The New York Times Op-Ed

For an even more critical view of the Dodd-Frank conflict minerals provisions than mine, see TexasinAfrica.


For a good interview with Eric Kajemba, the NGO leader mentioned at the end of this editorial, see CongoSiasa.


It is probably worth mentioning that while I and a lot of other scholars and students of African affairs are deeply concerned about Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, regarding conflict minerals, we generally favor Section 1504 , which requires American companies to disclose the payments they make to foreign governments.

How Congress Devastated Congo

IT’S a long way from the marble halls of Congress to the ailing mining towns of eastern Congo, but the residents of Nyabibwe and Nzibira know exactly what’s to blame for their economic woes.

The “Loi Obama” or Obama Law — as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act of 2010 has become known in the region — includes an obscure provision that requires public companies to indicate what measures they are taking to ensure that minerals in their supply chain don’t benefit warlords in conflict-ravaged Congo. The provision came about in no small part because of the work of high-profile advocacy groups like the Enough Project and Global Witness, which have been working for an end to what they call “conflict minerals.”

Unfortunately, the Dodd-Frank law has had unintended and devastating consequences, as I saw firsthand on a trip to eastern Congo this summer. The law has brought about a de facto embargo on the minerals mined in the region, including tin, tungsten and the tantalum that is essential for making cellphones.

Learning about the Congo

If you're a newcomer and want to know more about the Congo, the best place to start is with Jason Stearns' recently published Dancing in the Glory of Monsters. It provides a clear, well-written account of the wars that took place in 1996–97 and 1998–2003 and of the Congo's breakdown in their aftermath. Stearns manages to streamline the story without making it simplistic; he conveys the episodic horror of those years without dehumanizing the victims or the victimizers; and his prose is lively and detailed. While Rwanda and Uganda emerge as the book's primary antagonists--their plunder-driven invasions left the eastern half of Congo in chaos--Stearns makes it clear that it is ultimately the Congo's own lack of political leadership that accounts for the country's continuing problems. A more detailed study is Gerard Prunier's Africa's World War. Prunier is the author of an outstanding account of the Rwandan genocide, but in this book he sometimes loses the narrative thread as he exhaustively details the alliances and divisions of the country's mitotic rebel groups.

OF course, before the wars there was Mobutu, African Machiavel, kleptocrat, and American Cold War ally. An excellent journalistic account of his excesses and ultimate downfall is Michaela Wrong's In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz. A shoutout is due as well to Howard French's A Continent for the Taking, although only a couple of the book's chapters focus on Congo. The best documentary is Thierry Michel's Roi du Zaire--only in French, unfortunately. Still the best scholarly treatment of Mobutu's reign is Crawford Young and Thomas Turner's Rise and Decline of the Zairian State. Unfortunately, it was published in the mid-1980s and so doesn't cover the last decade of the regime.

Quote of the Day

It is relatively uncomplicated to guard oneself against cruelty and greed, if one wishes to do so. But detachment, a half-willed blindness to the suffering of others, is one of the inescapable conditions of life on earth. Between 1998 and 2003, about as many people were killed in the Congo War as died in the Holocaust. Our ability to live placidly through this and so many other atrocities lies in a combination of ignorance and helplessness: it happened far away, we didn’t pay attention as it happened, and even if we rent our clothes over it, there was nothing we could do to stop it. 

                                  --Adam Kirsch in "Can You Learn Anything from a Void?," from this week's The New Republic.

I find I'm seeing more of this, the invocation of the Congo as a place whose problems we're never going to do anything about. The Congo's become rhetorical shorthand for the inevitable limits of our humanitarian instincts, limits wiser to acknowledge than protest. A few months ago, for example, the discussion among Very Serious People was about whether we pay too much attention to the suffering of the Palestinians and not enough to the suffering of, say, the Congolese. On one side were those who argued that we care comparatively little about the Congo; to make it right, they said, we need to care less about the Palestinians. On the other side were Equally Serious People who felt that both groups get the attention they deserve: not too much, not too little, but just right.

What We Talk about when We Talk about Rape

I interviewed these women one afternoon in late June, 2011, in the back lot of a protestant church outside of Uvira. All volunteered their names and agreed to have their photographs taken for possible publication. By telling their stories they hoped to provoke action to reduce the continuing toll of rape in their country. 

Some Preliminary Thoughts on Rape in eastern Congo

Stories about rape in Congo come in two varieties: one emphasizes their horrific details, the other their frequency. So there is Nick Kristof writing about women who are "re-raped" and little girls whose "eyes are luminous with fear." And then there are the headlines reporting that the incidence of rape increased 17-fold between 2004 and 2008, or that rape is 26 times more common in Congo than previously thought.

Both sorts of stories generate a sense of urgency about the issue, which is why advocacy and relief groups tend to latch on to them. But I suspect that this is short-sighted. Whatever sense of urgency they generate almost certainly results in diminishing returns, as journalists compete for the most lurid details or find they have to keep topping the last estimate to get published. The overarching effect is to make the problem seem foreign, incomprehensible, and irresolvable. The reader starts by feeling pity for the victims and ends by wondering what kind of people do this to their women. So it's worth stating what should be obvious: It's simply not true that rape has "become a sickening part of everyday life in the [DRC]," as one reporter wrote--and Congolese are fed up with that depiction of them.

Is this the Deadliest Killer in eastern Congo Today?

Mosaic is a fly-borne virus that attacks manioc, the staple crop in eastern Congo. When I visited rural areas near Bukavu, villagers came up to me spontaneously to complain that they were going hungry because of it.

Anyone reading this blog will be aware of how important manioc is to the local diet. Its tuberous, starchy root is a reliable source of carbohydrates; its leaves provide some of the nutritive value that the tuber lacks. There are crops that can substitute for manioc: sweet potato and beans grow in similar conditions, though neither produces as many calories. And both of those crops must be harvested and stored, while manioc can be left in the ground until needed.

Native Sons: A Round-Up of the Presidential Candidates

A paradox: nearly everyone in Congo believes that Joseph Kabila will win the presidential election scheduled for November, yet almost no one I spoke to plans to vote for him. Granted, I was mostly in Bukavu, the stronghold of Vital Kamerhe. But dissatisfaction with Kabila is pervasive. His campaign slogan, "If you don't believe in my words, believe in my deeds" (Si vous ne croyez pas à mes paroles, croyez à mes œuvres), elicits--in fact almost seems to invite--widespread incredulity. "What has he done?" ask Congolese, who have seen little improvement in the country's services, infrastructure, or security during his tenure.

Clockwise, from upper left: the incumbent, the challenger, the wild card, and the old lion

Despite his unimpressive record, most Congolese believe Kabila has a lock on the presidency, for three reasons: 1) He has the resources to give away those small gifts (such as t-shirts or pagnes) that, come election time, often sway poor and uninformed voters in Africa. 2) They think he'll manipulate the process, as he already has, for example, by rewriting the constitution so that the election is decided by a one-time, first-past-the-gate vote. 3) They believe that if all else fails Kabila will simply cheat, by rigging the electoral rolls, stuffing the ballot boxes, reporting false results, and so on. When Congolese talk about the likelihood of a Kabila reelection I sense more resignation than outrage; how much of that is African fatalism and how much simple realism only time will tell.

In this post, I review the main candidates' electoral prospects: Who are they, where do they get their support, and what are their platforms? Who would be likely to win, were there a free and fair election? In future posts, I'll review Kabila's record of governance and peer into my crystal ball to discuss potential scenarios: How likely are we to see the sort of post-electoral violence that erupted in Kenya and Cote d'Ivoire, for example? How might the West react if Kabila were to cheat his way to victory? How might the Congolese react?

What the Kids Are Listening to

Despite their taste for Brazilian soap operas and American action flicks, most Congolese continue to prefer music produced and sung by their own countrymen. With its distinctive Afro-Cuban roots, Congolese rumba, like Jamaican reggae, is immediately recognizable. You can pretty much tell if a song is Congolese within the first ten seconds or so, regardless of whether it was recorded 50 years ago or last week. That said, the Congolese music scene has come a long way from the days of Tabu Ley Rochereau, Mbilia Bel and Papa Wemba. Here is a sampling of the most popular musicians playing today.

The group Wenge Musica from 1987-88, with Werrason and JB Mpiana at the microphones. Photo Credit: Wikipedia. 

New and Improved CR to Come

Congo Resources is currently in Bukavu researching resource use, conflict minerals, and rape prevention programs. A new and improved Congo Resources will launch in August 2011.

Quote of the Day

Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.

                                            --President Barack Obama, in a speech on March 31, 2011 explaining why the US is attacking Libya. Perhaps no one has informed him about Congo?