The Perspective

While Rwanda has been able to rebuild a unifying identity for all Rwandans, DR Congo, to date, remains unable to build a unifying identity for all communities on Congolese soil. The DRC has failed to determine whether Congolese Kinyarwanda-speaking Tutsi communities, put under the DRC during colonial demarcations of African borders, are legitimate Congolese with rightful claims to political rights and protections. Only societies which have achieved a clear and unified understanding of the identities of their separate units (communities) and how such identities tie the various communities close together and to the collective national identity, under which they exist, are able to chart and maintain a development path. Part of what continues to hold DRC back from its development potential is a confusion on national identity- beyond country name- which, in and by itself, is born of the failure of the Congolese society to have a clear sociopolitical identity. To understand this, take Rwanda