It seems hard to believe I'd never really noticed it before. I mean, sure, I've seen it all around town and even every morning here on campus, but I've never really noticed it. The military salute. It is a common greeting here in Kinshasa. One of the atelier was fond of giving me a full on, heel clicking salute every time he saw me. I was never truly sure of the appropriate response. It's not every day someone stops dead in their tracks, clicks their heels together and salutes you (well, it's not everyday unless you happen to live in Kinshasa, in which case, it could be several times a day.) This salute always struck me as a funny, odd quirky kind of thing, coming as it did, from one of the older workers. Since his retirement in December, I haven't actually been so formally saluted by anyone else. There is another one of the crew who likes to give a curt hand wave up by his head when he sees you from a distance. Now that I stop to reflect, quite a few of them do a similar thing.
But what really got me thinking about this formal greeting happened yesterday as I was following a motorcycle on my way to pick up Mohamed. An older man on the street recognized the guy on the back of the bike and called out to him. The guy raised his hand to his head and extended his arm in such a long salute I was relieved he was not driving. From the back of a motorcycle speeding down the bumpy road, his arm held an air of freedom. But the more I thought about it, and the more salutes I noticed on my way back home, I realized this gesture speaks of nothing like freedom. I suppose it is intended to give an air of respect to the receiver. But all I can see is a country that's been brought up by war.
