Sons of Which Soil? The Language and Politics of Autochthony in Eastern D.R. Congo

Abstract

The recent wars in the DR Congo have led to a marked upsurge in both elite and popular discourse and violence around belonging and exclusion, expressed through the vernacular of "autochthony." Dangerously flexible in its politics, nervous and paranoid in its language, unmoored from geographic or ethnocultural specificity, borrowing energy both from present conflicts and deep-seated mythologies of the past, the idea of autochthony has permitted comparatively localized instances of violence in the DRC to inscribe themselves upward into regional, and even continental logics, with dangerous implications for the future. This article analyzes how the "local"/"stranger" duality of autochthony/allochthony expresses itself in the DRC through rumors, political tracts, and speeches and how it draws energy from imprecise overlaps with other powerful, preexisting identity polarities at particular scales of identity and difference: local, provincial, national, regional. Across each, autochthony operates as a loose qualifier, a binary operator: autochthony is adjectival, relational rather than absolute, policing a distinction between in and out, and yet not indicating, in itself, which in/out distinction is intended. Thus many speak of "Sons of the Soil," but of which soil, precisely? The slipperiness between different scales of meaning permits the speaker to leave open multiple interpretations. This indefiniteness is a paradoxical source of the discourse's strength and weakness, suppleness and nervousness, its declarative mood and attendant paranoia.Resume: Les guerres recentes en republique democratique du Congo ont engendre une insurrection marquee dans les discours a la fois de l'elite et du peuple et une violence autour des questions d'appartenance et d'exclusion, exprimees a travers le discours vernaculaire de l'identite "autochtone." La notion d' "autochtonie," dangereusement flexible politiquement, nerveuse et paranoiaque dans son langage, degagee de toute specificite geographique et ethnoculturelle, utilisant l'energie de conflits a la fois presents et des mythologies profondement ancrees dans le passe, a permis des eclats de violence tres localises comparativement en RDC, s'inscrivant dans une logique regionale et meme continentale avec des implications dangereuses pour l'avenir. Cet article analyse comment les dualites "locaux/etrangers" et "autochtones/allogenes" s'expriment en RDC a travers des rumeurs, des tracts politiques, des discours, et comment elles tirent leur vitalite d'assimilation avec d'autres polarites identitaires puissantes et preexistantes sur des echelles particulieres des notions d'identite et de difference: au niveau local, provincial, national, regional. A chaque niveau, l'autochtonie opere comme un qualifiant vague, un operateur binaire: la notion d'autochtonie est adjectivale, relative plutot qu'absolue, regentant une distinction entre l'interieur et l'exterieur, sans pour autant specifier, en elle-meme, sur quelle distinction "interieur/exterieur" elle opere. Beaucoup parlent alors de "fils d...

Taxation, Stateness and Armed Groups: Public Authority and Resource Extraction in Eastern Congo

“…evoked by it had been part of the language of stateness for generations (Newbury, 1978), but also because the same population had been exposed to brutal treatment by the RCD-G (Hoffmann, 2015;Jackson, 2006). At its peak, the group controlled large swathes of territory in the rural Kivus.…”

Armed mobilisation and the nexus of territory, identity, and authority: the contested territorial aspirations of the Banyamulenge in eastern DR Congo

“…Yet, the effects of processes of ethnic and territorial reification were very powerful, as ethnic communities came to be represented as existing since times immemorial and as having a 'natural right' to their 'homeland' that was justified by their 'having arrived there first'. Thus, a dichotomy was created between communities identifying themselves as 'born from the soil itself', hence 'autochthones' who 'had arrived first' in a certain area, and those lacking a 'tribal homeland', often portrayed as 'recent arrivals', 'immigrants', and 'foreigners', who were not 'authentically Congolese' (Jackson 2006). From the late colonial era onwards, this distinction became increasingly salient politically, as it became enmeshed with debates on the right to citizenship and electoral participation.…”

Managing Spoilers in a Hybrid War: The Democratic Republic of Congo (1996–2010)

“…In 1955, an estimated 160,000 Banyarwanda were living in eastern DRC (Jackson 1996;Mamdani 2002, 243;Vlassenroot and Huggins 2005, 129). Tutsi 6 are a small part of this group, today numbering several hundred thousands and constituting between 1 and 2% of the total Congolese population of some 60 million (Human Rights Watch 2007, 9; see also Lemarchand 2000).…”