Zaire (The Congo)

Ethnicity and nationalism are formative social and political identities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The colonial state solidified hitherto ambiguous boundaries between social and political identities by deploying firm ethnic categories to classify the native peoples and by confining them in ethnic territories. Although unitary nationalism emerged at the end of colonization, intra- and interethnic competition has dominated politics in the postcolonial era. The single-party state of Mobutu tried to monopolize the use of ethnicity in the public realm, but its lack of legitimacy paved the way for the proliferation of ethnic competition across the country. The Congolese Wars have entrenched ethnic identities in the country.