Troubled state-building in the DR Congo: the challenge from the margins
Troubled state-building in the DR Congo: the challenge from the margins
This paper examines contentious state?society and centre?periphery relations in the DR Congo and their implications for state-building. Since the 2006 post-conflict elections, the state's authority has come under fire in the western province of Bas Congo, where a politico-religious group (Bundu Dia Kongo) has emerged as a serious challenger. Enjoying huge local legitimacy, the group has articulated political grievances that the newly elected central government has violently repressed. As locally perceived, elections are a legitimising tool in the hands of the government to impose its unfettered authority in the name of the state-building project. Furthermore, and backed by donors, the Kinshasa authorities also refuse to implement a wide-ranging decentralisation reform. This has fed disenchantment about post-conflict politics in Bas Congo, boding ill for democratic politics and the prospects of state-building in the DR Congo.
CITATION: Tuli, Denis M.. Troubled state-building in the DR Congo: the challenge from the margins . : Cambridge University Press , . The Journal of Modern African Studies vol. 48, no. 4, 2010, pp. 643-661 - Available at: https://library.au.int/troubled-state-building-dr-congo-challenge-margins-3