Lawrence Freedman
Conrad’s 1899 novella was a searing critique of European colonialism, but especially the form practiced on the misnamed Congo Free State. King Leopold II of the Belgians had established the area around the Congo basin as a private venture, treating the country’s resources as booty and controlling the population through barbaric practices in a way that was considered shameful even by other imperialists. This set a pattern. The country always seemed to get the worst of whatever was going at the time - colonial rule, corrupt dictatorships, civil wars, and foreign interference. Most of the country’s population still lives in poverty. This year rebels, backed by Rwanda, took over the eastern city of Goma, in a region which has never enjoyed much stability and in which many militias operate.
This is a country that should be enjoying its wealth. What is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is Africa’s second largest and fourth most populous country, with a surface area equivalent to Western Europe. It rests on approximately $24 trillion worth of natural resources. Before King Leopold concentrated on ivory and rubber. Now the range of its potential mineral wealth is extraordinary: cobalt (the largest producer in the world), copper (the largest producer in Africa), niobium, tantalum, coltan (80% of the world’s reserves), diamonds (30% of the world’s reserves), gold, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, and coal. Yet about a fifth of its population of about 100 million rely on aid to survive.
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