group of soldiers was probably flying high. We scurried past their catcalls with a hurried bonsoir wondering if the streetlights would blink back to life and light our path to the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner.
President Sassou-Nguesso ordered his Congolese Air Force to conduct maneuvers over the city of Brazzaville on Monday, February 28. The planes were zooming to and fro above our heads loud enough to bring me to my balcony to see if the city was at war again. Sassou-Nguesso’s show of force had everything to do with the failed attack on President Joseph Kabila across the river on Sunday and the protests of the people in North Africa and the Middle East.
His planes were screaming, “Don’t touch this!” and the people in the streets below heard the message and cringed.
[I would post a photo of a member of the Republican Guard, but it is hazardous to my welfare to point a camera at one of the purple beret.]
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