Land and Identity in Africa: A Case Study of the Banyamulenge of the Eastern Drc

Abstract

The ongoing crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is known as one of the worst since World War II because of the number of deaths that have occurred and are still occurring. Since 1998, an estimated 5.4 million people have died (International-Rescue-Committee. Mortality in the democratic republic of the Congo: an ongoing crisis. http://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/resource-file/2006-7_congoMortalitySurvey.pdf, http://www.rescue.org/sites/default/files/resource-file/2006-7_congoMortalitySurvey.pdf, 2007). As of April 2010, at least 1.8 million people were displaced, a displacement which constituted the fourth largest in the world. 1.4 million of these were displaced in the provinces of North and South Kivu in Eastern DRC, an area that borders Rwanda (HRW. Always on the run: the vicious cycle of displacement in Eastern Congo, September. http://www.hrw.org/reports/2010/09/14/always-run-0, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2010/09/14/always-run-0, 2010). The time has come to understand the factors underneath the chaos to enable us to address the root causes of conflict effectively. This paper seeks to investigate the deeper systemic issues that affect or sustain conflict by focusing on the collective identity and relationship to the land of one specific group, the Banyamulenge of South Kivu.