One for Aaron: Sum 41 in the DRC

In May 2004 the Canadian punk band Sum 41 travelled to Bukavu to film a documentary about child soldiers and the impact of war on Congolese children. Now I’ve never heard of this band before, but I’m told they’re pretty famous. The lead singer, Deryck Whibley (aka Bizzy D), was dating and is now married to Avril Lavigne (whom I have heard about).

Anyway, so this band of twenty-something year-old celebrities from Ajax, Ontario decides it wants to do some good in the world and starts to research different charities. They select the NGO War Child Canada. They can’t decide whether to donate money or do a concert, but then War Child shows them documentaries of bands actually going to war-torn countries. “We thought that was really cool”, says bassist Jason McCaslin (aka Cone) in an interview recorded in EnoughFanzine. Next thing you know, they’re on a plane to the DRC with the President and the Executive Director of War Child Canada, and a camera crew. “I’m dangerous, so I’m not afraid to go,” boasts the guitarist, Dave Baksh (aka Brownsound), who has recently left the band I understand.

The first thing that happens on arrival is they see lots of drunken soldiers in the airport. “They were drinking beer and one guy was past out on a rocket launcher,” says Cone. Then some more soldiers stop them at a road block, ask for cash and threaten them with a machete when they refuse to give it. Unlucky, but not entirely unexpected. But then the band's journey takes a real turn for the worst when Bukavu erupts into heavy fighting between dissident soldiers and government troops. The violence claims some hundred lives over two weeks, causes tens of thousands to flee the country, and jeopardizes the country's fragile peace process. And Sum 41 find themselves cowering in their hotel to the sound of mortar shells exploding close by. “I’m in some kind of pickle here,” announces the drummer Steve Jocz (aka Stevo) to the camera.

Meanwhile, over in the UN compound, there’s this guy called Chuck. Chuck is a UN volunteer and ex-military sergeant from Canada who is responsible for managing the UN camp in Bukavu. Apparently, Chuck is best known among his colleagues for making the cleaning staff – poor mamas dressed in light blue boiler suits whom I’ve usually seen dolefully moping around the camp with a broom in tow – do fire drills every morning at 6am. When the fighting breaks out Chuck starts to pile sandbags around the camp. At this stage, most of the UN staff is up day and night taking civilians to safety, and when one of them, exhausted, irritably questions the logic of putting sandbags up just outside his office door, Chuck clamours loudly, “While you guys are busy boozing and whoring, some of us are trying to save lives here!” Chuck is not the most popular guy among his colleagues, it seems.

Several hours into the fighting, Sum 41 are still stranded in their hotel. As Bizzy D recounts after the event, “One bomb came too close, hit the hotel and the hotel just started shaking. Everyone dove and was lying on the ground. Things were falling off the walls, mirrors were breaking. That's when we all kind of realized that this was really going bad and we're probably not going to make it out.” At the prospect of losing her beloved, Avril Lavigne pulls every string she can think of: her manager is on the phone with the American Ambassador to the DRC, then with the Special Representative to the Secretary General of the UN. Ok, admittedly this part of the story is pure hearsay, and I should add that the person who told me the story (ex-UN staff) also said that the fighting was at least 2 or 3kms down the road from the hotel, and the band was really in no danger at all – relatively speaking of course.

All be it, the crackling of gunshots and mortar sounds remarkably close, and the band is understandably terrified. Until Chuck, who happens to be staying at the same hotel, enters the scene, sending for armoured personnel carriers to rescue his compatriots and the other 40 or so civilians stranded, shaking, in the hotel. The band’s dramatic evacuation by Chuck and the UN is captured on film, the ensuing documentary ‘Rocked: Sum 41 In Congo’ is aired on MTV, and our friend Chuck becomes a hero. Not only that, but Sum 41 name their next album after the retired sergeant, much to the ill-covered resentment of Chuck’s UN colleagues.

Sum 41 with Chuck and album cover from Wikipedia

Confusingly, however, none of the songs on the album have anything to do with DRC, not even “We’re all to blame”, most of which was written the very day the fighting started: “That song was being written while we were in the Congo, so it doesn’t really have anything to do with the Congo,” explains Brownsound enigmatically in an interview for Gasoline.

Other events documented in ‘Rocked: Sum 41 In Congo’ include Sum 41 visiting Eckabana House, an orphanage for girls banished from their homes, allegedly for witchcraft, and a music therapy camp where the band did an impromptu rendition of “Hey Jude”, supposedly because it would be easier for the kids to dance to than Sum 41’s own music. If you’ve ever heard Congolese music, you’ll understand why the kids weren’t inspired to dance to “Hey Jude” either.