 |
Dissertation Proposal Defense - Irene Turner
Mgr. Christophe Munzihirhwa: Leadership and Influence on the Dynamics of the Congo Conflict
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
1:30PM - 4:00PM
Johnson Center Meeting Room C
Fairfax Campus
Mgr. Christophe Munzihirhwa: Leadership and Influence on the Dynamics of the Congo Conflict
Committee:
Dr. Solon Simmons (chair)
Dr. Karina Korostelina
Dr. Joseph Scimecca
Abstract:
Exploring Munzihirhwa’s leadership stems from a broad consensus that knowledge equals power while knowing entails social responsibility. Catholic priests had shown their capacity as public intellectuals; actively engaged against the Mobutu dictatorial regime, the military invasion, and the Kabila government. Congolese Catholic priests have cultural, moral and political capital that had impacted the field of politics and dynamics of conflict. It is worthwhile to illuminate how Mgr. Christophe Munzihirhwa Mwene Ngabo, archbishop of Bukavu (South Kivu, DRC) capitalized on knowledge, ideas, and charismatic leadership to make an impact on the dynamics of the Congo conflict in 1994-1996 and beyond.
The yearly commemoration of the death of Mgr. Munzihirhwa each October 29th suggests that people assign a meaning to his death. The 20th anniversary of the death of Munzihirhwa, celebrated with pomp by the Catholic Church, civil society and observed by Dr. Denis Mukwege and others, justifies this dissertation proposal. There is little danger of Munzihirhwa being forgotten in DR Congo, in the foreseeable future. However, it is imperative that his life and death be contextualized, and seen as multi-dimensional, rather than being reduced to a single strand.
One such strand is Munzihinrhwa as the public intellectual, telling the truth to power and warning of the dangers facing the then Zairian state, the present Democratic Republic of Congo. However, that stand or aspect cannot be understood within a limited time frame. Munzihirhwa was instrumental in "rescuing" the Lovanium University students blocked in the East when the settler/mercenary Jean Schramme invaded Bukavu in 1967. Again, in 1971, Munzihirhwa took the side of the National University of Zaire (UNAZA) students conscripted in the Zairian army, for their protests against Mobutu. Going so far as to join the students in their forced service, he lent his prestige and moral authority to their cause.
Between 1994-1996 when Munzihirhwa became again actively engaged, some of Munzihhirwha's critics will stress the ethnic dimension of his protests, seeing him warning of the impending invasion of eastern Zaire/DRC by the Tutsi-led Rwandan Popular Front, then being killed by the Tutsi when they, in fact, carried out their invasion. Again, this interpretation will be shown to be too narrow. Munzihirwha had contacts among the predominantly Hutu clergy of Rwanda and drew on those contacts to warn of the impending disaster. When more than one million Hutu refugees fled to Zaire/Congo in the aftermath of the genocide and the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, he warned of the danger posed by housing them in refugee camps no more than a few miles from the Rwandan and Burundian borders. As I will show, Munzihirhwa attempted to warn Mobutu of the danger facing the country but was dismissed as a crazy old man.
Munzihirhwa leadership and strength are better exemplified in October 1996, when the Zairian army capitulated in advance of Rwandan troops and the ensuing vacuum of power. Tuesday, October 29th, 1996, Munzihirhwa convened a crisis meeting where most of the local elites were invited to reflect on how to maintain order despite the capitulation of the army and the political authorities abandoning the city of Bukavu. During the meeting, a committee - Comité de Défense des Intérêts de la Population Abandonnée - was formed under the leadership of Munzihirhwa. The committee decided, among other tasks, to call the international community to the rescue of the abandoned inhabitants of South Kivu. Unfortunately, the city came under Rwandan fire while the committee was meeting, obliging members to end the meeting and to flee in different directions. Munzihirhwa, confronting the Rwandan soldiers, stationed at the Nyawera Market in Bukavu, was assassinated by these soldiers the same Tuesday, October 29, 1996. His place of death has been renamed Place Munzihirhwa and has become one of his commemorative space.
Only by seeing Munzihirhwa as multi-dimensional, carrying out his role as an activist priest and a public intellectual, throughout several decades of Congolese independence, can we understand his significance. I shall draw upon a wide range of published accounts and on interviews with persons having observed Munzihirhwa at work in 1994-1996 to highlight his influence on the dynamics of conflict in the Congo.
Examining Munzihirhwa's 1994-1996 writing (pastoral letters and various documents) would help to understand Munzihirhwa's frame of mind, actions and to position him in the latent Congo conflict. Interviews to gather insights and to tap into people's collective memory to comprehend how people understand, analyze and interpret and what meaning they assign to Munzihirhwa's activism in a context of latent conflict and overt violent conflict. The two processes, document review and interviews, would allow comprehending the scope and scale of Munzihirwa's influence on the dynamic of the conflict.