The abundance of resources in DRC – elephants and their tusks, rubber trees and their latex, vast and varied minerals, fertile soils and adequate rainfall, rivers suitable for navigation that also have waterfalls in sections essential for the production of hydroelectric power, and resilient people – should have turned the country into a first class industrial nation with rich people enjoying a high life expectancy. Instead DRC has been ruthlessly exploited, has suffered keptocracy (government of thieves), wars and massive loss of lives and displacements, and human rights abuses including sexual violence with impunity thereby turning the country into a third class pauper with the majority of Congolese among the poorest on earth. How did resource abundance turn into a curse? But first, let us briefly review the situation before plunder began.
Before the Congo basin became a part of the global community, the Congolese had developed strong kingdoms like Kongo and Luba. Economically they engaged in mixed farming growing a wide range of crops and herding cattle, goats and pigs etc. The foodstuffs were supplemented by hunting wild game, gathering wild fruits and vegetables and catching wild fish. Together they provided adequate and balanced diet in quantity and quality for a healthy, active and productive life. Because they ate well, they developed resistance against disease, had relatively low death rate and rapid population growth.
Congolese also engaged in manufacturing a wide range of products using abundant raw materials such as ivory, iron ore, timber, clay and other vegetation materials. Surplus foodstuffs and manufactured products were exchanged in local and regional markets and accumulated wealth. They also had governance systems that kept law and order, resulting in low rates of crime.
The situation changed drastically with the arrival of Portuguese towards the end of the 15th century and Arabs and Afro-Arabs in the 19th century. The hunting for ivory and slaves increasingly using lethal European weapons turned the area into a battle ground. Inter and intra-ethnic wars became the order of the day. Many areas were depopulated through loss of lives while survivors fled deep into the forest for safety. Economic activities and trade networks were destroyed rendering the survivors poor and vulnerable.
The explorers like Stanley and Brazza in the 1880s found it easy to conclude treaties with African chiefs who needed Europeans for protection or for help to attack their enemies. European conflicts over the Congo basin resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 resulting in a formula to divide Africa among Europeans without consulting Africans or going to war against one another. Leopold II king of Belgium gained the Congo basin as his personal property. In order to accumulate wealth quickly which had been the king’s hidden principal goal, he confiscated all so-called unoccupied land and all produce on it. He then leased much of it to private companied to manage and exploit for maximum profit with a share going to the king. Hunting elephants for ivory and tapping rubber trees for latex needed in the production of tyres required many workers. Men, women and children were diverted from their normal business of producing for domestic consumption and exchange to hunting elephants and tapping rubber. Rubber quotas were set and those who failed to comply in a timely manner were punished severely including by execution, flogging or cutting off of hands and feet as proof to their bosses that the agents were serious about their work. The production of food suffered greatly resulting in starvation or serious under-nutrition which weakened workers’ ability to travel long distances looking for rubber trees. In a few short years, the population of Congo was reduced in half.
As a result of the international outcry, the Congo Free State was taken over by the Belgian government and Congo became a Belgian colony in 1908. Although the excesses under Leopold II were checked, the level of exploitation remained high. The labor-intensive exploitation of minerals, the construction of infrastructure such as roads, railways and public buildings required many workers. Companies requested the colonial government to create a favorable environment to enable recruitment of as many Congolese as possible or to bring in workers from outside Congo like Rwandese.
In response, the government declared some areas labor reserves. Congolese left the countryside en masse. Food production and gathering declined drastically resulting in severe nutritional deficiencies. The production of cassava which is labor-saving and grows well in poor and dry soils became staple food for many Congolese but cassava does not contain proteins. In other areas protein-deficient maize and plantains were consumed in large quantities with very serious repercussions on health.
A director of one of the companies warned that the resilience of the Congolese was running out. He advised that they must have the means and the capacity to live and produce children to supply labor for the companies.
The exploitation of minerals has been associated with conflicts and much suffering. A reference to the map of Congo shows that except for diamonds in Kasai region, all the minerals are located in the eastern half of the country explaining in large part why conflict has become endemic in the area. Western powers and their companies have increasingly used surrogates from neighboring countries and inside Congo in their conflicts to control minerals and using rebels as a cover, reducing the area to murder and abuse of human rights with impunity, disfiguring the topography and ecosystems as the search for minerals gathers pace.
Some of the neighboring countries have invaded DRC not for security reasons but to gain access to the mineral wealth of the country.
The upshot of all this is that DRC resources have turned the country into a curse rather than a source of strength, wealth and pride. What a shame!