Imagining the Congo: The International Relations of Identity

by K. Dunn

Overview

Understanding the current civil war in the Congo requires an examination of how the Congo's identity has been imagined over time. Imagining the Congo historicizes and contextualizes the constructions of the Congo's identity in order to analyze the political implications of that identity, looking in detail at four historical periods in which the identity of the Congo was contested, with numerous forces attempting to produce and attach meanings to its territory and people. Dunn looks specifically at how what he calls 'imaginings' of the Congo have allowed the current state of affairs there to develop, but he also looks at the broader conceptual question of how the concept of identity has developed and become important in recent international relations scholarship.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781403961600
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	06/27/2003
Edition description:	2003
Pages:	221
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)

About the Author

KEVIN DUNN is Assistant Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He is the co-editor of Africa's Challenge to International Relations Theory (Palgrave 2001).

Table of Contents

Introduction Inventing the Congo: Henry Morton Stanley, Leopold II, and the 'Red Rubber' Scandal Congo as Chaos, Lumumba as Diable: Independence and the 1960s Crisis From Congo to Zaire: Mobutu's Production of an "Authentic" National Identity Cancer, Kabila, and the Congo: Central Africa at the end of the 20th Century Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

'This is an important and engaging book. Kevin Dunn has combined a sophisticated discussion of the dominant representations of the 'Congo' with careful attention to wider 'international' trends as well as processes on the ground in Africa...I can find very little to disagree with in this book.' - Mark T. Berger, European Journal of Development

From the Publisher

Are we just who we are, or do others' biased perceptions "construct" us, preconditioning our relationships with outsiders and limiting our capacity to fashion and assert a healthy self-image? Following in the footsteps of Antonio Gramsci, Edward Said, and their many disciples, Dunn explores how Westerners since the nineteenth century have defined a large swath of central Africa as a mysterious "heart of darkness" occupied by irrational and childlike people for whom chaos and barbarism are the norm. The violent fragmentation, predatory external interventions, and international neglect that afflict today's Democratic Republic of the Congo, he suggests, can be directly traced back to these past negative stereotypes ("imaginings"). Efforts by some Congolese leaders and intellectuals to project more positive counterimages of their country since its independence in 1960 have largely been thwarted by their difficulty in getting the world's attention ("accessing discursive space"). Although he slightly overstates his case, Dunn succeeds in subjecting these propositions to a searching, interesting, and well-argued analysis that challenges overly simple understandings of international relations.

Foreign Affairs