The Intriguing Goma Mix

I was not quite aware of the ethnic divide in the Goma society before a couple of weeks ago, when I first hung out with the ‘metisse’ community. Yes, those light-skinned people, who have the strangest, most appealing kinds of heritages: French, Belgian, Italian, Greek, Portuguese, etc., all seasoned with a dash of Congolese blood. Result: BEAUTIFUL features, and a definite noblesse and style not easily found in Black Africa. Add to that the fact that they all grew up in luxury (owning massive tea and coffee plantations in the vast countryside, as well as the most beautiful houses on the Goma Kivu Lake front), that they all got high education in Europe (mostly in Belgium – a country which, incidentally, they quite dislike), and that now they are supremely influential in the Goma high-life, and yes, the mix is all the more appealing. The fact that their properties were devastated in the last decade of civil war in Eastern DRC seems to have been largely overcome, and I am now impatiently waiting for the rain season to pass, so that roads can be usable again, so that I can visit their famous cheese-producing farms near Masisi, north of Goma.

I was introduced to this community through Dario, a young gentleman, who might just as well qualify as the nicest guy I have ever met. He works for a partner NGO and is an avid basketball player/lover, so after a cold business meeting a few months ago, we finally connected on a personal level as well. (Nothing more to read into this, as he is also married to one of the cutest women I have ever seen in my life. She is a girlish beauty, beaming with happiness, as she is quite far in her first pregnancy). The stylish house they have on the lake - one in the long row of houses owned by the metisses here, among which also the previous marvelous house my organization rented here – is quite the glamor in this decrepit city, and seems to be the drag of all parties. Great music on the lawn, crepes flambees on the terrace, fancy wines and liquors flowing everywhere, a huge plasma TV showing NBA or La Liga games for the crazy fans, all on the background of a tropical rain and high-class French (these people only speak Swahili to their staff, not amongst themselves) and yes, this is quite THE perfect night in Goma. Amongst the guests I met there: a pilot with his own private company, the main wine and spirit importer for East Africa, a professional football player (who spent years in DC and Brazil, and is now on his way to Cape Town), a hotel manager, a bar and club-owner, AND the leader of the Mai Mai (a middle-aged Congolais ‘pur’ (i.e. Black), who started the conversation by the following: “I got divorced a month ago, and I am now looking for a wife’…)

As the parties flow, the weekends in Goma are certainly more interesting. And when the parties are over, I am putting on my sneakers (actually their sneakers, they have dozens of pairs for guests) and going to shoot some hoops on their private court, next to the lake. On a day like this, I really believe life cannot get any better…