African Studies and African Country Resources @ Pitt: Congo Republic - Brazzaville

The Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003 saw the end of a five-year war in which millions lost their lives. Despite recent peace agreements and democratic elections, the country is still plagued by army and militia violence. The conflict in the DRC has divided opinion; some call it a civil war, or a war of aggression by the country′s neighbours; others a continuation of Rwanda′s Hutu-Tutsi conflict on Congolose soil, and a war of partition and pillage. The prevalence of rape and sexual violence has led some analysts to mark it out as a hidden ‘war against women′. Tom Turner′s insightful book reveals how each of these descriptions accurately captures the separate elements of this complex and multidimensional political conflict. The DRC, he argues, will likely remain a global hot spot for some time to come.

Congo Masquerade is about mismanagement, hypocrisy and powerlessness in what has proved to be one of Africa's most troublesome and volatile states. In this scathing study of catastrophic aid inefficiency, Trefon argues that whilst others have examined war and plunder in the Great Lakes region, none have yet evaluated the imported 'template format' reform package pieced together to introduce democracy and improve the well-being of ordinary Congolese. It has, the book demonstrates, been for years an almost unmitigated failure due to the ingrained political culture of corruption amongst the Congolese elite, abetted by the complicity and incompetence of international partners.

The Congo's history has been one of collaboration by a minority with, and struggle by the majority against, Western intervention.Before the colonial period, there were military struggles against annexation. During Belgian rule, charismatic religious figures emerged, promising an end to white domination; copper miners struck for higher wages; and rural workers struggled for survival. During the second half of the 20th century, the Congo's efforts at disentanglement from Belgian rule, the murder of the nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba and the long dictatorship of General Mobutu culminated in one of the bloodiest wars the world has ever seen. At the start of a new millennium, this book argues that the West has plundered Africa to its own advantage and that unrestrained global capitalism threatens to remake the entire world, bringing violence and destruction in the name of profit.