![\"africa](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/africa-is-a-country1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMay 19, 2015<\/p>\n
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How many of you know<\/span><\/h1>\n Dave Chappelle\u2019s mother<\/span><\/h1>\n worked for <\/span><\/h1>\nPatrice Lumumba?<\/span><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
By\u00a0George Kibala Bauer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Dr.](\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/dr-yvonne-seon.jpg\")
<\/a>Dr. Yvonne Seon<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n
A lot of us have spent hours laughing at Dave Chappelle\u2019s jokes, but few know about the extraordinary life of his mother, Dr. Yvonne Seon. In a recent\u00a0interview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that aired onTHE INTERNET![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cdncache-a.akamaihd.net\/items\/it\/img\/arrow-10x10.png\")
<\/a>\u00a0radio show Congo Life, Seon was asked about her decision to go and work for Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba. The broadcast is worth listening too. But Seon\u2019s life also represents a more profound connectivity<\/a> harbored in the Black Atlantic in the twentieth century especially, which has connected<\/a> the Congo to North America, and the Caribbean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBack to Seon. How she got to Congo is a remarkable story. After earning<\/a> a BA at Allegheny College<\/a> in northeastern Pennsylvania, she studied<\/a> for a MA in political science at American\u00a0UNIVERSITY<\/a>\u00a0in 1960. She also studied<\/a> French, which would later prove tremendously useful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAs a student in Washington DC, she was shaped by what she calls \u201cthe time of the big change\u201d, marked by the culmination of black liberation in the United States, and on the African continent starting with the independence of Ghana in 1957. By speaking with African diplomats that had began to visit DC, as well as being involved in movements of solidarity such as \u201cFriends of Ghana\u201d, Seon, gained insight into the aspiration and euphoria represented by the prospect of an independent and united Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFollowing independence on June 30th 1960, Lumumba, then the newly elected Prime Minister of the Congo, made his first official visit to the United States from July 27-29th. Given an army mutiny, and suspicions over his\u00a0CONNECTIONS TO<\/a>\u00a0Moscow, Lumumba was already under tremendous pressure. However, Lumumba\u2019s visit also entailed attempting to recruit young professionals that would be willing to fill the gap left by the departure of the Belgian colonial administration. Given her mother\u2019s connection to<\/a> various African diaspora groups in DC, Seon received an invite to Lumumba\u2019s official reception, \u201cserendipity\u201d as she calls it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAt the reception, one of Lumumba\u2019s aides noticed Seon\u2019s passion for post-colonial Africa, and informed her of Lumumba\u2019s interest of recruiting students like her to the Congo. Seon, at the time aged 21, replied: \u201cI will have to think about that,\u201d but looked forward to meeting Lumumba personally. That very next morning, Lumumba encouraged Seon to accompany him back to the Congo in\u00a0ORDER<\/a>to serve as the secretary to the High Commission on the Grand Inga Dam Project, an ambitious initiative which sought to establish Africa\u2019s energy independence immediately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeon\u2019s memory of Lumumba was one of a \u201cdecisive leader\u201d that \u201ccared deeply about his people.\u201d On Congo Live she also spoke to the danger Lumumba represented to imperialism worldwide, thereby echoing\u00a0Fanon\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and others, in viewing Lumumba\u2019s assassination as the personification of the post-colonial dilemma.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeon arrived in Congo following Lumumba\u2019s assassination in 1961. In an interview with\u00a0IMixWhatILike<\/span><\/a>, Seon says that she had been disappointed that the Grand Inga Dam project ran into similar difficulties faced by\u00a0Nkrumah\u2019s Volta River project<\/span><\/a>. The three stages of the dam were never fully completed due to lacking investor confidence, and technicalASSISTANCE<\/a>. (As Congo is currently expected to complete the Grand Inga Dam Project by 2016,\u00a0the largest energy generating body ever built<\/span><\/a>, one wonders if the Congo River can eventually become sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s engine of electrification.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeon went on to be appointed as chief administrative officer for the Fourteenth General Assembly of UNESCO, the first African American selected for that role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDave Chappelle has publicly acknowledged the extent to which his own\u00a0work is deeply influenced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by his mother: \u201cWe were like the broke Huxtables\u2026We used to have a picture of Malcolm X in Ghana \u2026We were poor but we were cultured.\u201d (BTW, Chappelle\u2019s father, William, who was\u00a0DIVORCED<\/a>\u00a0from his mother, was a statistician at Antioch College<\/a> in Ohio.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThough Seon\u2019s biography seems unique, she is but one of a rich biography of cross-Atlantic exchange to the Congo. For instance,\u00a0Kambale Musavuli<\/span><\/a>, a Congolese activist who presents Congo Live, points to the Presbyterian missionaries,\u00a0Maria Fearing<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0William Sheppard<\/span><\/a>, the latter known in Congo as \u201cMundele N\u2019dom\u201d (Lingala: \u201dBlack White Man), and whose published work of King Leopold\u2019s crimes in the Congo contributed greatly to international and African American discourses about colonialism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBelgium\u2019s \u201ccriminal stupidity<\/span><\/a>\u201d and the restriction to\u00a0HIGHER EDUCATION<\/a>\u00a0to a tiny minority of\u00a0evolu\u00e9<\/span><\/a>, created interesting pathways of \u201creturn\u201d, not only for African Americans, but also for the Haitian intelligentsia. Camille Kuyu, a Congolese historian, and philosopher describes this fascinating\u00a0CONNECTION<\/a>\u00a0in his book<\/a>\u00a0Les Ha\u00eftiens au Congo<\/i><\/span><\/a>. Fran\u00e7ois \u201cPapa Doc\u201d Duvalier\u2019s repressive regime from 1957-1971 resulted in a mass exodus from Haiti. Many sought to move to Congo as agricultural engineers, teachers<\/a>, and\u00a0DOCTORS<\/a>. Raoul Peck, the director of the films such as\u00a0Lumumba<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Fatal Assistance<\/i><\/span><\/a>, along with his his family exemplify this dynamic as they found asylum in Congo in 1961.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLumumba\u2019s ideology of Pan-Africanism sought to anchor the Congo in the forefront of anti-imperialism, and welcome all of its supporters, but it was challenged by Mobutu\u2019s politics of authenticity. Systems of thought such as authenticit\u00e9, or direct attacks on foreign ownership such as the Zairization campaign, meant that many arrivals were faced with a new \u201chome\u201d conditioned by the politics of indigeneity, which prompted some to leave,\u00a0while others continue to live in Congo today<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPeck\u2019s, Seon\u2019s and other biographies remind us that home isn\u2019t necessarily a spatial, or rigid concept. Rather than being in a romantic relation to one\u2019s roots, these stories\u00a0CONTINUE<\/a>\u00a0to underline the globality, and interconnectivity of blackness, represented in frameworks such as the Black Atlantic. Movement is the revolt against an assigned peripheral reality, a revolt against a space in which thoughts, doctrines, and individuals are demoted and promoted<\/a> according to their \u201cwillingness to integrate\u201d. Seon said it takes a \u201cspecific mindset\u201d to engage oneself in this connectivity<\/a>. Her, and other legacies, as well as the common obstacles to black liberation world-wide, remind us of the importance of this space of exchange, and solidarity, as an avenue for self-actualization.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
George Kibala Bauer<\/strong> is a Congolese-German student of Economics and Political Science at McGill\u00a0UNIVERSITY<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
worked for <\/span><\/h1>\nPatrice Lumumba?<\/span><\/h1>\n <\/p>\n
By\u00a0George Kibala Bauer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>Dr. Yvonne Seon<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n
A lot of us have spent hours laughing at Dave Chappelle\u2019s jokes, but few know about the extraordinary life of his mother, Dr. Yvonne Seon. In a recent\u00a0interview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that aired onTHE INTERNET<\/a>\u00a0radio show Congo Life, Seon was asked about her decision to go and work for Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba. The broadcast is worth listening too. But Seon\u2019s life also represents a more profound connectivity<\/a> harbored in the Black Atlantic in the twentieth century especially, which has connected<\/a> the Congo to North America, and the Caribbean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBack to Seon. How she got to Congo is a remarkable story. After earning<\/a> a BA at Allegheny College<\/a> in northeastern Pennsylvania, she studied<\/a> for a MA in political science at American\u00a0UNIVERSITY<\/a>\u00a0in 1960. She also studied<\/a> French, which would later prove tremendously useful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAs a student in Washington DC, she was shaped by what she calls \u201cthe time of the big change\u201d, marked by the culmination of black liberation in the United States, and on the African continent starting with the independence of Ghana in 1957. By speaking with African diplomats that had began to visit DC, as well as being involved in movements of solidarity such as \u201cFriends of Ghana\u201d, Seon, gained insight into the aspiration and euphoria represented by the prospect of an independent and united Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFollowing independence on June 30th 1960, Lumumba, then the newly elected Prime Minister of the Congo, made his first official visit to the United States from July 27-29th. Given an army mutiny, and suspicions over his\u00a0CONNECTIONS TO<\/a>\u00a0Moscow, Lumumba was already under tremendous pressure. However, Lumumba\u2019s visit also entailed attempting to recruit young professionals that would be willing to fill the gap left by the departure of the Belgian colonial administration. Given her mother\u2019s connection to<\/a> various African diaspora groups in DC, Seon received an invite to Lumumba\u2019s official reception, \u201cserendipity\u201d as she calls it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAt the reception, one of Lumumba\u2019s aides noticed Seon\u2019s passion for post-colonial Africa, and informed her of Lumumba\u2019s interest of recruiting students like her to the Congo. Seon, at the time aged 21, replied: \u201cI will have to think about that,\u201d but looked forward to meeting Lumumba personally. That very next morning, Lumumba encouraged Seon to accompany him back to the Congo in\u00a0ORDER<\/a>to serve as the secretary to the High Commission on the Grand Inga Dam Project, an ambitious initiative which sought to establish Africa\u2019s energy independence immediately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeon\u2019s memory of Lumumba was one of a \u201cdecisive leader\u201d that \u201ccared deeply about his people.\u201d On Congo Live she also spoke to the danger Lumumba represented to imperialism worldwide, thereby echoing\u00a0Fanon\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and others, in viewing Lumumba\u2019s assassination as the personification of the post-colonial dilemma.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeon arrived in Congo following Lumumba\u2019s assassination in 1961. In an interview with\u00a0IMixWhatILike<\/span><\/a>, Seon says that she had been disappointed that the Grand Inga Dam project ran into similar difficulties faced by\u00a0Nkrumah\u2019s Volta River project<\/span><\/a>. The three stages of the dam were never fully completed due to lacking investor confidence, and technicalASSISTANCE<\/a>. (As Congo is currently expected to complete the Grand Inga Dam Project by 2016,\u00a0the largest energy generating body ever built<\/span><\/a>, one wonders if the Congo River can eventually become sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s engine of electrification.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeon went on to be appointed as chief administrative officer for the Fourteenth General Assembly of UNESCO, the first African American selected for that role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDave Chappelle has publicly acknowledged the extent to which his own\u00a0work is deeply influenced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by his mother: \u201cWe were like the broke Huxtables\u2026We used to have a picture of Malcolm X in Ghana \u2026We were poor but we were cultured.\u201d (BTW, Chappelle\u2019s father, William, who was\u00a0DIVORCED<\/a>\u00a0from his mother, was a statistician at Antioch College<\/a> in Ohio.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThough Seon\u2019s biography seems unique, she is but one of a rich biography of cross-Atlantic exchange to the Congo. For instance,\u00a0Kambale Musavuli<\/span><\/a>, a Congolese activist who presents Congo Live, points to the Presbyterian missionaries,\u00a0Maria Fearing<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0William Sheppard<\/span><\/a>, the latter known in Congo as \u201cMundele N\u2019dom\u201d (Lingala: \u201dBlack White Man), and whose published work of King Leopold\u2019s crimes in the Congo contributed greatly to international and African American discourses about colonialism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBelgium\u2019s \u201ccriminal stupidity<\/span><\/a>\u201d and the restriction to\u00a0HIGHER EDUCATION<\/a>\u00a0to a tiny minority of\u00a0evolu\u00e9<\/span><\/a>, created interesting pathways of \u201creturn\u201d, not only for African Americans, but also for the Haitian intelligentsia. Camille Kuyu, a Congolese historian, and philosopher describes this fascinating\u00a0CONNECTION<\/a>\u00a0in his book<\/a>\u00a0Les Ha\u00eftiens au Congo<\/i><\/span><\/a>. Fran\u00e7ois \u201cPapa Doc\u201d Duvalier\u2019s repressive regime from 1957-1971 resulted in a mass exodus from Haiti. Many sought to move to Congo as agricultural engineers, teachers<\/a>, and\u00a0DOCTORS<\/a>. Raoul Peck, the director of the films such as\u00a0Lumumba<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Fatal Assistance<\/i><\/span><\/a>, along with his his family exemplify this dynamic as they found asylum in Congo in 1961.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLumumba\u2019s ideology of Pan-Africanism sought to anchor the Congo in the forefront of anti-imperialism, and welcome all of its supporters, but it was challenged by Mobutu\u2019s politics of authenticity. Systems of thought such as authenticit\u00e9, or direct attacks on foreign ownership such as the Zairization campaign, meant that many arrivals were faced with a new \u201chome\u201d conditioned by the politics of indigeneity, which prompted some to leave,\u00a0while others continue to live in Congo today<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPeck\u2019s, Seon\u2019s and other biographies remind us that home isn\u2019t necessarily a spatial, or rigid concept. Rather than being in a romantic relation to one\u2019s roots, these stories\u00a0CONTINUE<\/a>\u00a0to underline the globality, and interconnectivity of blackness, represented in frameworks such as the Black Atlantic. Movement is the revolt against an assigned peripheral reality, a revolt against a space in which thoughts, doctrines, and individuals are demoted and promoted<\/a> according to their \u201cwillingness to integrate\u201d. Seon said it takes a \u201cspecific mindset\u201d to engage oneself in this connectivity<\/a>. Her, and other legacies, as well as the common obstacles to black liberation world-wide, remind us of the importance of this space of exchange, and solidarity, as an avenue for self-actualization.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
George Kibala Bauer<\/strong> is a Congolese-German student of Economics and Political Science at McGill\u00a0UNIVERSITY<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By\u00a0George Kibala Bauer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Yvonne Seon<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n A lot of us have spent hours laughing at Dave Chappelle\u2019s jokes, but few know about the extraordinary life of his mother, Dr. Yvonne Seon. In a recent\u00a0interview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that aired onTHE INTERNET Back to Seon. How she got to Congo is a remarkable story. After earning As a student in Washington DC, she was shaped by what she calls \u201cthe time of the big change\u201d, marked by the culmination of black liberation in the United States, and on the African continent starting with the independence of Ghana in 1957. By speaking with African diplomats that had began to visit DC, as well as being involved in movements of solidarity such as \u201cFriends of Ghana\u201d, Seon, gained insight into the aspiration and euphoria represented by the prospect of an independent and united Africa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Following independence on June 30th 1960, Lumumba, then the newly elected Prime Minister of the Congo, made his first official visit to the United States from July 27-29th. Given an army mutiny, and suspicions over his\u00a0CONNECTIONS TO At the reception, one of Lumumba\u2019s aides noticed Seon\u2019s passion for post-colonial Africa, and informed her of Lumumba\u2019s interest of recruiting students like her to the Congo. Seon, at the time aged 21, replied: \u201cI will have to think about that,\u201d but looked forward to meeting Lumumba personally. That very next morning, Lumumba encouraged Seon to accompany him back to the Congo in\u00a0ORDER Seon\u2019s memory of Lumumba was one of a \u201cdecisive leader\u201d that \u201ccared deeply about his people.\u201d On Congo Live she also spoke to the danger Lumumba represented to imperialism worldwide, thereby echoing\u00a0Fanon\u00a0<\/span><\/a>and others, in viewing Lumumba\u2019s assassination as the personification of the post-colonial dilemma.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Seon arrived in Congo following Lumumba\u2019s assassination in 1961. In an interview with\u00a0IMixWhatILike<\/span><\/a>, Seon says that she had been disappointed that the Grand Inga Dam project ran into similar difficulties faced by\u00a0Nkrumah\u2019s Volta River project<\/span><\/a>. The three stages of the dam were never fully completed due to lacking investor confidence, and technicalASSISTANCE Seon went on to be appointed as chief administrative officer for the Fourteenth General Assembly of UNESCO, the first African American selected for that role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dave Chappelle has publicly acknowledged the extent to which his own\u00a0work is deeply influenced<\/span><\/a>\u00a0by his mother: \u201cWe were like the broke Huxtables\u2026We used to have a picture of Malcolm X in Ghana \u2026We were poor but we were cultured.\u201d (BTW, Chappelle\u2019s father, William, who was\u00a0DIVORCED Though Seon\u2019s biography seems unique, she is but one of a rich biography of cross-Atlantic exchange to the Congo. For instance,\u00a0Kambale Musavuli<\/span><\/a>, a Congolese activist who presents Congo Live, points to the Presbyterian missionaries,\u00a0Maria Fearing<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0William Sheppard<\/span><\/a>, the latter known in Congo as \u201cMundele N\u2019dom\u201d (Lingala: \u201dBlack White Man), and whose published work of King Leopold\u2019s crimes in the Congo contributed greatly to international and African American discourses about colonialism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Belgium\u2019s \u201ccriminal stupidity<\/span><\/a>\u201d and the restriction to\u00a0HIGHER EDUCATION Lumumba\u2019s ideology of Pan-Africanism sought to anchor the Congo in the forefront of anti-imperialism, and welcome all of its supporters, but it was challenged by Mobutu\u2019s politics of authenticity. Systems of thought such as authenticit\u00e9, or direct attacks on foreign ownership such as the Zairization campaign, meant that many arrivals were faced with a new \u201chome\u201d conditioned by the politics of indigeneity, which prompted some to leave,\u00a0while others continue to live in Congo today<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Peck\u2019s, Seon\u2019s and other biographies remind us that home isn\u2019t necessarily a spatial, or rigid concept. Rather than being in a romantic relation to one\u2019s roots, these stories\u00a0CONTINUE <\/p>\n George Kibala Bauer<\/strong> is a Congolese-German student of Economics and Political Science at McGill\u00a0UNIVERSITY <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>\u00a0radio show Congo Life, Seon was asked about her decision to go and work for Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba. The broadcast is worth listening too. But Seon\u2019s life also represents a more profound connectivity<\/a> harbored in the Black Atlantic in the twentieth century especially, which has connected<\/a> the Congo to North America, and the Caribbean.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a> a BA at Allegheny College<\/a> in northeastern Pennsylvania, she studied<\/a> for a MA in political science at American\u00a0UNIVERSITY<\/a>\u00a0in 1960. She also studied<\/a> French, which would later prove tremendously useful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0Moscow, Lumumba was already under tremendous pressure. However, Lumumba\u2019s visit also entailed attempting to recruit young professionals that would be willing to fill the gap left by the departure of the Belgian colonial administration. Given her mother\u2019s connection to<\/a> various African diaspora groups in DC, Seon received an invite to Lumumba\u2019s official reception, \u201cserendipity\u201d as she calls it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>to serve as the secretary to the High Commission on the Grand Inga Dam Project, an ambitious initiative which sought to establish Africa\u2019s energy independence immediately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>. (As Congo is currently expected to complete the Grand Inga Dam Project by 2016,\u00a0the largest energy generating body ever built<\/span><\/a>, one wonders if the Congo River can eventually become sub-Saharan Africa\u2019s engine of electrification.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0from his mother, was a statistician at Antioch College<\/a> in Ohio.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0to a tiny minority of\u00a0evolu\u00e9<\/span><\/a>, created interesting pathways of \u201creturn\u201d, not only for African Americans, but also for the Haitian intelligentsia. Camille Kuyu, a Congolese historian, and philosopher describes this fascinating\u00a0CONNECTION<\/a>\u00a0in his book<\/a>\u00a0Les Ha\u00eftiens au Congo<\/i><\/span><\/a>. Fran\u00e7ois \u201cPapa Doc\u201d Duvalier\u2019s repressive regime from 1957-1971 resulted in a mass exodus from Haiti. Many sought to move to Congo as agricultural engineers, teachers<\/a>, and\u00a0DOCTORS<\/a>. Raoul Peck, the director of the films such as\u00a0Lumumba<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Fatal Assistance<\/i><\/span><\/a>, along with his his family exemplify this dynamic as they found asylum in Congo in 1961.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0to underline the globality, and interconnectivity of blackness, represented in frameworks such as the Black Atlantic. Movement is the revolt against an assigned peripheral reality, a revolt against a space in which thoughts, doctrines, and individuals are demoted and promoted<\/a> according to their \u201cwillingness to integrate\u201d. Seon said it takes a \u201cspecific mindset\u201d to engage oneself in this connectivity<\/a>. Her, and other legacies, as well as the common obstacles to black liberation world-wide, remind us of the importance of this space of exchange, and solidarity, as an avenue for self-actualization.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n