Senate (72 seats; members indirectly elected by local, district, and regional councils by simple majority vote to serve 6-year terms) note- the Senate is renewed in its entirety following a constitutional reform implemented in 2015 ending the renewal by half A vivid study of the rise and fall of the president who looted the Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko. Wrong mixes horror stories and a well-researched history of Mobutu's regime with an account of ordinary life in a country plunged into economic crisis. Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PCT 46, independent 12, MAR 2, RDPS 2, UPADS 2, DRD 1, FP 1, MCDDI 1, PRL 1, Pulp 1, PUR 1, RC 1; composition - men 58, women 14, percent of women 19.4% This business of discrimination against and oppression of women is the world’s most poisonous curse. Nowhere is it felt with greater catastrophic force than in the AIDS pandemic. This audience knows the statistics full well: you’ve chronicled them, you’ve measured them, the epidemiologists amongst you have disaggregated them. What has to happen, with one unified voice, is that the scientific community tells the political community that it must understand one incontrovertible fact of health: bringing an end to sexual violence is a vital component in bringing an end to AIDS.

domestic: fixed-line infrastructure inadequate, providing less than 1 fixed-line connection per 100 persons; mobile-cellular 97 per 100 persons (2021) A searing analysis of the 1994 Rwandan genocide which unleashed a wave of instability in the Congo region. Gourevitch combines interviews with victims and their killers and his own first-hand accounts of travelling around the region in the aftermath of the Interahamwe killings. He also builds a powerful case against the international community, whose inaction made it the unwilling accomplice of Hutu power. The story of two teenagers growing up in the shadow of west Africa's civil wars, the expatriate Congolese novelist Emmanuel Dongala paints a vivid picture of the struggle to survive in difficult times. Interview Highlights On how "artisanal" cobalt mines continue to operate in the DRC — despite being illegal This deeply symbolic novel is dedicated: “To all Kenyans struggling against the neocolonial stage of imperialism.” It was written on toilet paper in prison, when Ngũgĩ was detained without trial. Here, the devil represents the international financiers and bankers, in collaboration with Kenya’s elite. One of the devil’s disciples advocates extreme versions of privatisation, including the sale of bottled air. “We could even import some air from abroad, imported air, which we could then sell to the people at special prices!” The story ends with a thrilling act of resistance by its heroine, Jacinta Wariinga. The form of the novel is itself an act of resistance: it was originally written in Gikuyu, not English, to foster a national literature in one of the Kenyan languages.There are some incidents that are just so burned into me that they'll come at me just like a terror, and it's hard. I just hope I've done justice to those stories and to the people who shared their tragedies with me, courageously shared these tragedies with me. I just want their voices [to] reach the world and then the world will decide what to do with the truth and the testimonies of the Congolese people. But if I've done some justice to bringing those voices out into the world that can scarcely function without the suffering of the Congolese people, then it's all worth it. Even the nightmares and the terrors, it's all worth it. Their personal stories are inextricably linked to the turmoil within the country as it struggles for nationhood. Each has committed a grievous act of betrayal against the other, which costs them dear. Loyalty, deceit and greed lie at the heart of the tale.

National Assembly (151 seats; members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed; members serve 5-year terms) That’s a masterpiece. A must for anyone willing to approach the subject of the DRC, a very complex subject that can be understood with this book. The Republic of the Congo is one of the most urbanized countries in Africa, with nearly 70% of Congolese living in urban areas. The population is concentrated in the southwest of the country, mainly in the capital Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire, and along the railway line that connects the two. The tropical jungles in the north of the country are sparsely populated. Most Congolese are Bantu, and most belong to one of four main ethnic groups, the Kongo, Teke, Mbochi, and Sangha, which consist of over 70 subgroups. Magical, multi-voiced account of a family's spiralling doom at a remote mission station in the Congo around the time of independence in 1960. Narrated in turns by the mother and the daughters, it captures the singsong sound of Lingala, the language of the lower river, and the jungle's hidden terrors. The day the ant column comes, consuming all before it, forcing the villagers to decide what - and whom - they can leave behind is unforgettable. 8. The Catastrophist, Ronan Bennett (1998) The Poisonwood Bible spans 30 years in the life of the family as it slowly implodes – under pressures brought on by the intransigent father and political and social upheaval in the country – and then rebuilds itself.

Geography

Some 20,000 people work at Shabara artisanal mine in the DRC, in shifts of 5,000 at a time. The DRC produced approximately 74% of the world's cobalt in 2021. Described as the classic statement on the postcolonial condition, this is a compelling read and is supported by a wealth of detail. Nkrumah believed that neocolonialism is “the worst form of imperialism”, on the grounds that those who practise it exercise “power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress”. Imagine an entire population of people who cannot survive without scrounging in hazardous conditions for a dollar or two a day. There is no alternative there. The mines have taken over everything. The naturalist and travel writer sets off on an intrepid river journey in search of the legendary Mokele-mbembe. O'Hanlon confronts natural perils, corruption and poverty with his trademark mixture of gallows humour and laconic understatement, offering a perspective on the Congo focusing more on the people and animals who live there than the region's troubled politics. The novel is written from the perspectives of Orleanna Price and her daughters, who tell the story in turn. We never hear directly from Nathan, but his presence and stifling righteousness loom large, and the King James Bible echoes through the storytelling.

The point must also be made that there’s no such thing as the enjoyment of good health for women who live in constant fear of rape. Countless strong women survive the sexual assaults that occur in the millions every year, but every rape leaves a scar; no one ever fully heals. Neocolonialism takes various forms, including the sponsorship of culture. This study of the CIA during the cold war reveals the story of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a CIA front based in Paris, which was active on five continents, including Africa. Among an astonishing breadth of activities, it subsidised conferences, cultural centres, books and magazines, including Encounter in London. “Soon enough”, exclaimed the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka in disgust, “we would discover that we had been dining, and with relish, with the original of that serpentine incarnation, the devil himself, romping in our postcolonial Garden of Eden and gorging on the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge!” Sankara, the president of Burkina Faso from 1983-1987, is currently in the news because an investigation has just begun into his assassination. This collection of his interviews and speeches provides a window on his programmes to improve people’s lives, involving land redistribution, literacy and education, a focus on women’s rights and a massive vaccination scheme. Revered as Africa’s Che Guevara, Sankara defied neocolonial control by France, the former colonial power, and the US. He described debt, presented as aid, as “neocolonialism, in which colonisers transformed themselves into ‘technical assistance’. We should say ‘technical assassins’.”The brave groups of women who dare to speak up on the ground, in country after country, should not have to wage this fight in despairing and lonely isolation. They should hear the voices of scientific thunder. You understand the connections between violence against women and vulnerability to the virus. No one can challenge your understanding. Use it, I beg you, use it.” Kingsolver wears her politics on her sleeve and fearlessly skewers colonialism, patriarchy and religious fanaticism, while also reflecting on guilt and personal responsibility. The author says she "spent nearly 30 years waiting for the wisdom and maturity to write this book". The result is hugely ambitious and enjoyable. Before the Birth of the Moon by Valentin Y Mudimbe

Bennett confronts the question of an artist's role in a time of conflict as an Irish novelist follows his lover to Leopoldville on the verge of independence in 1959. A more convincing account of the turbulent start to Congo colonialism. Ward was one of the foot soldiers hired by Stanley when he returned to claim the vast river basin, employed by the Belgian king, Leopold II. Ward learnt river languages to fluency, survived paddling thousands of miles up and down disease-ridden reaches and managed to retain some sense of humility throughout. 3. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (1899) Don’t get afraid of the sheer size of this volume.. once you start digging in you will be hooked! The author master the art of combining well-researched historical facts with a human touch on each chalter. I have been living in DRC for 4 years and I totally see the reminiscence of some traces of character and the psyche of a very complex country with a terrible past and a constant crave to move forward on spite of the many adversities.. Imagine a mountain of gravel and stone just avalanching down on people, crushing legs and arms, spines. I met people whose legs had been amputated, who had metal bars in where their legs used to be. Written in the mid-1960s but only published recently, this book reminds us of the heady days when lefties acted on their belief that revolution was to be exported. Guevara found himself fighting against white mercenaries in the eastern badlands of the Congo. Four decades later, and the fighting has still not really stopped. 10. A Bend In The River, VS Naipaul (1979)Stearns bravely sets out to counter the west's indifference and ignorance, doing much dangerous and arduous legwork to hear from key players – both perpetrators and victims – and eyewitnesses. He attempts to understand why Congo has been in turmoil for decades and stability has been so elusive.