Humanitarianism and Security

Trouble and Hope at the Heart of Africa

Yvan Yenda Ilunga

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030516888
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030516895
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Humanitarianism and Security contends that the search for stability and peace remains central to the political environment within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Despite some positive political and economic progress observed in the Central African Region and the DRC in particular, the future of the region remains uncertain. Due to many unaddressed issues, including the multidimensional manifestations of humanitarian crises, the region is fragile with the potential for a relapse into violent conflict. Moreover, the DRC's humanitarian crises have yet to be effectively addressed as consequences and promoters of insecurity and violence. Based on the "humanitarian-security-development" paradigm as an inclusive operational framework, Humanitarianism and Security articulates the trend of peace recovery in the DRC as contingent upon issues of security and the refugee/internally displaced population crisis. It claims and demonstrates that effective solutions must incorporate considerations of pre-colonial security dynamics, the place and role of identity within the humanitarian discourse/strategies, the determinants of transitional public security (TPS), and the various dynamics regarding the return and re/integration processes, into one operational framework. This framework must be accompanied by a continued effort to build strong local institutions as a critical component to the sustainability of operations.

© The Author(s) 2020

Y. Y. IlungaHumanitarianism and SecurityCritical Political Theory and Radical Practicehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51689-5_1

Begin Abstract

1. Humanitarianism and Security: An Introduction

Yvan Yenda Ilunga¹

(1)

Department of Political Science, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, USA

Yvan Yenda Ilunga

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

AfricaHumanitarian actionColonization

End Abstract

For many years, Africa has been characterized as “a dark continent” because of its many political and social issues that leaders have been unable to address, and which have kept most of the population in extreme poverty. The idea of a dark continent continues to raise some fundamental questions:

• Against what reality is the continent considered dark?
• What constitutes light?
• Is it possible to discover the unique light of the continent when considering Africa in its own particularity?

All of these questions challenge perceptions about the status of the continent and how it is perceived by people both within and outside its borders. While the search for light and the better days of the continent continues, it is unfortunately true that if light means “peace, security and prosperity,” Africa is far from experiencing the light.

Since the great waves of political independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Africa has continued to experience intra- and interstate conflicts and wars that destabilize many of its sub-regions and displace millions of people, who must find refuge either in neighboring countries or elsewhere within their own country. These conflicts continue to create massive humanitarian crises and complex security issues. In 2016, according to the UNHCR, an estimated 5.6 million people were refugees and up to 20 million were internally displaced or stateless in Africa alone.¹ One of the most affected countries by conflict and humanitarian crises is the DRC, which has floundered in a status of fragility and instability since 1998. Despite international peacekeeping operations initiated by the United Nations and despite the humanitarian assistance provided by international agencies, the security, peace, and stability of the DRC continue to be fragile. This fragility and instability are partially because the DRC has never been able to assume full control of its territory, nor to exercise effective sovereignty of its institutions. It has become disturbingly evident to both Congolese and non-Congolese that despite many years of efforts to restore peace and stability, the international community has failed to do so.

Many arguments have been advanced to justify this failure, such as the idea that the DRC’s large size makes it impossible to be unified under one flag. However, the idea of a unified country does not nullify the push for administrative and economic decentralization, which would confer upon provincial state entities the latitude to manage their resources and develop their economy in a way that would best serve their citizens, while still being housed under and serving the national interest. For those who argue that the Congo is too big to be one country, a counterargument could be offered that Algeria and Brazil are as large as the DRC and still manage to remain unified. The same example can be used for Russia in its current configuration, even though the history of Russia cannot be compared to the DRC. The size of a country should not be used as the main justification for its insecurity and instability. Rather, the DRC suffers from a lack of strong, credible, and viable institutions, which continue to facilitate and maintain insecurity and instability.

Another assumption is that once a country is divided, the newly created countries would be able to organize and develop. However, the case of South Sudan proves that if the root causes of conflicts and the institutions that cause and are affected by them are not addressed, the size and form of the new government will not guarantee stability and peace. These observations evince the need to reflect on what is it that perpetuates instability in the DRC, and what could be done to address its issues of insecurity and humanitarian crises. The regional implications of the DRC’s multiple crises must also be addressed in order to fix the situation. However, based on the political history and sociological background of Africa and the DRC, evidence indicates that the restoration of peace, the promotion of security, and the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance in the DRC will depend on how peacebuilders and lawmakers critically analyze and learn from factors that were instrumental to the stability and the security of the continent and the country prior to the era of colonization.

Historically, governance and security in Africa were rooted in strong local structures and norms that were promoted by the sovereign. For instance, during the pre-colonial period, African societies were organized based on empires. These empires had the following institutional characteristics:

centralized bureaucratic forms of government, the domination of a core region over peripheries, an ethnically or culturally defined hierarchy between rulers and ruled, and claims to universal legitimacy—whether referring to a revolutionary ideology, a mission civilisatrice, or religious conversation.²

These institutional features of empires helped to maintain security and promote peace across regions where they extended their influence and authority. Such was the case of the Songhai Empire in the Western Sahel between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This empire knew two dynasties: the Sonni Dynasty, which ruled from 1464 to 1493, and the Askiya Dynasty, which ruled from 1493 to 1591. Sonni Ali, who reigned from 1464 to 1492, was considered the best military strategist and conqueror of his time. As a sovereign, he managed to extend the empire to a size of over 1,400,000 square kilometers.³ While expanding, he maintained his authority and that of the empire by delegating power to loyal local authorities. He made sure that lo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Humanitarianism and Security: An Introduction
• 2. Security Factors in Africa
• 3. The Crisis of Identity
• 4. Institutional Deficit
• 5. Rethinking Transitional Public Security in Humanitarian Recovery
• 6. When Home Does Not Exist
• 7. Conclusion: The Search for Stability
• Back Matter