A Study On Ethnic Problems In Northeastern Democratic Republic Of Congo

For human beings,“ethnic” represents a kind of human group with common characteristics.Ethnic group,as a stable human interest community and basic unit of the country,plays a vital role in the integration and construction of the political organization as a “state”.Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC)is a multi-ethnic country,since independence,the ethnic-problem has always been the main obstacles in the process of state-building.Ethnic contradictions and ethnic conflicts was particularly intense in Northeastern DRC.The chronic instability in northeast,not only disturbed the order of their own,but resulted in “The Great African War”which got many African countries involved in.The ethnic conflicts in Northeastern DRC got attention around the world since 1990 s.As the local ethnic problems,the analysis patterns as “state failure”,“resources fight”,“dictatorship” and so on became the mainstream theoretical framework to explain Northeastern DRC ethnic problems.This article analyzes Northeast-DRC ethnic evolution with historical research,explains and analyzes Northeastern DRC ethnic problems in the perspectives of multidisciplinary,and then summarizes the relationship between Congo's ethnic and national history and reality,discusses the multinational country's construction in Congo.Charter 1 and Charter 2 firstly combs the basic clue of Northeastern DRC ethnic's evolution and development.Around the 1st century AD,after expelling the native pygmies,the Bantus and the Sudanese successively went into today's Northeastern DRC,became the main population groups.Over time,Northeastern DRC ethnic groups classified more complicated with diverse traditional culture and distinctive social structure.Competition,technical exchange,and trade link between ethnics force the local ethnic groups to gradually form their own self-consciousness and ethnic identity.Accordingly,some political organizations with higher organization level were born at that moment.Since the 19 th century,Northeastern Congo continuously intervened by external forces,the natural evolution of the local ethnic groups were blocked artificially.After 1874,The Sultanate of Tippu Tip and Belgiancolonists successively ruled northeast of Congo.Slave war and colonial rule worsened the local ethnic relations.Competing for the limited resources led to continuous conflicts between ethnics.In 1960,DRC got rid of the Belgian colonial rule,and became an independent sovereign state.However,although DRC has got the form of a nation-state,the influence of the colonial rule has not been eliminated,neither,the integration of the country has not yet completed.Ethnic-national conflicts,ethnic-ethnic conflicts have been deeply rooted.Therefore,northeastern frontier of DRC became the area with most serious ethnic problems.Based on historical research,Charter 3 explores local ethnic-group problems in he perspective of economic and political structure in the northeastern DRC.Economically,Northeastern DRC has always stagnated in a lower ratio of arable land and its population,so that land disputes intensified frequent ethnic conflicts.The economic dispute among ethnic groups resulted in the political struggle with the analysis of the evolution of the economic and political competition.At the social level,the author studies the operation mode of the competition among ethnic groups in the Northeastern DRC and analyzes the local ethnic competition with the theoretical perspective of "war economy".Rethinking the origin and the development of ethnic problems in northeast Congo,this paper argues that without the conflict situation been eased,yet regional economic and political structural contradictions were settled,the effectiveness of international aid is hard to play.However,national integrity defects on ethnic policies is an inductive factor to the continuously severe inter-ethnic conflicts.Based on the understanding of inter-ethnic conflicts in the Northeastern DRC,Charter 4 discusses the role that the ethnic groups played in the relations among the Great Lakes Region' countries.Firstly,reviewing the transnational interaction of ethnic groups and introducing the intervention process and intervention method of national actors.Secondly,analyzing the dynamic factors of neighboring countries' interference in Northeastern DRC,and discussing the interests of neighboring countries from DRC in security,economy and geopolitics.Thirdly,summarizing ethnic factors' influence to the regional international relations with the analysis ofarmed groups,external intervention,bilateral relations and regional security.Chapter 5 discusses the relations between the ethnic groups and the country in the perspective of the state-building of the DRC,and analyzes the realistic dilemma in the process of national construction,and then puts forward the following views: First of all,the government of DRC should emancipate the mind,choose the development path suitable for the national conditions of the Congo;Secondly,it should strengthen the national party building and eliminate the negative effects of ethnic politics;At last,promoting the nation-building of the DRC,strengthening national cohesion through inter-ethnic political integration,and defusing the binary opposition between ethnic groups and the state.