Floribert Bwana Chui
The story of Floribert Bwana Chui - a young Congolese customs officer in Goma - is the story of a man murdered for not having succumbed to corruption (1). It helps us understand the new forms of martyrdom. It was a silent sacrifice, so far away from the focus of the media, which nevertheless shakes the social and political life of those countries where corruption has become commonplace. Pope Francis too confirmed that during his trip to Africa in 2015, when a young woman asked him: “Can corruption be justified simply because everyone is involved in wrongdoing, everyone is corrupt? How can we be Christians and fight the evil of corruption?”In his reply, the Pope stated: " Corruption is something which creeps in. It's like sugar: (…)Whenever we take a bribe, or pocket a kickback, we destroy our heart, we destroy our personality, we destroy our country.(…) As in everything, you have to make a start. If in your heart you don’t like corruption, if you do not want corruption in your life in your country, then start now! If you don’t start, your neighbour won’t start either. “ And added “ Dear young people, corruption is not the way to life. It is a path which leads to death.” (Pope Francis’ address to the young people in Kasarani Stadium, Nairobi (Kenya), 27th November 2015; see vatican.va
Who was Floribert?
Floribert Bwana Chui bin Kositi’s life unfolds through the ups and downs of contemporary Congo. His short story is full of faith: the scenario was a humanly rich land with a beautiful landscape, yet with a complex and troubled political life. Floribert was born on 13th June 1981 in Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, on the border with Rwanda, and grew up in a time with no peace, due to two recent bloody wars. He was killed in Goma, on 7th July 2007, for having blocked the passage of deteriorated foodstuffs, harmful to the health of the population. He died at the age of 26. The book “Il prezzo di due mani pulite” by Francesco De Palma collects the witnesses about Floribert: he is remembered as a high-minded person who never stopped believing he could change the world through faith in Christ. He was convinced that “you are never so poor that you cannot help someone poorer than you”. Little by little, the reader is accompanied to contemplate, in the fragile life of the protagonist, the growth of an inner strength that over the years leads him to commit himself to the School of Peace of Sant’Egidio, and to the Baraza orphanage in Mabanga district.
Floribert believed in the strength of reconciliation which fosters the encounter among people. He did not neglect his education, which completed with a degree in Economics in 2006, while he was assisting street kids too. Then he got a job in Kinshasa, at the Office Congolais de Contrôle (Occ), the Congolese agency that checks the quality of the goods which go through Congo. Soon after Floribert was transferred to Goma, where his parents, his fiancée, his friends and so many street kids he knew lived. There his responsibility increased, first of all, before his conscience as a believer: doing his job he felt that people’s life and health depended on his choices. In his role of damage commissioner, he is called upon to seize and destroy foodstuffs entering Congo from Rwanda through the customs barriers in Goma lacking the legal hygienic and commercial requirements.. Honesty, nourished by faith.
Floribert found courage in faith. A passage is marked in the pages of Floribert’s Bible. It must have inspired him: “He answered them: ‘Stop collecting more than what is prescribed’. Soldiers also asked him: ‘And what is that we should do?’ He told them: ‘Do not practise extortion, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your wages” (Luke 3: 13-14). That was a moral imperative for him: do not collect more than what is prescribed. He was firmly convinced of that because of his faith. Everything is so simple that it seems obvious: it is the comeback of honesty. The silent revolution of the honest starts here. Floribert's life teaches that unless someone starts to rise up against corruption, common history will not be saved. For it is the greed for money that is the root of all corruption that leads to flouting laws, selling out for money, and killing the honest.
Between the end of June and the beginning of July of 2007 Floribert confided to a friend: “I’m under pressure. But I don’t want to give in. If I didn’t destroy what is harmful to many people’s health, if I accepted to be corrupted, then it would be like I betray everything I believe in, it would be like I accept my own destruction. So I’m going on: I stopped a quantity of damaged rise. I can’t put the people at risk”.
He overcame fear with the song La résurrection pour l’ Afrique, from the Community of Sant’Egidio which he was part of. The African bishops too in 2003 wished that the Christians were “heroes of the bloodless fight for the national reconstruction”. Particularly, for the Congolese bishops the ‘national reconstruction’ must go through the fight against corruption. That is Christian fight, made with the only weapons of faith: friendship, reconciliation, truth, responsibility, construction of the common good. Floribert was walking in faith on the path traced by the Community of Sant’Egidio’s charisma. He had been attracted by the strength of dialogue which had achieved peace in Mozambique. “The Community managed to reconcile those who had been fighting one another for years”. Such a success gave him the strength to speak to the youth of Kigali (Rwanda).
In his friends’ hearts
Trésor, one of Floribert’s brothers, tells that he never gave in to blackmail: “They wanted to trade damaged foodstuffs avoiding their destruction. They offered him money. He refused. Then they threatened him. Floribert mentioned that to me. But he said he would have never accepted money putting someone else at risk: because those who had eaten that damaged food could have died”. Floribert told Sr Jeanne-Cécile Nyamungu that “they tried to corrupt him because they wanted him not to destroy the damaged food. They offered him 1000 dollars, then more, up to 3000. But he refused. Being a Christian, he couldn’t accept to put many people’s life at risk. I told him he did well: behaving like that he was not an accomplice of evil. He added: ‘Money will soon vanish. But what about those people, if they had those products? What would happen to them?’. And ‘Do I live in Christ or not? – he said – Do I live for Christ or not? That’s why I can’t accept that money. It’s better to die than to accept that money!’ That was all. We agreed we would meet the next Saturday to talk again about that. On that Saturday I couldn’t be free before 3 pm. I called him at the mobile phone but he didn’t answer. He had been already abducted”.
On 7th July Floribert was kidnapped and then killed. While he was getting out of a shop he was forced to get in a car by unknown people. The search for him was unsuccessful. Two days after at noon his corpse was found by a motorcyclist. His body bore the marks of beating and torture he suffered during the hours of his captivity.
After the autopsy, Sr Jeanne-Cécile, a friend of his and a physician, said: "He had been tortured terribly, had broken his teeth, as well as his left arm, and there were evident traces of iron on the genital apparatus and on the buttocks ». You can die of corruption. It happens every time the power of ‘corrumpere’ – which means ‘to break into so many parts’ – overshadows the common good. If, on the one hand, corruption seduces and attracts, on the other hand, as Pope Francis reminds, it forces men to get their hearts dirty, prevents the conscience from making generous choices towards others, takes away the freedom to listen to God's voice. This is why corrupt people, instead of distinguishing good from evil, limit themselves to justifying evil (see J. M. Bergoglio, Guarire dalla corruzione, Bologna, Emi, 2013, 12).
Saying ‘no’ to corruption, in Africa and in many other corners of the world, can cost the sacrifice of life. Floribert was killed because, thanks to his faith, he said ‘no’ to corruption. He used to say: “Take the Gospel and read it. It will console you and give you joy”.
In his introduction to the book about Floribert, Andrea Riccardi underlines the strength the defeat of men of peace and faith leaves as a legacy: "This story deserves attention [...]. It is a very sad story, which shows the power of corruption and the climate of violence. But it is also the story of the ‘weak force’ of a young man of faith. It indicates the way of the resurrection of Africa, which begins with the youngsters and lay people".
Floribert’s story is not only a local event occurred along the border between Congo and Rwanda: his silent sacrifice questions everybody along any border of the world, where corruption can be defeated by honesty because – as Floribert used to say – “people’s health is worth more than money”.
In March 2015, the diocesan phase of the beatification process was opened and concluded on 9 December 2018. Pope Francis, during his apostolic journey to Congo, remembered Floribert on 2 February 2023, as he met young people and catechists at the Martyrs' Stadium in Kinshasa: "I think of the witness given by a young person like yourselves, Floribert Bwana Chui, who fifteen years ago, at only twenty-six years old, was killed in Goma for having blocked the passage of spoiled foodstuffs that would have been harmful for people’s health. He could easily have turned a blind eye; nobody would have found out, and he might even have gotten ahead as a result. But, since he was a Christian, he prayed. He thought of others and he chose to be honest, saying no to the filth of corruption. That is what it means to keep your hands clean, for hands that traffic in easy money get stained with blood. If someone offers you a bribe, or promises you favours and lots of money, do not fall into the trap. Do not be deceived; do not be sucked into the swamp of evil. Do not be overcome by evil! Do not trust shady financial schemes that plunge you into the darkness. To be honest is to shine like the day; it is to radiate the light of God. It is to live the beatitude of justice: overcome evil with good!"
On 25 November 2024, Pope Francis authorised the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognising the martyrdom of Floribert Bwana Chui and start the process of beatification.
(updated 25 Nov. 2024)
