Civil War And Violence In The Congo By David Samuels

The instability in the Congo has multiple factors both as a result of colonization and the circumstances of the years following independence. The exploitation of the national recourses for foreign interests, the lack of sufficient and legitimate government in the transition period and civil war and violence in the years following independence. David Samuels discusses the problems seen in late formed states in his article “The State”. He notes the importance of natural resources, peaceful government transition and the presence of violence in the initial years. Samuels discusses the advantage of Botswana’s diamond trade in his work. He introduces this advantage as a possible solution to Botswana’s economic prosperity but admits that “in
In the Congo, the rebel forces of neighboring countries took advantage of the lack of military and unenforced borders. Without the strong government infrastructure, it was easy for “armies [to] become self-financing networks of miners and smugglers … [and to] easily recruit children” (Hochschild 317). Not only did the invaders take advantage of the lack of options of the Congolese, they “helped themselves to more than 250 million worth of the Congo’s natural resources” (Hochschild 316). Violence in the newly formed state negatively impacted the lives of its citizen both by destroying infrastructure, stealing resources, and undermining the legitimate authority of the fledgling
By understanding what went wrong in the Congo’s case, we can apply what and why to avoid forming more weak states. Samuels credits the difference between Botswana, a successful African state, to Zimbabwe, a disaster similar to the Congo, to “diamonds, civil war and political leadership” (Samuels 49). Through the corruption and exploitation of natural resources, the Congo’s profits were never returned back to the people. Unlike Botswana, the Congo’s post-independence government failed to use the natural resources, like diamond, to improve infrastructure and stabilize the interior of their nation. Through a poor legacy from the colonial government, the Congo was not equipped with enough educated people nor the self-sustaining intuitions to govern themselves. The lack of qualified political leadership contributed to their failures and perpetuation of a weak state. And finally, because the Congo started as a weak state internally, it opened opportunities for external violence to invade as well as civil war. The lack of enforced borders leads to violence destroying infrastructure and stealing valuable potential income. By understanding these factors, today’s new states can learn how to avoid these pitfalls and the international community can