scholarly journals Le récit de survivance de Serge Amisi : modalités d’adaptation textuelle et stratégies d’ajustement

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-120
Author(s):  
Valérie Dusaillant-Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Coping Mechanisms ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Child Soldier ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
The Social

Abstract In the narrative of survival, Souvenez-vous de moi, l’enfant de demain (2011), Serge Amisi, former child soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1997 to 2011, recounts his story of forced recruitment in Kabila’s rebel troops. A hybrid text that pushes the boundaries between fiction as well as historical and personal truth, this testimony turns out to be a privileged writing space where the social and psychic reconstruction of the narrator can be achieved. In the first part, the article explores Amisi’s singular and powerful writing which blurs the lines between reality and fiction. In the second part, the paper demonstrates how Amisi summons his memory to restore the coping mechanisms which allowed him to adapt to the living conditions around him or to face the barbaric punishments while taking a childlike look at a dehumanizing historical reality.

scholarly journals Navigating social spaces: armed mobilization and circular return in Eastern DR Congo

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Vlassenroot ◽  
Emery Mudinga ◽  
Josaphat Musamba
Keyword(s):  
Social Mobility ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Armed Groups ◽  
Social Spaces ◽  
Dr Congo ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
Refugee Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pendular State

Abstract This article discusses the social mobility of combatants and introduces the notion of circular return to explain their pendular state of movement between civilian and combatant life. This phenomenon is widely observed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Congolese youth have been going in and out of armed groups for several decades now. While the notion of circular return has its origins in migration and refugee studies, we show that it also serves as a useful lens to understand the navigation capacity between different social spaces of combatants and to describe and understand processes of incessant armed mobilization and demobilization. In conceptualizing these processes as forms of circular return, we want to move beyond the remobilization discourse, which is too often connected to an assumed failure of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration processes. We argue that this discourse tends to ignore combatants’ agency and larger processes of socialization and social rupture as part of armed mobilization.

Sexual Violence Trends between 2004 and 2008 in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 408-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan A. Bartels ◽  
Jennifer A. Scott ◽  
Jennifer Leaning ◽  
Jocelyn T. Kelly ◽  
Denis Mukwege ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Republic Of Congo ◽  
The Social ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
South Kivu ◽  
Hospital Registry

AbstractIntroduction: For more than a decade, conflict in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been claiming lives. Within that conflict, sexual violence has been used by militia groups to intimidate and punish communities, and to control territory. This study aimed to: (1) investigate overall frequency in number of Eastern DRC sexual assaults from 2004 to 2008 inclusive; (2) determine if peaks in sexual violence coincide with known military campaigns in Eastern DRC; and (3) study the types of violence and types of perpetrators as a function of time.Methods: This study was a retrospective, descriptive, registry-based evaluation of sexual violence survivors presenting to Panzi Hospital between 2004 and 2008.Results: A total of 4,311 records were reviewed. Throughout the five-year study period, the highest number of reported sexual assaults occurred in 2004, with a steady decrease in the total number of incidents reported at Panzi Hospital from 2004 through 2008. The highest peak of reported sexual assaults coincided with a known militant attack on the city of Bukavu. A smaller sexual violence peak in April 2004 coincided with a known military clash near Bukavu. Over the five-year period, the number of sexual assaults reportedly perpetrated by armed combatants decreased by 77% (p = 0.086) and the number of assaults reportedly perpetrated by non-specified perpetrators decreased by 92% (p < 0.0001). At the same time, according to the hospital registry, the number of sexual assaults reportedly perpetrated by civilians increased 17-fold (p < 0.0001). This study was limited by its retrospective nature, by the inherent selection bias of studying only survivors presenting to Panzi Hospital, and by the use of a convenience sample within Panzi Hospital.Conclusions: After years of military rape in South Kivu Province, civilian adoption of sexual violence may be a growing phenomenon. If this is the case, the social mechanisms that prevent sexual violence will have to be rebuilt and sexual violence laws will have to be fully enforced to bring all perpetrators to justice. Proper rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants may also be an important step towards reducing civilian rape in Eastern DRC.

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