The series about Smart Congolese is a great success! The traffic police post attracted more than 200 comments and more than 1600 clicks in 4 days, a record number! Today it’s child traders. I always said that the Congolese were the smartest in the world but today I am adding a line inspired by a French play: Aux âmes congolaises, la débrouillardise n’attend pas le nombre des années (In the Congo, you don’t have to be old to be smart).
I see child traders every day, and in growing numbers. A few days ago I was on the Kinshasa University campus doing a report for work, and I happened to talk to two of these young ‘businessmen’ who agreed to share with me the broad lines of their business.
These kids have a real sense of business. They agreed to answer my questions but I had to pay to take their picture.
Just children, but having to manage
They are 13 and 14 years of age. Every day, these two children roam the UNIKIN campus trying to sell their stock of pens, paper and biscuits, mainly. They haven’t been to school in a long time, and university? Difficult for them to hope or even dream of setting foot there as students.
With deteriorating living conditions, their parents’ meager wages, the long teachers’ strikes, these children have no other choice but to manage. They have at least 1,500 francs’ worth of goods in their boxes and they told me that they made an average of 400 to 500 Congolese francs’ profit daily. This is less than US$1, which is not much, given the cost of living in Kinshasa.
One can always have dreams
As a child, you have dreams. When I was 13 years old, I dreamed of having the latest game console, but these children have other dreams. “Later I want to go to Europe, I want to work, to earn a lot of money to help my family”, one of the boys said in response to my question about what he wanted to do later.
Maybe those two will be among those who will try to swim across the ocean in order to reach the European paradise!
Our youth are the future?
Does the future of the Congo have to rest on these increasingly less educated and more and more cunning youths?
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