Why Comrades Go to War

Description

In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youth coalesced to revolt against Mobutu Seso Seko, president of Zaire/Congo since 1965. Backed by a Rwanda-led regional coalition that drew support from Asmara to Luanda, the rebels of the AFDL marched over 1500 kilometres in seven months to crush the dictatorship. To the Congolese rebels and their Pan-Africanist allies, the vanquishing of the Mobutu regime represented nothing short of a ‘second independence’ for Congo and Central Africa as a whole and the dawning of a new regional order of peace and security.

Within fifteen months, however, Central Africa’s ‘liberation peace’ would collapse, triggering a cataclysmic fratricide between the heroes of the war against Mobutu and igniting the deadliest conflict since World War II. Uniquely drawing on hundreds of interviews with protagonists from Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Africa, Belgium, France, the UK and the US, Why Comrades Go To War offers a novel theoretical and empirical account of Africa’s Great War. It argues that the seeds of Africa’s Great War were sown in the revolutionary struggle against Mobutu—the way the revolution came together, the way it was organized, and, paradoxically, the very way it succeeded. In particular, the book argues that the overthrow of Mobutu proved a Pyrrhic victory because the protagonists ignored the philosophy of Julius Nyerere, the father of Africa’s liberation movements: they put the gun before the unglamorous but essential task of building the domestic and regional political institutions and organizational structures necessary to consolidate peace after revolution.

Reviews

‘[Roessler and Verhoeven’s] purpose is to answer the question: “Why did comrades go to war?” and to view the conflict through the prism of “liberation politics”. The merit of their book is that it includes interviews with many of the protagonists, clarifying critical details about their involvement … The depth of the authors’ research is impressive.’ — Times Literary Supplement

‘A novel lens through which to understand the First Congo War . . . sure to provoke renewed discussion.’  — International Affairs

‘Vivid and compelling . . . a precious contribution to our understanding of the most complex and deadliest African conflict of the late 20th century.’ — Africa at LSE Blog

‘Probably the best book on the dynamics that drew so many to the Congo conflict and the crisis that refused to release its grip on the country.’ — The EastAfrican

‘This is a rare combination: a book that combines exceptional academic rigor with deep, personal knowledge of a place and its main actors. As important for political scientists as it is for historians and congophiles.’ — Jason Stearns, Director, Congo Research Group, New York University and author of Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa

‘One of the most intelligent books on conflict in Africa that I have read in a long time. Based on an astoundingly comprehensive array of interviews with the key actors in this war.’ — William Reno, Professor of African Studies at Northwestern University, and author of Warfare in Independent Africa

‘An exceptionally well researched and argued book. Based on a wealth of hitherto unknown information, including many interviews with crucial stakeholders, it offers new and refreshing insights into very complex and dramatic events that continue to impact Central Africa up to the present day.’ — Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Antwerp, and author of Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda and The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996-2006

‘Why Comrades Go To War is a detailed and compelling account of the bitter grapes of post-colonialism in Africa. The authors range widely over Central Africa but provide a detailed account of the often sordid and always tragic events that ruined the lives of millions of people. I find an almost Greek tragedy — an inevitability — in the events they relate, but the authors wisely temper this impression by showing how the leaders’ choices, fears, ambitions, greed, and mistakes made the tragedy modern. An important book.’ — William Polk, author of Violent Politics and Neighbors and Strangers, among many other books

‘Why Comrades Go to War is a welcome addition to the literature on the Congo Wars, first to overthrow Mobutu and then to overthrow his successor, Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Roessler and Verhoeven demonstrate that a focus on elite actors (above all, Kabila and his Rwandan Tutsi backers, Generals Kagame and Kabarebe) is essential to understanding why the first war led inexorably to the second.’ — Tom Turner, author of The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality

‘Africa’s most deadly war was rooted not only in geopolitics, but in an ideological state conspiracy as well. This puzzling story is told in Why Comrades Go to War, a cross between a political people’s magazine and a late twentieth-century overview of eastern and central Africa. A must for those wanting to track the labyrinths underpinning visible African events.’ — Gérard Prunier, author of The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide and From Genocide to Continental War

Author(s)

Philip Roessler is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary, where he is also Director of the Center for African Development. He is the author of Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap (2016).

Harry Verhoeven is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He is the Convenor of the Oxford University China-Africa Network and a Senior Adviser at the European Institute of Peace. He is the author of Water, Civilisation and Power in Sudan, Why Comrades Go To War and editor of Environmental Politics in the Middle East.