The Resource Curse: The Democratic Republic Of The Congo
775 Words4 Pages
1. Introduction
It is widely understood that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is blessed with many natural resources. The DRC’s resources include ‘copper, diamonds, cobalt, petroleum, gold, silver, zinc, and coltan’ (Lalji, 2007, p. 34). However, the country still struggles with violent conflicts, extreme poverty, malnutrition, and poor wealth distribution (Kinniburgh, 2014). This phenomenon is known as the ‘resource curse’. I find the ‘resource curse’ dilemma to be one of great interest. The resource curse theory is defined as ‘a body of political and economic literature which examines the link between resource abundance and poor economic growth’ (Matti, 2010, p. 402). Despite the DRC’s abundant resources, citizens remain impoverished.…show more content… However, one aspect of the lack of economic development that my research addresses is the relationship between ethnic conflicts, the abundance of minerals, and the mass rape within the country. The DRC is widely known as a country with the most rampant crimes against women (Kinniburgh, 2014). According to Kinniburgh (2014), the DRC is the ‘worst place on earth to be a woman’ due to the prevalence of military groups raping women within the country. This paper furthers previous scholarly research to understand if there is a causative relationship between the mineral abundance and the consistent violence in the…show more content… Catharine Mackinnon defines rape as ‘a daily act by men against women; it is always an act of domination by men over women’ (MacKinnon, 1994, p. 10). Kristin Bumiller defines rape as an ‘act of physical violence similar to other crimes of physical assault, but the meaning of violence is unmistakeably the demonstration of power over women’ (Bumiller, 1987, p. 81). Nowrojee makes the salient distinction between rape and rape in conflict. Nowrojee states; ‘rape in conflict is also used as a weapon to terrorize and degrade a particular community, and to achieve a specific political end. The humiliation, pain and terror inflicted by the rapist is meant to degrade not just the individual woman but also to strip the humanity from the larger group’ (Nowrojee, 1996, pp. 1-2). These provide a comprehensive understanding of the facets of rape prevalent within the