Le radici della violenza nella Repubblica Democratica del Congo

This article aims at shedding light on the etiology of the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo through an historical and anthropological approach. As I will show, the roots of the present violence go back to the colonial past. Congo is one of the richest countries in the world in natural resources and the violent depredation of these resources links the colonial past to the present. After independence, the Mobutu regime led the country to a terrible economic and political crisis. In 1994 the genocide in Rwanda definitely destabilized the entire region. Since then Congo neighboring countries, especially Rwanda and Uganda, have aimed at a exerting a political and economic hegemony in the Great Lakes Region. As I will argue, all these different factors destroyed the social fabric in East Congo, pushing young people and children to the margins in a context where enrollment has become a way to escape social exclusion.