Reinventing Order in the Congo
How People Respond to State Failure in Kinshasa
1st Edition
Published on 29. February 2008
235 pages
978-1-84813-112-5 (ISBN)
Description
Kinshasa is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest city. The seven million Congolese who live there have a rich reputation for the courageous and innovative ways in which they survive in a harsh urban environment. They have created new social institutions, practices, networks and ways of living to deal with the collapse of public provision and a malfunctioning political system.
This book describes how ordinary people, in the absence of formal sector jobs, hustle for a modest living; the famous 'bargaining' system ordinary Kinois have developed; and how they access food, water supplies, health and education. The NGO-ization of service provision is analysed, as is the quite rare incidence of urban riots. The contributors also look at popular discourses, including street rumor, witchcraft, and attitudes to 'big men' such as musicians and preachers. This is urban sociology at its best - richly empirical, unjargonized, descriptive of the lives of ordinary people, and weaving into its analysis how they see and experience life.
This book describes how ordinary people, in the absence of formal sector jobs, hustle for a modest living; the famous 'bargaining' system ordinary Kinois have developed; and how they access food, water supplies, health and education. The NGO-ization of service provision is analysed, as is the quite rare incidence of urban riots. The contributors also look at popular discourses, including street rumor, witchcraft, and attitudes to 'big men' such as musicians and preachers. This is urban sociology at its best - richly empirical, unjargonized, descriptive of the lives of ordinary people, and weaving into its analysis how they see and experience life.
Reviews / Votes
The contributors provide multiple perspectives through which to theorize African urbanization. * African Studies Review * This is a pioneering work whose relevance extends well beyond the confines of Kinshasa, and applies not only to Africa, but also to other so-called "developing" areas. * Edouard Bustin, Boston University * This is an outstanding social anthropology of Kinshasa in the context of state collapse, the development of numerous survival strategies for food, water, healthcare and dealing with the sickness and death of loved ones, together with the mushrooming of NGOs dependent on external assistance for coping with the tragedy. * Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Oslo Governance Centre * A superb contribution to our understanding of the informal economy of sub-Saharan Africa's second largest city. * Rene Lemarchand, University of Florida *More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
ISBN-13
978-1-84813-112-5 (9781848131125)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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Person
Dr Theodore Trefon was educated at Boston University. He is an independent researcher and consultant currently based at the Free University of Brussels. He is also President of the Brussels Centre of African Studies.
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Figures and Tables
- 1. Introduction: Reinventing Order
- Theodore Trefon
- Kinois and the state
- Research space
- Key concepts: overlaps and contrasts
- Being Kinois
- Notes
- 2. The Kinshasa Bargain
- Anastase Nzeza Bilakila
- Anomie and the (a)morality of survival
- Les mamans manoeuvres: crafty port traders
- Money changers: outlaws or alternative bankers?
- Khadafis: fuel on the spot - for a price
- Facilitating public transport
- For how long can this organized disorder last?
- Notes
- 3. The Tap is on Strike: Water Distribution and Supply Strategies
- Angéline Maractho Mudzo Mwacan and Theodore Trefon
- REGIDESO: a stingy supplier
- Inventive supply strategies
- Turbid water - precarious health
- Water thanks to international partnerships
- A thirsty future
- Note
- 4. Food Security in Kinshasa: Coping with Adversity
- Eric Tollens
- Poverty, purchasing power and hunger
- Food prices
- Table 4.1 Results of malnutrition surveys in Democratic Republic of Congo, 2000-2001
- Nuancing malnutrition rates
- The food supply situation
- Table 4.2 Contribution of food items in the diet of the Kinshasa population (1996)
- Table 4.3 Percentage of agricultural tonnage supplied to Kinshasa by river boat
- Table 4.4 Number of boat arrivals registered in Kinshasa, 1996 and 1999
- Food imports
- Cassava crisis
- Changes in cropping patterns
- Innovations in food marketing strategies
- Food security in the war zone
- Conclusion
- Notes
- 5. The Miracle of Life in Kinshasa: New Approaches to Public Health
- Peter Persyn and Fabienne Ladrière
- Historical context
- The Kinshasa health-care market today
- AIDS and HIV
- New needs, expectations and strategies
- Perspectives
- Notes
- 6. The Diploma Paradox: University of Kinshasa between Crisis and Salvation
- Télésphore Tsakala Munikengi and Willy Bongo-Pasi Moke Sangol
- From Lovanium to UNAZA
- Financial constraints: creative responses
- The institutional context
- The student
- Table 6.1 Enrolment, academic year 1999-2000
- University health care
- Perspectives
- Conclusion: 'My pen is my shovel'
- Notes
- 7. Acting on Behalf (and in Spite) of the State: NGOs and Civil Society Associations in Kinshasa
- Marco Giovannoni, Theodore Trefon, Jérôme Kasongo Banga, Charles Mwema
- The NGOization of Kinshasa
- NGO Relations with the state
- Types of NGOs
- NGO survivability and perspectives
- Notes
- 8. Hidden Families, Single Mothers and Cibalabala: Economic Regress and Changing Household Composition in Kinshasa
- Tom De Herdt
- Table 8.1 Hidden households in Matete, Kinshasa 1996
- Theorizing households and marriages
- Households, families and impoverishment
- Table 8.2 Variation in family structure and household wealth (?=.7, ?=.85)
- Table 8.3 Child-parent relationships, Kisenso 1997
- Table 8.4 Child under-nutrition and family configuration of household, Kisenso 1997
- Table 8.5 Relation between age of child and absence/presence of parents, Kisenso 1997
- Discussion
- Conclusion
- Annex I Construction of indicators of wealth and well-being
- Annex II Multivariate regression results
- Table 8.6 Regression results: determinants of underweight children
- Table 8.7 Regression results: determinants of well-being based on height-to-age
- Notes
- 9. When Kinois Take to the Streets
- Gauthier de Villers and Jean Omasombo Tshonda
- Crowds and might
- Crowds and violence
- Crowds and power
- Notes
- 10. On Being Shege in Kinshasa: Children, the Occult and the Street
- Filip De Boeck
- Children and second world realities
- Children, witchcraft and the street in Kinshasa
- Churches and child-witches
- Geographies of inclusion and exclusion
- A crisis of kinship models and gift transactions?
- Note
- 11. The Elusive Lupemba: Rumours about Fame and (Mis)fortune in Kinshasa
- Bob W. White
- Rumours and rumouring
- The raw material of rumour
- Fame and (mis)fortune
- The elusive lupemba
- Morality in Kinshasa
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Chapter Abstracts in French
- Contributors
- Index
