This Land is not Yours! A Comparative Study of the Struggle for Land Claims in the Kivus, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Abyei, Sudan Priya Ylona Saibel Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Human Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an MA in Conflict Studies Conflict Studies Faculty of Human Sciences Saint Paul University April, 2012 © Priya Y. Saibel, Ottawa, Canada, 2012 PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition www.CutePDF.com SAIBEL, Priya April 2012 In Memory of Abshir Hassan Nur (Adam) (1958-2011) , whose spirit, ambition and wisdom inspired the writing of these pages. ii SAIBEL, Priya April 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................... v LIST OF MAPS ....................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... vii LIST OF ACRONYMS ......................................................................................................... viii WHO’S WHO ........................................................................................................................... x DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC) ...................................................... x SUDAN .............................................................................................................................. xii INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 The Kivus, DRC: A Contextual Overview ........................................................................... 2 Abyei District, Sudan: A Contextual Overview .................................................................... 6 CHAPTER ONE: METHODOLOGY AND KEY CONCEPTS ............................................ 10 1.1 Research Question ......................................................................................................... 11 1.2 Comparative Case Study Analysis ................................................................................ 11 1.3 Relevant Literature ........................................................................................................ 12 Land, Collective identity, and the State in Africa .......................................................... 12 Land, Collective identity, and the State in the DRC ...................................................... 14 Land, Collective identity, and the State in Sudan .......................................................... 15 Land Claims in Post-colonial Africa .............................................................................. 16 2.4 Research Design and Project Plan ................................................................................. 16 2.5 Key Terms and Concepts .............................................................................................. 17 2.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 2: TO WHOM DOES THIS LAND BELONG? .................................................. 27 LAND AS SPACE, SYMBOLIC SPACE AND SACRED SPACE: ..................................... 27 SPIRITUAL AND ANCESTRAL ROOTS IN THE KIVUS AND ABYEI .......................... 27 2.1 Land as Space in Africa – Capturing the Frontier Thesis ............................................. 28 Some Theoretical Underpinnings of Space and Boundaries .......................................... 28 iii SAIBEL, Priya April 2012 The African Frontier Thesis ........................................................................................... 31 2.2 Land as Symbolic .......................................................................................................... 43 Land, Human Identity Needs and Social Identity .......................................................... 43 Land in African society .................................................................................................. 46 2.3 Land as Sacred .............................................................................................................. 48 2.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER 3: THE LANGUAGE OF LAND CLAIMS IN THE DRC AND SUDAN ........ 54 3.1 Land on the Onset of Colonization ............................................................................... 55 The Kivus, Eastern DRC ................................................................................................ 56 Sudan .............................................................................................................................. 59 3.2 The Impact of Colonialism on Land ............................................................................. 66 Indirect Rule in the Congo ............................................................................................. 73 Indirect Rule in Sudan .................................................................................................... 75 Emerging trends in land, belonging and citizenship ...................................................... 79 3.3 The Post-Colonial Landscape ....................................................................................... 80 Land Claims in the Eastern Congo ................................................................................. 86 Land Claims in Abyei .................................................................................................... 91 3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER 4: LAND AND IDENTITY – THE BANYAMULENGE AND THE NGOK DINKA .................................................................................................................................. 101 4.1 Collective Identity and Land ....................................................................................... 103 4.2 ‘Placing and Naming’: The Banyamulenge of South Kivu ........................................ 109 4.3 ‘Political Centralization’: The Ngok Dinka of Abyei ................................................. 123 4.4 Understanding Land and Collective Identity .............................................................. 142 CHAPTER 5: THE POLITICS OF LAND, IDENTITY AND CITIZENSHIP ................... 144 5.1 The Crisis of Recognition: The Banyamulenge .......................................................... 146 The Crisis of Recognition and the Crisis of Citizenship: Which one comes first? ...... 147 Patterns of Violence ..................................................................................................... 152 5.2 The Abyei Conundrum: The Ngok Dinka ................................................................... 158 The Abyei Protocol, the Abyei Boundaries Commission (ABC) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) .......................................................................................... 158 iv SAIBEL, Priya April 2012 Violence, Oil and a Humanitarian Catastrophe............................................................ 161 5.3 In the Crossfire of Land, Identity, the State and Citizenship: The Banyamulenge and the Ngok Dinka ................................................................................................................. 167 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 172 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 176 APPENDIX A – Abyei Arbitration: Final Award B – UN Security Council Resolution 1990 C – UN Security Council Resolution 2032 D – Statement by Ban Ki-moon LIST OF TABLES 3-1: Clans of the Ngok Dinka who arrived in the Abyei region, 1740-1810 65 3-2: Native Authority in Uvira, South Kivu 89 3-3: Territorial Units within Tenure Regimes in Pastoralist Systems 95 4-1: The Colonial State 112 4-2: The Postcolonial State 116 4-3: Economic seasons and corresponding activities of the Ngok Dinka 125 4-4: Paramount Leaders of the Ngok Dinka 128 5-1: DRC Citizenship Laws and jus sanguinis for Banyarwanda 147 LIST OF FIGURES 1-1: Conceptualizing the Research Puzzle 11 3-1: How Identity Impacts Land Claims 98 4-1: Identity Map for the Banyamulenge 108 4-2: Identity Map for the Ngok Dinka 122 4-3: Ngok Dinka Hierarchical Group Structure 127 5-1: Shifting Allegiances in the Eastern DRC 151 v SAIBEL, Priya April 2012 LIST OF MAPS 1-1: The Kivus, Eastern DRC xiv 1-2: Abyei, Sudan xv 1-3: The People of Northern Sudan xvi 1-4: The People of Southern Sudan xvii 3-1: Lake Kivu trade network, around 1850 58 3-2: Province of Kordofan, Sudan 64 3-3: Congo in the Colonial Period 72 3-4: The Southern Sudan Civil Wars 94 5-1: The FDLR Presence in the DRC, 2008 156 5-2: Oil in the Sudans 163 vi SAIBEL, Priya April 2012 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following people have been instrumental in the creation and production of this work.