|
Zaire POLARIZATION AND PROSPECTS FOR CONFLICT
Given the polarization of Zairian society since 1960
into an
upper class dominated by the external estate and the
politicocommercial elite and a lower-class group of
subbourgeoisie,
workers, members of the informal sector, and peasants,
open
conflict would seem inevitable. At least three major
reasons why
this has not occurred may be cited.
One is the power of the myth of educational mobility
(see Education
, this ch.). A link between education and upward
mobility
is widely believed to exist, which has given parents hope
that
however bad their own current conditions, through
education their
children might advance and prosper. Parents have made
painful
financial sacrifices in order to get their children into
and
through secondary school.
The myth obscures the fact that schools vary widely in
quality
and that only some urban and church-run schools offer the
quality
of instruction needed to pass the national state secondary
school
examinations. In addition, many parents in the
politico-commercial
class send their children abroad to be educated in Europe
and
elsewhere, giving their offspring an advantage unavailable
to the
children of other classes. Nevertheless, despite the
progressive
closure of avenues of advancement through education, the
myth of
its availability has been a significant factor in
dampening social
unrest.
A second factor is the availability of outside force to
back
the state in case of rebellion or invasion. The external
estate
depends on the government as a guarantor of the order
needed to
conduct its economic activities and to protect its
luxurious
lifestyle; thus, it has tacitly backed the status quo. The
state in
turn depends on the external estate in order to operate
the mining
industry; that industry has long furnished it with the
bulk of its
revenues. Both the external estate and the government are
closely
linked with a group of Western states, most importantly
Belgium,
France, and the United States. Whenever the external
estate or key
productive installations, such as Zaire's copper or cobalt
mines,
were threatened, foreign powers intervened militarily. The
knowledge that their rulers might rely on outside military
aid has
had a restraining effect on those in the lower classes who
might
otherwise have contemplated active opposition to the
state.
A final factor in the failure of the people to revolt
in
response to their pauperization is their own strength in
creating
alternatives to the formal market economy. The informal
sector has
shown remarkable resilience and has provided a means of
subsistence
where the formal economy has failed. The weakness of the
state in
its attempts to regulate or control these parallel markets
has,
paradoxically, helped to ensure their survival. For people
who
would starve if limited in their activity to the formal
market, the
parallel markets of the informal sector offer a chance for
survival.
Data as of December 1993
|
