Senate - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - PCT 46, independent 12, MAR 2, RDPS 2, UPADS 2, DRD 1, FP 1, MCDDI 1, PRL 1, Pulp 1, PUR 1, RC 1; composition - men 58, women 14, percent of women 19.4% Some 20,000 people work at Shabara artisanal mine in the DRC, in shifts of 5,000 at a time. The DRC produced approximately 74% of the world's cobalt in 2021. There are some incidents that are just so burned into me that they'll come at me just like a terror, and it's hard. I just hope I've done justice to those stories and to the people who shared their tragedies with me, courageously shared these tragedies with me. I just want their voices [to] reach the world and then the world will decide what to do with the truth and the testimonies of the Congolese people. But if I've done some justice to bringing those voices out into the world that can scarcely function without the suffering of the Congolese people, then it's all worth it. Even the nightmares and the terrors, it's all worth it.

Foreign powers have been meddling in the Congo ever since the Belgian king Leopold II sent Stanley off in pursuit of the region's enormous mineral wealth. And central Africa's crises and conflicts have been charted by novelists and historians from Joseph Conrad to John Le Carré. Just as Conrad was instrumental in confronting westerners with the brutality of colonialism, writers such as Philip Gourevitch have been crucial in highlighting the instability and chaos which have swept through the region since the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Here we gather together some of the best writing about the region, both fiction and non-fiction.The brave groups of women who dare to speak up on the ground, in country after country, should not have to wage this fight in despairing and lonely isolation. They should hear the voices of scientific thunder. You understand the connections between violence against women and vulnerability to the virus. No one can challenge your understanding. Use it, I beg you, use it.”

China has been described as the latest neocolonial power in Africa. In his short story, The Sale, Huchu takes China’s investments in his own country, Zimbabwe, to a menacing extreme. In his dystopian world, neocolonialism has mutated into a terrifying form, where China and the US buy up countries heavily in debt. When the deficit remains, the citizens are sold and then controlled and surveilled by drones. At the centre of this chilling story is China’s intention to bulldoze the medieval city of Great Zimbabwe, now the “property of Ling Lee Antiquities Enterprises and Debt Recovery”. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch (1999) The story of two teenagers growing up in the shadow of west Africa's civil wars, the expatriate Congolese novelist Emmanuel Dongala paints a vivid picture of the struggle to survive in difficult times. Described as the classic statement on the postcolonial condition, this is a compelling read and is supported by a wealth of detail. Nkrumah believed that neocolonialism is “the worst form of imperialism”, on the grounds that those who practise it exercise “power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress”.The Minister is attracted by the wealth and power of office, and appears to have little concern for his country or its people. Ya left her village to avoid an arranged marriage, and has her heart set on enjoying life in the big city. She wants nothing to do with the anti-government rebellion of her tribe, which is led by her father, a village chief. A vivid study of the rise and fall of the president who looted the Congo, Mobutu Sese Seko. Wrong mixes horror stories and a well-researched history of Mobutu's regime with an account of ordinary life in a country plunged into economic crisis.

Imagine a mountain of gravel and stone just avalanching down on people, crushing legs and arms, spines. I met people whose legs had been amputated, who had metal bars in where their legs used to be.

References

Senate (72 seats; members indirectly elected by local, district, and regional councils by simple majority vote to serve 6-year terms) note- the Senate is renewed in its entirety following a constitutional reform implemented in 2015 ending the renewal by half Their personal stories are inextricably linked to the turmoil within the country as it struggles for nationhood. Each has committed a grievous act of betrayal against the other, which costs them dear. Loyalty, deceit and greed lie at the heart of the tale. domestic: fixed-line infrastructure inadequate, providing less than 1 fixed-line connection per 100 persons; mobile-cellular 97 per 100 persons (2021)