Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
1356862587
Link(s) to full text
LAC copy
Author
Mayanja, Namakula Evelyn B.
Title
People's experiences and perceptions of war and peace in South Kivu province, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Degree
Ph.D. -- University of Manitoba, 2018
Publisher
[Winnipeg, Manitoba] : University of Manitoba, 2018
Description
1 online resource
Abstract
This study explores people's experiences and perceptions of war and the peacebuilding processes needed for reconstructing Congo. It explains how the ongoing war has horrendous consequences for individuals and communities. There are extensive accounts of how ordinary Congolese have suffered because of the war, how they understand the causes of war, and what they think is needed to achieve peace. In my research, I endeavored to transcend theoretical abstraction, intellectualization, and rationalization to represent people's realties and experiences through their stories. The essence of my research was to explain from their perspective, what feeds the war, why current peacebuilding measures are failing and what is needed to reconstruct the Congo state to engender peace, security, and development. My hope is that people's stories will inspire greater action and engagement to ameliorate their suffering. A matrix of international, regional, and national factors must be assembled, like in a puzzle, to understand the multifaceted factors leading to Congo's wars. While the causes are multifactorial, and fundamentally rooted in colonialism, what is clear is that Congo, is the victim of the wars of plunder. Developed nations need Congo's minerals to advance their technological prowess. While in the past, colonialism enabled western power to access Congo's resources, war is the current modus operandi. The violent exploitation of Congo's resources exposes the ineffectiveness of global leadership and resource governance that propagate structures and systems that perpetuate the incessant wars. Neoliberal interventions, including two decades of UN peacekeeping and political elections have failed to create peace and security. If there is a genuine global political will to end Congo's wars, strategic and comprehensive short and long-term interventions are needed, to engage multifaceted factors and actors to address the complex national, regional and international causes and to prevent future wars. Sustainable peace also depends on engendering leadership and resource governance in Congo; involving the grassroots people and their cultures; and tackling structural and systemic poverty and unemployment, so that the impoverished people stop joining the armed groups.
Other link(s)
hdl.handle.net
mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca
Subject
Mineral based war, peacebuilding, security