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.

Thesis (MTech (Marketing))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / This thesis, through the lenses of technology acceptance theory, and considering the lack of online interactivity in service delivery, aimed at proposing a model of online business registration adoption for re-branding the government Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Congo-Brazzaville. Task-Technology Fit (TTF) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) were the underpinning theories with which the study described the social phenomenon: online business registration adoption at DTI Congo-Brazzaville as branding tool. Arguably, in doctoral level, without underpinning theories, research conclusions look speculative. The use of theory to underpin this study was further motivated by its interpretative nature and the interplay between technical and non-technical factors which are involved in the process of technology adoption in service organisation. To come up with new engagement, and informed from successful implementation of DTI South Africa’s e-governance model, DTI Congo was used as case study; hence the country is known for being at the bottom of the pile when it comes to the ease of doing business ratings. Despite resultant benefits namely increased efficiency, effectiveness and improved service delivery that offer e-governance in making services nearer to citizens and easing the strenuous processes involved in manual operations, not all managers at the DTI Congo advocate the adoption of online business system. The problem is that insufficient advocacy of online business registration enforces the void of re-positioning the organisation vis-à-vis its internal customers (employees) as lean and innovative. The overall research question is: “how does the DTI Congo-Brazzaville intend to improve business registration using online business registration service as a branding tool”? The main objective therefore was to propose online service adoption re-branding and re-positioning DTI Congo-Brazzaville.

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.

This dissertation investigates the instantiation of prosodic constituents, from the level of the prosodic word to the mora, in several Benue-Congo languages spoken in Nigeria, Togo, and the Republic of Benin. The over-all analysis is couched within Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, P&S) which states that phonological constraints are hierarchically ranked and violable. The cross-dialectal and cross-linguistic diversities exhibited in the languages discussed are shown to be a consequence of different constraint rankings. The observed variations and their respective analyses can be summarized as follows. First, only a subset of the total segmental inventory is moraic in all the languages examined. In some dialects of Yoruba (Ilaje), only vowels are tone-bearing and potential syllable peaks; in other dialects (Standard Yoruba and Onko), both vowels and nasals are tone-bearing, but only vowels may occupy the nucleus position in the syllable. In Idoma, vowels, liquids and nasals are tone-bearing, but only vowels and liquids are potential syllable peaks, nasals are excluded. These diversities are shown to follow from the different cut-off points established for non-nuclear moras as opposed to nuclear moras on the sonority hierarchy. Second, it is observed that vowels differ in their syllabicity capabilities depending on whether they are preceded by onsets or not. In Standard Yoruba, Owon-Afa, and Gokana, vowels are syllabified if onsets precede them; onsetless vowels are not syllabified. In Ondo Yoruba and Emai, vowels are syllabified regardless of whether they have onsets or not. The variation in the syllabification pattern is shown to follow from the variable ranking of ONSET and other syllable structure well-formedness constraints such as PARSENUCμ or PARSEμ. Third, the properties of foot structure found in the non-stress tone languages examined are reminiscent of the properties associated with the metrical foot. In Yoruba, Ibibio and Owon-Afa, feet are binary and headed. Ibibio utilizes trochaic feet while Owon-Afa and Yoruba use iambic feet. This finding confirms the proposal that non-stress processes utilize the metrical foot (M&P 1986, Inklelas 1989, Spring 1991, Downing 1994). Fourth, prosodic minimality and maximality effects are observed at the level of the prosodic word. Two patterns of minimality effects are found. In languages like Idoma and Gokana, the minimal prosodic word is a binary foot, while in languages like Yoruba and Ebira, the minimal condition requires the presence of a syllable in every word. Foot binarity effects are only required of specific lexical classes, like nouns, in both languages. The minimal syllable requirement is proposed to follow from properheadedness, and the diversities found in the spellout of prosodic minimally derived by the variable ranking of Foot Binarity and Properheadedness. The emergence of unmarked words in child phonology in English, Dutch and Yoruba is cited as evidence in support of this view of minimality: children start with CV words and then move on to the CVCV stage. These two stages are proposed to follow from Properheadedness and Foot Binarity assuming the “Continuity Hypothesis” which states that language acquisition is made up of a series of continuous stages determined by Universal Grammar (Pinker 1984). Concerning prosodic maximally, it is observed that the maximal instantiation of the prosodic word is two feet. This property is proposed to follow from the principle of binarity which limits the unmarked shape of phonological constituents to two tokens of a given phonological unit (Ito & Mester 1992). / Arts, Faculty of / Linguistics, Department of / Graduate

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Cette thèse s'intéresse au présent des musiques urbaines congolaises (RDC) dans leurs rapports à la vie quotidienne, à l'histoire et à l'identité de sa capitale Kinshasa. Partant d'une intuition fondamentale de Claude Lévi-Strauss (la musique serait, comme le mythe, une machine à supprimer le temps), c'est autour de la problématique de la musique comme rapports aux temps (social et symbolique; historique et mémoriel; musical; performatif) que l'auteur cherche à en renouveler la portée en lui donnant une emprise analytique nouvelle. La thèse débute par une étude générale de l'évolution des musiques urbaines congolaises à l'aune des catégories endogènes contemporaines (« moderne », « religieuse », « traditionnelle » et « internationale »). Combinant l'histoire et l'anthropologie culturelle, l'ethnomusicologie et l'écriture audiovisuelle, différents plans de la vie quotidienne et de la pratique musicale sont ensuite observés, analysés, confrontés : celui d'une commune de la capitale (Bandai); celui d'un certain nombre d'acteurs individuels, principalement des musiciens et des mélomanes; celui de la ville entière comme espace imaginaire et identitaire. À la fois théorique, comme interrogation générale sur les relations entre la musique et la vie sociale, et empirique, comme ethnographie des conduites et des savoir-faire qui lui sont associées à Kinshasa, la thèse cherche ainsi à dépasser les écueils du culturalisme en interrogeant la manière dont la « globalisation » met en mouvement les notions « d'universalité » (la musique, le temps, l'humain) et de « particularité » (l'appartenance, le quotidien, l'organisation sociale) tels que définis par le projet de modernité.

Cette étude porte sur la contribution des acteurs de la biomasse solide (BS) à la durabilité de la gestion de celle-ci en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). La problématique s'articule sur la question centrale suivante : la gestion de la biomasse solide peut-elle favoriser la durabilité de cette ressource énergétique en RDC? À cet égard, trois axes majeurs ont été étudiés pour cerner les facteurs susceptibles de compromettre ou de promouvoir la gestion durable de la BS en RDC : • Les facteurs qui agissent sur la filière de la BS concernant les aspects techniques, allant de la production à la carbonisation, au défournement, à la récolte, au transport et enfin à la commercialisation de ladite ressource en RDC; • Les facteurs liés aux aspects règlementaires concernant le cadre juridique appliqué à la BS en RDC; • Les facteurs en lien avec les aspects organisationnels, institutionnels et ceux de la gouvernance forestière en RDC. Les trois objectifs suivants permettent d'analyser la question de la durabilité de gestion de la biomasse solide :1. Réaliser le diagnostic du contexte et de la pratique de l'utilisation de la BS en RDC en vue de ressortir les facteurs qui contribuent aux forces et faiblesses de cette pratique. De ce fait, l'approche d'analyse stratégique « forces, faiblesses, opportunités, menaces » (FFOM ou SWOT en anglais) a aidé à déceler les maillons qui permettent de définir les conditions et les occasions favorisant les trois piliers du développement durable que sont l'environnement, le social et l'économie; 2. Évaluer le degré de durabilité d'utilisation de la BS actuelle. Cela a conduit à faire une analyse des cadres législatifs, règlementaires et normatifs, ainsi que des aspects organisationnels, institutionnels et modernes de la gestion de la BS en RDC. Par conséquent, une esquisse de la gouvernance de la BS en RDC a été proposée pour stimuler l'analyse des instruments qui traitent des questions de cadres juridiques et coutumiers susceptibles d'influencer ces normes; 3. Proposer des éléments d'amélioration du contexte, de la pratique et du respect de la réglementation de l'utilisation de la BS qui favorisent un modèle de la gestion participative de l'utilisation durable de cette énergie. Pour ce faire, l'étude présente les facteurs de la durabilité de la gestion de la bioénergie et leurs interrelations dans le but de mettre sur pied un modèle de gestion participative de la bioénergie permettant de répondre au développement durable de la BS en RDC. Au regard des axes clés énumérés, la nécessité de faire ressortir un modèle de réponses fiables et palpables avec à la clé la gestion et l'utilisation de la BS respectant les principes du développement durable s'avère indispensable en RDC. De ce fait, le modèle de table de concertation des acteurs de la BS en RDC est élaboré. / This thesis focuses on the contribution to the sustainability of the management of solid biomass (SB) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This study revolves around the following central question: Can the management of solid biomass promote the sustainability of this energy resource in the DRC? Three major axes were studied to identify the factors likely to compromise or promote the sustainable management of SB in the DRC: • The factors acting on the SB sector focus on the related technical aspects, ranging from production, carbonization, excavation, harvesting, transport and to the marketing of this resource in the DRC; • Factors related to regulatory aspects concerning the legal framework applied to SB in the DRC; • The factors structuring the organizational and institutional aspects and those of forest governance in the DRC. The three following objectives were analyzed to answer the issue of the sustainability of solid biomass management: 1. Carry out the diagnosis of the context and practice of the use of SB in the DRC to highlight the factors that contribute to the strengths and weaknesses of this practice. The SWOT strategic analysis approach was used to identify the links that define the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the three pillars of sustainable development that are environmental, social and economic. 2. Assess the level of sustainability of the actual use of SB with a focus on improving the factors of non-sustainability. This led to an analysis of the legislative, regulatory and normative frameworks, as well as the organizational, institutional and modern aspects of BS management in the DRC. An outline of SB governance in the DRC has been proposed to stimulate analysis of instruments addressing issues of legal frameworks and customary that influence these norms. 3. Propose elements for improving the context, practice, and compliance with the regulations for the use of SB that promote a participatory management model for the sustainable use of this energy source. To do this, the factors of the sustainability of bioenergy management and their interrelationships were presented with the aim of setting up a participatory bioenergy management model to respond to the development of SB in DRC. Regarding the key axes listed above, the need to develop and implement a model of reliable and tangible responses, with the management and use of SB thus respecting the principles of sustainable development, is essential in the DRC. As a result, the consultation table model for SB actors in the DRC is elaborated.

Cette étude porte sur la contribution des acteurs de la biomasse solide (BS) à la durabilité de la gestion de celle-ci en République démocratique du Congo (RDC). La problématique s'articule sur la question centrale suivante : la gestion de la biomasse solide peut-elle favoriser la durabilité de cette ressource énergétique en RDC? À cet égard, trois axes majeurs ont été étudiés pour cerner les facteurs susceptibles de compromettre ou de promouvoir la gestion durable de la BS en RDC : • Les facteurs qui agissent sur la filière de la BS concernant les aspects techniques, allant de la production à la carbonisation, au défournement, à la récolte, au transport et enfin à la commercialisation de ladite ressource en RDC; • Les facteurs liés aux aspects règlementaires concernant le cadre juridique appliqué à la BS en RDC; • Les facteurs en lien avec les aspects organisationnels, institutionnels et ceux de la gouvernance forestière en RDC. Les trois objectifs suivants permettent d'analyser la question de la durabilité de gestion de la biomasse solide :1. Réaliser le diagnostic du contexte et de la pratique de l'utilisation de la BS en RDC en vue de ressortir les facteurs qui contribuent aux forces et faiblesses de cette pratique. De ce fait, l'approche d'analyse stratégique « forces, faiblesses, opportunités, menaces » (FFOM ou SWOT en anglais) a aidé à déceler les maillons qui permettent de définir les conditions et les occasions favorisant les trois piliers du développement durable que sont l'environnement, le social et l'économie; 2. Évaluer le degré de durabilité d'utilisation de la BS actuelle. Cela a conduit à faire une analyse des cadres législatifs, règlementaires et normatifs, ainsi que des aspects organisationnels, institutionnels et modernes de la gestion de la BS en RDC. Par conséquent, une esquisse de la gouvernance de la BS en RDC a été proposée pour stimuler l'analyse des instruments qui traitent des questions de cadres juridiques et coutumiers susceptibles d'influencer ces normes; 3. Proposer des éléments d'amélioration du contexte, de la pratique et du respect de la réglementation de l'utilisation de la BS qui favorisent un modèle de la gestion participative de l'utilisation durable de cette énergie. Pour ce faire, l'étude présente les facteurs de la durabilité de la gestion de la bioénergie et leurs interrelations dans le but de mettre sur pied un modèle de gestion participative de la bioénergie permettant de répondre au développement durable de la BS en RDC. Au regard des axes clés énumérés, la nécessité de faire ressortir un modèle de réponses fiables et palpables avec à la clé la gestion et l'utilisation de la BS respectant les principes du développement durable s'avère indispensable en RDC. De ce fait, le modèle de table de concertation des acteurs de la BS en RDC est élaboré. / This thesis focuses on the contribution to the sustainability of the management of solid biomass (SB) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This study revolves around the following central question: Can the management of solid biomass promote the sustainability of this energy resource in the DRC? Three major axes were studied to identify the factors likely to compromise or promote the sustainable management of SB in the DRC: • The factors acting on the SB sector focus on the related technical aspects, ranging from production, carbonization, excavation, harvesting, transport and to the marketing of this resource in the DRC; • Factors related to regulatory aspects concerning the legal framework applied to SB in the DRC; • The factors structuring the organizational and institutional aspects and those of forest governance in the DRC. The three following objectives were analyzed to answer the issue of the sustainability of solid biomass management: 1. Carry out the diagnosis of the context and practice of the use of SB in the DRC to highlight the factors that contribute to the strengths and weaknesses of this practice. The SWOT strategic analysis approach was used to identify the links that define the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the three pillars of sustainable development that are environmental, social and economic. 2. Assess the level of sustainability of the actual use of SB with a focus on improving the factors of non-sustainability. This led to an analysis of the legislative, regulatory and normative frameworks, as well as the organizational, institutional and modern aspects of BS management in the DRC. An outline of SB governance in the DRC has been proposed to stimulate analysis of instruments addressing issues of legal frameworks and customary that influence these norms. 3. Propose elements for improving the context, practice, and compliance with the regulations for the use of SB that promote a participatory management model for the sustainable use of this energy source. To do this, the factors of the sustainability of bioenergy management and their interrelationships were presented with the aim of setting up a participatory bioenergy management model to respond to the development of SB in DRC. Regarding the key axes listed above, the need to develop and implement a model of reliable and tangible responses, with the management and use of SB thus respecting the principles of sustainable development, is essential in the DRC. As a result, the consultation table model for SB actors in the DRC is elaborated.

La tâche de cette thèse consiste à cerner la crise du journalisme dans un contexte propre aux pays confrontés à des crises profondes, particulièrement celui de l’espace médiatique congolais. La période de transition politique – qui s’est déroulée entre 1990 et 2006 – a été privilégiée, en raison de son ouverture au pluralisme médiatique et du foisonnement des médias dans un État marqué jadis par un quasi-monopole étatique sur le secteur.<p>Partant de l’argument selon lequel le journalisme congolais s’exerce dans un environnement de crise – celle-ci étant comprise comme un lieu d’inversion des valeurs et, par conséquent, favorable à la transgression des normes –, notre thèse se structure autour de trois hypothèses. Premièrement, serait-il moralement, mieux éthiquement acceptable, pour les journalistes, de transgresser les règles de leur profession, étant donné qu’ils évoluent dans un environnement de crise ?Dans l’affirmative, au nom de quels principes et de quelle éthique ces pratiques transgressives seraient-elles justifiées ?Deuxièmement, ces pratiques, pour autant qu’elles sont susceptibles d’être légitimées au nom d’une certaine éthique, seraient-elles préjudiciables à la qualité de l’information ?<p>Pour répondre à ces interrogations, notre démarche vise, d’abord, à circonscrire la crise congolaise ;puis à identifier, grâce à une approche empirique, les pratiques journalistiques ;enfin, à mesurer les retombées de ces pratiques sur l’information livrée au public. / Doctorat en Information et communication / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished