By Abiodun Aremu
In Comrade (Dr) General Comrade General KKM Kassonghov Martin-Luther KKM Kassonghov, as he would always passionately introduced himself, Africa has lost probably one its greatest, long-lived and unsung heroes, who transited early in January 2022. Born of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Congo-Zaire, Comrade General Kassonghov as he is fondly known and called, lived in Nigeria as an internationalist and a participant in the Nigerian Labour Movement and he is known to have associated with all the past to the present generations of Labour leadership from Michael Imoudu (Labour Leader No 1) to Wahab Goodluck, Hassan Sunmonu, Ali Chiroma, et al, from 1976 till his demise early this year.
Comrade General Kassonghov is indeed a General of guerrilla exploits, knowledgeable and speaks several languages and endowed with a mathematical brain. He has great capacity for memorised and recall of numbers, probably well over 100 stored in his brain! He could talk endlessly on his revolutionary exploits!
Comrade General Kassonghov’s revolutionary sojourns and collaboration with other revolutionary fighters found him sojourned and associated in several countries, including Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Cuba, Algeria, Libya, etc.
One’s encounter with General Kassonghov dated back to the late 80s in the company of our Venerable Comrade Baba Omojola, whose residence at Itolo Street Surulere- Lagos, was home to the General most times. Just like an apprentice, one learnt a unique lesson from the General that “a memory of numbers in
one’s head is both art and science. At the point of Comrade General’s sight problem, he would secured one’s close attention to him, asked you to dial his phone by calling the numbers off head and would collect the phone from you as it were ringing to speak! General Kassonghov was a compeer of Laurent Kabila, a former President of the DRC, whose rebel forces ousted the infamous Zairian life-President Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Comrade General Kassonghov and Laurent Kabila were founding members in the guerrilla struggle that followed the overthrown and assassination of Patrice Lumumba on January 17, 1962. For Comrade General Kassonghov, it was a life of underground and sacrifices for almost 60 years of his entire life! In our several encounters together, Comrade General reminisced on his experiences of participation in the struggle from the independence of Congo-Zaire to his numerous involvements, that include:
Being in the team that met with Ernesto Che Guevara in Tanzania 1965, en route to the guerrilla warfare and a participant in the guerrilla activities in the Congo.
Amilcar Cabral Ideological School
Being physically present in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, at the founding of the Organisation of the African Unity (OAU) in 1963. Comrade General, prides himself as a founding member of the OAU. He would always euologise Nkrumah for his vision on the necessity for Africa to create an African Command for African interest as opposed to the slavish and US imperialist so-called ‘Africa Command’ imposed for CIA-NATO interests in the recolonization of Africa and plundering of its vast natural resources. Comrade General was firm on his anti-imperialist conviction!
On how he came to live in Nigeria. That he was brought to Nigeria by the Nigeria’s former Head of State General Murtala Muhammed as part of the Federal Government’s entourage following the extra-ordinary OAU Heads of State Meeting held in Kampala, Uganda, on January 11, 1976, where General Murtala delivered the *Africa Has Come of Age* speech that declared Africa’s support for the Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which was later to set in motion the Cuban solidarity intervention and independence of all Southern African countries of Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa.
How he sneaked into Congo in the late 1970s to mobilise the rural population against the Mobutu dictatorship and how Mobutu sent the military the night he was in his village to to burnt the whole village of hundreds of people and he was presumed dead, but he escaped.
His leadership and courageous role at the Nkrumah Ideological Institute in Winneba- Ghana, in confronting the coupists who overthrew the Kwame Nkrumah Government. He showed one several times his injuries sustained in the fight of disarming the coupists and liberating some arms, with which they fought to safety and escaped to Guinea under the Government of Sekou Toure. It was one of such rare moments of discussion, you can appreciate that Kassonghov is indeed a General of a rebel cause!
No one who encountered the Comrade General in conversations, would leave him, without being served photocopies from newspapers’ cutting of his media interviews, or his brief of himself as depicted in his complimentary card or his write up of the last letter of Lumumba A highly memorable day for Comrade Kassonghov was the meeting of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) on January 17, 2009, which coincided with the 38th year anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Recalling from paragraph 3 of the resolutions of that meeting presided over by Comrades Dipo Fashina and Abdulwahed Omar, NLC president: “IN MEMORY OF PATRICE LUMUMBA: In realization of the historic coincidence and significance of the LASCO meeting holding on the same January 17, in which Comrade Patrice Lumumba (the great African patriot and revolutionary and the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo-Kinshasa) was killed on January 17, 1961, LASCO leaders and members observed some minutes silence and rose to their feet while the last historic letter of Comrade Lumumba to his wife Pauline was read. The letter which Comrade Kassonghov carries everywhere with him was read at the LASCO meeting:
“My dear Wife Pauline Lumumba, I am writing these words not knowing whether they will reach you, when they will reach you, and whether I shall be alive when you read them. All through my struggle for the independence of my country, I have never doubted for a single instant the final triumph of the sacred cause to which my comrades and I have devoted all our life. There is no doubt that we have to fulfill the sacred task of reconstructing our independence and our sovereignty. For without justice, there is no dignity, and without independence, there are no free people! All we wanted for our country was its rights to an honourable life, to unstained dignity, to independence without restrictions. That was never desired by the Belgian imperialists and their western allies, who found direct and indirect support, both deliberate and unintentional, among certain high officials of the United Nations Organisation. Neither brutality, nor torture will ever bring me to ask for mercy, for I prefer to die with my head unbowed, my faith unshakable and with profound trust in the destiny of our country, rather than live under subjection and disregarding sacred principles. Do not weep for me, my dear wife, I know that my country, which is suffering so much, will know how to defend its independence and its liberty. There is no doubt that Africa will write its own history, and both North and South of the Sahara, it will be a history of glory and dignity!”
One can vividly recall that when the Laurent Kabila insurgents overthrew Mobutu and I asked him, if he would go back home, he said he wasn’t going back to Zaire! And probably, as a confirmation of his guerrilla exploits and influence, an aide-camp (probably a Captain) was sent by President Kabila to Nigeria to give cover to the Comrade General. One wouldn’t recall at what the ADC was withdrawn, but it wasn’t necessary having the man around him, because Comrade General was always on the roads moving from morning till late and never in hurry on phone calls or other conversations.
As a standard practice in every Amilcar Cabral Ideological Class (ACIS) weekly of one of its branches, that held in the Yaba NLC sub-headquarters for years from 2008, where Comrade General, was also at home, he insisted on solidarity songs being rendered at the beginning and end of every class! In his essential element, Comrade General addressed one as: “comrade, my hero, do you know I was …, let me tell you …
He would smile at times, then proceeded to a lengthy talk, etc, Such were his ways, one just have to stop him or else, you would become endlessly captive of his narration! Whatever reservations anyone might have against the Comrade General, I think he lived his life to his fullest satisfaction, he enjoyed his drinks and on few occasions that he danced, his high tempo of legs and hands movement could be extraordinary.
That was what he exhibited at the wake-keep of M.E. Kolagbodi on the night of 31st August 1992 at Awodiora-Ajegunle, Lagos-Nigeria when he danced to the Urhobo music!
Comrade General attended the 6th African Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba held in Abuja-Nigeria. As the internationalist that he is, Comrade General Kassonghov made his way daily to the international conference held September 23 – 25, 2019.
To Comrade General, the Great Lumumbist, we in the ACIS-M RED-salute you as a General in the Liberation Struggle! And we do hope the Government in the DRC will give you the 21 gun salutes deserving of a General and an African revolutionary icon that you lived to the end!
Aremu composed this tribute for and on behalf of the Central Coordinating Leadership of ACIS-M. First published in National Record