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Zaire Peasants
The peasantry is the class that has probably lost the
most
since independence. Although the Belgian colonial state
laid an
onerous burden of labor and taxation on its rural
subjects, it did
provide some medical and educational services and built a
substantial transportation network. All of these services
have
deteriorated. Resources, whether they are budget
appropriations,
consumer goods, gasoline, or medicines, have been targeted
first to
the urban population, with only the remainder going to the
hinterland. Rural government hospitals and dispensaries
have
continued to exist, but have rarely had medical supplies.
Rural
schools have increased in quantity but, outside of
selected schools
run by church networks, have greatly decreased in quality.
And the
road network has so deteriorated that in many areas crops
cannot be
transported to market and have been left to rot at
collection
depots.
The decrease in state services has not meant a
corresponding
decrease in state exactions, however. State economic
policies have
kept the price of foodstuffs and cash crops alike at low
levels,
disadvantaging rural producers and favoring urban
populations and
middlemen or state marketing organs. Production quotas for
peasants
have continued to be enforced, including those for export
crops
such as cotton. Coercion is applied not only in the form
of
hectarage quotas for specified crops but also through
direct
taxation. Each adult household head must pay a tax, and,
prior to
1990 at least, party dues were levied on top of that.
Census-takers
passing through a village charged fees both for adding
names to the
roster in case of births and for deleting names from the
roster in
case of deaths.
Fines have been another form of taxation on rural
producers.
Fines may be levied for failure to perform unpaid labor
for state
projects, for digging an improper latrine in contravention
of
sanitary regulations, or for failing to plant the required
hectarage. On top of these charges are the many illegal
extortions
imposed by government agents. Local police, army units, or
party
youth groups have long set up impromptu roadblocks where
identity
cards, official party cards, or other documents can be
demanded,
declared out of order, and retrieved only after payment of
a
"fine." Or a market-bound villager's bundle of game meat
might be
declared to belong to an endangered species protected by
law,
justifying confiscation on the spot. Young has speculated
that "as
much as 50 percent of real and potential village income is
extracted by the state or its representatives."
Data as of December 1993
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