\n<\/p>\n
The story begins with Jeamie’s grandfather, Andre-Bruno Tshikeva, a senior figure in the Zairean army in the 1950s, when the country was under Belgian rule.<\/p>\n
“In France and Belgium people study my grandad,” Jeamie says.<\/p>\n
According to the family, Andre-Bruno was sent to Belgium and served as a bodyguard to King Baudouin. When Zaire became independent in 1960, he returned as a respected lieutenant in the army.<\/p>\n
Five years later, he played a role in helping Mobutu Sese Seko – the authoritarian leader who seized power in 1965 – gain control in a military coup.<\/p>\n
But in Mobutu’s Zaire, popularity was dangerous. In 1966 – in what became known as the ‘Pentecost Plot’ – Mobutu ordered the public hanging of four former cabinet ministers accused of conspiring against him.<\/p>\n
Mobutu saw Andre-Bruno as a threat to his position, and the loyalty between them fractured.<\/p>\n
He was sent to Kolwezi, a remote but strategically vital city – Jeamie’s father Makasi explains what happened next.<\/p>\n
“My dad had no idea but Mobutu organised it and it was all set up to kill him,” Makasi says.<\/p>\n
Soon after he arrived, a rebel force swept through the area.<\/p>\n
“He killed some of those rebels, took his Jeep and he ran,” Makasi says. “He couldn’t understand why his own people were fighting him.”<\/p>\n
Back in Kinshasa, Andre-Bruno was accused of enabling violence and killing innocents. He was arrested, condemned and imprisoned.<\/p>\n
The attempts on his life continued and the method eventually shifted to poison. Even one of his 10 wives was supposedly paid to administer toxins.<\/p>\n
After six years, Andre-Bruno was released from prison in 1973 on compassionate grounds when one of his wives died, but the damage was irreversible.<\/p>\n
“You could smell toxins every time he went to the toilet,” Makasi says.<\/p>\n
“After two years, with all the poison in his body, my dad died.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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