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State failure in the Congo: perceptions & realities

Theodore Trefon Saskia,Saskia Van Hoyweghen,S. Smis

Published 2002 in Review of African Political Economy

ABSTRACT

Any new volume on 'state failure' or 'crisis' in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) runs the risk of either merely fine-tuning solid political analysis or reiterating misguided 'heart of darkness' cliches. We have accepted this challenge in order to critically analyse the abundant and sophisticated crisis terminology that has characterised scholarship on the Congo over the past two decades and to document the major shifts and developments in the Congo's political economy since the early 1990s. These shifts range from local level civil society and popular economy initiatives to the global implications of the replacement of a bipolar international system by a 'new economic order'. The regional manifestations of this new order in DRC, where cause and consequence overlap, are assassination, war, rebellion, invasion and pillage. Until the recent agreements between President Kabila and rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba, approximately one-third of the country was occupied by either rebel or foreign forces. Even so, as we write, Rwandan forces occupy large areas notably in the Kivus and in Orientale Province.

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