The Exile Of Hilaire Nganga, Musician And Artist
Refugees in Cameroon are organized in communities which are represented by a committee called the Collectif des Communautés de Réfugiés au Cameroun (CCRC, Group of Refugee Communities in Cameroon). Hilaire Nganga works for the CCRC as a Vice President for the Cultural Commission.
When the United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) for the first time asked the CCRC to arrange the 2006 Worldwide Day for the Refugees in Yaoundé, Hilaire chose this occasion to put his and his friends' story into lyrics and music.
"It appeared to me that refugees' stories only are known through press interviews and indirectly through other persons. So I got the idea, being myself a refugee, to tell in a song our own story," says Hilaire. Beyond the horrifying narration of his own exile experience, hope and forgiveness remain the main messages of his song.
Hilaire Nganga is 56 years old and a native of the Congo Brazzaville. He has two sons and four daughters. A musician since an early age, he's able to play the guitar as well as the keyboard, drums, and a bit of saxophone. He used to work as a cultural representative for the Congo Brazzaville embassy in Cameroon.
Because he was a representative, Hilaire felt in danger when war broke out and devastated his country. Hilaire escaped with many others to a country village 90 kilometres (about 56 miles) from his city, which he reached after a three-day walking trip.
Then started the long and hard road of escape from death and the pain of leaving whatever his life was made of. "We were forced to drop off everything that linked us to our soil, our family and even our homeland. Everything inside us collapsed from this day and all along our exile route," says Hilaire.
Not everyone would reach the village; not everyone could overcome the tough conditions of an exile, and many had to be left by the roadside. And the ones who made it, like Hilaire, had to realize war followed them on their heels.
It was time to escape again from the persecutors and hide in the forest, where the life conditions swept away many of them. Then the exhausted Hilaire took the decision to go to Bangui in Central African Republic, his second homeland. But war still followed him there. Finally he reached Cameroon where he found relief. Hilaire's exodus lasted three years but his exile is still going on.
Hilaire still lives in Cameroon with four of his six children, and keeps going by working as a sound technician for recording studios.
You can read his Refugee Hymn lyrics in the 28 July 2006 e-Zine.