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Zaire The Significance of Ethnic Identification
Ethnic identity may best be understood as a construct
useful to
both groups and individuals. It may be built around group
members'
perceptions of shared descent, religion, language,
origins, or
other cultural features. What motivates members to create
and
maintain a common identity, however, is not shared culture
but
shared interests. Once created, ethnic groups have
persisted not
because of cultural conservatism but because their members
share
some common economic and political interests, thus
creating an
interest group capable of competing with other groups in
the
continuing struggle for power.
The construction and destruction of ethnic identities
has been
an ongoing process. The name Ngala, for example,
was used by
early colonial authorities to describe an ethnic group
that they
imagined existed and lived upriver from the capital and
spoke
Lingala. The name Ngala figured prominently on
early maps.
The fact that Lingala was a lingua franca and that no
group
speaking Lingala as a mother tongue existed did not
prevent
colonial authorities from ascribing group characteristics
to the
fictional entity; they gave Ngala further substance
by
contrasting its characteristics with those of downriver
peoples
such as the Kongo. In the preindependence era, some of the
upriver
Africans briefly adopted the identity of Bangala; they
found it
useful as a rallying point in creating a political party.
Unfortunately, the party failed to win significant
electoral
support. Without the prospect of winning political and
economic
spoils, the Bangala identity was perceived as useless and
was
quickly discarded.
Other ethnic group identities have proven more
enduring.
Zaire's two largest ethnic groups, the Kongo and the Luba,
have
been widely mistrusted by many other Zairians as
excessively
arrogant, ambitious, and inclined to nepotism. Here again,
however,
traits considered to be innate to the group are in fact
ascribed,
products of specific historical conditions. Both groups
were early
adapters to the influences of the West. Their numerical
preponderance in Zaire's postcolonial business, church,
educational, and governmental hierarchies is a product of
their
history of early schooling and early acquisition of the
skills of
literacy rather than of any timeless expression of innate
characteristics of ambition and arrogance. Groups on the
borders of
Kongo and Luba influence have sometimes affirmed their
common
identity with their larger neighbor or denied it,
depending on the
historical advantages or disadvantages to be gained.
The significance and divisiveness of ethnic identities
were
highlighted during the struggle for political power at the
time of
independence and in the period preceding it. The
politically
ambitious seized on ethnic identity as the most practical
basis for
organizing political parties, and a nation fragmented
along ethnic
lines was the result. In Kasai Province (now
Kasai-Occidental
Region and Kasai-Oriental Region), ethnic conflict broke
out
between the Lulua and the Luba-Kasai. In Katanga Province
(now
Shaba Region), tension had long existed between the Lunda
and
others (such as the Tabwa from eastern Katanga), who
consider
themselves "authentic Katangans," and Luba-Kasai
immigrants, whose
material success the Lunda resented. When Katanga seceded
in 1960,
its Lunda president, Möise Tshombe, briefly attempted to
expatriate
the Luba-Kasai from Katanga back to Kasai Province; the
net result
was to exacerbate hostility between the two groups.
When Mobutu came to power in 1965, his first concern
was the
reestablishment of public order; ethnicity was widely
perceived as
having contributed to intra-Zairian conflicts, so Mobutu
began a
concerted campaign against its expression both in
political parties
and in government. The several hundred existing political
parties,
most of them organized along ethnic or regional lines,
were banned.
They were replaced with one national party, Mobutu's
Popular
Revolutionary Movement (Mouvement Populaire de la
Révolution--MPR).
Ethnic associations and appeals to ethnic unity were
proscribed.
Within government, administrative centralization led to a
reduction
in the number of provinces and other administrative units
and the
abrogation of the autonomy of such units. The staffing of
government ministries and of high-level posts was
consciously
balanced to ensure ethnic diversity. Also, the constant
rotation of
both civilian and military heads of regional and
subregional units
prevented anyone from building an ethnic following in his
or her
home region.
Despite these measures, Mobutu's government has been
widely
perceived as having if not an ethnic, then a regional
Équateurian
bias. Équateur Region is sometimes knowingly referred to
as
"Bethlehem" or "The Promised Land" by non-Équateurians.
One major
factor in this perception is the fact that Équateurians
have
profited from Zaire's equivalent of an educational
affirmativeaction program. Education is perceived as the key to
social
mobility, and the government's establishment of a regional
quota
system for university admissions (allotting set numbers of
entry
places by region) has effectively disadvantaged secondary
students
graduating from regions with numerous schools, such as
Bandundu or
Bas-Zaïre, relative to those with fewer schools, notably
Équateur
and Haut-Zaïre. Students from regions rich in schools have
long
been angered by the fact that lesser-qualified graduates
are
occupying university seats solely because they come from
the north.
In addition, many key posts in the security network
generally have
been staffed by Équateurians.
Ethnic identity has remained a potent force, and ethnic
tensions have festered, exacerbated by the country's
economic and
social deterioration. Events in Shaba and Nord-Kivu in the
early
1990s amply demonstrate this renewed tendency toward
ethnic
violence. Some groups have come to feel threatened by
others they
perceive as more successful. And, in a climate of economic
collapse
and increasingly fierce competition for scarce resources,
they have
taken action to rid themselves of the offending groups,
witness the
"authentic Katangans forcing Luba-Kasai out of Shaba and
the
resentment of indigenous peoples in Nord-Kiva of the
numerous
Banyarwanda. Many observers also believe, however, that
the Mobutu
regime has deliberately encouraged this ethnic tension in
order to
foster anarchy and undermine mass political mobilization
against
the regime
(see Subsequent
Political Developments, 1990-93
, ch. 4).
Nevertheless, despite the persistence of ethnic
tensions
demonstrated by interethnic violence in the early 1990s,
from the
individual Zairian's standpoint, ethnicity is still but
one source
of identity among many, one that may or may not be
expressed
depending upon the advantages to be gained or lost. Class
identity,
for example, may well be more important than ethnic
identity to a
member of the politico-commercial elite in determining how
he or
she reacts to a given situation. Religious identity might
be more
significant than class or ethnic identity to clergy. And
patronclient ties throughout the society may undercut or
strengthen
religious, ethnic, or class identities. Few contemporary
analysts
would attempt to predict either an individual or a group's
probable
course of action based on ethnic factors alone.
Data as of December 1993
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