The Myth of International Protection
CALIFORNIA SERIES IN PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY
The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the anthropologist’s role as an engaged intellectual. It continues anthropology’s commitment to being an ethnographic witness, to describing, in human terms, how life is lived beyond the borders of many readers’ experiences. But it also adds a commitment, through ethnography, to reframing the terms of public debate—transforming received, accepted understandings of social issues with new insights, new framings.
Series Editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii Pacific University)
Contributing Editors: Philippe Bourgois (University of Pennsylvania), Paul Farmer (Partners In Health), Alex Hinton (Rutgers University), Carolyn Nordstrom (University of Notre Dame), and Nancy Scheper-Hughes (UC Berkeley)
University of California Press Editor: Naomi Schneider
The Myth of International Protection
War and Survival in Congo
Claudia Seymour
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2019 by Claudia Seymour
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Seymour, Claudia, 1976- author.
Title: The myth of international protection : war and survival in Congo / Claudia Seymour.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] | Series: California series in public anthropology | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018037835 (print) | LCCN 2018042618 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520971417 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520299832 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520299849 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: International relief—Congo (Democratic Republic) | Child welfare—International cooperation. | Children and violence—Congo (Democratic Republic)
Classification: LCC HV455.5 (EBOOK) | LCC HV455.5 .S49 2019 (PRINT) | DDC 362.7—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2018037835
Manufactured in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Byamungu, Emile, Hadjiana, François,
Machozi, and Vainqueur
For their children
For Leo
Every injury whatever,
The whole variety of evil deeds
Is brought about by circumstances.
None is independent, none autonomous.
Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva (c. 700 CE)
Contents
1. A Beginning
3. Surviving Violence
4. Embodying Violence
5. Navigating Violence
6. Meanings of Violence
7. The Myth of International Protection
Notes
References
Index
Acknowledgments
To all the Congolese people who opened their lives to me and who shared their stories, I am profoundly indebted. I am especially grateful to Lebon Mulimbi of Action pour la Protection des Droits Humains et de Développement Communautaire and the team in Bunyakiri, including Idriss Bengibabuya, Byamungu Mutongo, Vainqueur Chikuru Mapenzi, Pascasie Nakamosi Chipere, Mapendo Lambaira, Rehema, Machozi, Pacifique Zakariya Bikulongabo, and Jolie Bengibabuya Milabyo. I thank the directors and staff of Laissez l’Afrique Vivre, l’Action pour la Paix et la Concorde, and Cris d’Afrique in South Kivu and the staff of War Child UK, War Child Holland, and Save the Children UK for facilitating parts of this research. Telesphore Kanyamulera, Gaspard Kisoki Sumaili, Pascal Mugula, and Blaise Rugemintore were sources of knowledge and wisdom. To John Saidi, who died in 2008: may his dreams of a better future for his children one day soon come true.
My greatest fortune was to have Zoë Marriage as my PhD supervisor. With intellectual rigor, saintly patience, and endless generosity, she has guided and supported me on so many life dimensions. The School of Oriental and African Studies is an exceptional institution; in the Department of Development Studies, Tania Kaiser, Christopher Cramer, Laura Hammond, and Alfredo Saad-Filho deserve special thanks. I am grateful to Jason Hart, Philip Clark, and Johan Pottier, who devoted their time and wisdom to making me a better researcher. At the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, I thank Oliver Jütersonke, Sandra Patricia Reimann, Keith Krause, and Achim Wennmann for their support.
This book would have probably never been written without the constant support and encouragement of Robert Borofsky of the Center for a Public Anthropology—his belief in this project for more than a decade kept me going when I otherwise might have given up. I am grateful to Naomi Schneider and Benjy Malings at the University of California Press for their support and guidance, to Susan Ecklund for her precise and patient copyediting, and to the California Series in Public Anthropology for its commitment to addressing the challenges facing us all. My gratitude goes to Michael Wessells, Christopher Cramer, and the two anonymous reviewers whose insights have made this book so much better than it otherwise would have been. I thank the extremely talented Miriam Nabarro for her art on the cover of this book, Sean Bennett for his map, and Vainqueur Mapenzi for sharing his artwork.
Over the many years it took to write this book, I was nourished, refuged, and supported by cherished friends, including Sara Mancell, Caroline Appel, Lindsay Bush, Alessandra Campanaro, Josefin Holmberg, Sophia Swithern, Emilie Medeiros, Zabhia Youssef, Alexandra MacDowall, Isabella Phoenix, Imogen Prickett, Vanessa Kent, Juana de Catheu, Darcy Roehling, and Wendy MacClinchy. Mayling Birney, who gave so many of us so much, lives on in spirit. I have been fortunate to have Fatuma Ibrahim, Wayne Bleier, Saudamini Seigrist, Angela Kearney, Gilbert Khadiagala, and Colin Scott as guides. I also thank the healers who kept me going: Mary Foley, Eve Khambhatta, Starling Gifford, Sarah Gamble, and Mukti Elisabeth Talumière. I am grateful to my yoga community in Annecy,