England’s mid-nineteenth-century sensation

Thanks to my aunt, I now know the exotic name of this delightful flower: Lily-of-the-Nile. Also known, I am told, as Agapanthus Africanus. To me this sounds more like a name Goscinny might have given to a black Roman in the French comic book series Astérix et Obélix. I snapped it some two weeks ago in Bukavu, one of Congo’s more picturesque spots on the southern shore of Lake Kivu, very near the border with Rwanda, in eastern Congo. Same place I observed the referendum from, back in December.

According to my aunt’s sources (an address book containing flower illustrations I believe), this particular African lily blooms in the rainy season, is considered a sacred plant, and was the pinnacle of fashion in mid-nineteenth-century England. Fans can join Friends of Agapanthus (I do wonder what people did with themselves before the Age of Internet).

Speaking of mid-nineteenth-century sensations in England, the count-down has started and the date is set for the first round of the elections: 30 July. This gives the DRC less than two months to print and distribute some 60 million ballot papers – some of which will be as thick as Yellow Pages directories, with a picture and paragraph for every candidate, and up to 700 candidates for a single constituency! – and to deploy election kits across the country – bearing in mind that many places are accessible only by helicopter, bicycle or dugout. Not to mention deploying tens of thousands electoral agents, national and international observers, police officers to provide security on the day, etc, etc. In case you’re wondering where all that tax money that gets spent on the United Nations is going…

Most people who are directly involved in the elections took a two-week holiday between Easter and Labour Day, in the knowledge that the next two months will be Hell. F. and I spent the long week-end in Pointe-Noire again – not quite a two-week holiday, but a very welcome break nonetheless. And another opportunity for a seafood orgy on the beach – this time I took pictures to prove it:

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