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Violence in Congo
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Violence in Congo
Research Question
What are the main contributors to the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Background
Overview
The Democratic Republic of Congo is a country located in the central part of Africa. DRC was colonized by Belgium between 1885 and 1960. The vast mineral resources were a main attraction for Belgium. The DRC has had a turbulent political past since its independence, which is one of the reasons for long-standing violence in the country. The country’s first President, Mobutu Sese Seko, ruled between 1965 and 1997 under a dictatorial form of government. Mobutu’s rule came to an end with a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila in 1997. Several other east African countries including Rwanda and Uganda supported the rebellion that saw Kabila installed as president in May 1997. President Kabila made efforts to strengthen institutions such as the judiciary in the country. His son, Joseph Kabila, took over as Resident upon the elder Kabila’s assassination in January 2001. Joseph Kabila set up transitional government with autonomy for the three branches of government. The DRC held its first democratic elections in late 2018 with opposition leader Félix Tshisekedi sworn in as president in January 2019. The DRC continues to have weak government systems even with democratic elections held for the first time,
The DRC has immense economic resources mainly from its mineral deposits as well as rubber found in the country. The country has approximately $24 trillion worth of mineral deposits within its borders. Although these resources should be a source of wealth and prosperity to the country, Congo has suffered many problems. Congo supplies gold, cobalt, tin, diamond, lithium, tantalum and other precious minerals to the world. The DRC’s mild climate is also conducive for the production of rubber. During the various civil unrests in the country such as the Second Congo War between 1998 and 2003, the country faced massive looting of its minerals by civilians, foreigners and armed forces.
Key Issues
The main causes of violence in the DRC are weak government systems, massive corruption, fights over mineral deposits, and the refugee crisis from the Rwanda genocide. The 1994 Rwanda genocide led to a mass exodus of civilians from Rwanda seeking asylum in neighboring countries, one of these being the DRC. Most of these refugees were Hutu. Congolese rebels attacked the Hutu community supported by Tutsis in power in Rwanda (Mathys 465). These armed groups claimed that they wanted to track down those who participated in the genocide. The Congolese government could not control the armed groups in the eastern part of the country, leading to rampant violence. These Rwandan groups eventually supported the ousting of Laurent Kabila as president.
The DRC has weak government systems that contribute to the violence in the country. The government shows little commitment to strengthening institutions under the constitution. The president controls all arms of government, meaning there is no justice or accountability for those supporting and funding violence across the country. Massive corruption has also crippled the DRC and led to violence (Vadheim 13). Government officials own many mines across the country and channel resources to their own pockets rather than the development of the country. A perfect example of this is President Joseph Kabila who has amassed over $ 2 billion during his thirteen years in power, a mind-boggling sum in the impoverished nation. The government and other foreign bodies keep funding the various armed forces in the country to keep the war going (Vlassenroot & Verweijen 103). When the country is unstable, these powers have ample opportunities to loot the country while its citizens are too busy trying to survive. The DRC has more than 4 million internally displaced persons from the civil unrest, which also left more than six million dead. The violence in the DRC is a dire problem that needs urgent international attention.
Works Cited
Mathys, Gillian. “Bringing history back in: past, present, and conflict in Rwanda and the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.” Journal of African History 58.3 (2017): 465.
The Rwandan genocide is one of the main contributors of violence in Eastern DRC. The authors of this article explore the domino effect of the Rwandan genocide on neighboring countries. The article also highlights how the genocide shaped DRC politics. The article is reliable as it is current and peer-reviewed.
Parker, Dominic P., and Bryan Vadheim. “Resource cursed or policy cursed? US regulation of conflict minerals and violence in the Congo.” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 4.1 (2017): 1-49.
This peer reviewed article published in 2017 analyzes the causes of violence in the DRC. The weak government policies have been blamed for violence. The authors also explore whether the relationship between weak government policies and misuse of resources in the country. Should the resources be blamed, or policies regarding these resources? The article helps readers understand the effect of policy on the DRC violence.
Rustad, Siri Aas, Gudrun Østby, and Ragnhild Nordås. “Artisanal mining, conflict, and sexual violence in Eastern DRC.” The Extractive Industries and Society 3.2 (2016): 475-484.
Women are one of the groups most affected by the violence in the DRC. This source is useful as it details the relationship between mining and sexual violence against women. The article also explores the idea of conflict minerals, supporting the argument that minerals are the primary cause of violence in the DRC. This source is relevant because it is peer-reviewed and current.
Vlassenroot, Koen, and Judith Verweijen. “Democratic Republic of Congo: The democratization of militarized politics.” Africa’s Insurgents. Navigating an Evolving Landscape (2017): 99-118.
This article sheds light on the various armed rebel groups that continue to fuel violence in the country. The nature and constitution of these groups vary. The main reason why these groups continue to thrive is that some political leaders use them to fuel conflict to their benefit and hide their corrupt activities. Understanding how these groups operate will be useful in understanding why there are so many militant groups and why the government cannot or does control them.
Zeuner, Brett. “An obsolescing bargain in a rentier state: Multinationals, artisanal miners, and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Frontiers in Energy Research 6 (2018): 123.
The Mining industry in the DRC has many players, from small artisans, industries to multinational groups. The politics in the country have a significant influence on how these groups operate within the industry. This article will help readers understand how the political leaders of the country regulate the participation of these bodies, and how it affects political stability and resource dependency in the country.
US History
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US History
There are several similarities as well as differences in the stories of Richard Frethorne and Olaudah Equiano. The first similarity is that they were both servants in foreign lands and suffered under challenging conditions. Frethorne was an indentured servant from England and had to work long hours under inhumane conditions with no pay at all. Similarly, Equiano’s story shows that he transported to Barbados to be a slave in the plantations. Both men had little choice in their positions and relied on the welfare of others. In addition to this, the two men witnessed many horrors as told in their stories. Frethorne explains that most of the companions he traveled with to Virginia died. Equiano describes appalling conditions in the ships transporting slaves, in which many of the slaves died.
One of the differences between the two men is that Frethorne went willingly into his occupation as an indentured servant, while Equiano claims to have been captured from West Africa and transported to Barbados. Frethorne says that Goodman Jacks castigated him for choosing to become an indentured servant, ignorant of what such a life entailed. Another difference between the two men’s stories is their captors. Equiano was captured by his fellow Africans and sold into slavery, and later ended up as a slave in Barbados. Frethorne, on the other hand, was an indentured servant to his fellow Englishmen, being a poor man in England. He went willingly, perhaps hoping to make a living from his position, but soon after realized what a dismal position he had put himself in. The two men also served in different locations; Frethorne in Virginia and Equiano in Barbados. The stories of the two men are also set in different times. Equiano’s is set in the late eighteenth century while Frethorne narrates his story in the early seventeenth century.
Ujamaa in Tanzania
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Ujamaa in Tanzania
When Tanzania gained independence from colonization, the country adopted the ideology of Ujamaa which translates to family hood. The country’s first president, Julius Nyerere, saw this new ideology as the best path towards social and economic sustainability in the country. Ujamaa has some distinct features, the first of which was rural development. Under Ujamaa, the government concentrated on developing rural areas to address imbalance in rural and urban areas. Another feature of Ujamaa was the creation of model villages where people lived and worked together as a community (Sheikheldin 91). In these villages, people worked on collective farms to promote social equality. Individuals could not claim any property, everything was communal. Under Ujamaa, President Nyerere also introduced universal primary education and improved access to health services in rural areas. These two programs were meant to further promote equity and encourage development in rural areas of the country. The emphasis on communal development in the country discouraged the idea of political and social elite as everyone was equal. Ujamaa also promoted discipline among leaders.
Although the socialist ideology of Ujamaa sounded good in theory, it failed to live up to its expectations in Tanzania. One reason for this is that the country relied on traditional methods of agriculture and failed to modernize (Keski̇n & Abdalla 298). This resulted in low output due to inefficiency. Additionally, the country only focused on subsistence farming which did not bring in any revenue. Secondly, the Ujamaa system had many administrative errors. The allocation of communal work spaces remained largely unproductive. Most of the crops grown were unsuited to the areas in terms of infertility of the land and other aspects such as weather and type of soil. The country also had poor infrastructural network, posing a challenge to agriculture which was the mainstay of the economy. Although Tanzania implemented the socialist ideology of Ujamaa to promote social equality in the country, poor implementation eventually led to failure of the program.
Works Cited
Keski̇n, İbrahim, and Mohd Juma Abdalla. “The Sociological Analysis Of The Failure Of Ujamaa Policy.” Academic Review of Humanities and Social Sciences 2.3 (2019): 297-313.
Sheikheldin, Gussai H. “Ujamaa: Planning and managing development schemes in Africa, Tanzania as a case study.” The Journal of Pan African Studies 8.1 (2015): 78-96.