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      The political economy of sacrifice: Kinois &the state

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      Review of African Political Economy
      Review of African Political Economy
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            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 Kinoishave 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 Kinoishave 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 Kinoisseem to have failed at transforming political discourse and desires into political mobilisation.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Journal
            crea20
            CREA
            Review of African Political Economy
            Review of African Political Economy
            0305-6244
            1740-1720
            September/December 2002
            : 29
            : 93-94
            : 481-498
            Affiliations
            a President, Brussels Centre of African Studies (VUB/ULB) E-mail: ttrefon@ 123456ulb.ac.be
            Article
            8704634 Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 29, No. 93-94, September/December 2002, pp. 481-498
            10.1080/03056240208704634
            c00dac9d-0565-4ffa-acd0-3efa2fc94f3a

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Page count
            Figures: 0, Tables: 0, References: 72, Pages: 18
            Categories
            Original Articles

            Sociology,Economic development,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics,Africa

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