The political economy of sacrifice: Kinois & the state

Theodore Trefon

Review of African Political Economy, 2002, vol. 29, issue 93-94, 481-498

Abstract: With approximately 6 million inhabitants, Kinshasa is the second largest city in sub‐Saharan Africa ‐ and one of the poorest. The residents of the Congolese capital (the Kinois), like people throughout the country, have been struggling through a multi‐dimensional crisis for over forty years. Security, political and economic problems are dramatic, largely because the post‐colonial state abdicated from its role as provider of social and 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 organised as outside observers tend to believe. There is order in the disorder. Function and dysfunction overlap. This applies to all social and political levels. The Kinois have entered into a new phase of post‐colonialism by combining global approaches to local problems while blending ‘traditional’ belief systems and behaviours with their own unique forms of ‘modernity’. They have proven themselves remarkably clever at mobilisation for economic survival thanks to new forms of solidarity and 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 and desires into political mobilisation.

Date: 2002
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DOI: 10.1080/03056240208704634

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