The Rape of a Nation – Congo
Sep 28th, 2009 by Peter Holmes
The video i’ve chosen is not embeddable but can be found in full here:
please watch it in a new window and return here to post comments.
By Marcus Bleasdale and produced by Media Storm, which is sponsored by the washingtonpost.com
Transcript (new window)
My summary
Journalist Marcus Bleasdale has spent many years in the DRC documenting the tragedies of a country with vast natural resources and incredible potential for economic development. Yet it is a country plagued by invading warlords and internal and collaborative corruption of the government, the military and the natural resource extractors.
This corruption runs on fear and shame. operates by manipulating children (over 30,000 child recruits) as a weapon of destruction and using rape to instill humiliation and silence. It is fueled by the money illegally drafted from resource extraction. Mining workers are not told an accurate price of the resources and get only a small percentage of its true value.
This wealth extraction results in a ineffectual social structure (lack of education and basic health care) which in turn makes the pillaging easier and the impunity for pillagers greater.
Bleasdale concludes that despite the enormity of the problem, which he admits is a very daunting one, there is hope for change in education for the people of Congo and being aware of resource extraction.
My analysis
This video primarily represents the Congo through the eyes of the Bleasdale but also combines interviews and real life scenarios of the victims. This makes this complex story more accessible in the mere 11:31 time frame.
The subaltern are given a voice but it is mediated through a respected international journalist – something unaddressed in the video but necessary to keep in mind. This particular video seems to have a high respect for the first person story but realizes that the multitude of horror stories from the Congo would not be useful or effective. Rather than repeating itself the video progresses naturally through the causes and effects in order to provide an overall picture rather than an in-depth analysis of one issue.
The video identifies the natural resources that would normally be of extreme value to the people of the country have become a curse. Natural resources that are allowed to be exploited by the complacency of the International Community.
During a time when most major news outlets are regurgitating press releases about the war in Iraq / Afghanistan this journalist used his contacts to give a microphone and a face to an abandoned nation.
This video is postcolonial, albeit not overtly, but it shares the two major tenets with postcolonial theory advanced by Mbembe in the interview with Esprit Magazine
1 Firstly, it exposes both the european moral philosophy from its practical, political and symbolic the violence inherent in a particular concept of reason, and the gulf separating outcomes.
2 – postcolonial thinking stresses humanity−in−the−making, the humanity that will emerge once the colonial figures of the inhuman and of racial difference have been swept away
1 – by linking the political situation to the economic and development one by arguing that it is the damaged social structure – not something endemic about the population, or that it is simply tribal warfare this video advances a more contemporary outlook on the geo-political situation in the DRC
2- By focusing on what can be done, particularly in education Bleasdale emphases that a more educated population will be more questioning and critical of the government, which will lead to better governance and social structure. Rather than assuming more chapter 7 UN troops or divestment or assasination of key dictators Bleasdale is arguing for the longer struggle that will ultimately question the motives of the foreign mining operations.
The Rape of a Nation succeeds in its purpose of briefly illustrating the difficult and complicated geo-political and socio-economic issues in the DRC.
However while the video does mention gold and diamonds it doesn’t mention oil revenues – which are becoming a much bigger part of the problem in the DRC. See these resources on how the government is siphoning money illegally from the people of Congo.
Further reading/watching:
Another important point that he brings up is that the democratic elections did not stop violence and were not beneficial for the people of Congo. This may be true of many developing nations – see this short newsweek article on how risk of violence more than doubles in the year after an election in a developing nation.
Al Jazeera People and Power video (how the DRC government siphons money from the peoples resources)
for a much longer video interview + slideshow of Marcus Bleasdale’s video and photography – from talk and Q&A at UC Santa Barbara in 2008.
notably: The ethics and difficulty of selling this story to news outlets such as Time and Newsweek (4:01) and questioning the ability of the media to effect change (27:07)
Proof of DRC’s presidents son’s corruption leaked by global witness.
Alert Net profile of the conflict in Congo
7 Responses to “The Rape of a Nation – Congo”
The title implies both rape of natural resources and rape of bodies. I also wonder if it alludes to the famous racist film the birth of a nation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation
This video was very impacting, especially the photographic images of people starving in hospitals or digging graves. I was horrified by the woman’s account of giving birth to a dead child after having been repeatedly raped for months. I thought the film was done well and is extremely important in creating awareness of the issues being faced in the DRC. I do think, however, that the video may have presented an us verses them. And although he had some personal interviews I do not know if it was the voice of the subaltern. Either way I believe it is a message that needs to be heard. Videos like this remind us that no matter how complex the issue of development is, we can not do nothing.
I agree with LeeAnna. This film is very well put together, and the images are incredibly powerful, but it has certainly been tailored for a “Western” audience. While I think Bleasdale has done an excellent job of documenting the DRC with his (spectacular) photos, photography is not a medium which is conducive to sharing the voices of those pictured. Aside from some relatively brief segments of footage, it is Bleasdale himself who narrates and describes the issues, which is why I feel the people of the DRC are still, in a sense, othered. What we are getting is simply one man’s perspective.
The thing about this film that makes me uncomfortable was the darkness of it, something that was accented by the black and white photography. I did not notice a colour photo until over 10 minutes into the film, when Bleasdale begins talking about the “great organizations” who are striving to help the DRC. Likely this colour choice was mostly an aesthetic decision, but I got the distinct impression of a dark, black and white Africa being somehow brought up-to-date by a more privileged West.
That said, I think this film was made in order to help, with an honest goal of shedding light on the situation. It’s just maybe not the best example of truly “listening to the ‘South’.”
Thanks for your comments –
First, the black/white photographs. Sam, I think you have a point about them. Photojournalists who think of themselves as artists more than journalists tend to show their work in black and white, which seems more timeless. They are less about communicating information and more about what Bleasdale calls the “poetic nature of images” in his address to UC Santa Barbara in 2008 (see link above) –
The question of whether this is an example of listening to the south- made me think back as to why i originally chose this movie. – And i think its because I want to question weather its possible to listen to the south as mediated through western art.It’s a question I find interesting and one I don’t have a definitive answer to. Personally, I hope that it is possible as it is something I would like to undertake in the future.- This is of of the best examples that I could find in that regard so I would hope it would serve as a bit of a litmus test.
Putting aside quality of work – is ANY art created by someone not born in the south capable of communicating that voice?
For myself art communicates in a way that Academic papers, newspaper articles and long form interview documentaries can’t. Art has the power to instil interest in a natural way which allows the viewer to ask further questions of their own volition as opposed to being told in conclusions, executive summaries, or headlines.
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I’m aware now that this video goes beyond the theme of listening to the south and expands it more towards listening to how the south are mediated.
The thing is – Photography and video alike are mediating and framing devices. They crop more things out than they leave in. This is true also for Art made by the ‘South’ as well – Since we’re all trapped in our own heads it’s impossible to fully be aware of someone else’s story. So the mediation is always a matter of degrees –
– Which I believe to be part of the purpose of this vlog – to reflect on how the voice of the south is being represented and to what degree is that being mediated – Directly from the ‘South’ or otherwise.
Sara – I’ve not see then film – but the allusion is worth noting.
LeeAnna – Thanks for your comments – I agree with your assessment of the video – I don’t know if it is the subaltern voice either.
Just for the record, Peter, I certainly wasn’t criticizing your choice of this video for the blog. I think there’s a lot of potential for discussion in it.
I also think there’s some truth in your appraisal of the film being conceived of as art almost as much as journalism. As you’ve said, though, that’s a delicate balancing act.
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