So far, we can see that the notions of taboo, secrecy and what people will say come up frequently in our interviews. Superstition too. Whatever the social class. Remember that the literacy rate in Congo is 89% among men and 84% among women (Human Rights Council, 2018).

Superstitions wreak havoc, as seen in the case of child witches. In Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, but also to a lesser extent in Angola and the Central African Republic, thousands of children are rejected by their families, accused of being the cause of tragedies. Only a small proportion of these children are taken into care by associations and NGOs.

The Republic of Congo faces many challenges. The proportion of the population living below the international extreme poverty threshold was 52.5% in 2022 (World Bank data). The middle class is fragile and its future uncertain. The country is fertile ground for certain religious movements… even sects.

On October 4 and 5, 2014, the Raelian movement held a conference entitled Living in Happiness at a hotel in Pointe-Noire. Founded in France in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, known as Raël, the movement bases its doctrine on supposed contact between Raël and a highly advanced race of extraterrestrials called the Elohims.

It supports the concept of geniocracy, meaning that only individuals with an IQ fifty percent higher than the average are eligible for public office within the movement. Voters must have an IQ ten percent higher than the average. In this geniocracy, Raël claims to embody the savior the world needs in the face of humanity at risk of extinction from nuclear war. All members must pay three percent of their after-tax salary to the movement, as well as their entire will, with the exception of residences bequeathed to their children. The reason given for the contributions is the construction of an embassy to welcome the aliens when they arrive. After forty-nine years, this famous embassy has never been built.

Classified as a sect in France since 1995, the movement seems to be regarded as just another spiritual trend in French-speaking Africa, especially in Côte d’Ivoire, where it is fairly well established. It has to be said that Raël himself does not hesitate to castigate the ravages of
colonization and invites Africans to do away with artificial borders and create a single African currency. It’s a message that’s bound to appeal.

On September 17, 2023, the movement’s « guide bishop » in Burkina Faso, Abdoulaye Ouadba, publicly relayed a speech by Raël. He reiterated his
« unconditional support for the leaders and populations of the countries of the Alliance of Sahel States currently fighting for their sovereignty ». (source Jeune Afrique, October 9, 2023).

The sums paid to the Raelian movement are no more shocking, after all, than the offerings paid to the evangelical churches that have multiplied across the continent over the last ten years. The trouble is that, potentially, if someone were to see a UFO (or more) in the Congo, the only structure they could turn to would be the Raelian movement, which has turned the extraterrestrial question into a religion. Indeed, there is no local representation of the Mufon. The Mufon, Mutual UFO Network, is a US non-profit organization founded in 1969, which investigates UFOs. Over the
decades, it has become a worldwide organization, although it is often criticized by skeptics for its lack of methodological rigor. There is Mufon France, Mufon Italy, Mufon India, Mufon Japan, Mufon Qatar, Mufon United Kingdom, Mufon Russia, Mufon Turkey… The organization has little presence on the African continent, with the exception of South Africa, where it is represented by Lee Strydom.

The ufological network in French-speaking Africa has just born. Repas Ufologiques is represented in Cameroon, but is not very active, unlike Repas Ufologiques in France. The principle : UFO enthusiasts or simply the curious meet in a restaurant to attend a lecture by an expert on the subject, invited for the occasion. It’s meant to be both informative and convivial. The Cameroonian initiative belongs to Matheo Mapan, in Douala, the last meal dates back to September 4, 2016. There’s also a Facebook group called Ovni-Congo, which is not very dynamic and mainly relays international news, for better or worse.

Will we see the emergence of a Congolese Baptiste Fricourt, a Cameroonian Thibaut Canuti, a Central African Pierre Lagrange, a Guinean Fabrice Bonvin, an Ivorian Pascal Fechner, a Rwandan Jean-Louis Lagneau? Will local directors, like Paul Plumat or Dominique Filhol in France, tackle the subject? In the preceding lines, we’ve alluded to French ufology personalities who have strong convictions without being believers. But interestingly, even a more esoteric current of ufological thought (de facto more controversial without necessarily being assimilated to the Raelian movement) that is fairly well established in France is absent in French-speaking Africa. For example,
there is no equivalent of Anne Givaudan, considered a New Age spiritualist. Finally, on the question of abductions (supposed extraterrestrial abductions), while in France we have qualified psychologists like Nicolas Dumont or Isabelle de Kochko at the cutting edge of this particular subject, to our knowledge there are none on the African continent, all linguistic areas taken together. A continent where, moreover, the profession of psychologist suffers from many prejudices.

This text is taken from the book ‘The UFO Issue in Central Africa’ by Jann Halexander (November 2024)