A cause for celebrating

Sunday around 5:30 in the afternoon whooping and hollering broke out on the road in front of the house. I wondered, “Are the kids playing a soccer match and we hadn’t heard about it?” Then I met up with Aimee, our neighbor’s daughter, her hair disheveled and powdered white, and I knew. They had just heard the news about who had passed the state exam for high school diplomas. Aimee was one of the finalists and had passed!
As dusk settles over Lusekele, whoops and hollers break the afternoon stillness. Aimee Kikobo carries the marks of wild flour splashing in celebration of her passing the state high school exams.

In Congo, when there is a major occasion for celebration in the lives of kids and young adults, anyone and everyone gets to throw or rub flour into the hair of the graduate. Mothers, anyone in the lucky family is fair game too. We were in Kin for the wild city-wide celebration of graduation.
Everyone gets into the celebration, a joyous abandonment. Kids certainly. But as you can see, even the Lusekele moms join in the fun. (When was the last time your mom did something like this?)

Graduation from high school is certainly an occasion to celebrate. You can hardly blame people. The exams are taken in June. Then the wait begins. Sometimes it takes as long as January or February for all the results to come out. In the meantime the students are in limbo. Do they need to retake their senior year? Can they make arrangements to go on to university? Can they go anywhere, do anything? And some families wonder, did we do everything we could to ensure success?

Over the years corruption (or the suspicion of corruption) has plagued the school exams and the granting of high school diplomas in Congo. At times the results may have little to do with a student’s knowledge or skill. Parents complain widely that demands from examiners have significantly raised the cost of senior years. Students who insist on being judged on their own merits can find that their tests are tossed aside unread. Just this year the rumors circulated that many schools in Kinshasa had paid the examining board to pass all Kinshasa students regardless of their test results. Whether this is true or not, the shadow of corruption taints the entire process. It throws into doubt the accomplishments of hundreds of thousands of intelligent and motivated young people who have worked hard in high school.

Some glimmer of good news has emerged. They say that test results are being reexamined more rigorously in Kinshasa. Every effort to re-establish the integrity of the process is welcome.

I didn’t rub manioc flour into Aimee’s hair Sunday, but we certainly celebrate with her and the other high school seniors who have passed this important hurdle. They will continue to face formidable hurdles. But for the moment celebration is a sweet, sweet thing.

-- Miriam --