The Great Lakes of confusion

Abstract

The Great Lakes region is a place of great natural wonder and marvel, but as an old Luba proverb maintains: ‘The leopard's skin is lovely, but his heart evil.’ There is no inherent evil in the region, however: it is ‘plagued’ with a mixture of historical ethnical disputes, post-colonialist sentiments and neo-colonialist trends all mixed in the same frying pan, causing millions of deaths and constant instability in the region. This article focuses on the contemporary history of the conflict, analysing the causes for the shift and regression in security paradigms that are most notably due to the end of the Cold War, the subsequent decline of Mobutu Sese Seko, and the re-eruption of the Hutu-Tutsi conflict. At the time of writing these words worrying events in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo were unfolding. Defection of powerful Rwanda Patriotic Front generals, arrests of opposition leaders, and a general mistrust of the government in Rwanda by its people are leading the area to a tipping point. The DRC and its armed forces have yet to clamp down on rebel groups posing a clear and present danger to the stability of the region. One thing is certain: the Great Lakes region is filled with confusion, mistrust and pure hatred, and it is a geo-political and humanitarian volcano on the verge of eruption.