ELITE POLITIQUE ET SOUVERAINETE DE LA REPUBLIQUE DEMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO. POUR LA CONQUETE DE LA PAIX DES TERRITOIRES DE FIZI ET UVIRA, SUD-KIVU EN R. D. CONGO

Elite Politics and Sovereignty in the Democratic Republic of Congo. For Lasting Peace in The Fizi and Uvira Territories, South Kivu in D.R. Congo. Respect for the sovereignty of Congo-Kinshasa is an issue that has remained a preoccupation. This has been the case since its birth on July 1, 1885, in the Berlin Conference. This sovereignty has been flouted both internally and externally for 138 years. Intra- and inter-community tensions have taken root in every territory, with Fizi and Uvira being particularly hard hit. There is a real contrast with the euphoria that would have us believe that the post-colonial period would be one of celebration and universal deliverance, of man's rise to the highest degree of his symbolic faculties, etc. Jean Claude Willame describes the dreams of the first Congolese "évolués", auxiliaries of white power, as being about the beautiful cars, mansions, etc., that they would be able to acquire at the moment of independence. Thomas Kanza puts it this way: "We were happy to be ministers ... we used to discuss which offices we would occupy, where we would live, how we would divide up among ourselves. The various regimes since the assassination of the 1st Prime Minister Patrice-Emery Lumumba to Félix Antoine Tshisekedi, have been characterized by the "zombification of power" and the decline of democratic governance.