The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality

by Thomas Turner

Since 1996 war has raged in the Congo while the world has looked away. Waves of armed conflict and atrocities against civilians have resulted in over three million casualties, making this one of the bloodiest yet least understood conflicts of recent times.

In The Congo Wars Thomas Turner provides the first in-depth analysis of what happened. The book describes a resource-rich region, suffering from years of deprivation and still profoundly affected by the shockwaves of the Rwandan genocide. Turner looks at successive misguided and self-interested interventions by other African powers, including Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, as well as the impotence of United Nations troops. Cutting through the historical myths so often used to understand the devastation, Turner indicates the changes required of Congolese leaders, neighbouring African states and the international community to bring about lasting peace and security.

Genres: Africa, History, Nonfiction, Democratic Republic Of The Congo

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2007

About the author

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads

See also:
Thomas Turner, 1729-1793
Thomas Turner, 1861-1951

Reviews

[crow ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

good job dad

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the European colonization of Africa is one of the lowest points of so-called Western civilization (or Western so-called civilization) the history of the Congo is horrific even by the standards of primitive accumulation set by the British and French empire builders who realized that a partially educated native population serving as clerks, middle managers (supervising only other Africans, of course) and non-commissioned officers in the military was necessary to channel the aspirations of the indigenous people into activities useful to the metropolis and not threatening to the dominant polity. There were plenty of atrocities committed under the Union Jack (Kenya) and the Tricolor (Algeria) but there was also an attempt to leave behind a functioning state capable of self-government, if only to continue the exploitation of former colonies.

It was different in the Congo. The Belgians excluded Africans from higher education, government and corporate management and the learned professions. When the men from Brussels got on the last planes north they left behind an economic, social and political disaster. The numbers show a shameful century of rule by the lash, the iron fist in the mailed glove: there were 16 university graduates and 136 high school graduates in a population of about 14 million; there were no Congolese teachers, physicians or army officers and only one native lawyer. The population itself was about ten million people less than if the Belgians hadn’t arrived, due to war, starvation and disease according to contemporary report.

So the citizens of the Congo/Zaire/DRC never had a chance. They have been reaping the whirlwind sowed by their colonial overseers for the past five decades, particularly during the almost constant warfare from 1996 to 2004. “The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality” by Thomas Turner is one of many attempts to analyze the Great African War, its causes, combatants and outcomes.

Turner sees a nexus of events as “convergent catastrophes” beginning with the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the flight of one million (or so) Hutus into Kivu province of the DRC after the Paul Kagame led Rwandan Patriotic Front intervened and the collapse of the Zairian/Congolese state which allowed the Interahamwe militia hidden in the refugee camps to attack Rwanda and the Rwandan Patriotic Front to retaliate. It was armed conflict characterized by mass murder and rape of civilians, systematic looting and the use of refugees as both shields and cover for contending armies.

Turner shows how the refugee camps in the DRC, hard by its borders with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, were used as recruitment grounds and staging areas for the armed rabble used as pawn in cross border battles and as a rationale for both Uganda and Rwanda to attack the DRC. Refugees were forced across the continent through and forest, dying or being killed along the way.

The international response was to do nothing. Whatever the reasons given by those with the power to intervene to stop the crimes against humanity, it seems clear that the lives of Africans didn’t weigh that heavily on the conscience of those in Washington, Paris or Brussels. MONUC, the UN mission to the eastern Congo was underfunded and poorly led, with an unclear instructions and no real mandate to intervene into the murderous activity around them.

There is more—lots more—in this short book including a detailed, compact history of the economic, cultural and linguistic history of the Banyamulenga people in Rwanda and the Kivus. They were part of the forced labor migration from population dense but resource poor Rwanda to the mines and fields of what was then the Congo Free State. In the citizenship/nationality debates decades later Belgian administrative decisions—who would be sent where to do what kind of labor—were recast as agreement between Africans, creating unanswerable questions and long standing sources of conflict regarding the rights of people who settled in the Congo at different times.

The doleful history of the Congo has to be told (and learned) from many points of view. Historians, political scientists, NGO aid workers and peacekeepers look at issues differently from each other and from the Congolese civil society and political actors who live through them. Turner’s book is a good account of the basis for much of it. If you disagree with (or simply don’t like) Marxist terminology: class, lumpenized masses, urban proletariat—you may have some trouble here since Turner uses these concepts of social organization as an important part of his analysis. He is by no means a Marxist but uses all the intellectual tools available and appropriate.

[DoctorM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not so much a history of the Congo Wars since 1996 as a discussion and exposition of how the various players saw themselves--- how a whole alphabet soup of political parties, ethnic groups, armies, and governmental/NGO groups defined themselves and presented themselves to audiences and supporters both international and internal. Turner tries to get at the masks the players assumed--- how definitions of "Congolese" or "foreign" were set for tribal groups along the borders, how it was that Ugandan or Rwandan or Angolan officers and politicians became high-ranking officials in the post-Mobutu Congo. While the book does require a fair amount of background knowledge about the Congo since 1960 (or even since 1885) and about the Rwandan genocide, it's a very worthwhile look at what nationalism and identity meant during the Congo Wars and how the various players defined the stakes they were fighting for. A book that should be read in tandem with Gerard Prunier's "Africa's World War".

[Erin and Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently saw a documentary about the hundreds of thousands of Congolese women who have been raped in the past two years as a result of the Civil War that is taking place in the eastern section of the DRC. Viewing the documentary made me want to learn more about the causes and effects of the civil wars. This book effectively simplified the roots of the two civil wars that have taken place in the past thirteen years. Sections of the book are a bit dense, but overall, Turner has written a highly readable account of the Congolese wars. -EL

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Turners work is exceptional, but the conflict is so complex that I often lose myself in his narrative. I plan on holding onto this book because it has a lot of critical information regarding the current violence in the DRC. I recommend this book to anyone who is familiar with Central African history and would like to advanced their knowledge of its modern situation.

[Edgar Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abre la gran complejidad de la realidad del Congo, desde su realidad interregional, interétnica e histórica. Para entender las razones del conflicto y el futuro del Congo es necesario observar cada pieza con mucho cuidado, en tiempo y espacio. Este libro es un primer acercamiento a esa gran complejidad social y política.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

A patient unwinding of the events and players, from colonial times throuth the 2006 elections, that led to or were involved in the Congo wars beginning in 1996. Not for those seeking sensationalism, it seeks simply to establish what actually happened from among all the claims and counterclaims of the various parties. Attention centers on the eastern part of the country, and also includes background on Rwanda since ethically Rwandan peoples with their relations to each other, groups in the Congo, and Europeans lie at the heart of much of the conflict. I found the background on the Congo up to Mobutu's takeover and that between Rwanda and its neighbors particularly enlightening. It sheds light on the Rwanda genocide as well.

[Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts very strong. Not great literature, but a very good introduction to a monumental disaster that has received little attention.