Zero in the court of nine to one: patronage and tactical weakness in coping with violence

Abstract

This article examines how young people living in the Kivu provinces, Democratic Republic of Congo, attempt to engage with existing social support in their efforts to cope with protracted structural and political violence. Through an examination of narrative, visual and written data, this article describes how decades of violence have broken down traditional support structures, leaving young people with few options for effective coping beyond engaging in patronage relationships. This article examines how young people situate themselves in positions of weakness in order to gain material support and protection as they attempt to cope with a lack of material resources and other forms of insecurity.

Keywords:

• young people
• coping
• social support
• structures of violence
• patronage
• Democratic Republic of the Congo

Acknowledgments

The author extends her appreciation to all of the young people who participated in this research. Particular thanks go to Vainquer ('The Artist') and the young research collaborators in Bunyakiri, as well as to the adult facilitators from APDHUD, APC and LAV. Dr. Zoe Marriage guided and supervised the overall PhD project, and serves as the author's mentor in her ongoing research association with SOAS.

Notes

1. I lived and worked in eastern DRC for 40 months between 2006 and 2011, serving in multiple capacities, including as a child protection officer with the UN peacekeeping mission (2006–2007), as a consultant for the UN Group of Experts (2009) and as an independent consultant for various NGOs in 2009, 2010 and 2011. These professional experiences greatly informed my knowledge of the context and had formative and iterative influences on the course of the overall research project. The majority of the data which features in this article was collected during dedicated doctoral fieldwork conducted in South Kivu between March and July 2010. This phase of data collection relied on ethnographically influenced methodologies, and included extensive interviews, formal and informal group discussions, participant observation and ‘deep hanging out’ (Geertz 2000) with a group of 44 young people between the ages of 12 and 24 years, living in three locations of South Kivu.

2. Focus group discussion with research participants in Bukavu, April 2010.

3. According to multiple interviews with adult informants, 2010–2011.

4. Adult informants were often those who I came to know as friends or colleagues while living in the DRC, or alternatively, were parents who participated in studies and assessments which I conducted on behalf of various NGOs, including War Child and Save the Children.

5. Informal discussion, Bukavu, April 2010.

6. FGD, Bukavu, April 2010.

7. Interview, Bukavu, April 2010.

8. In January 2009, Laurent Nkunda was arrested in Bunagana, Rutshuru Territory on the border with Rwanda, and then placed under house arrest in Kigali where he remains at the time of this writing.