![]() Customary chiefs with extensive powers became particularly important intermediaries. The object was to ensure that order could be maintained at the same time as the indigenous populations were turned into productive and taxable subjects. Hundreds of chiefdoms were created in DRC. By creating “ethnic territories” they sought to balance demands for profit and self-financing with objectives of maintaining order, managing dispossession, and upholding racial boundaries and hierarchies. The colonial authorities used them to rule indigenous people indirectly as “tribes” or “races”, in their natural environment, and through their own customs and political institutions.Īcross the world colonial regimes created “ ethnic territories”. Why history matters in understanding conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of CongoĪ key component of how DRC – and other territories across Sub-Saharan Africa – were run was the creation of chefferies or chiefdoms.Ĭhiefdoms were envisioned as mutually exclusive ethnically discrete territories ruled by a single customary chief governing through customary law. This is especially so in areas marked by persistent violent conflict such as Kalehe and Uvira further south. Evoking ethnic narratives remains an effective strategy of mobilisation because of entrenched mutual distrust and prevailing fear. ![]() This matters today because ethnicity still plays an important role in politics and violent conflicts in eastern DRC. The main conclusion I draw is that the ideas of ethnic territories used by actors in struggles over power and resources in DRC have their roots in the way in which the territory was run under Belgian colonial rule. The focus of my study is the area directly west of Lake Kivu, known as Kalehe Territory, which has been the scene of violent conflict for more than two decades. In addition to chiefdoms, there are myriad smaller customary units such as groupings and villages. These are ruled by customary chiefs, who are recognised by the government and who apply both modern and customary laws. ![]() A sizeable part of its rural population is administered under no less than 250 traditional chiefdoms. In a recent article, I dissected how ethnic territories have been imagined and constructed historically, and how they have been used in political struggles for power and resources in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).įormerly known as Zaire, DRC is the second largest country in Africa and home to 90 million people. In brief, across the world people are socialised into thinking, feeling and acting as members of an ethnic community, or group.īecause ideas of ethnic territories are a major source of political friction and persecution in the world, it’s important to investigate how they are created and used in conflicts. Rather, they should be understood as identity categories embedded in society’s power structures, discourses, and, more broadly, in people’s ways of thinking and feeling. Such stereotypes are not simply created on the spot by opportunistic leaders. This makes it easier to cast them as a threat to one’s own ethnic community. A perceived ethnic adversary may be regarded as “violent”, “aggressive”, “greedy, "savage”, “rebellious”, “restless”, “backwards”, “undemocratic” or “cunning”. They may begin to attribute certain cultural, or genetic, characteristics of their adversaries as the cause for conflict. In such moments, people may start to think of conflicts in ethnic terms. This colours people’s understanding of the conflict’s stakes and fault-lines. This is true even when the origin and the stakes have little to do with ethnicity. In times of violent upheaval and conflict, ethnic narratives often come to the fore. Servers exist as persistent worlds in real time, and only crucial decision making, long-term planning, and a watchful eye over your kingdom can secure success.Throughout history, ethnic stereotypes have been used to justify mass violence, exclusion, oppression, and inequality in many corners of the world. Assemble Tribes with other players, conduct real diplomacy with bordering leaders, and coordinate armies as a group in order to create strategic battle plans that devastate your enemies and conquer thousands of villages on the map. Manage your village, construct formidable defenses, and raise a ferocious army in order to outgrow your enemies and plunder their resources. Tribal Wars is a massively-multiplayer, hardcore medieval strategy game where the winners take all, and every player is a potential enemy.
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