1. Nous sommes dans une situation d’après les élections nationales et provinciales avant les élections locales. Les premières ont eu lieu dans des conditions d’ignorance civique et des textes de base dans la grande population ainsi que de la grande misère des celle-ci. Le choix était affecté par les urgences d’exigences de la survie (tant alimentaire que sécuritaire) humaine.  read more »

We are pleased, as part of our commitment to sharing thoughtful and insightful commentary on the Democratic Republic of Congo, to post this essay by Zahra Moloo. A full pdf version, formatted and with references is available but for those with assistive technology needs, the full text is posted below.

Source Oxfam, NZ  read more »

1. In the past, when politics were focused on the State, war was said to be the continuation of State politics by other means. War pitted one State against another. Today, when the weakness of a State is perceived as an ideal for neo-liberalist globalisation, war has hardly been declared by a State. Even the so-called preventive wars do not seem to be tied to States. Terrorism is said to be a trans-State condition of warfare and anti-terrorist war is a war pitting evil against good.
    read more »

English translation coming soon.

LA PARITE HOMME/FEMME, EN RDC, COMME SPECIFICITE DE LA 3EME REPUBLIQUE ?

ERNEST WAMBA DIA WAMBA  read more »

1. La Constitution de la Troisième République consacre la parité homme/femme. Voici ce qu’elle en dit, dans son préambule:
   

1. In its most recent report, ICG (International Crisis Group) has deplored the repressive tendencies accompanying the dawn of the DRC Third Republic. Protests are handled repressively, acts of insecurity, throughout the country, seem to be mostly originating from elements of the FARDC.  read more »

1. “Democratic elections” have taken place, the first ones in about 37 years or so. As a UN diplomat said: ‘not the best ones’. Outsiders claimed them to be fair and free, with only minor cases of fraud. But many Congolese felt that they were manipulated and fraudulent. More precisely: would-be Congolese demos was manipulated to the extent of getting it to accept a somewhat imposed conception of democracy. Less than 1% of the electorate in the referendum on the Constitution had read the text before going to vote for or against it.  read more »

This story originally appeared in Pambazuka News 302, May 3, 2007. The original is at http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/41131

Trade in African slaves underpinned the British economy in the 18th
century: the rich and powerful, the monarchy and the Church. So why
was an enterprise that was so economically important ended so
abruptly in the first decade of the 19th century? Hakim Adi explains...

In March 2007 large-scale commemorative events were organised to mark
the bi-centenary of the parliamentary act to abolish the trans-  read more »

This story originally appeared in Z Magazine Online, February 2005 Volume 18 Number 2
The original is at http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Feb2005/snow0205.html  read more »

This interview was conducted in 2004 by Harry Kreisler, as part of the University of California's Conversations with History series. You can see the original pages here.

Background

Professor Wamba, welcome to Berkeley.

Thank you very much.

Where were you born and raised?

I was born in the DRC, Congo, in Bas-Congo at a place called
Sundi-Lutete.  read more »

The most overused explanation for the continuing chaos and warfare in the DRCongo is its fabulous and legendary resources (gold, copper, cobalt, uranium, diamonds, coltan, timber, water, etc.). Recently, thanks to Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost, the public can connect today's situation to what happened a century ago. This book was not only a useful reminder of the genocidal impact of Belgian conquest on the Congolese people, it also provided a graphic, raw illustration of the principles by which political and financial leaders having been ruling the world as a whole.  read more »