The status of political refugee obtained five years ago allows Taki Mukanya to live a peaceful second life as an employee in a booming Anduzian company. But the young Congolese, violently beaten in his country and left for dead, will keep for life the consequences of an aggression which makes him an employee with a disability.
When Taki welcomes us at the foot of his building located in the Rochebelle district of Alès, it is a little man sixty-five feet tall with a look that inspires gentleness in front of us. The introductions made, Taki struggles to move up the stairs to her apartment on the first floor. A robotic gait caused by the absence of flexion in his lower limbs, the stiffness of which is the result of a beating. We have to go back to the beginning of the 2010s to take stock of the suffering endured by this thirty-something born in August 1987.
Member of a family of five children, Taki Mukanya had a rather happy childhood in his village of Luvungi, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, not far from the Rwandan and Burundian borders. His life changes with the death of his mother and the choice of his father to remarry a woman “Who was not of our tribe. “ This woman has many brothers and they are “Rebels” against which the Congolese army has often shown its limits.
“They took me into the bush and all hit me”
“My daddy had a lot of money, Taki recalls. He had several businesses, owned many goods. “ Like his mother a few years earlier, his father will “Reach paradise” and leave behind a legacy heavy with consequences. Taki evokes a distribution of property “Fair” between the members of his family and the second wife of his father. Except that this one, who has nothing of the ideal mother-in-law but everything of the stepmother, did not intend to be satisfied with her only part. Perhaps under pressure from his brothers … They set out to loot Taki and his family, but the courageous little man intervened on several occasions. The attackers then realized that they would get nothing while he was still alive.
Night was falling and he was about to return to the family home after “A good game of football” when seven men armed with spears, knives and guns kidnapped him behind the village school. “They took me into the bush and all hit me with their weapons”, says the Franco-Congolese. An outburst of violence that will last endless minutes until the final order, to say the least radical. “Finish it! “, claimed the oldest of the brothers, leader of the rebel group.
Unconscious, Taki does not move and the seven attackers leave him for dead. The victim lies in the middle of nowhere but luckily, the inhabitants of the village, who were preparing to “To burn bricks” away from homes, assist him. But Taki is taken to a dilapidated hospital that does not have the necessary equipment to take care of him. The doctor therefore transfers him to another better equipped hospital and there the ax falls: the young man will probably never walk again.
Two years in a church and a stay in prison
“I couldn’t move my toes and I couldn’t feel my lower limbs anymore”, remembers the native of Luvungi. When he leaves the hospital, Taki knows he is threatened because his attackers will undoubtedly want to “finish the job”. There is one place he knows better than all the others and which inspires him with a confidence that no other is able to offer him: the church. His faith is unwavering and Taki, a guitarist, plays concerts there every Sunday with a small band, making him a valued local.
“I slept for two years in the church, without going out and without being able to move”, he relates without noticing a hint of miserability. With plenty of ointments and local remedies, the villagers follow one another to visit him and try to get him back on his feet by massaging him regularly. “Gradually, I started to be able to stand up and change my position on my own. I became a baby again by following all the stages of learning to walk ”, s’amuse Taki.
The musician, who suffered a broken vertebra on the day of the assault, has not yet had an operation but has difficulty walking again with the help of a cane. He then finds refuge “At a friend of dad’s house”, but still knows itself in the sights of the rebels. One evening, while he was playing with a friend, several shots rang out. His older brother has just been assassinated and Taki is convinced: these bullets were intended for him.
In the middle of the night, he gathers the few things he is able to collect in a bag and flees to Burundi. What is similar to a smuggler offers to bring him by boat to the Comoros on condition that he pays. Taki does so. A few hours later, the man abandons him, handing him over to the Comorian police who pick him up and wrongly put him in prison for seven months. “Seeing that I had Congolese nationality, the police believed that I was a mercenary who wanted to participate in the coup”, justifies the thirty-something.
Released from prison, using a canoe, he reached Mayotte and immediately made a request for political asylum, which was immediately accepted. France, a country he knows nothing about, welcomes him with open arms and, several years after his terrible aggression, will treat him. At the end of a grueling operation that lasted 12 hours. At the Montpellier hospital, doctor Nicolas Lonjon replaces his broken vertebra with an artificial vertebra. “I thank him for each consultation”, promises Taki, now regularly monitored by doctors.
Part of his rehabilitation takes place in Anduze where he made a decisive meeting in 2016 in the premises of an association. That of Mickaël Corgne, brother of Samuel, manager of the company Ergosanté. The two men become friends, Taki finding in Mickaël a landmark in a region where he appreciates the mild climate, he who “Can’t stand the cold”, responsible for an aggravation of his pain. When the Anduzian company obtained the “adapted company” label, Mickaël Corgne offered him to join the team. Taki trained and obtained a therapeutic half-time there in January 2020.
Its adapted workstation allows it to manufacture headrests, backrests and seats without suffering. “Irreproachable at work”, with “Great dexterity”, Taki is “The employee who does a lot of good for the team because he always has a smile”, according to Mickaël Corgne, who helped him with his various moves to Alès where he has been living since 2017. In the meantime, the Congolese has also been married “October 17, 2019 in Rwanda. “ But Taki didn’t have much opportunity to hug Lukogo Jeanne, his wife.
Unlike him, she has no reason to receive the status of political refugee and is therefore deprived of residence in France. But her brave husband made her repatriation a personal matter. Last Friday, during the visit of a large delegation to Ergosanté (read here), his boss did not hesitate to call the prefect of Gard, Didier Lauga, asking him to examine “An important file. “
In addition to missing him dearly, his wife would be of immense help to him with the tasks of daily life. “Often when I come home from work I’m tired, but I still have to clean and cook. However, I cannot stand more than thirty minutes because it becomes too painful for my back ”, explains Taki, who relieves himself with morphine and physiotherapy sessions. In the Gard, the Congolese made many friends and it is easy to understand why. To be definitely happy there, he dreams of living there together.
Corentin Migoule
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