The Congolese people have been struggling through a multi-dimensional crisis for over forty years. A brutal transition from colony to nation-state in 1960, 32 years of Mobutu's tyranny and the more recent hardship caused by a war involving seven of the country's nine neighbors, have all converged to impoverish the population. In terms of Human Development Indicators (nutrition, literacy, life expectancy at birth, availability of clean drinking water, etc.) the country is amongst the poorest of the poor.
Congo presents the archetypal example of the ‘state-society' cleavage. The Congolese people have been struggling through a multi-dimensional crisis for over forty years. A brutal transition from colony to nation-state in 1960, 32 years of Mobutu's tyranny and the more recent hardship caused by a war involving seven of the country's nine neighbors, have all converged to impoverish the population. In terms of Human Development Indicators (nutrition, literacy, life expectancy at birth, availability of clean drinking water, etc.) the country is amongst the poorest of the poor.
Although macro-economic indicators are not very relevant in the Congo where the economy is essentially informal, the per capita figure of somewhere between $100 and $300 per annum does provide some comparison. As the last population census dates back to 1984, nobody knows for sure how many people live in the Congo. Estimates based on projections are somewhere between 50-55 million. There are approximately 300 ethnic groups with as many language groups and 4 vehicular languages Lingala, Kiswahili, Tsiluba, Kikongo. The urban-rural population ration is approximately 50-50.
The human cost of dictatorship and the ensuing transformation of the state was dramatic. In the cities, economic and political crisis translate into the decline, absence or hijacking of municipal and administrative services; public transport problems; inadequate water and energy distribution; housing shortages; etc. In Kinshasa, for example, 50% of the population have only one meal per day, 25% have one meal every two days. Also in Kinshasa, 25% of the population - and in this case it is children and women - have to walk more than one kilometre to fetch water.
In the rural areas, people survive thanks to their subsistence activities - hunting, gathering, fishing, farming - and due to the decay of road infrastructure live in relative autarchy. Access to health care, education or administrative services is extremely difficult. Today, in the rebel held areas, basic supplies have disappeared: there in neither soap nor salt. Lack of salt is not only a question of taste: without the iodine it provides, many children now suffer from goitre, a deficiency that had been nearly eradicated by the end of the colonial period. Clothing is also increasingly hard to find. Many children consequently stay home from school because they have nothing to wear.
Population and poverty in Kinshasa
In order to highlight the links between crisis, population and the environment, it will he useful to focus in on a specific case study. Given the Congo's immensity, it is not possible to present this type of data for the whole country, but this information provides a partial picture of what it is like living in sub-Saharan Africa's second largest city. Approximately one Congolese in ten live in the capital.
Demographics of Kinshasa
Although figures for Kinshasa are based on rough estimates, the 5,000,000 mark is widely accepted to have been surpassed. With the arrival of hundreds of thousands of displaced populations from the east, the figure could be much higher. This contrasts sharply with the independence period figure of approximately 400,000 inhabitants. It contrasts even more sharply with the village-like character of what began as Leopoldville Station a century ago. But the imbalance between what was in the past a positive urban standard of living compared to rural life has shifted. Attraction for the city has turned into disillusion. Kinshasa's image has shifted from Kin la belle to Kin la poubelle. This sentiment contributed to what has been referred to as the phenomenon of 'ex-urbanisation' which is manifested as re-settlement in peri-urban Kinshasa, return to the place of origin or migration to another city.
Encroachment onto the hinterland
Kinshasa's overwhelming preponderance in the Congo in terms of population, infrastructure, employment, industry, trade, public works, etc. reflects Mobutu's highly centralised political rule. This preponderance helps explain the city's interaction with, and dependence on, its natural environment. A striking result of this relationship is Kinshasa's relentless gnawing away at peri-urban space. Aerial photos and satellite images testify to land cover change. This is most obvious along the southern and eastern zones of the periphery. These are the 'anarchic' annexes to the planned European districts and the planned African cités and to the southern settlements which were occupied in the immediate post-independence ‘first-come first-served' frenzy for land. The ongoing spatial expansion of Kinshasa for habitat is a good example of urbanisation without urban planning. It is accompanied by two other land use implications which also have seriously modified the region's natural environment. The first and foremost is agricultural expansion, the second is pressure on forest areas for fuelwood.
Agricultural Expansion
Despite the Mobutist rhetoric on the need to prioritise agricultural self-sufficiency, the Congo never had a comprehensive policy integrating production, transportation and commercialisation of agricultural produce. By the late 1980s, the percentage of the national budget devoted to the sector dropped to around 2%-3%. Rural communities are handicapped by this lack of policy but urban populations are even more vulnerable. Indeed, it is estimated that a minimum of 50% of total Kinshasa household expenditures is made for food: for the very poor this percentage can be as high as 72%
The 'rurbanisation' phenomenon
Along with other factors such as unemployment, unpaid salaries and the generalised pauperisation of Kinshasa's inhabitants, the Kinois have contributed to the growing phenomenon of urban agriculture. While families in Kinshasa have often planted fruit trees and medicinal plants in their gardens for cultural reasons, all available space within the city has now been converted into farm plots for economic reasons. The juxtaposition of farm plots intertwined with a densely urban setting is striking when flying over the city. Urban agriculture is thus one of many survival strategies developed to feed the family, and can be considered in the broader context of the rurbanisation of Kinshasa.
For numerous families in the southern and eastern districts of the capital, agriculture is the primary occupation. In order to mitigate the inevitable effects of soil depletion of these plots which are used year-round, organic fertilisers are used and crops are rotated. The collective or community structure of rural farming has given way to an individual type of organisation (people say they farm alone) which reflects the urbanisation of attitudes and behaviours. Production serves generally to feed the family but eventual surpluses can be sold in small local markets referred to as wenzés. The fact that husbands help their wives in the fields is a notable new trend. Men also gather fuelwood which is another shift in what was traditionally a strictly gendered activity.
Another dimension of the 'rurbanisation' phenomenon is small-scale livestock breeding. Families increasingly raise chickens, rabbits, pigs, pigeons or goats. Although they claim to engage in livestock breeding to feed the family or to sell surpluses, these animals are rarely eaten outside of ceremonial circumstances or the 'prestige economy' - a situation which prevails in the village.
Fuelwood and charcoal
Kinshasa is more severely effected by a fuelwood crisis than any other Congo Basin city. This results from the convergence of a large population, overwhelming poverty and a hinterland whose natural environment (tropical swamp forest) is relatively poor in woody biomass. It also results from poor policy. Reforestation was never seriously addressed. Another policy failure relates to the Inga dam installation which was built in the heyday of Western support for Mobutu. Electricity from Inga, which could also potentially help reduce the Kinshasa's population reliance on fuelwood and charcoal, has never been managed with the intention of helping the urban poor.
Today the near totality of the Kinshasa population relies almost exclusively on wood or charcoal for cooking fuel. Even those households which have access to electricity (which is used primarily for lighting) are unable to afford even the most rudimentary type of an electric stove.
Penury of charcoal has been a cause of concern for decades. Today, serious ecological and human repercussions are obvious. With respect to the latter, it is now clear that public health standards have declined dramatically. Hot meals are increasingly rare and are being replaced with unheated leftovers, despite the risk of contamination. Traditional meals which require cooking for a long time are also replaced by snack foods which are less nourishing. The number of daily meals has gradually declined and now a single meal per day is the norm. According to the World Health Organisation, 13.6% of the population suffer from serious malnutrition, 9.4% from moderate malnutrition.
Fuelwood scarcity has thus become a dramatic public health issue. From a sociological point of view, food and fuelwood scarcity has also contributed to the breakdown of traditional sharing habits. The urban poor in Kinshasa simply no longer have the possibility of sharing food which was still a social norm until a decade ago.
A related but often overlooked problem pertains to water distribution and fuelwood consumption. Despite recommendations by public health officials in Kinshasa to boil drinking water, few people do so. They choose to use scarce fuel for cooking instead of for boiling water. Water-borne intestinal diseases are common.
And tomorrow?
In this context of crisis, the kinois have thus responded to the challenges of daily survival by developing their own popular, people-based, ad hoc, solutions. These are based most notably on the ‘parallel' economy, innovative use of resources and of space (notably between Kinshasa and its hinterland) and on a host of social, kinship, community, religious and commercial networks. This is what can be considered as their capacity for social innovation and adaptation to economic and political constraints. The kinois are also renown for their cultural inventiveness which is witnessed in popular painting, music, fashion and use of language.
One would think that social institutions fall apart in this context, but in Kinshasa they appear to be diversifying and even strengthening. Examples which support this hypothesis pertain to the shaping of civil society institutions, class and gender formations; access to power and ‘voice', the roles of ethnicity, neighbourhood or professional organisations, patron-client relations, etc.
Renewal and reconstruction
Joseph Kabila has ostensibly succeeded in gaining the support of part of the international community. His diplomatic initiatives in the US, France and most importantly in Belgium have been well received. Belgium and particularly Foreign Affairs Minister Louis Michel and Secretary of State for Cooperation Eddy Boutemans are very active in trying to orchestrate a Marshall Plan for the Great Lakes Region. Belgium is playing an active role in trying to help Congo establish relations with the donor community. One action is the setting up of a HIPC agenda. HIPC is a financial mechanism - it stands for Highly Indebted Poor Countries - which transforms debt into social programmes. The magnitude of what is needed however goes far beyond what the international donor community is willing to invest.
Despite Kabila's positive image outside of Congo, his position viewed from within is shaky. Many Congolese are highly critical of his being parachuted into power, they wonder about his leadership capacity, they wonder about his relations with his father's entourage, and they wonder about his relations with external regional backers such as Mugabe and Dos Santos. Probably most importantly, they want to know what he is able to do to redress the social and economic situation and liberate the country from outside actors -especially the uninvited ones like Rwanda and the not really very welcome guests like the Angolans whose soldiers are today patrolling the streets of Kinshasa.
Despite some reasons for hope on this political landscape which changed considerably following the killing of Larent Kabila, there are still very major obstacles.
Although macro-economic indicators are not very relevant in the Congo where the economy is essentially informal, the per capita figure of somewhere between $100 and $300 per annum does provide some comparison. As the last population census dates back to 1984, nobody knows for sure how many people live in the Congo. Estimates based on projections are somewhere between 50-55 million. There are approximately 300 ethnic groups with as many language groups and 4 vehicular languages Lingala, Kiswahili, Tsiluba, Kikongo. The urban-rural population ration is approximately 50-50.
The human cost of dictatorship and the ensuing transformation of the state was dramatic. In the cities, economic and political crisis translate into the decline, absence or hijacking of municipal and administrative services; public transport problems; inadequate water and energy distribution; housing shortages; etc. In Kinshasa, for example, 50% of the population have only one meal per day, 25% have one meal every two days. Also in Kinshasa, 25% of the population - and in this case it is children and women - have to walk more than one kilometre to fetch water.
In the rural areas, people survive thanks to their subsistence activities - hunting, gathering, fishing, farming - and due to the decay of road infrastructure live in relative autarchy. Access to health care, education or administrative services is extremely difficult. Today, in the rebel held areas, basic supplies have disappeared: there in neither soap nor salt. Lack of salt is not only a question of taste: without the iodine it provides, many children now suffer from goitre, a deficiency that had been nearly eradicated by the end of the colonial period. Clothing is also increasingly hard to find. Many children consequently stay home from school because they have nothing to wear.
Population and poverty in Kinshasa
In order to highlight the links between crisis, population and the environment, it will he useful to focus in on a specific case study. Given the Congo's immensity, it is not possible to present this type of data for the whole country, but this information provides a partial picture of what it is like living in sub-Saharan Africa's second largest city. Approximately one Congolese in ten live in the capital.
Demographics of Kinshasa
Although figures for Kinshasa are based on rough estimates, the 5,000,000 mark is widely accepted to have been surpassed. With the arrival of hundreds of thousands of displaced populations from the east, the figure could be much higher. This contrasts sharply with the independence period figure of approximately 400,000 inhabitants. It contrasts even more sharply with the village-like character of what began as Leopoldville Station a century ago. But the imbalance between what was in the past a positive urban standard of living compared to rural life has shifted. Attraction for the city has turned into disillusion. Kinshasa's image has shifted from Kin la belle to Kin la poubelle. This sentiment contributed to what has been referred to as the phenomenon of 'ex-urbanisation' which is manifested as re-settlement in peri-urban Kinshasa, return to the place of origin or migration to another city.
Encroachment onto the hinterland
Kinshasa's overwhelming preponderance in the Congo in terms of population, infrastructure, employment, industry, trade, public works, etc. reflects Mobutu's highly centralised political rule. This preponderance helps explain the city's interaction with, and dependence on, its natural environment. A striking result of this relationship is Kinshasa's relentless gnawing away at peri-urban space. Aerial photos and satellite images testify to land cover change. This is most obvious along the southern and eastern zones of the periphery. These are the 'anarchic' annexes to the planned European districts and the planned African cités and to the southern settlements which were occupied in the immediate post-independence ‘first-come first-served' frenzy for land. The ongoing spatial expansion of Kinshasa for habitat is a good example of urbanisation without urban planning. It is accompanied by two other land use implications which also have seriously modified the region's natural environment. The first and foremost is agricultural expansion, the second is pressure on forest areas for fuelwood.
Agricultural Expansion
Despite the Mobutist rhetoric on the need to prioritise agricultural self-sufficiency, the Congo never had a comprehensive policy integrating production, transportation and commercialisation of agricultural produce. By the late 1980s, the percentage of the national budget devoted to the sector dropped to around 2%-3%. Rural communities are handicapped by this lack of policy but urban populations are even more vulnerable. Indeed, it is estimated that a minimum of 50% of total Kinshasa household expenditures is made for food: for the very poor this percentage can be as high as 72%
The 'rurbanisation' phenomenon
Along with other factors such as unemployment, unpaid salaries and the generalised pauperisation of Kinshasa's inhabitants, the Kinois have contributed to the growing phenomenon of urban agriculture. While families in Kinshasa have often planted fruit trees and medicinal plants in their gardens for cultural reasons, all available space within the city has now been converted into farm plots for economic reasons. The juxtaposition of farm plots intertwined with a densely urban setting is striking when flying over the city. Urban agriculture is thus one of many survival strategies developed to feed the family, and can be considered in the broader context of the rurbanisation of Kinshasa.
For numerous families in the southern and eastern districts of the capital, agriculture is the primary occupation. In order to mitigate the inevitable effects of soil depletion of these plots which are used year-round, organic fertilisers are used and crops are rotated. The collective or community structure of rural farming has given way to an individual type of organisation (people say they farm alone) which reflects the urbanisation of attitudes and behaviours. Production serves generally to feed the family but eventual surpluses can be sold in small local markets referred to as wenzés. The fact that husbands help their wives in the fields is a notable new trend. Men also gather fuelwood which is another shift in what was traditionally a strictly gendered activity.
Another dimension of the 'rurbanisation' phenomenon is small-scale livestock breeding. Families increasingly raise chickens, rabbits, pigs, pigeons or goats. Although they claim to engage in livestock breeding to feed the family or to sell surpluses, these animals are rarely eaten outside of ceremonial circumstances or the 'prestige economy' - a situation which prevails in the village.
Fuelwood and charcoal
Kinshasa is more severely effected by a fuelwood crisis than any other Congo Basin city. This results from the convergence of a large population, overwhelming poverty and a hinterland whose natural environment (tropical swamp forest) is relatively poor in woody biomass. It also results from poor policy. Reforestation was never seriously addressed. Another policy failure relates to the Inga dam installation which was built in the heyday of Western support for Mobutu. Electricity from Inga, which could also potentially help reduce the Kinshasa's population reliance on fuelwood and charcoal, has never been managed with the intention of helping the urban poor.
Today the near totality of the Kinshasa population relies almost exclusively on wood or charcoal for cooking fuel. Even those households which have access to electricity (which is used primarily for lighting) are unable to afford even the most rudimentary type of an electric stove.
Penury of charcoal has been a cause of concern for decades. Today, serious ecological and human repercussions are obvious. With respect to the latter, it is now clear that public health standards have declined dramatically. Hot meals are increasingly rare and are being replaced with unheated leftovers, despite the risk of contamination. Traditional meals which require cooking for a long time are also replaced by snack foods which are less nourishing. The number of daily meals has gradually declined and now a single meal per day is the norm. According to the World Health Organisation, 13.6% of the population suffer from serious malnutrition, 9.4% from moderate malnutrition.
Fuelwood scarcity has thus become a dramatic public health issue. From a sociological point of view, food and fuelwood scarcity has also contributed to the breakdown of traditional sharing habits. The urban poor in Kinshasa simply no longer have the possibility of sharing food which was still a social norm until a decade ago.
A related but often overlooked problem pertains to water distribution and fuelwood consumption. Despite recommendations by public health officials in Kinshasa to boil drinking water, few people do so. They choose to use scarce fuel for cooking instead of for boiling water. Water-borne intestinal diseases are common.
And tomorrow?
In this context of crisis, the kinois have thus responded to the challenges of daily survival by developing their own popular, people-based, ad hoc, solutions. These are based most notably on the ‘parallel' economy, innovative use of resources and of space (notably between Kinshasa and its hinterland) and on a host of social, kinship, community, religious and commercial networks. This is what can be considered as their capacity for social innovation and adaptation to economic and political constraints. The kinois are also renown for their cultural inventiveness which is witnessed in popular painting, music, fashion and use of language.
One would think that social institutions fall apart in this context, but in Kinshasa they appear to be diversifying and even strengthening. Examples which support this hypothesis pertain to the shaping of civil society institutions, class and gender formations; access to power and ‘voice', the roles of ethnicity, neighbourhood or professional organisations, patron-client relations, etc.
Renewal and reconstruction
Joseph Kabila has ostensibly succeeded in gaining the support of part of the international community. His diplomatic initiatives in the US, France and most importantly in Belgium have been well received. Belgium and particularly Foreign Affairs Minister Louis Michel and Secretary of State for Cooperation Eddy Boutemans are very active in trying to orchestrate a Marshall Plan for the Great Lakes Region. Belgium is playing an active role in trying to help Congo establish relations with the donor community. One action is the setting up of a HIPC agenda. HIPC is a financial mechanism - it stands for Highly Indebted Poor Countries - which transforms debt into social programmes. The magnitude of what is needed however goes far beyond what the international donor community is willing to invest.
Despite Kabila's positive image outside of Congo, his position viewed from within is shaky. Many Congolese are highly critical of his being parachuted into power, they wonder about his leadership capacity, they wonder about his relations with his father's entourage, and they wonder about his relations with external regional backers such as Mugabe and Dos Santos. Probably most importantly, they want to know what he is able to do to redress the social and economic situation and liberate the country from outside actors -especially the uninvited ones like Rwanda and the not really very welcome guests like the Angolans whose soldiers are today patrolling the streets of Kinshasa.
Despite some reasons for hope on this political landscape which changed considerably following the killing of Larent Kabila, there are still very major obstacles.
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