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Introduction:

The Democratic Republic of Congo has a population of more than 70 million people, 
and is the most populous officially Francophone country. It is a former Belgian 
colony and gained independence on the 30 June 1960. 
 
Despite being the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources and 
having untapped deposits estimated at 24 trillion dollars, the DRC is a country with 
one of the lowest GDPs per capita in the world. How can this be explained? 
Do you remember the course &ndash; Angola; a sub-Saharan heavyweight? &ndash; If you 
haven&rsquo;t studied this course yet, then you should read the introduction. One of the 
issues presented was the fact that the country has seen accelerated growth in a 
relatively short period of time, but the same has not happened in terms of social and 
economic development. Well, in truth, this is the reality for all of Africa; there are 
countries that are extremely rich in natural resources, such as Angola and the DRC, 
but their populations are the poorest in the world. 
 
In this course you are going to study something that is happening today in the 
Democratic Republic of Congo. There are conflicts after conflicts, thousands and 
thousands of displaced peoples, public institutions destroyed&hellip; All of this because of 
a political battle for power, but as you can imagine, political power means money, 
because politics without money does not exist. In other words, those who fight for 
power, fight because they want to have control of the country&rsquo;s money and as you 
already know, Congo is an extremely rich country in terms of mineral resources. So, 
the politicians fight to take advantage of this and who bears the brunt of this fight? 
The majority of people, who suffer with poverty. 
 
But is it really the politicians who have the most to gain from these resources? 
Of course not! The politicians are merely the means for the Western powers to 
exploit Africa. Normally what they do is to put local leaders in opposition and then 
support the leader who will govern in their favour. This is why there is not one 
African leader who works entirely for his or her own people. The western powers, 
with their free trade theory, have the largest share of the profits from resource 
exploration in the country. 
 
Normally, when the West sees that there is a leader who does not accept its 
conditions, they sponsor an opposition leader to destabilize the country. This is how 
many civil wars have played out in Africa. Congo is one of these countries, because 
it has a lot of raw materials. 
 
This destabilization in the Congo started long ago. They have had governments of 
dictatorship and all had risen to power by force. In the recent past, with the death of 
Laurent Kabila, who had been president since 1997, his son, Joseph Kabila, took 
power and started a new political era with the promise of elections, peace and 
democracy following 40 years of dictatorship and war. The first democratic elections 
were held in 2006 and Joseph Kabila won. It seemed as if the country&rsquo;s problems 
were solved, but the tensions among the people continued and poverty worsened. 
Many mineral resources were exploited, but there were no significant improvements 
for the people. Now, in 2011, the second &ldquo;democratic&rdquo; elections have been held, but 
it seems that tensions are even higher. Joseph Kabila was proclaimed winner, but the 
international community considered the elections to be fraudulent and the leader of 
the opposition, Etienne declares himself the winner and intends to take power. Just 
think! How can a country have two presidents? 
 
In this course you will have the opportunity to discuss the current situation in the 
Congo with your colleagues and your teacher, and you will all come up with ideas of 
how to avoid that this happens in your community or in your country. 
 
Good luck.

Directive:

1. INTRODUCTION: (30 min)
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">a) The teacher introduces the course and gives a presentation on the current 
situation in the Congo. 
b) The teacher opens up space for comments and questions for students who 
have doubts. Together they discuss why they should study this course. 
&nbsp;</div>
2. WORK IN GROUPS OF THREE: (1 hour, 30 mins)

<div style="margin-left: 40px;">a) The teacher guides the students to have discussions in their groups. Each 
group has access to the files and during discussions the teacher moves 
among the groups to offer guidance. 
b) In their groups of three, the students discuss the following questions and 
write a summary to present to the core group:</div>

<ul>
	<li>What are the reasons for the civil war in the Congo and who was behind this?</li>
	<li>What is the distribution of wealth among the population of the Congo?</li>
	<li>What implications might the current political struggle in the Congo have?</li>
	<li>What do you think could be done in Mozambican communities to avoid conflicts of this type?</li>
</ul>

<div style="margin-left: 40px;">c) The group selects one member to give the presentation and the others will 
help by answering the questions put to them by their colleagues in the core 
group.</div>
 
3. CORE GROUP PRESENTATIONS: (I hour)
<div style="margin-left: 40px;">a) Each group of three presents the summary of their discussion to the core 
group and the teacher then moderates a question and answer session. 
b) At the end each student gives their own comments about the course and the 
teacher makes his or her final comments.</div>

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