In April of 1994 over two million people fled from the Tutsi led RPF to neighboring countries of the Great Lakes area including (at the time) Zaire. Rwanda was being liberated from an unimaginable time that the international community refused to acknowledge was happening, due the embarrassment that they were the cause. Out of fear perpetuated by the perpetuator pawns, the vast majority of the refugees to flood the borders were Hutu fleeing reprisal killings by the RPF. An estimated 50,000 people would die of cholera and disease in the first days of this major exodus.

The origin of the racialist divide between the Hutu and Tutsi happened before the “colonization” of Rwanda, but the first German colonizers’ race obsession favored the (at the time) Tutsi ruling elite, because they looked “more European”. This divide was continued when the Belgians took over the area after the first World War, and expanded upon, through the slavery called “forced labor” to make the cash crop of coffee pay for their investment in the area.

The Congo to the west also saw the Belgians’ meddling to gain a monopoly on the new found rubber trade, and cutting off the hands of those who refused or did not harvest enough of the precious material for the Michelin tire company of France. Gaining independence from their slave masters on June 30th 1960, the Congolese people chose Lumumba as their leader. His strong Pan-African stance was seen as a danger to the white powers that wanted to continue their control in the region, and the US and Belgium assassinated him soon after he took office.

The refugee crisis was complicated by the Nyiragongo stratovolcano going through an eruption and further aggravated by the presence of the machete wielding Interahamwe hiding amongst those fleeing and eventually creating a rebel army. This insurgency helped launch the First Congo War that ended the reign of Mobutu, the dictator who was placed by the west under the guise of an anti-communist maneuver.

White domination has been maintained and continues through a series of destabilizing actions that keep the control over Africans from the Africans of the Great Lakes Region, and enslave the land and people for profit.

These tracks are dedicated to those who are still struggling to gain the stability of their destiny from the destabilizing control of colonialism.

Obnoxious Sunshine Odium, both mixes were originally released by Knife in the Toaster and limited to 10 copies, and the middle track Black Goma Cough was found on the Truculent compilation Epidemic. Track one pummels the listener with high gain feedback and anti-rhythm rhythmic noise. Track two coughs and chokes from the Nyiragongo eruption that happened the same year of the crisis. The last track picks up where the first track left off but abruptly ends as so many a persons life in this crisis did.