The Political Economy of Sacrifice: Kinois & the State

With approximately 6 million inhabitants, Kinshasa is the second largest city in sub-Saharan Africa -- & one of the poorest. The residents of the Congolese capital (the Kinois), like people throughout the country, have been struggling through a multidimensional crisis for over forty years. Security, political, & economic problems are dramatic, largely because the postcolonial state abdicated from its role as provider of social & administrative services, transforming itself into a social predator. In response to these constraints, the Kinois have developed remarkably creative people-based "solutions" to address the challenges of daily survival. In contrast to what has become a tradition of condemning the inability of the Congo/Zaire authorities to "manage the country" according to Western perceptions of how states should function, this article argues that state-society relations in Kinshasa are not always as poorly organized as outside observers tend to believe. There is order in the disorder. Function & dysfunction overlap. This applies to all social & political levels. The Kinois have entered into a new phase of postcolonialism by combining global approaches to local problems while blending "traditional" belief systems & behaviors with their own unique forms of "modernity." They have proven themselves remarkably clever at mobilization for economic survival thanks to new forms of solidarity & thanks to accommodation with the international community, which is increasingly "acting on behalf of the state" in many areas of public life. Conversely, the Kinois seem to have failed at transforming political discourse & desires into political mobilization. 65 References. Adapted from the source document.