According to Noël Tshiani, 2018 presidential candidate in the DRC, only citizens born to a Congolese father and mother have left to access the highest positions in the State – including the presidency of the Republic. Concerned about the risk of “infiltration” by “mercenaries” at the top of the state, this patriot, who is presumed to be ethnically pure, presented a bill in July 2021 preventing ethnically impure Congolese from accessing power. This was quickly dismissed.
But the context has evolved since then: Moïse Katumbi, who had the curious idea of being born to a Greek father and the audacity to break with the pro-Tshisekedi coalition in 2022, pressured his vice president to the point of running for office in the December 2023 presidential election for your party. From now on, the president of the National Assembly of the DRC, Christophe Mboso, is open to analyzing Tshiani's proposed law and may apply it to the agenda of the new parliamentary session. Politics is the name idealists have given away in war.
The Bastards of the Republic
The grossly political dimension of these maneuvers is distressing given the challenges plaguing the DRC. This could justify a consensus on the absolute need to avoid unnecessarily inflamed tempers. It is also fair to be surprised to see a politician import a concept that, in other countries, has been toxic, to graft it onto the fragile social body of the DRC.
However, it is worth noting, in order to rejoice, the healthy reaction of many Congolese institutions and authorities who reject the bill presented by Noël Tshiani and denounce the danger it represents for a country whose national cohesion is already seriously abused. But what exactly is the problem with this text?
If approved, the Tshiani bill would enshrine the existence of two categories of Congolese citizens: some, chemically pure, endowed with “natural” rights, including access to the highest positions in the country, and others, second-class citizens, a kind of bastards of the Republic whose tarnished identity would make them suspect of disloyalty to the Congolese state.
No personal effort, no merit, no sacrifice would be enough to free them from their condition, trapped as they are in a kind of illness of identity. Their destiny would be submission to an immutable identity order. Thus, in the mind of the former presidential candidate, the “native” Congolese, big winners in the DNA lottery, had a natural vocation to preside over the destinies of impure Congolese.
Such an order would be fundamentally unfair. This would plunge second-class Congolese into structural insecurity. If today they were denied access to certain functions, what would prevent the quotas decided by the government of a Congolese ethnic group from limiting their children's access to certain public examinations? , or just at school? If the prospect of a disqualified Congolese reaching the highest position is frightening, why would it be less worrying to have one at the head of a hospital, where he (she) it could always “infiltrate” “their own” and cause the death of many category 1 Congolese?
In short, this institutionalized insecurity fuels resentment, arouses distrust among citizens, and undermines trust in state institutions. It would lead to the emergence of a common imaginary, a (sub)class consciousness, a political identity based on resentment and the desire for revenge.
Irreconcilable groups
The political transfer that would follow would inevitably come up against the refusal of native Congolese elites to give up the latter. Because this would be equivalent to giving up important privileges, even if they were undue. The fear of a possible demotion, the concern about probable reprisal measures against a hated ruling class, or simply the prospect of an uncertain future would be unbearable, and would prevent any questioning of the system. The only way out of these contradictions would ultimately be a confrontation between two irreconcilable groups. Without a doubt it would be violent. Indeed, wherever ethnic identity has been politicized, peace has receded and violence has flourished. A Tshiani law would be a major defeat for stability in the DRC.
Relations between Rwanda and DRC are so degraded that it is illusory to expect the history or experience of one country to be considered useful to the other. It is no less true that the path that Noël Tshiani defends for his country evokes the Hutu supremacism that has prevailed in Rwanda since the country's independence and until the genocide perpetrated against the Tutsis, the 29th anniversary. The politicization of ethnic identities involved relations between Rwandan citizens, divided the country and led to the massacre of almost 1 million of them for the sole crime of being Tutsis, that is, second-class Rwandans.
The famous “balkanization” so denounced by the Congolese political class is not just the result of external processes (foreign invasion); It is also the result of poorly thought out, opportunistic and ignorant political decisions. This is the case with this Congolese bill which, if approved, would in fact lead the country to there doom.
