Rocky Bushiri’s face lights up as he casts his mind back to late January and early February, to the football stadiums in the Ivorian cities of San-Pédro, Korhogo, and Abidjan, the 2023 edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), and his first involvement with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) since switching allegiance.
The Leopards finished a respectable fourth in the competition, coming second in their group behind Morocco and going on to eliminate Egypt in the round of 16 and Guinea in the quarter-finals before losing narrowly to hosts and eventual winners Côte d’Ivoire in the semi-finals.
After a goalless draw with South Africa in the third-place play-off match they were narrowly beaten on penalties, but considering the continent’s big hitters who didn’t make it out of the groups - four-time winners and five-time runners-up Ghana, two-time winners Algeria, and 2004 champions Tunisia - it was a good showing for Sébastien Desabre's side.
The popular Hibs centre-back didn’t see a single minute of action, with the head coach opting for a central-defensive pairing of Marseille's Chancel Mbemba and Henoc Inonga Baka of Simba for four of the fixtures, and Mbemba and Saint-Étienne stopper Dylan Batubinsika for the other three.
But the AFCON was about more than game time for Bushiri. It was a chance to reconnect with his Congolese roots; to represent the country of his parents’ birth, and to fight alongside his teammates for victory, as he does every time he steps onto the pitch in a Hibs shirt.
“AFCON was the best experience I’ve ever had in football,” he says. “Before this, it was playing in the Euros with Belgium under-21s. But AFCON was amazing.
"To live those moments, like when we went through on penalties [against Egypt]; emotions were high, and there were so many different emotions, but it was the best feeling. My whole family apart from my dad came over - my brothers, and my mum. It was a nice holiday for them as well,” he adds with a smile.
Born in Duffel, just south of Antwerp, Bushiri's passport states that he is Belgian. Around 18 months ago, the player revealed he still harboured hopes of representing the country of his birth at senior level, having turned out for the Red Devils at under-19 and under-21 level.
Then something changed.
“You get to a certain age where you have to be realistic,” Bushiri says thoughtfully. “And when I look at the Belgian national team, you really need to be playing in the top five leagues, and at bigger clubs. I could have waited a bit longer, but the opportunity with DR Congo was too beautiful to turn down, especially with my parents - they’re getting a little bit older and I’m sure they want to go back home eventually.”
Home is DR Congo, and its history is inextricably linked with that of Belgium, dating back to 1876 when King Leopold II of Belgium began his plan to seize land in central Africa, eventually acquiring the rights to the Congo territory from Europe’s colonial nations, declaring the land his private property, and renaming it the Congo Free State in 1885. But despite the monarch’s pledge to focus on humanitarian and philanthropic deeds and the development of the region, he was responsible for numerous atrocities carried out as part of his efforts to extract ivory, rubber, and minerals to then sell to the world market.
Following international pressure, sparked in part by Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness novel and the work of Edmund Dene Morel, a junior shipping company official and later MP for Dundee; Roger Casement, the Irish diplomat and activist; and missionary doctor Henry Grattan Guinness in exposing Leopold II’s wrongdoing in Africa, Belgium’s parliament annexed the Congo Free State in 1908 and took over its administration as the colony of the Belgian Congo.
Congo achieved independence from Belgium in June 1960, with relations between the two states deteriorating shortly after. They have remained strained ever since, and as recently as June 2022, King Philippe of Belgium formally condemned the atrocities that had taken place in the Congo Free State during a speech made as part of a visit to the Congolese parliament in the capital Kinshasa.
The two countries remain bound by the past and a handful of DR Congo internationalists, including Bushiri, were born in Belgium, while many members of the squad have played, or currently play, their club football in the country.
For Bushiri, his own links with DR Congo were reinforced by the presence of his maternal grandfather Rachel Albert Kisonga Mazakala, who served as Congolese ambassador to Belgium when the player was a child. Despite Bushiri's first visit to DR Congo coming in 2016, his roots were an integral part of his formative years in Belgium. As well as English and French, the 24-year-old speaks Lingala - a Bantu language spoken by more than eight million people in DR Congo as a lingua franca - and some Swahili, also spoken in parts of his parents’ homeland and recognised as an official language. His upbringing in Duffel means he has some Dutch as well, and there’s a little bit of Spanish in there too. He attributes this to his upbringing.
“The [Congolese] culture is home," he explains. "The music, the food - we’ve never stopped making food from Congo and of course, in Belgium, there are loads of Congolese people. We’ve always had the African side as well. So it was a little bit of a family decision, but I don’t regret my choice at all. I’m really enjoying being with DR Congo.”
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Since his return from international duty, Hibs have recorded three wins and two draws in the league. His post-AFCON performances perhaps help to explain why the Easter Road side struggled to three defeats and two draws in his absence. But while training alongside players from the English Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga, the Bundesliga, and the Portuguese and Swiss top flights has undeniably been helpful for his game, Bushiri insists he is still the same player as he was before.
“I really think I’m the same player. I’ve had a good season so far, and it’s not like the slip against Hearts will define my season. Of course, being away and experiencing new things and training alongside top players helps, but I don't think you can judge my season on the last couple of minutes against Hearts. And I think it’s because it was my last game before the AFCON; I left and there was a bit of a cloud. But I knew that when I came back to Hibs it would be straight back in [to the team]."
Bushiri returned from international duty ahead of Hibs' 2-2 draw with Aberdeen. He made the squad, perhaps surprisingly, but remained an unused substitute as Nectar Triantis partnered Will Fish in the back four. While he was in Africa, he watched as many Hibs games as he could fit in, and was in regular contact with those at East Mains in a bid to stay abreast of goings-on back in Scotland.
“I was always in touch with Hibs when I was away - sometimes with Adam [Tomlinson, head of communications] during games when I couldn’t watch the live stream; sometimes with the staff, the players, and the captain Joe [Newell]. So I wasn’t here, but I was here as well. And being in Côte d’Ivoire, it was hot; the sessions were hard, so I stayed in shape. I was ready to go when I came back. I had just come back to Scotland and then we travelled up to Aberdeen, so that would have been a risk. But I was ready to go again."
He highlights the impact made by Nick Montgomery, who has turned the right-sided centre-back into a left-sided ball-carrier and a trusted member of his strongest back-four combination. The pair were in regular contact throughout Bushiri's time at the AFCON, with Montgomery reminding his player of the task at hand awaiting him on his return to the capital.
“The manager, even before I went to the AFCON, played a big part in my performances this season. He has backed me in difficult moments and he said to me, ‘Be yourself and enjoy yourself’. And he told me there was a big job when I got back as well, that we needed to finish the season strongly and we would finish the season strongly. Once I was there, we were exchanging messages as well - he watched some of the games and would tell me I was unlucky not to get minutes. But I’m the second-youngest player in the squad, and he said to me, 'There is a future, just stay patient, and work hard.”
Given the links between Belgium and DR Congo, there were a few familiar faces when Bushiri first joined the squad, and he sought the advice of players from the previous generation when he was making his decision to switch allegiance. Not that he had any problems settling in, however.
“There weren’t that many with us at the AFCON [who I had played with] but I was with Edo Kayembe in Belgium [at KAS Eupen]; and players like Joris Kayembe, Théo [Bongonda] - I knew a few. And I knew some from the generation before, and we spoke before I made the decision to play for DR Congo. So that helps, but when you go somewhere and the culture is the same, there aren’t any problems adapting. You’re straight in. So that was good.”
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While the AFCON matches were being played out in the cities of Côte d’Ivoire, battles of different kind were taking place in parts of DR Congo. The mineral-rich eastern region of the country has long the site of ongoing conflict, with pro-government forces fighting against the M23 rebel group for control of the territory. More than 60 civilians were reported to have been killed in North Kivu in October last year, after a fragile six-month truce came to an end, with the country’s government in Kinshasa pointing the finger at M23 for failing to adhere to the ceasefire, and the rebels blaming pro-government forces. Close to seven million people have been forced to leave their homes, and the United Nations has warned that DR Congo is facing one of the ‘largest humanitarian crises in the world’.
Bushiri and his teammates sought to draw international attention to the conflict during the tournament. Ahead of their semi-final meeting with Côte d'Ivoire in Abidjan, every single player and member of the backroom staff, including head coach Desabre, covered their mouth with one hand and held the other to their head in the shape of a gun to highlight the ongoing conflict in their country.
“Everyone sees the massacres in eastern Congo, but everyone is silent’, striker Cedric Bakambu wrote on social media during the competition. Speaking in a video, captain Chancel Mbemba added: “I pray with all my heart that my country regains its peace.”
Bushiri said: “It’s hard, because you’re there at the AFCON and people are getting killed in your country. It’s painful. But we have a responsibility - if we can send a message to the world, of course we will do it. That was the main thing. Once on the pitch, our focus was on the football, but with the responsibility of representing Congo.”
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DR Congo aren't in action during this international break, with their next fixture a World Cup qualifier against Senegal on June 3. Bushiri hopes to be involved again but knows he needs to play his part in a strong finish to the domestic season with Hibs to convince Desabre to give him a chance against a forward line that could comprise Sadio Mane, Ismaïla Sarr, and Nicolas Jackson.
“Players need to rest; loads of players were carrying injuries at the AFCON so maybe it was the right decision not to have any friendlies and just let people reset and recover," he adds.
"The DR Congo head coach wanted to make the average age of the squad younger, and he wanted to bring in a new generation of players. But his message to me was simple: 'Be patient, work hard with your club, continue working hard in your career, and your moment will come'," Bushiri states.
"And when the moment comes, it’s up to me.”
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