Solving the gang problem

When we don’t take care of the youth, not only do we deprive the world of future leaders, but we also create a breeding ground for crime. What’s happening in Kinshasa is just one example of the situation in many African cities.

Let me introduce you to the kuluna phenomenon.

You won’t find the word kuluna in the Lingala vocabulary as such, at least not in the dictionary. When I ask some people where it comes from, they scratch their head and it ends there. No answer. Others think it was imported from Angola, explaining that the word kuluna comes from the Portuguese coluna, the word for an infantry column on foot patrol.

Who are the kulunas? Here in Kinshasa, the kulunas are gangs of youngsters who patrol the streets, mostly at night, in order to seize from passers-by any valuable they can find on them: money, watches, cellphones, shoes, jewellery. Armed with clubs and machetes, kulunas hack at victims who resist them, often tearing their arms or feet.

One might expect such acts to be perpetrated by the most horrific looking individuals imaginable, hulks with blood-shot eyes and unkempt hair living in some hideous corners. Some kulunas may well fit in this description, but many of them are far removed from the labels of our imagination.

Look at them on TV, when it shows the police rounding up gangs. Some kuluna are rather young, not robustly built. There seems hardly anything scary in their appearance. In daylight, they are the people you would readily say hello to when you meet them in the street; you would sit next to them in the stadium or share a bench with them in church. They are normal people, but something very abnormal is going on in their lives. What is it?

Some discontinue their education when their parents just can’t afford paying school fees for them. Others have studied, even up to the university level, but they can’t find a job. Others yet have just given up on school in the belief that education will get them nowhere.

Largely, they are demoralised youths whose dreams have been flattened. They end up doing anything to survive—including, unfortunately, kuluna acts. It is in this way that the peaceful looking youngster of the day turns into ferocious predator at night. They brace themselves with machetes, which hang on strings around their necks, as they comb the streets.

The kuluna have colonised certain streets and parts of Kinshasa which assure them a good catch. After dark, such places become no-go areas. Yet people have to go there; they have to pass through these streets to return home from work.

It is a security problem. Deploying the police would be the immediate action to take. However, the solution to the real problem is beyond the competence of police.

The youth are robbed of their future, robbed of their dreams. This is not unique to Kinshasa. It’s the malaise of the youth in many cities of Africa (and, for that matter, Latin America). It manifests itself in a variety of similar ways, such as the kuluna phenomenon.

To be sure, the insecurity that the kuluna are causing in Kinshasa is appalling and obviously must be condemned. At the same time, we just cannot fail to appreciate the hopelessness such young people suffer.

As much as we are troubled by the insecurity and iniquity the kuluna create, we must also go beyond the rhetoric of cliché. “The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow”—as if it was all about the future. If we believe in what we say, then now is a good time to start moulding the youth into responsible citizens and leaders.

We might mobilise the police to clear the kuluna machetes and clubs off the streets, but that is an inadequate response.

What alternatives can we offer to dissuade the youth from picking up the machete?

Fr Evans Chama is a Missionary of Africa priest currently based in the Democratic Republic of Congo.