Democratic Republic of the Congo

Publication date: 2014

Van Reybrouck reviews some of the most dramatic episodes in Congolese history -- from the slave trade to the ivory and rubber booms; from the arrival of Henry Morton Stanley to the tragic regime of King Leopold II; from global indignation to Belgian colonialism; from the struggle for independence to Mobutu's brutal rule; and from the world famous Rumble in the Jungle to the civil war over natural resources that began in 1996 and still rages today.

Publication date: 1999

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million -- all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains.

Publication date: 2002

The people of the Congo have suffered from a particularly brutal colonial rule, American interference after independence, decades of robbery at the hands of the dictator Mobutu and periodic warfare which continues even now in the East of the country. But, as this insightful political history makes clear, the Congolese people have not taken these multiple oppressions lying down and have fought over many years to establish democratic institutions at home and free themselves from foreign exploitation; indeed these are two aspects of a single project.

Publication date: 1985

Zaire, apparently strong and stable under President Mobutu in the early 1970s, was bankrupt and discredited by the end of that decade, beset by hyperinflation and mass corruption, the populace forced into abject poverty. Why and how, in a new African state strategically located in Central Africa and rich in mineral resources, did this happen? How did the Zairian state become a “parasitic predator” upon its own people? In this broadly researched study, Crawford Young and Thomas Edwin Turner examine the political history of Mobutu’s Zaire, looking at critical structures and patterns of societal flux, inequality, and cleavage, in particular the urban-rural nexus, the problematic of class formation, and the fluid patterns of cultural pluralism.

Publication date: 2010

What was it like to be colonized by foreigners? Highlighting a region in central Congo, in the center of sub-Saharan Africa, Being Colonized places Africans at the heart of the story. In a richly textured history that will appeal to general readers and students as well as to scholars, the distinguished historian Jan Vansina offers not just accounts of colonial administrators, missionaries, and traders, but the varied voices of a colonized people. Vansina uncovers the history revealed in local news, customs, gossip, and even dreams, as related by African villagers through archival documents, material culture, and oral interviews.

Publication date: 2019

This book explores the uneasy relationship between church and state in the Belgian Congo, showing how the expansion of the Catholic Church contributed both to the construction and dismantling of colonial rule. It draws on extensive archival research and oral history, taking the Kongolo territory in southeastern Congo as a focus for understanding church-state relations in central Africa.

Publication date: 2022

The book takes Brussels’ colonial imprints – found in many of its statues, squares, street names, monuments, buildings and institutions - as a starting point to dive into Belgium’s colonisation of Congo, focusing specifically on the communes of Etterbeek, Ixelles and Schaerbeek as well as the areas surrounding the Place Royale and Cinquantenaire. With an entire chapter devoted to Tervuren’s controversial AfricaMuseum, as well as perfunctory essays by seasoned decolonial and anti-racist experts Véronique Clette-Gakuba, Anne M. Georgine Dibua, François Makanga and Anne Wetsi Mpoma, Colonial tales, trails and traces highlights the corrosive impact colonisation continues to have at every layers of contemporary Belgian society.

Publication date: 2022

The age of colonial exhibitions recounts the now-forgotten history of persons put on display as living exhibits. Illustrated by exceptional images and documents that in some cases are on public view for the first time.

Publication date: 2020

Le colonialisme suscite aujourd'hui bon nombre de débats souvent passionnés et parfois marqués par leur méconnaissance des faits et du contexte. C'est pourquoi Le Congo colonial souhaite présenter les résultats de la recherche actuelle et les connaissances scientifiques d'aujourd'hui à un large public, et développer ainsi une nouvelle vision globale de la thématique. À l'aide de questions concrètes, des historiens offrent un aperçu unique sur le passé colonial belge. Comment l'administration autocratique de Léopold II a-t-elle fonctionné et que savons-nous des victimes ? Combien de profits ont été réalisés au Congo et à qui ont-ils été versés ? Comment les Congolais, hommes et femmes, ont-ils vécu la colonisation ? Comment ont-ils résisté ? Quel fut l'impact du colonialisme sur la nature ? Quelles ont été les conséquences de la politique coloniale en matière d'infrastructure, d'éducation, de santé et de science ? Les missionnaires ont-ils donné au colonialisme un visage plus humain ? Ces questions, et bien d'autres, font de ce livre un document aussi indispensable que révélateur.

Publication date: 2009

What's in a name? As Osumaka Likaka argues in this illuminating study, the names that Congolese villagers gave to European colonizers reveal much about how Africans experienced and reacted to colonialism. The arrival of explorers, missionaries, administrators, and company agents allowed Africans to observe Westerners' physical appearances, behavior, and cultural practices at close range—often resulting in subtle yet trenchant critiques. By naming Europeans, Africans turned a universal practice into a local mnemonic system, recording and preserving the village's understanding of colonialism in the form of pithy verbal expressions that were easy to remember and transmit across localities, regions, and generations.

Publication date: 2016

In A Nervous State, Nancy Rose Hunt considers the afterlives of violence and harm in King Leopold's Congo Free State. Discarding catastrophe as narrative form, she instead brings alive a history of colonial nervousness. This mood suffused medical investigations, security operations, and vernacular healing movements.

Publication date: 2000

The book documents and discusses the case of the Twa, so-called pygmy people, of the Kahuzi-Biega forests, South Kivu Province in Eastern Congo. The particular case of the Twa of Kahuzi-Biega is presented in the African context as well as in the context of emerging and established international norms and principles of indigenous peoples rights. Heading Towards Extinction? is a plea for recognition of the legal rights that the Twa are entitled to as an indigenous people. The book calls for the reform of the assimilationist approach taken by the Congolese government as well as the agencies involved in managing the Kahuzi-Biega National Park

Publication date: 2014

The forest foragers of the Congo Basin, known collectively as "Pygmies," are the largest and most diverse group of active hunter-gatherers remaining in the world. At least fifteen different ethno-linguistic groups exist in the Congo Basin with a total population of 250,000 to 350,000 individuals. Extensive knowledge about these groups has accumulated in the last forty years, but readers have been forced to piece together what is known from many sources. French, Japanese, American, and British researchers have conducted the majority of the research; each national research group has its own academic traditions, history, and publications. Here, leading academic authorities from diverse national traditions summarize recent research on forest hunter-gatherers.

Publication date: 2014

Le projet CAB (Centres d'Alphabétisation pour Batwa) initié par les Missionnaires C.I.C.M, à Penzwa, s'est avéré être un soulagement et un espoir de développement pour les enfants autochtones pygmées, analphabètes et sans ressource. L'Abbé Joseph Belepe offre dans cet ouvrage un hommage posthume aux Missionnaires qui ont entrepris le travail patient d'une évangélisation pour instruire les Batwa sur leurs droits spécifiques, créer des écoles pour leurs enfants.

Publication date: 2016

L'activité touristique sur les sites de l'espace pygmée en RD Congo est, depuis quelques années, « vendue » par les opérateurs touristiques comme une expérience de découverte d un monde perdu, « primitif » ou même « non contaminé ». Le triangle Mbandaka Bikoro Inongo, sur lequel cet ouvrage projette le regard, dévoile la manière dont les communautés pygmées batwa répondent aux besoins touristiques de leurs visiteurs en mal de découverte culturelle. Elles n'exhibent ni monuments ni littérature, mais plutôt des objets symboliques, des savoirs et des savoir-faire traditionnels en matière de pêche et de chasse, d'artisanat, d'utilisation culturelle des végétaux et de conservation de la forêt. Elles s'évertuent avec fierté à la présentation des sites naturels, des arts culinaires et vestimentaires, des merveilleux attributs du pouvoir traditionnel, des cosmogonies, des rituels, des chants et des danses, y compris diverses variétés linguistiques. À ce jour, la rencontre touristique entre les visiteurs et les Batwa est réduite à des visites de sites et aux diverses expressions culturelles. Elle n a débouché ni sur un tourisme culturel durable ni sur la « commodification » qui transforme ces ingrédients culturels en marchandises touristiques consommables et rentables.

Publication date: 2015

African Artisanal Mining from the Inside Out provides a rich and in-depth analysis of the Congolese gold sector. Instead of portraying miners and traders as passive victims of economic forces, regional conflicts or disheartening national policies, it focuses on how they gain access to and benefit from gold.

Publication date: 2021

Since the beginning of the 21st century, African countries with mineral resources have witnessed an unprecedented rise in foreign direct investments and the development of new flexible workforce management practices in the mining industry. But what does this mean for those who actually work in this industry? Based on research in the Congo and Zambia, where a mining boom has led to more than thirty new mining projects in recent years, this book explores the processes of improvisation and adaptation behind the emergence of this neoliberal labour regime. The contributors show how mining projects' labour practices have been mediated, negotiated, or resisted by mine workers, unionists, and human resource managers. They discuss variations in labour practices put in place by new mining projects depending on the type of capital involved, the type of mine being developed, and their location. Finally, the book examines the implications of power dynamics surrounding companies' labour strategies from the broader perspective of the responsibility of trade unions, gender equality, and identity politics.--Landing page

Publication date: 2013

En 1926, l'Union minière du Haut-Katanga jette les bases de sa politique paternaliste, qui touchera tous les aspects de la vie quotidienne de ses travailleurs pendant plus d'un demi-siècle. En 2003, après une décennie dans la tourmente, 10000 agents sont licenciés de l'entreprise dans le cadre du projet de libéralisation du secteur minier conçu par la Banque mondiale. De quelle façon ont-ils réagi à leur "abandon" par l'entreprise ? Comment ont-ils fait face à leur nouvelle indépendance ?

Publication date: 2021

Dans Cobalt blues, le journaliste Erik Bruyland se plonge dans l'histoire postcoloniale de son pays natal, la République démocratique du Congo. Le passé colonial belge transmue vers des scènes quasi d'esclavage dans les mines les plus riches au monde. Alors pourquoi ce pays tellement riche est-il si pauvre ? Son travail fouillé de journaliste d'investigation dévoile comment des opportunistes et des spéculateurs ont - comme des vautours - pu faire main basse sur les richesses minières du pays. Bruyland détricote les carrousels économiques et financiers et les manigances géopolitiques qui ont abouti à la tragédie du Cobalt blues : l'or bleu qu'engrangent des sociétés offshore, la sueur noire n'en récoltant rien. Et tout ça, pour assouvir notre appétence pour nos téléphones intelligents ou voitures électriques

Publication date: 2011

Much of the war-torn country has largely become lawless, overrun by warlords who exploit and murder the population for their own gain. Delving into the history of the former Belgian colony, this book exposes the horror of day-to-day life in the Congo, largely precipitated by colonial exploitation and internal strife after gaining independence. It offers not only a view into the dire situation but also examines how the Western world, a part of the problem, can become a part of the solution.

Publication date: 2019

The Democratic Republic of Congo is endowed with immense mineral wealth. Its minerals include cobalt, copper, diamond, gold, iron, manganese, tantalum, tin, tungsten, and zinc. Yet the contribution of mineral abundance to the country's economic development is poor. The Congolese mining sector was initiated in 1905 with the creation of OKIMO (Office des Mines d'or de Kilo Moto) and UMHK (Union Minière du Haut-Katanga). The rapid development of mining companies improved economic growth until 1973, when President Mobutu introduced a variety of inadequate economic policies, including zairianization and radicalization, that slowed down economic development. The actual mining code was adopted in 2002 to enhance a mining sector that already collapsed. This study suggests a variety of mechanisms and measures that are meant to energize the Congolese mining sector and, hence, allow the country to benefit entirely from its mineral abundance.

Publication date: 2017

This book is about “child labor exploitation.” The book argues that mining work is one of the worst forms of child labor because the working conditions in the mines are harmful to the health, safety, education, and development of child miners. It also contends that a combination of factors drives children to work in the artisanal mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These variables include poverty; adult unemployment; lack of educational opportunities; sociocultural conditions; lack of law enforcement; and globalization with its high demand for mined minerals and cheap labor. The book also alleges that child miners in the DRC contribute significantly in the production of a variety of raw minerals, such as cobalt, coltan, and tin, which are used in the process of fabrication cell phones, computers and other modern electronics.

Publication date: 2012

At the heart of Africa is Congo, a country the size of Western Europe, bordering nine other nations, that since 1996 has been wracked by a brutal and unstaunchable war in which millions have died. And yet, despite its epic proportions, it has received little sustained media attention. In this deeply reported book, Jason Stearns vividly tells the story of this misunderstood conflict through the experiences of those who engineered and perpetrated it. He depicts village pastors who survived massacres, the child soldier assassin of President Kabila, a female Hutu activist who relives the hunting and methodical extermination of fellow refugees, and key architects of the war that became as great a disaster as- and was a direct consequence of - the genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Through their stories, he tries to understand why such mass violence made sense, and why stability has been so elusive. Through their voices, and an astonishing wealth of knowledge and research, Stearns chronicles the political, social, and moral decay of the Congolese State.

Publication date: 2015

Cet ouvrage, consacré à l’évolution récente de l’armée loyaliste congolaise, les FARDC, est une étude descriptive, analytique et synthétique des réformes entreprises depuis leur création en 2003 jusqu’en 2014. L’ouvrage met en lumière les avancées et les dysfonctionnements constatés dans la mise en oeuvre de la réforme des FARDC. Une réforme - dévoyée - qui a dérivé du cadre conceptuel initial défini lors de élaboration et dont l’objectif consistait en la formation d’une armée nationale, restructurée et intégrée.

Publication date: 2007

This book, by a lifelong authority on the Congo, makes sense of the world's least reported and least understood major war. Since 1996 successive waves of armed conflict in the Congo have left behind at least 3 million casualties, overwhelmingly civilian. Turner throws new light on partisan and economically self-interested military interventions by Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia. And he cuts through the highly tendentious historical myths that have been used to make sense of the unfolding catastrophe both in the region and beyond. The book also indicates the changes required of the international community, neighboring African states and Congolese political leaders if this hugely resource-rich region of Central Africa is to build peace and economic security for its people.

Publication date: 2010

The Trouble with the Congo suggests a new explanation for international peacebuilding failures in civil wars. Drawing from more than 330 interviews and a year and a half of field research, it develops a case study of the international intervention during the Democratic Republic of the Congo's unsuccessful transition from war to peace and democracy (2003-2006). Grassroots rivalries over land, resources, and political power motivated widespread violence. However, a dominant peacebuilding culture shaped the intervention strategy in a way that precluded action on local conflicts, ultimately dooming the international efforts to end the deadliest conflict since World War II. Most international actors interpreted continued fighting as the consequence of national and regional tensions alone. UN staff and diplomats viewed intervention at the macro levels as their only legitimate responsibility. The dominant culture constructed local peacebuilding as such an unimportant, unfamiliar, and unmanageable task that neither shocking events nor resistance from select individuals could convince international actors to reevaluate their understanding of violence and intervention

Publication date: 2022

Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a "forever war"-a perpetual cycle of war, civil unrest, and local feuds over power and identity. Millions have died in one of the worst humanitarian calamities of our time. The book investigates the most recent phase of this conflict, asking why the peace deal of 2003-accompanied by the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world and tens of billions in international aid-has failed to stop the violence. Jason Stearns argues that the fighting has become an end in itself, carried forward in substantial part through the apathy and complicity of local and international actors. Stearns shows that regardless of the suffering, there has emerged a narrow military bourgeoisie of commanders and politicians for whom the conflict is a source of survival, dignity, and profit. Foreign donors provide food and urgent health care for millions, preventing the Congolese state from collapsing, but this involvement has not yielded transformational change. Stearns gives a detailed historical account of this period, focusing on the main players-Congolese and Rwandan states and the main armed groups. He extrapolates from these dynamics to other conflicts across Africa and presents a theory of conflict that highlights the interests of the belligerents and the social structures from which they arise.

Publication date: 2014

In southern Katanga, one of the richest regions in Africa and the economic heart of Congo, cities originated around copper and cobalt mines. The relationship between the mining industry and the population could almost resemble that between parent and child. For the past ten years Sammy Baloji has been capturing the memories, hopes and imaginings of these children of the mines. The historical perspective in the Memoire series boldly invites the oppressed of yesterday to engage in dialogue with the ruins of today. Far from presenting an impasse, it invites us to rethink society, as if to exorcise its demons, allowing the dead to find peace so they haunt us no more.

Publication date: 2016

Painting was one of the defining factors in the formation of Congolese national culture during the seventies and eighties. Looking back on works from this era, we gain a clear impression of the country's collective memory. The exhibition of paintings featured in this book explores the development of Congolese society from 1968-2012. Portraits, landscapes and allegorical paintings alternate with urban scenes, historical figures and critical reflections on religion, politics and social problems. Humor is never far away. Historical objects, photos, drawings and archive footage provide a broader perspective, and similarities to older art forms and other genres from Congo are clearly visible. The importance of popular paintings is not fundamentally different from that of more traditionally respected art; both are crucial reflections on their contexts, and informed the development of Congolese society.

Publication date: 2020

Up to the present day, the Congo serves as a screen for the projection of Western as well as African ideas and fictions. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is famous for its vibrant art scene. Nowhere else in Africa is artistic creativity so diverse, inventive, and at the pulse of time. Still, in the past, too, people in the Congo brought forth impressive masks, figures, and designer pieces, many of which today rank as icons of African art. Starting point of the book are objects and photographs brought home by the art anthropologist Hans Himmelheber (1908–2003) from his travels in the Congo in 1938/39. For the first time, historical masterpieces and photographs are being juxtaposed with contemporary artworks in an exhibition. Notably, ‘CONGO AS FICTION’ avoids a one-sided Western view on traditional African art by placing its focus on renowned contemporary Congolese artists such as Sammy Baloji, Michèle Magema, Monsengo Shula, and Sinzo Aanza. The exhibition shows how artists – past as well as present – critically deal with and assess the repercussions of colonialism, Christian proselytization, and global trade.

Publication date: 2018

This splendid illustrated exploration of masks and masking ceremonies from the Democratic Republic of the Congo presents more than 130 outstanding wooden masks dating from the 18th to the 20th century. Visually stunning and spiritually charged, these objects connected wearers with their ancestors and were part of elaborate costumes used in ritual performances. Including some of the finest works of African art in private hands, this volume features masks from eleven distinct stylistic zones: Ukongo, Ukwango, Ukete, Ukuba, Urunda, Uruwa, Utanganyika, Umaniema, Uituri, Ubangi, and Umongo. Displaying an enormous diversity of materials, design, and craftsmanship, these masks reflect the wide range of natural resources available throughout the Congo region and illuminate the unique belief systems of local populations. Accessible and informative essays provide insight into these extraordinary objects and are enlivened by both new photography and archival images showing the ceremonial use of masks in early 20th-century Congo.

Publication date: 2015

Taking as its point of departure the birth of modern painting in the Congo in the 1920s, this ambitious exhibition will trace almost a century of the country’s artistic production. While specifically focusing on painting, it will also include music, sculpture, photography, and comics, providing the public with the unique opportunity to discover the diverse and vibrant art scene of the region.

Publication date: 2019

Lors de son discours de Ouagadougou, en 2017, Emmanuel Macron a prôné une "restitution" des oeuvres d'art africaines conservées par les musées français. Le terme semble présupposer que les oeuvres sont détenues illégalement. Le rapport confié par la suite à Bénédicte Savoy et à Felwine Sarr (Restituer le patrimoine africain : Vers une nouvelle éthique relationnelle) va résolument dans ce sens : toutes les oeuvres doivent être "rendues" et il fixe pour cela un calendrier devant s'appliquer sans tarder. Si elles étaient suivies, les recommandations de ce rapport pourraient mettre la France, selon Emmanuel Pierrat, dans une situation intenable. Dans un texte documenté et combatif, ce grand connaisseur de l'art africain dresse un panorama complet de la question afin d'écarter les affirmations simplificatrices ou moralisatrices qui risquent d'entraver l'accès à la culture.

Publication date: 2022

For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. One of the world’s foremost experts on restitution and cultural heritage, Savoy investigates extensive, previously unpublished sources to reveal that the roots of the struggle extend much further back than prominent recent debates indicate, and that these efforts were covered up by myriad opponents. Shortly after 1960, when eighteen former colonies in Africa gained independence, a movement to pursue repatriation was spearheaded by African intellectual and political classes. Savoy looks at pivotal events, including the watershed speech delivered at the UN General Assembly by Zaire’s president, Mobutu Sese Seko, which started the debate regarding restitution of colonial-era assets and resulted in the first UN resolution on the subject. She examines how German museums tried to withhold information about their inventory and how the British Parliament failed to pass a proposed amendment to the British Museum Act, which protected the country’s collections. Savoy concludes in the mid-1980s, when African nations enacted the first laws focusing on the protection of their cultural heritage.

Publication date: 2016

A comic about the significance of the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Mobutu's Zaire.

Publication date: 2015

A comic on the risks faced by the Virunga National Parks surrounding poaching and criminal networks.

Publication date: 2021

A parody of Tintin in the Congo by an anti-capitalist young author.

Publication date: 2015

In 1978, a young German engineer arrives in Kinshasa. He is in charge of building the first African rocket by Mobutu.

Publication date: 2022

A comic based on the last moments of Mobutu's regime in the 1990s.

Publication date: 2015

Tintin Akei Kongo is the translated version of Tintin au Congo in lingala, one of the official Congolese languages. The goal is not to fill a historical error by making accessible this work in the language of the mainly interested, the oppressed, the insulted. One should never forget the implicit consensus that stands behind the choice of languages for translated works. The fact that the original edition hasn’t found its way to the African market with a Congolese edition, reminds the reader of Tintin Akei Kongo that distribution of cultural products is not solely governed by profit and market values. Adding lingala to the 112 different translations of the Tintin Empire, Tintin Akei Kongo reveals blind spots in the expansion of the publishing conglomerates.

Publication date: 2018

Language: Korean

History of the DRC.

Publication date: 2017

Language: Korean

Legends and tales of Central Africa

Publication date: 2016

Language: Korean

Economic conditions of the DRC.

Publication date: 2013

Language: Korean

Travel and description of the DRC.