Selective Bibliographical Survey for the Study of Politics in the Former Belgian Congo

Abstract

Recent developments in Belgian Africa have focussed the attention of statesmen and political scientists on one area of Central Africa which has hitherto remained relatively unexplored by English-speaking social scientists. The problems raised by nationalist assertions throughout the continent of Africa are more than a research area of purely academic interest; they also represent a compelling challenge to anyone concerned with sound policy formulation and objective evaluations. With the entrance of the Belgian Congo in the family of independent African states, the policy choices of the United States have involved and will continue to involve additional issues of great urgency and complexity. Other reasons may be invoked for conducting a systematic survey of source material on the social, economic and political aspects of the Congo area. For one thing, the historical experiences and colonial heritage shared by native populations suggest that the intensity of their claims and the choice of their objectives will continue to reflect the impact of a distinctive type of colonial administration. For another, long-range problems of political viability must be viewed against the background of traditional authority systems, whether or not their distribution is coterminous with the geographical boundaries of the area under consideration. Finally, the central position occupied by the Belgian Congo on the map of Africa suggests that the political changes occurring in that area are likely to affect neighbouring territories in a far more decisive manner than those taking place on the periphery of the African continent. As one attempts to judge critically the contributions made by Belgian scholars toward a better understanding of African political phenomena one cannot fail to be impressed by the magnitude of the efforts and the unevenness of the results. This is partly due to the highly legalistic treatment given to various subject matters, and partly to the fact that available studies almost inevitably reflect the official constraints on their authors. Another explanatory factor lies in the absence of focus discernible in the study of traditional societies: frequently the negative and seemingly reprehensible traits of native societies are highlighted while the more positive aspects are deliberately de-emphasized. Finally, the paternalistic assumptions underlying Belgian administrative policies have had definite repercussions on the scope and orientation of official or semi-official research endeavours: by and large the vast field of economic and social development has received a particularly strong emphasis at the expense of other politically relevant research areas.