MIT Emerging Talent - Bashombana’s Story
Meet Bashombana Mushagalusa, a former aspiring doctor from war-torn Congo who now resides in South Africa and is pursuing an education in Data Science at MIT, envisioning not just personal transformation but also to empower his community…
Seeking asylum in Cape Town, Bashombana Mushagalusa carries the weight of his past while navigating the present and aspiring for a brighter future for him, his wife and his three daughters.
The 43-year-old arrived in South Africa in 2005, though his story starts long before.
Mushagalusa’s odyssey began in the DRC, traversing first from the eastern city of Bukavu to Lubumbashi before escaping Congo, he was a young man fuelled by his professional aspirations to be a doctor.
However, his dreams of delving into medical sciences were both inspired and damaged by the political turmoil and ethnic conflicts that gripped the region.
“With all the troubles that were happening in Congo, I dreamt of becoming a soldier back then.
“I was thinking maybe one day, [I’d be] not just a soldier for the sake of being a soldier, but a doctor who will be treating soldiers who will try to fight for the injustices and the trouble that I've lived back in Congo.”
The seeds of Mushagalusa’s narrative intertwine with the geopolitical intricacies of President Joseph-Desiré Mobutu's Congo.
The Rwandan Genocide, an unforgettable chapter in history, cast shadows over neighbouring nations, with atrocities reaching Mushagalusa’s homeland.
From his bedroom he could see Rwanda on the other side of the Ruzizi River and also saw an influx of Rwandan refugees with ‘military equipment’ arriving into eastern Zaire (now DRC) which marked a turning point.
Mushagalusa recalls, “You could be playing and you hear a child just pick up a hand grenade somewhere, open it, and then it would blow them away, or [you] just heard something that you've never had before, or you'll hear people fighting with the guns here and there.
During Mushagalusa’s third year of high school was the war of liberation with the former President Laurent-Désiré Kabila who came to liberate the Congolese against Mobutu’s regime.
“We did not know who was coming for that war [sic], who was leading that war, who was the enemy of that war, but we could definitely witness people shooting from Rwanda into Congo.”
Having attempted to flee with his mother and eight siblings, the family only reached up to 10km away from home before fights broke out.
“In my particular case in my family my mum is from a town or a village called Katana in the DRC and it's so close to Rwanda.
“So we had my mum's brother or cousin, some members of families, who entered the military back then and me and my mum were accused of being close to people from Rwanda.”
Accused of having links to the Tutsis, even just because Mushagalusa’s maternal grandfather was tall in height, the family lived under constant fear and were the subject of many accusations.
Taken to Lubumbashi to study, Mushagalusa never managed to escape claims from those around him about his origins.
“Strange enough in South Africa for the past 17/18 years, you still get people from Congo and people from Rwanda who will point your fingers like ‘you have connection with Rwandese [sic] people’
“I feel like I don't belong to Congo, I don't belong to Rwanda and I don't belong to South Africa.”
Pushed by this feeling of being an outsider by both nations, Mushagalusa arrived to South Africa by truck in an arduous journey.
Amidst the trials of displacement, Mushagalusa embarked on an educational pursuit, navigating the intricacies of online learning with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU).
The SNHU partnership with Scalabrini, an NGO in South Africa, provided a beacon of hope for Mushagalusa, offering a chance to defy the odds stacked against asylum seekers.
He began an Associate of Art degree in Healthcare Management, but later changed his Bachelor’s degree into Business Management with a focus in Logistics and Operations due to the lack of employment opportunities available to an asylum seeker with a Healthcare Management degree, despite it being more closely aligned to his passions.
“As an asylum seeker, not even a refugee but as an asylum seeker in South Africa, you struggle to get anything,” Mushagalusa explained.
“Bear in mind, I have a family to feed, school fees to pay, rent to pay and life in general; I need to better my life so I've been looking for a job.
“With my degree, since I got it and even before I got it, [I’ve had] no luck.”
Mushagalusa’s venture into the realm of Information Technology isn’t just an academic pursuit, it is a source of hope in a country where unemployment rates have soared and opportunities seem so elusive for people in his position.
At a disadvantage within the traditional job market, it is in the world of data science that Mushagalusa sees a potential avenue for hope, as it appears that not only are there plenty of opportunities due to the remote nature of many IT jobs, but also because the industry seems to be more of a meritocracy.
Mushagalusa’s journey to MIT’s Emerging Talent programme was not a straightforward one.
It began with a link he received while volunteering, offering a chance to apply to one of the world's most prestigious institutions.
The application process was rigorous, involving Google forms and video submissions.
Despite the challenges, Mushagalusa knew the importance of this opportunity in shaping his future; out of 2000 applicants, only a small fraction were accepted, with Mushagalusa proudly securing his spot.
“Even if I'm old, I think this can help me in life, can help me get a job,” he continued, “I might be retiring one day, but I'll be sitting behind my computer somewhere and still be working, if I get this knowledge in IT.”
Having started in September, the course presented its own set of challenges.
Mushagalusa found himself involved in coding for the first time in his life, an essential skill for data science, and the learning curve was steep.
However, life took an unexpected turn when Mushagalusa secured a private job that required extensive travel and the hiatus disrupted his studies, leading to a setback.
Fortunately, Mushagalusa turned to the pastoral care system provided by MIT and Camila Massa, his program coordinator at the institution, and despite the setback, the course was set to restart in January, offering him a chance to catch up with his peers, and he was also offered support from unconnected.org.
With power outages a regular occurrence and WiFi speeds nowhere near as fast as the data he is provided by unconnected.org, Mushagalusa has plenty more opportunity to study and described the support as ‘really helpful’.
Having taught himself basic use of computers in internet cafés and in a factory shop in South Africa, Mushagalusa is understandably proud of where he has reached.
“If you look from where I come from and where I am, probably not where I desired to be or wish to be, but there is a complete change, there is a complete transformation and I am always grateful for that,” he said.
“There is so much that I still need to have for me and for my family, but seeing myself going to work sitting in the office [and] when I see myself going to MIT one of the top universities teaching Information Technology I was like ‘wow, how did I get this chance of being here?’”
As he strives toward a brighter future, Mushagalusa envisions more than personal success.
His dreams extend to giving back to his community, especially to his own daughters as well as to other young refugee and asylum seekers in South Africa who face challenges in accessing higher education that he has had exposure to thanks in part to his volunteer work as a project coordinator for an NGO called Scalabrini.
"If I get a chance to teach other people how to use a computer, how to code, how to do data science, that would be something I would really enjoy with my life," he shared.
He goes on: “My dream would be when I don’t have to worry about my kids eating I can be somewhere where I don’t need money but I can do what I enjoy, because I have been enjoying computers so much.
“If I had this opportunity when I was younger than I am now, I think I would be someone else today.”
