Workshop on Identity and Conflict in DRCongo, Sheffield (UK), 29 June 2012

International workshop: Conflict, Identity and the State in colonial and post-colonial Democratic Republic of Congo

Friday 29 June 2012, 9.30am – 5.15pm

Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield

9.30-10.00: Registration and coffee, welcome remarks

10.00-10.45: Keynote speaker: Théodore Trefon (Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren): The 2011 DR Congo election and its aftermath

10.45-11.00: Coffee break

11.00-1.00: Session I: Identity and Conflict in Congolese history, 1960-1986

Miles Larmer (University of Sheffield): Rethinking the Katangese Secession

Erik Kennes (Associate, RMCA Tervuren): The Katangese ‘Tigres’ in Angola and the Legacy of theSecession

Nathaniel Kinsey-Powell (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva):The Cuba of the West? France and Mobutu’s Zaire, 1975-1979

Reuben Loffman (Keele University): Africa’s Heart of Lightness? Chieftainship, Development, and Power in North Shaba, 1976-1986

1.00 – 1.40 Buffet lunch

1.40 – 2.40 Session II: Conflict and Identity in post-Mobutu Congo

Harry Verhoeven (University of Oxford): Point of No Return: The rise and fall of the AFDL, October 1996-August 1998

Henning Tamm (University of Oxford): Losing Control? Rwanda, Uganda, and their Congolese Allies in the Second Congo War

Claude Sumata (Catholic University, Kinshasa): The economic dimensions of war and reconciliation in the Great Lakes Region: The post war reconstruction process in the DR Congo

Benjamin Rubbers (University of Liege): Making a living after paternalism: The economic reintegration of ex-Gécamines workers, Likasi

3.40 – 4.00 Coffee break

4.15 – 5.15 Session III: New Directions in Congolese studies

Marie Godin (Université Libre de Bruxelles /University of East London): Diasporic Engagement of Congolese women towards women in the eastern DR Congo

Randi Solhjell (London School of Economics/Norwegian Institute of International Affairs): The DR Congo and the governance of so-called ‘weak states’

Catherine Lee Porter (Gonville & Caius, University of Cambridge): ‘Katangan Jeunesse’ – Youth Movements and the Development of Katangan Nationalism

5.15 Workshop ends

This workshop will introduce new research on the history and contemporary experience of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rejecting intellectual approaches based on the nation-state as the singular unit of analysis, the research to be presented identifies the salience of local, cross-border regional and global factors and influences in shaping Congolese history. The event emphasises the importance of Congolese agency in complex interactions with external forces and structures, rejecting the notion that Congo and its people have simply been the victims of external exploitation.