Gabriel Ndende
The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi
Biography collected and written by Angela Bizera
Photo by Primo Luanda Bauma

Gabriel Ndende is a young man from two different nationalities, The Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. He came to Malawi in the year 2015 after his family fled due to security concerns. He is a student currently and has started his journey in a Bachelor of Arts in sustainable development, which is an online course. He is also interested in research. He is doing volunteer work as a librarian and does some community work as well.

He was motivated by listening to Prince Ea a lot, and that is when he discovered that he too can share something that can be educational to inspire others. He also likes to write stories. Late in 2019 is when he started doing more research, combined what he learned from school, and started to be creative and to write. For him, writing poems are ideas which are thoughts and need to be released to inspire and educate others.

One of his poems “The Culture that Lies” is the one he loves the most because it talks about civic conflict in his country and the way they are living. They are divided into tribes, and they don’t like each other. The hatred started from ancestors who never explained why it started. But for them, they are just coping and following them without reasons or explanation. This is affecting their mindset with the conflicts, which don’t pay anything but hatred. He shared it so that young people should change and realize that the hate has no importance and that they should be role models instead.

He is telling readers of the book and website that they should be motivated and inspired by his art and should take and use them to make change.

THE CULTURE THAT LIES
#Say no to Tribalism

we see bombs now
those bombs break our homes
now we are homeless
hoping to find homes in heaven

From nothing we are the victims
of unending tribalism
that draws away our happiness
and leaves fear as our weakness

our grandfathers and grandmothers
could no longer chase animals but wind
which they did not catch until now

the weak dogs that died longer ago
were busy whispering in their son's ears
"never like Tutsi, never like Hutu"
with the unknown reasons behind

i see the frowning faces in churches,
in schools and everywhere
their faces look not younger but older
when still young to enjoy their youthful stage
but chasing nothing but achieving a false mindset

ooooh weak dogs now you made us lose our homes and find other homes after deep struggles
due to the wrong seeds you planted
now we are harvesting names like
maburundi or makwerekwere