DEMOCATIC REPUBLIC O THE CONGO

Area

2.344.858 Kmq

Mortalità infantile

101 per 1.000

(Fonts - population, annual growth, life expectancy, infant mortality, imports and exports: The World Factbook 2000, www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook - GNP per capita: UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, Oxford 2000 - other infos: Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Guya del mondo 1999/2000, Montevideo 1999) www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook

HISTORY

The seat of various indigenous kingdoms, in the nineteenth century the region became the object of the interest of Leopold II of Belgium, under whose private control it was subjected to an unrivalled exploitation in the history of colonialism. In 1908 the administration passed from the hands of the king to the Belgian government which transformed it in a bureaucratic and centralist way. Thanks to the action of various but not completely homogeneous pro-independence movements, the Congo became independent in 1960. In 1965, the young republic was to suffer the coup by General J.D. Mobutu, who changed the name of the country to Zaire, put an end to the federalism of the institutions, establishing an authoritarian and rigidly centralist state (a de facto absolutist monarchy). The three decades of the Mobutu regime (supported by France) were characterized by an economic situation on the verge of collapse, prevailing corruption, a very high rate of inflation and unemployment and increasingly serious social disorder, the systematic repression of which led the country to international isolation. Since 1994 this already disastrous situation had to support the pressure of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Rwanda, victims of the tragic ethnic conflict which overran their country, a conflict which broke out over the borders in Zaire and which led to the overthrow of Mobutu by L. Kabila, who became the new master of the country. In 2001 Kabila was assassinated and the political scenario of Congo is still evolving. The Congolese population belongs mainly to the Bantu group, with an ethnic fragmentation of as many as two hundred groups; the majority practise traditional religions which are not incompatible with Christianity.

ETNIE

• LENGOLA
• MANGBETU
• NGBAKA
• ZANDE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

100 Peoples of Zaire and their sculpture: the handbook, Bruxelles: Tribal Arts Press 1987

AUGUADRA P. A., Diario di un africano bianco : indipendenza del Congo e secessione del Katanga, Monfalcone : Edizioni della Laguna 1993

WILLIAMS D. B. - LESH R. W. - STAMM A. L., Zaire, Oxford : Clio Press 1995

ITALIAN NGO IN REP.DEM.CONGO

SOSMIS, COE, VIS, MANI TESE, CESVITEM, IFP, AIFO, AIS, ALISEI NF, DOKITA, ICU, MSF, AVAZ, MMI, AMG, FONTOV, CISS