Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-84).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-300).

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This thesis seeks to respond to the on-going complaints from both African and western scholars that Africa is negatively represented in the western media. The findings showed that news stories, opinions and commentaries expressed throughout the coverage of the Congo, including editorials and letters and from pre-colonial to modern Congo, were written by western journalists and correspondents from the London Times and associated correspondents, while four other news agencies Agence France Press (AFP), Associated Press (AP), the Belgian news agency (Belga) and Reuters were the main sources for The Times newspaper. News makers in Pre-Colonial and Colonial periods were almost exclusively westerners and references to the Congolese people appeared in generic terms. In Post-Colonial and Modern periods, Congolese people did appear by name but only in a limited capacity. The thesis also identifies differences between the coverage in each period, for example highlighting the critical engagement with the Congo that characterised the reporting of 1908. The Congo was represented over the periods sampled with negative stereotypes such a 'primitive', 'backward', 'barbaric, 'dangerous destination,' 'place for business,' 'natives to be civilised, evangelised and educated.' Recurring themes such as forced labour, civil war, corruption, child exploitation, poverty, refugees, witchcraft, dependency and mismanagement prevail in the reporting. The research investigated the changing representations of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the western media by examining its coverage in the London Times from a historical context that included four key historic years in the Congo's development, namely 1885, 1908, 1960 and 2006, referred to as the Pre-Colonial, Colonial, Post-Colonial and Modern Congo periods. The London Times, which used to be one of the leading western newspapers and the British newspaper of record, was selected. Content and discourse analysis were used to evaluate and categorise the news items published in the sampled periods to distinguish the emerging themes, to identify the sources, and to interpret the language used in the coverage. The findings have shown that since its inception to the modern period, the reporting of the Congo in The Times has avowedly been through western eyes, and, as with much journalism, has not offered any real context to the stories. The poor benighted heathens thus continue in their war-torn arbours.

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Girl child education has been a challenge for many African countries due to the patriarchal gender order of communities. This is not different in the Democratic Republic of Congo where son preference is still rife. This study sought to explore how girls in rural Lubaland in DRC experience their schooling in relation to the traditional gendered practices. A qualitative approach to research was employed within an interpretive paradigm. Young school going girls were purposively selected from two rural schools in Malemba and Mwanza. A total of 18 girls became participants to the study. Data were generated through the use of drawings and focus group discussions to explore how the girls saw themselves as girls and students at home, on the way to school and at school. This was done in order to understand how they experience their schooling lives. The findings revealed several gendered challenges that the rural girls experience daily in terms of gaining access to and succeeding in schools. The challenge of son preference and gender role stereotyping created challenges for girls at home, while lack of facilities for girls’ sexual health and long distances to school created challenges for girls on the way to school. At school the girls experienced challenge of being unable to afford school fees and corporal punishment. If these challenges are to be eradicated, there is need for all stakeholders in education, including traditional leaders and communities to deconstruct the gendered dynamics that position women and girls as subordinate and not deserving of an education. This study has implications for educational planning in the Democratic Republic of Congo for girl children to get better access and success in their education. The findings also highlight the need for more concerted efforts to understand the experiences of schooling girls across DRC in order to influence teacher training and educational provisioning that is girl friendly.

Thesis (MTech (Business administration in entrepreneurship))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Interest in the domain of Entrepreneurship is growing considerably. Nevertheless, the plan of this study is to discover the distinctiveness of entrepreneurship in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The cutting-edge hostile environment for business developments of underdeveloped countries. In the case of the DRC, entrepreneurship is developed under life-threatening conditions, rarely seen elsewhere. These extreme conditions for entrepreneurship are present as the result of transitional particularities and the marginalised context deriving from political circumstances surrounding the DRC. Apart from the barriers and particularities of a business environment derived mainly from a transitional phase, the political situation has heavily influenced entrepreneurial developments in the country.

History has proven time and time again that conflict is an inevitable aspect of any given society. The seemingly long-standing nature of conflicts in Africa has been changing over time and these conflicts have been either inter-state or intra-state. However, sometimes intrastate wars have escalated into regional conflicts. These scenarios can be seen in the Great Lakes region of Africa where you have the civil war of 1996-7 and the rebellion, which began in 1998 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the DRC there have been at least four stages of conflict. The first is against the Belgians and secondly, the civil strife of the early 1960s. Third, is the civil strife against Mobutu and fourthly, currently against Kabila. The expanding nature of conflict is characterised by power struggles, politicisation of ethnicity, and the impact of external forces. It is noted that the expanding nature of conflict calls for a change in the methods of conflict management and resolution. Initially conflicts were resolved through military intervention. but with the complexity of African wars it has become apparent that peaceful methods are more prudent. With reference to Africa it can be assumed that conflicts need to be increasingly resolved through political means, such as the use of the diplomatic process. The conflict in Chad between 1968 and 1984 is a good example in which military intervention was used but failed, giving way to mediation and negotiation through the use of diplomacy. Both the DRC and Chadian conflicts are similar because they witnessed the influence of external forces (neighbouring countries and non-African states such as France and the US) and African states attempting to find solutions to their own problems. The conflict in the DRC provides a unique example of the changing nature of intra-state conflict in Africa. Thus, the study aims to trace the characteristics of conflict in the DRC and attempts made at conflict management and resolution. The study uses the period bet ween 1996 and 1999 because it highlights this change in the nature and character of conflict.

The role of natural resources in African conflicts has been subject to extensive scholarly analysis. However, much of this analysis has taken a narrow economic reductionist bias. As such, it is imperative that the dominant assumptions and accepted concepts and theories about the role of natural resources in African conflicts be re-examined. The aim of this thesis is to offer a revaluation of the role of coltan during the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Second War (1998-2003) through a critical engagement with the resource wars literature. The purpose is to offer a re-reading of the role of coltan in the DRC Second War and the broader regional and global economic context in which this conflict took place. It rejects the commonly cited assumption that the presence of coltan in the DRC means it is an initiator of conflict. Rather, this thesis argues that the central role of coltan in the DRC Second War was as an aggravator of conflict in that its exploitation was used by different parties to fund their military and political ambitions. This thesis also argues that the DRC’s weak state structures and pivotal role within the Great Lakes region, as well as the international trade of coltan and the nature of the DRC coltan mining industry are all key factors in understanding coltan exploitation in the country’s Eastern Region during the Second War.