Mercenaries - Victims of Their Past

Mercenaries - Victims of Their Past
August 20, 1967
August 1967
Bukavu, The Congo
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Lack Will to Mold Future - What is a Congo mercenary? In some African lexicons it is the lowest form of humanity - a white man who kills Africans for a dollar. This definition, at least about the dollar, is partly true but it tells us little. A mercenary is a complex, confused, tough man, and no man can be defined, in a lexicon. In some ways, the 160 mercenaries here in Bukavu are surprising. Since July 5, these men and their thousand or so allies from Katanga province have disrupted the eastern Congo, routed the Congolese army and seized this cool picturesque city in the hills alongside Lake Kivu. Yet the first thing that strikes you about them is how passive they seem. They are the kind of men who have been pulled along by events in their past and who lack the will to mold their future. A Rhodesian related the details of his recruitment...
Lack Will to Mold Future - What is a Congo mercenary? In some African lexicons it is the lowest form of humanity - a white man who kills Africans for a dollar. This definition, at least about the dollar, is partly true but it tells us little. A mercenary is a complex, confused, tough man, and no man can be defined, in a lexicon. In some ways, the 160 mercenaries here in Bukavu are surprising. Since July 5, these men and their thousand or so allies from Katanga province have disrupted the eastern Congo, routed the Congolese army and seized this cool picturesque city in the hills alongside Lake Kivu. Yet the first thing that strikes you about them is how passive they seem. They are the kind of men who have been pulled along by events in their past and who lack the will to mold their future. A Rhodesian related the details of his recruitment...
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