LES MOUVEMENTS CITOYENS DANS LA CONSTRUCTION DE LA CULTURE DEMOCRATIQUE EN RD CONGO. UNE ANALYSE APPLIQUEE A LA VILLE DE BUKAVU

Abstract

Civic movements and democratic culture in DR Congo. The case of the city of Bukavu. The Democratic Republic of Congo, like some African countries, has experienced a flowering of youth citizen movements for a decade. Its peculiarity is that in addition to political and institutional crises, the country has known almost two decades of successive conflicts that have destructured institutions, societal relationships, and behavioral patterns. Citizen youth movements have been more engaged in nonviolent demands in claims aimed at promoting civil, political, economic, and social rights. The movements made it possible to obtain progress, including the pressure exerted on the organization of general elections as well as the awareness by the populations of the obligation of accountability by local authorities in the exercise of their public offices. However, the work of young members of the citizens' movements was challenged by the repression and brutality of the officials against whom the actions were organized. This favored their arrest, their abduction, etc. Although participating in the change of attitudes, civic engagement was also seen as a mechanism for social and economic advancement by young people.