http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/congo Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:09:50 -0400 Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:09:50 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1930/mobutu-and-the-collective-congolese-memory-reconstructing-the-past-as-a-survival-tool By John M. Mulunda - Despite the focus of scholars on the repressive elements of Mobutu’s Reign, “The rumble in the Jungle,” abacost jackets and the return to “authenticité” instead form the core of the 32-year reign of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in the collective Congolese memory. In the nearly 24 years since his removal from office, Mobutu’s memory has been collectively reconstructed by the Congolese people, complicating our scholarly understanding of Mobutu’s reign and its place in contemporary imagination. The once despised dictator is now often admired as a symbol... Thu, 06 Jan 2022 12:41 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1930/mobutu-and-the-collective-congolese-memory-reconstructing-the-past-as-a-survival-tool http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1797/cobalt-computation-and-the-congo-making-corporations-pay-for-their-transnational-terrors By Isabel G. Padalecki - Though electronic products are ubiquitous in the modern Western world, most people are not aware of the origins of the batteries that power devices such as laptop computers and mobile phones. Lithium-ion batteries, though used primarily in wealthy and affluent nations like the United States, include the element cobalt, a mineral mined primarily out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Lenntech). Despite the fact that the technologies supported by cobalt have greatly enhanced the lives of affluent Western technological consumers, the mining of cobalt has wreaked havoc on many Congolese communities... Tue, 15 Sep 2020 07:33 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1797/cobalt-computation-and-the-congo-making-corporations-pay-for-their-transnational-terrors http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1720/before-drones-us-covert-action-in-africa-during-the-congo-crisis By Drew A. Calcagno - A man named Patrice Lumumba led the nation's independence struggle, starting as the head of a local anti-colonial movement and eventually growing to be the first democratically-elected prime minister. Lumumba was under no delusion that Belgium and the greater West would continue to exploit the Congo if given the chance. Due to this philosophy, he expressed in famously charismatic terms that the Congo would progress only if it fully divorced itself from the colonial yoke. Through his magnetism, Lumumba found great allies as well as great enemies. His approach was rich with revolutionary diction... Thu, 30 Nov 2017 12:00 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1720/before-drones-us-covert-action-in-africa-during-the-congo-crisis http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1243/the-consequences-of-rape-during-conflict-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo By Elizabeth Dettke - "I rape because of the need. After that I feel like a man." These are the words of a rebel soldier who ruthlessly roams the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in search of his next victims. Rape has been used in the past during warfare to weaken populations and ruin communities and family bonds but never to the extent witnessed in the DRC today. Literally, tens of thousands of women have been raped and this number is most likely largely underestimated. The conflict has been called Africa's First World War and one of the deadliest since World War II with the death toll reaching 5... Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:00 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1243/the-consequences-of-rape-during-conflict-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/565/ronan-bennetts-the-catastrophist-paralleling-ireland-and-congo By Rachel E. Wallaace - In The Catastrophist, Ronan Bennett draws on events in Ireland to frame the political situation in the Congo and depicts political parallels between the two countries. Simultaneously he uses the reporting of these events to attack the “culture of aloofness based on middle class complacency,” as he criticises the revisionist style of historical writing which adopted a detached, non-committal approach to ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Ireland (Bennett 1994: 55). Moreover, Bennett also refers to the situation in Ireland to accentuate an overall theme of disconnection and division... Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/565/ronan-bennetts-the-catastrophist-paralleling-ireland-and-congo http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/520/the-state-of-democracy-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo By Marissa B. Goldfaden - The country presently known as the DRC initially achieved independence from its Belgian colonizer in 1960. Tensions were escalating between Prime Minister Lumumba and President Kasavubu; the latter dismissed the former from office in 1960. The following year, Prime Minister Lumumba was assassinated. Then, in 1965, President Kasavubu was overthrown in a U.S.-backed coup. The infamouse Joseph-Desire Mobutu came to power, a position he maintained until 1997. The First Congo War was fought from 1996-1997, followed by a Second Congo War that lasted from 1998-2003. The Ituri conflict[1] endured throughout... Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:43 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/520/the-state-of-democracy-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/18/responding-to-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-cidas-actions-in-an-evaluative-framework By Arielle K. Eirienne - Stories like this woman’s are common in the DRC, so common, in fact, that the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), Noeleen Heyzer, has claimed that “Nearly all the women interviewed in Kinshasa or in the Eastern DRC … have been victims of sexual violence and rape” (UNIFEM 2006). Noting that many rapes remain unreported, the Joint Initiative on Sexual Violence against Women and Children has placed the incidence of rapes at at least 40,000 between the 1998 outbreak of the DRC’s most recent conflict and a 2003 analysis (cited... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:38 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/18/responding-to-rape-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-cidas-actions-in-an-evaluative-framework