Imagining the Congo The International Relations of Identity

Understanding the current civil war in Congo requires an examination of how the Congo's identity has been imagined over time. Imagining the Congo historicizes and contextualizes the constructions of the Congo's identity during four historical periods. Kevin Dunn explores "imaginings" of the Congo that have allowed the current state of affairs there to develop, and the broader conceptual question of how identity has become important in recent IR scholarship.

Kevin Dunn is Assistant Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Inventing the Congo: Henry Morton Stanley, Leopold II, and the “Red Rubber” Scandal * Congo as Chaos, Lumumba as Diable: Independence and the 1960s Crisis * From Congo to Zaire: Mobutu’s Production of an “Authentic” National Identity * Cancer, Kabila, and the Congo: Central Africa at the end of the 20th Century
Inventing the Congo: Henry Morton Stanley, Leopold II, and the “Red Rubber” Scandal * Congo as Chaos, Lumumba as Diable: Independence and the 1960s Crisis * From Congo to Zaire: Mobutu’s Production of an “Authentic” National Identity * Cancer, Kabila, and the Congo: Central Africa at the end of the 20th Century