Jeremy Corbyn
Out of the Darkness?
THE Democratic Republic of the Congo is hard to get your head around. If one were to superimpose the country over a map of Europe, its land area would extend from France¹s Atlantic coast to Moscow.
Its population is probably around 60 million, but no reliable census has been done for a very long time. It is certainly young and dirt poor, with most Congolese living on less than a day and many on much less.
It is difficult to measure illiteracy rates, but it has been estimated at well over 60 per cent.
On July 30, the people of the DRC went to the polls in elections designed to break the deadlock and produce a government with popular legitimacy.
I was invited as an international election observer with local civil society groups and was sent to the southernmost region Bas Congo, near the mouth of the Congo River.
The country¹s history formed a bloody backdrop to the first elections in 45 years. Years of wars have killed three million people, the greatest loss of life in any conflict in the last two decades and the cause of enormous social and physical disruption to the whole society.
Amid all this misery and poverty lies an indomitable spirit, a culture of survival and huge mineral wealth which has been systematically creamed off for the benefit of both the fabulously wealthy local elite and international mining companies.
A glance further back into the country¹s history will reveal a unbelievably brutal past, even by the standards of African colonisation. Belgian King Leopold claimed the country at the infamous Congress of Berlin in 1884. The unspeakable cruelty of settlers and traders was recorded in Joseph Conrad¹s Heart of Darkness and was exposed by brave souls like Roger Casement.
The Belgians were very slow to recognise that independence would have to come. When it arrived suddenly in 1961, the colonialists left en masse and took the national coffers with them.
The newly elected government of revered Patrice Lamumba lasted a few months before he was assassinated and the country eventually fell into the hands of US ally, dictator Joseph Mobutu.
At the end of the Cold War, his value to Washington diminished and he died in exile as the country descended into war.
At its height, the conflict involved regular and irregular forces from most of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s neighbours. South Africa did its best to try to resolve the situation and backed the transitional government of Joseph Kabila, son of assassinated president Laurent Kabila, whose vice-presidents were drawn from the warring factions.
July’s elections were a completely novel experience for most of the population. There had been a massive registration push in the run-up to the election, producing a electoral roll of 25 million. There was one polling station for every 650 voters across most of the country.
The votes were being cast for a ballot paper containing 33 presidential candidates and 9,000 hopefuls for the 500 legislative assembly seats. In multi-member constituencies in the capital Kinshasa, there were so many candidates that the ballot paper ran to a whopping six pages.
The elections have raised huge expectations among the poorest people.
For many people in the country¹s remote villages, where economic activity is based on growing enough to live off, the government¹s role is not very obvious.
The main source of education comes from the church. There are only 300 miles of paved road in the whole country and there is no effective public health or social security system. Charities and aid agencies play an important role.
Kinshasa is an extensive city originally planned as a grand capital. It is teeming with people displaced by the war in the east who lack adequate sanitation. Malaria and other water-related illness are commonplace.
Tens of thousands of orphaned children try to survive by their wits and any charity aid that they can find.
To compound the problems, public workers are rarely paid. The police and army collect their income from the public and teachers charge parents in order to live.
I spent polling day in the company of observers from Burundi and the DRC itself. We drove 110 miles on dirt roads to visit polling stations in small villages in the area. We were impressed by the huge queues of voters, mostly women, who assembled at 5am and took part in the process enthusiastically.
The staff were meticulous in their attention to detail and regulations and were also endlessly patient with illiterate and poor-sighted voters who clearly found the whole process confusing.
To try to cut down on fraud, the votes were counted at the polling stations immediately after the ballots closed at 5pm. This threw up problems for staff, who had had no food or refreshments all day and were trying to identify votes by lamp and candlelight, without electricity.
The counting took most of the night. The results and ballot papers were taken to regional centres. While a brave effort, the lack of vehicles and roads meant that this took a long time and ballot papers were often in a poor state. A recount, if called for, would be impossible.
Warehouses at regional centres in Kinshasa were piled high with a confused mass of ballot papers. The electoral commission¹s inefficiency left staff unpaid and provoked the burning of tyres around the buildings.
The commission has promised a result by August 20. In the meantime, tensions are running high as accusation and rumours swirl around the capital.
Politics was not at the centre of election campaigns, which were dominated by huge spending by some presidential candidates. Their rallies were more like a scrum for free food, drink, hats and T-shirts than an arena of debate.
In a curious throwback, candidates included the children or grandchildren of Patrice Lamumba, former president Kasavubu and former dictator Mobutu. With no limit on spending, candidates were also able to buy access to the media.
The pre-election period could hardly, therefore, be described as a level playing field.
I was struck constantly in Kinshasa by the contrast between the small number of fabulously wealthy people, the terrible poverty of the vast majority and the huge efforts of the small civil society and faith groups who want a future where DRC riches are shared.
In Mbanzu Ngungu, Bas Congo, I met an active group who were campaigning against food dumping and explained in graphic detail how European-dumped chicken and US maize were driving farmers into destitution.
It seems absurd that the most fertile place in the world is unable to produce the food that it needs due to the policies of the EU and the US.
Whatever government emerges from the election must be tough enough to ensure that the worldwide demand for Congo’s minerals benefits the people.
Diamond, cobalt and other minerals have funded a decade of wars, bringing only death and destruction. The greed of the militia groups needs to replaced by schools and hospitals.
The Congo has been the plaything of King Leopold, the colony of Belgium and, for most of its independence, a cash cow for Mobutu and international mining companies. It is time that the people had a turn.
