The inhabitants of Kinshasa, who call themselves Kinois, deal with insecurity and violence on a daily basis. Cheating and thefts are commonplace, and pillaging by street gangs and robberies by armed thieves are everyday occurrences. The state infrastructure is so poorly regulated that deaths by accident or medical negligence are also common. This, and much more, contributes to a challenging social milieu within which the Kinois’ best hope is simply to ‘make do’. This thesis, based on extensive fieldwork in Kinshasa, analyses different forms of violence which affect the Kinois on a daily basis. I argue that the Kinois’ concept of violence, mobulu, differs from Western definitions, which define violence as an intrinsically negative and destructive force. Mobulu is for the Kinois a potentially constructive phenomenon, which allows them to build relationships, coping strategies and new social phenomena. Violence is perceived as a transformative force, through which people build meaningful lives in the face of the hardship of everyday life. Broadly speaking, this thesis contributes to the Anthropology of violence which has too often focused on how violence is imposed upon a population, often from a structural level of a state and its institutions. Such an approach fails to account for the nuances of alternate perspectives of what ‘violence’ is, as evidenced in this thesis through the prism of the Kinois term mobulu. The concept of mobulu highlights the creativity of those forced to ‘make do’ on the streets of Kinshasa, to negotiate not only every day physical needs, for food and shelter, but also to navigate the mystical violence of witchcraft. By exploring the coping mechanisms across all sections of society, I analyse how the Kinois not only have built their lives in the wake of the violence of the state, but they have also found means of empowerment within it, using mobulu as a springboard for the development of some social phenomena. Whereas the anthropology of violence has focused mainly on physical and material violence, this thesis also argues that mobulu in Kinshasa is a total social fact that combines state violence with everyday violence, and physical violence with the invisible violence of witchcraft. This thesis seeks to enrich discussions on witchcraft in Kinshasa and in the African context in general, by analysing in depth how the cosmology of Kinshasa has differentiated itself as a result of the politico-economic events of recent decades. As witchcraft and material insecurity go hand in hand, a detailed analysis of the mechanisms of witchcraft is necessary, if we are to grasp the complexity of the concept of mobulu and how material and invisible violence inform each other.

Using ethnographic data and James Scott's (1990) concepts of public and hidden transcripts, this thesis examines fow the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) government's public transcript has been institutionalised through the use of 'genocide ideology' laws. It is concerned with understanding how the RPF's use of ‘genocide ideology' is a mechanism to facilitate a continuum of violence, which I argue has led to ‘ethnic' marginalisation. ‘Genocide ideology' is a legally abstract term that refers to discourses that contest – consciously or unconsciously - the government narrative regarding the 1994 genocide. As focusing strictly om the public transcript does not tell the whole storry about power relations between the RPF government and Hutu, it also explores hidden transcript. This is necessary as the Rwandan government employs the category of ‘genocide ideology' to silence dissent and to justify arbitrary arrest. For example, since taking power, the RPF government has strived to eliminate the Hutu/Tutsi identities, replacing the divisive identities with ‘Rwandan.' Those who use Hutu/Tutsi identities outside the context of the genocide are considered génocidaire sympathisers and legally guilty of ‘genocide ideology'. I argue that within the public RPF transcript on the genocide, the victim/perpetrator dichotomy has become intertwined with Tutsi/Hutu identities, creating a hierarchy of victimhood. I concluded by arguing that the violence, fear and marginalisation experienced by participants through the government's use of the public transcript in conjunction with ‘genocide ideology' laws is causing resentment, which could lead to further conflict.

<p>This dissertation approaches the problem of war in Christian ethics through the lens of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Drawing upon memoirs, letters, sermons, and fieldwork, it shifts the focus of moral inquiry from theoretical positions on war (e.g., just war theory and pacifism) to the domain of everyday life and the ways that local Christians theologically frame and practically reason through conflict. I explore the 1996-1997 Rwandan refugee crisis through the voice of a Catholic survivor, Marie Béatrice Umutesi, and consider how her narrative challenges both just war interpretations of this violence and "bare life" readings of refugee experience. I then examine how the Catholic Church endured rebel occupation in the eastern city of Bukavu from 1998-2000, looking specifically at how Archbishop Emmanuel Kataliko's Christological reading of the situation transformed the experience of suffering into a form of agency and galvanized the Church into collective action. I go on to explore how residents of the town of Nyankunde in northeastern Congo are constructing alternatives to the war economy and re-weaving ordinary life out of the ruins of their former lives. In showing how local narratives help us reframe the problem of war in Christian ethics, I argue that description is not a preliminary stage to moral judgment; description is moral judgment.</p> / Dissertation

In the decade from 1998 to 2008, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was witness to one of the most brutal violent conflicts in recent history. Crimes against humanity and large-scale violations of human rights occurred on a regular basis, resulting in the death and displacement of millions of people. The international community responded to this crisis with humanitarian efforts such as the donation of billions of dollars in aid and engagement in diplomatic mediations. However, despite the increasing viability of humanitarian intervention as a policy option for international actors, as well as the ‘groundbreaking’ formal adoption of the Responsibility to Protect at the 2005 United Nations World Summit, no intervention was undertaken. This produces a puzzle: why, despite acknowledgement of the severity of the crisis, did the international community respond with humanitarianism, but stop short of intervening? The answer can be found in an examination of the international normative environment at the time of the conflict. Using a three-stage normative life-cycle model developed by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, this thesis posits that the reason the international community engaged in humanitarian actions was because the norm of humanitarianism is at stage 2 of its life cycle, making it well-entrenched enough to compel members of the international community to act. However, the norm of humanitarian intervention is only at stage 1 of its life cycle, meaning that it is weak and underdeveloped. Its weakness is exacerbated by the fact that humanitarian intervention often clashes with the highly entrenched stage 3 norms of realpolitik, and specifically the norm of self-interested engagement, which demands that a state only become engaged with another if it is in the first state’s interests to do so. Thus, despite the brutality of the conflict, the norm of humanitarian intervention was not strong enough to provoke an intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. / Thesis (Master, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-18 02:05:57.536

Micro-finance institutions are leading a revolution in the financial sector, particularly in banking. This provides a renewed focus on the way financial credit is provided to the marginalised society of the developing countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, small and medium enterprises constitute almost 80% of the entrepreneurial population. There is therefore, considerable urgency to advance the performance and competitiveness of these small and medium enterprises. The aim of this study is to establish the effect of micro-finance institutions, on the performance of small and medium enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Literature reviewed for this study provided insights into the effects of micro-finance institutions on the performance of small and medium enterprises that accessed micro-loans. This study comprises of 77 small and medium entrepreneurs that participated in the empirical research. The performance of small and medium enterprises was assessed through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of statements on socio-demographics, the functioning of micro-finance institutions and the performance of small and medium enterprises. The study revealed that the largest group of respondents were male entrepreneurs, married, in the age group category of 30 to 50 years, have a household size of 1 to 5 people and have 1 to 5 years of experience in business. Entrepreneurs mostly utilized financial services such as saving accounts, money transfers and training and technology. Furthermore consulting services in the areas of leadership finance and operations were mainly received from micro-finance institutions. The study revealed that micro-finance institutions principally play the role of facilitator of growth, tool for social change, provider of banking systems and instrument for empowerment to SMEs. The two sources of financing utilized mostly by small and medium enterprises were loans from micro-finance institutions and from commercial banks. The borrowed finance was used principally to start a new business, expand an existing business and for working capital. The amounts of money borrowed from micro- loans were as follow: 5 000,00 (US $) or less, between 6 000 and 10 000,00 (US $) and 11 000,00 to 15 000, 00 (US $) The interest rates paid were from 11% to 20%, 21% to 30% and 51% and above. The collateral provided was in the form of physical assets such as a car or a house. The results of the mean score factor indicated that on average, responses for questions 14 to 19 were above 2.5 on the scale of 1 to 4. The mean score above 2.5 was the indication that respondents agreed to a larger extend to these statements. This leads to the conclusion that overall, the effect of micro-finance institutions on the performance small and medium enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo was positive, as proved by the mean score factor. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 600-627).

A la différence des arts rupestres du Sahara ou d’Afrique australe, richement documentés, ceux d’Afrique centrale restent encore aujourd’hui largement méconnus. Cette région se différencie des précédentes par la prégnance d’un art peint et gravé non figuratif. Dans la plupart des cas, leur signification reste obscure. A l’échelle de la sous-région, la République démocratique du Congo est pourtant connue depuis longtemps pour ses sites rupestres.Ma recherche porte sur le Bas-Congo, la région la plus à l’ouest de l’actuelle République démocratique du Congo. / No English summary available.

Magister Legum - LLM / In many countries around the world, approximately 230 million children are living in countries affected by armed conflict. 15 million of them were caught up, in various parts of Africa, in violent conflicts. Some of the African countries where children are involved in armed conflicts include: Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. In CAR, for example, thirty four children (girls and boys) were abducted by armed groups, some as young as 3 years of age.

Orientador: Alexandre Gori Maia / Texto em inglês / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T07:06:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kumbi_NgomaCharles_M.pdf: 1521466 bytes, checksum: a498c9bbb27920b3d22199e9b59d53d0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Com os atuais desequilíbrios econômicos e a política de instabilidade das instituições financeiras moldando o nosso mundo, os menos afortunados são, sobretudo, aqueles do esquecido exército de reserva da população desempregada. Esta situação é ainda mais graves nos países mais pobres. Nosso foco nesta dissertação é a população classificada como pobre que é deixada de fora do sistema de proteção social e exposta a toda ordem de calamidades socioeconômicos. Ao analisar o sistema de proteção social, nós buscamos, sobretudo, olhar para medidas de alívio imediato à situação atual enfrentada por esse povo desafortunado, altamente concentrado nos países menos desenvolvidos. Nossa atenção vai para a República Democrática do Congo (RDC), país afetado por décadas de guerra civil, instabilidade política e econômica, que contribuíram para deixar a maioria da população em condição de extrema pobreza e desespero. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto em um curto período de tempo, programas de transferências diretas de renda (TDR) são propostos como remédio principal. Como estratégia para conciliar a redução da pobreza com o desenvolvimento do capital humano, os programas de TDR fornecem rendimento às famílias pobres. Condicional ou incondicional, essas TDRs objetivam altenuar o impacto da pobreza no curto prazo, permitindo que os beneficiários usufruam de necessidades básicas de vida, e, em longo prazo, através do investimento em capital humano através da educação, atenção médica à criança e nutrição. A nossa pergunta em relação à RDC é: "esses programas de TDR são viáveis em um país devastado?". Esta questão é examinada através de um estudo comparativo de dois modelos de TDR: um do Brasil e outro da África do Sul. Também apresentamos resultados empíricos de estudos em outros países, quer na América Latina ou na África. A partir deste quadro teórico surge a nossa discussão final, concluindo pela viabilidade de programas de TDR na RDC, independentemente dos desafios políticos e econômicos a serem enfrentados / Abstract: With the current global economic market imbalances and the policy instability of financial institutions patterning our World, the less fortunate are mainly the forgotten reserve army of unemployed population. This situation accentuates the poorer the country is. Our focus in this dissertation is this population classified as the poor who are left out of the Social Safety Nets and exposed to all sorts of socioeconomic calamities. By reforming the social security systems we first look at quick measures to palliate to the current situation faced by this unfortunate people highly concentrated in less developed countries; and our attention goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country long savaged by decades of civil war, political and economic instability, leaving the majority of the population into extreme poverty and desperation. To reach such a goal in a shorter time, Cash transfers are found to be the ideal remedy. As a strategy to reconcile poverty reduction with human capital development, Cash Transfer programs (CTPs) provide cash to poor families. Conditional or unconditional, these cash transfers are aimed at smoothing the impact of poverty in a short term by allowing beneficiaries to afford basic living needs, and in a long term by investing in human capital through education, children health care and nutrition. Our question in regard to the DRC is "how feasible can these programs be in such a devastated country?" This question is examined through a comparative study of two CTPs models, one from Brazil and the other from South Africa but also appended with empirical data from similar countries either in Latin America or in Africa. From this theoretical framework emerges our concluding discussion defining the feasibility of Cash Transfers (CTs) in the DRC regardless of political and economic challenges faced. In both cases results have been strikingly positive; and encouraging outcomes from other similar countries used also proved to be a confirming statement as to the feasibility of CTs in the DRC. However it is also noted that political willingness of local authorities and better policies for sustainable economic growth are irreversible and very determinant factors for the success of CTs. Poor people never chose to be poor but are left with no opportunity to overcome this poverty; so we also insist in this dissertation that creating jobs should remain the focus policy for poor countries in order to curve poverty and build a sustainable economic growth by integrating the less fortunate into the labour market / Mestrado / Economia Social e do Trabalho / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

Magister Legum - LLM / This work deals with the potential impacts of contract review on foreign direct investments in mining resources. The research has cited Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo as the case study because the two countries have experienced the problems generated from mining contracts review programmes. Indeed, there are some variations on the nature of the environments in which the reviews were made. While in the DRC the reviews were done amid civil wars (whose root cause was wealth emanating from mineral resources), in Tanzania the reviews were done without such pressure. However, the situation seems to have not been fully solved neither in Tanzania where the reviews were done under “peaceful” environment nor in the DRC where at least the past experience could have taught them a lesson. The mini thesis is divided into four chapters each covering a distinct topic for discussion. Chapter one serves as an introduction highlighting on the mission and vision of the research. It also spotlights the scope and limitation of the research. Chapter two is a discussion on the mining sector and foreign direct investments in Tanzania and the concept of mining contracts review based on the Bomani Commission report. In fact this chapter together with chapter three are the core of the research. In chapter two facts are laid bare of how the mining operations are done in Tanzania and how the management is undertaken. While in the subsequent chapter to wit chapter three, the same is observed but now targeting the Democratic Republic of Congo. The researcher has used these two chapters to demonstrate how inefficient the African governments are in running and maintaining the mineral resources by which they are endowed plentifully. Chapter four is also formal in the sense that the researcher provides his point of view on how matters could be rectified. It is a firm view of the researcher that if the governments take heed to what is recommended, there will much improvements in the mining sector which can be recorded in shorter span of production.