The real victims of Nyiragongo’s curse

Dear Tingasiga:

 We breathed a sigh of relief when news came in that Nyiragongo’s latest fiery temper tantrum had spared the nearby city of Goma and her two million residents.

 The spectacular images of orange, red and black flames and fumes billowing up atop one of Africa’s most terrifying beauties had left me anxious about the fate of people who live within reach of the rivers of molten lava that are unforgiving as they claim new territories.   Nyiragongo, with her triple cone and thick forests, is perhaps the most dangerous in the Ibirunga volcanic range that dot the Western Rift Valley.  At 20,000 years of age, Nyiragongo, like Nyamuragira, her equally dangerous sister volcano, is a youngster among the Ibirunga. Located on the outskirts of Goma in the Congo Free State, a mere 20 kilometres from the city, she has erupted with fury many times in the last 100 years.

 I recall, as though yesterday, the terrifying news on January 10, 1977 when the lava Crater Lake rapidly emptied down the slopes of Nyiragongo, killing at least 600 people. The 2002 eruption killed 250 people, left at least 120,000 homeless in Goma alone and millions more frightened. 

 Mercifully, the death toll from her latest fury appears to have been very low, though one must wait a while before one can be certain. What is certain is that she will erupt again, and again, and again during the lifetime of all who are living today. Many of her eruptions will be spectacularly deadly as long as humans live literally “across the fence” from her. Nyiragongo’s perennial fury was explained long ago by our ancestors from the region. Legend has it that Gongo, a demon that once inhabited Ibirunga, decapitated his mother and threw her head into Lake Kivu. Nyiragongo, the headless mother of Gongo, has since periodically belched fire to demonstrate her rage and will not stop until she is reunited with her head.

 As I wrote some time back, Nyiragongo’s curse is not limited to periodic volcanic eruptions of the two youthful mountains.  The consequences of her curse include political lava beds that continue to hold millions of people in Africa’s Great Lakes Region captive as subjects of armed autocrats who change constitutions to serve their personality cults.

 It bears repeating that Nyiragongo is a headless woman mourning the loss of hope for her children – hundreds of millions of them – who are held hostage by rulers that continue to decapitate their people’s rights and freedoms and the robberies by public servants, self-styled pastors and all sorts of charlatans who are sucking the last bit of marrow from hapless fellow humans.

 It is instructive to note that the Goma Volcano Observatory (GVO), whose brief is to monitor Nyiragongo, was unable to predict her latest eruption because of human folly and greed.  Upon discovering massive financial embezzlement in the GVO, the World Bank withdrew funding in 2020, leaving the organization unable to do its job.  Lady Nyiragongo was watching and brought forward her eruption that had been predicted to occur by the year 2024.

 The people employed to protect citizens from Nyiragongo’s fury were too afflicted by her curse to resist the temptation to steal from themselves.

Like Gongo, they decapitated their organisation, and left Congo and the world to guess when the volcano would let loose her next terrifying display.

 The actions of the thieves at the GVO were not unique, of course.  As I have stated before, some of the rulers and their courtiers in the Great Lakes Region continue in the tradition of Gongo – decapitating constitutions for personal gain; igniting wars and chaos because of private arguments; robbing their impoverished people and sharing the loot with men and women from other continents; and turning their lands into armed camps of intolerant militias.

 Indeed, Nyiragongo and her sister Nyamuragira, have killed and impoverished fewer people than have the rulers and other “liberators” of the Great Lakes Region.  

Whereas the world’s attention is drawn to the colourful display of fire and hot lava at Nyiragongo, the millions who have died from bullets, preventable disease, starvation and such hardly invite comment.

They are considered collateral damage in the battles for power and control of the vast wealth in the region. They are the main victims of Nyiragongo’s curse.

Mulera is a medical doctor.              

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