Kinshasa, February 23rd, 2026 (CPA). – The first of a series of commemorative days in tribute to diplomat Gerard Kamanda of the Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled for April 11th 2026, in Gaillard, France, the town that had welcomed his family during their exile following the 1996 war against Zaire, CPA learned on Monday from family sources.
‘The first of the commemorative days in tribute to Gérard Kamanda is scheduled for 11 April in Gaillard, France, the town that welcomed his family when the 1996 war of aggression against Zaire forced them into exile,’ has indicated Dyana Kamanda, the daughter of the late diplomat, in a press release posted online. ‘On this occasion, we will have the honour of being received at the Pavillon Stephane Hessel, a place of great beauty but above all of great symbolic significance, as it is named in tribute to Stephane Hessel, a major figure in the resistance movement, who came to Gaillard in 2010 as part of the Sharing Knowledge programme,’ has said Dyana, adding that the choice of this location is a gesture of gratitude to a town that offered refuge to a family forced into exile; it is also a powerful echo of the trajectory of Gerard Kamanda, a diplomat by heart and a resistance fighter by duty, who travelled the world to alert, convince and bear witness to the reality of the war of occupation imposed on the Congo, behind the falsified accounts and organised silence of the major powers.
This day aims to honour the memory of this Congolese diplomat and to perpetuate his legacy. Born on December 10th, 1940, in Kikwit, Gerard Kamanda wa Kamanda was a lawyer who has held numerous positions in Mobutu’s Zaire. He belongs to the Bakwese ethnic group, a small tribe in the province of Bandundu. After studying Greek and Latin at the Jesuit college of Saint-Ignace in Kiniati, he obtained his baccalaureate from the Royal Athenaeum of Leopoldville in 1959.
He continued his studies at Lovanium University, where he graduated with a degree in philosophy, literature and law. A former student at Lovanium University, he was spotted by President Mobutu, who has promoted him to legal adviser to the Presidency of the Republic alongside his friend Étienne Kashama Nkoy (also from Bandundu), who died in unexplained circumstances. Gerard Kamanda was also chief of staff to the General Secretary of the Organisation of African Unity, Diallo Telli, in Addis Ababa between 1967 and 1972, then Deputy General Secretary of the OAU between 1972 and 1978. Upon his return to Kinshasa, his profile as a statesman took shape and he became a political and intellectual reference point. He died on January 21st, 2016, in Kinshasa, at the age of 76 years. CPA/