Occupied by Belgians for almost 80 years, the effects of colonization still resonate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo decades after independence.
A refugee center in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. United Nations Photo. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
As the leader of the small European country of Belgium in the 1880s, King Leopold II did not have much political clout with his fellow European statesmen. He wanted more political power so he achieved this by gaining personal control of a vast swath of Central Africa, which became the Congo Free State. King Leopold ruthlessly subjugated the local populations of the region in order to extract as much raw materials such as ivory and rubber as possible, committing human rights violations in the process. It was not until 1902 when Joseph Conrad published the novel Heart of Darkness criticizing Leopold’s administration of the Congo and in 1904 when Edmund Dene Morel published a report detailing the atrocities in the Congo did Western public opinion turn against King Leopold, who was forced in 1908 to relinquish control of the Congo Free State to the Belgian government.
Today, those atrocities committed by King Leopold and the Belgians are still felt by the area, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The relationship that the Belgian colonial administration espoused was one of paternalism, where the Congolese were treated like children, which resulted in them unprepared for self-determination. When the DRC gained independence in 1960, it plunged into a state of sporadic political conflicts due to the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko that lasted until the 1990s. The peace that ended that drawn out conflict only lasted a short time, and violence soon erupted again.
Currently, the eastern region of the country is held by at least 122 rebel groups, with the legitimate government struggling to control the region. That has caused more than 5 million people to be displaced between 2017 and 2019 and an additional 72,000 and counting since May 2022, with many fleeing areas controlled by rebel groups. Many areas receiving refugees are overwhelmed and do not have the proper infrastructure to support them.
The almost incessant warfare since independence may seem unconnected to the legacy of imperialism, but that is not the case. The seeds for the present political instability were sowed when the Congo was under Belgian rule. The Congo is a region with vast natural resources, from ivory and rubber of old to the mineral wealth of today. The abundance of raw materials and resources was exactly why Congo was colonized. When the borders of Africa were carved up by European powers, no regard was made to the various tribes already living in the area. Some groups of people were divided between different countries, and enemy tribes sometimes found themselves within the same domain. When the DRC gained independence, the various tribes were not united, leading to no coherent vision for the future of the country, thus sowing political instability.
In addition, since the purpose of the Congo Free State was solely to enrich King Leopold and later Belgium, there was no effort to develop a political or academic class among the local population. As such, at independence, there was no model of self-governance to follow after decades of infantilization by Europeans. That caused Mobutu Sese Seko to take advantage of the power vacuum and install himself dictator for more than 30 years.
The international response to the violence in the DRC has deprived the country of even more of its sustenance. International companies are refusing to do business with the DRC due to its human rights violations, depriving many of the mining jobs that they depend on. In order to survive, those people end up joining rebel groups, further perpetuating the violence.
The cycle of violence that started with Belgian occupation did not end in the 1990s. Subsequent leaders of the DRC used violence to consolidate their rule, since that was the only method they ever experienced. But, efforts have been made to ensure a sustainable future. The UN is stepping in by giving the DRC a peacebuilding fund to provide services to ex-rebels to reintegrate into their communities and to support over 300 women miners to better manage their sites and defend their rights. UNICEF also supports school reopenings, an essential indicator of peace. By prioritizing the reopening of schools in conflict zones, UNICEF ensures peaceful coexistence after prolonged conflict. The outside aid that the DRC is receiving gives local communities the agency to control their future.
To Get Involved
Cordaid is one organization providing humanitarian aid to the region. Another organization working to improve conditions by enabling local communities to form cooperatives that can successfully sustain peace in the communities in the DRC is Peace Direct.
Bryan Fok
Bryan is currently a History and Global Affairs major at the University of Notre Dame. He aims to apply the notion of Integral Human Development as a framework for analyzing global issues. He enjoys hiking and visiting national parks.