Claudia Seymour - The Myth of International Protection: War and Survival in Congo

The Myth of International Protection

The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the anthropologists role as an engaged intellectual. It continues anthropologys 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 debatetransforming 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 reliefCongo (Democratic Republic) | Child welfareInternational cooperation. | Children and violenceCongo (Democratic Republic)

Classification: LCC HV 455.5 ( EBOOK ) | LCC HV 455.5 . S 49 2019 ( PRINT ) | DDC 362.7dc23

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, Franois,

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

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 Dveloppement 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 lAfrique Vivre, lAction pour la Paix et la Concorde, and Cris dAfrique 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 Zo 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 Jtersonke, 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 Anthropologyhis 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 Talumire. I am grateful to my yoga community in Annecy, as well as to LakeAid, the French Red Cross, and the MJC Romains for allowing me to continue my work very close to home.

My parents, Luz Adiela Seymour Salazar and Arthur Seymour, and my sister, Rosemary Urness, will always have my deepest gratitude. Diego and Gladys Salazar, Nadia Ferrari, and Gabriele Giusta have been core sources of support and encouragement. Marco Cordero accompanied this long journey with honesty and integrity and gave me the greatest of all gifts: Leo, to whom I dedicate it all.

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