The Elephant in the Room: Off-shore companies, liberalisation and extension of presidential power in DR Congo

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, donors promoted rapid liberalisation and presidential elections in the aftermath of the war, and after two terms, President Kabila has not left office. This article engages with the question of how liberalisation and elections are connected, and how they are related to the extension of presidential power. It finds that the international market for minerals has shaped the domestic political economy but its nature has effectively been ignored in the formulation of donor policy; efforts at regulating trade have been concentrated on due diligence of origin in Congo but have not addressed the secrecy of international trade. Liberalisation has removed control of economic resources from Congo, provided returns for elite politicians and funded violence to control the disenfranchised population. The offshore companies are the elephant in the room; without acknowledging them, analysis of the liberalisation and its interaction with presidential tenure lacks assessment of the opportunities, interests and power that shaped the processes

Le commerce international informel en Afrique sub-saharienne

Abstract The Sub-Saharan Africa's Unrecorded International Trade. Somme Methodological and Conceptual Problems. — Africa's informal economies have grown so extensive that it is no longer possible to regard them as marginal to formal economies nor only as factors of local importance. Moreover the label "informai" itself is only one of several adjectives on offer, ail of them to some extent inexact, to describe movements of goods and services which are not officially recorded, and which in some cases are illegal. The inter-continental reach of these "informal" economies deserves further study. This poses considerable technical problems which are examined here. Much can be gleaned from available statistics even on semi-clandestine or totally clandestine trades, such as in ivory or narcotics. It is also possible, particularly using anthropological techniques, to study small groups of petty traders living overseas.Résumé L'économie informelle africaine a pris une telle ampleur qu'il est devenu impossible de la considérer comme une forme annexe de l'économie formelle ou comme un facteur d'importance strictement locale. En outre, le qualificatif « informel » n'est que l'un des termes employés, terme d'ailleurs inapte à rendre compte des flux de biens et de services ne faisant pas l'objet d'un enregistrement officiel ou qui sont totalement illégaux. La portée inter-continentale de cette économie mérite une analyse plus fouillée. Cela pose toute une série de problèmes techniques qui sont examinés ici. Une masse considérable d'informations peut être collectée dans les statistiques portant en particulier sur des types de commerce partiellement ou totalement clandestin, tels que le trafic de l'ivoire ou celui de la drogue. On peut également, en utilisant des techniques anthropologiques, étudier des groupes de petits commerçants exerçant leur activité outre-mer.Ellis Stephen, MacGaffey Janet. Le commerce international informel en Afrique sub-saharienne. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 37, n°145, 1997. pp. 11-37

Tycoons and contraband: informal cross-border trade in West Nile, north-western Uganda

This article presents ethnographic evidence on the activities of the "tycoons'' - large-scale cross-border contraband traders in north-western Uganda. It shows how engagement with state officials, but also integration in the broader community are two crucial aspects which explain the functioning of informal cross-border trade or "smuggling'' in north-western Uganda. In doing so, it shows how, although there is a high degree of interaction between the "formal'' and the "informal'', the informal economy still has a distinct regulatory authority rather than simply merging in the state regulatory framework. Secondly, the regulatory authority governing this trade has a distinct plural character: rather than being either a "weapon of the weak'' for marginalised sections of the population or a "weapon of the strong'' for political elites, it has a much more ambiguous character, which influences the behaviour of the tycoons: both of these interactions limit the maneuvering space of these traders

Doing business out of war: an analysis of the UPDF's presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This paper analyses how Ugandan army commanders have mobilised transborder economic networks to exploit economic opportunities in eastern DRC during the military intervention of the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF) in Congo's wars (1996-97; 1998-2003). These transborder networks are the starting point of our evaluation of the informal political structures and networks linking Uganda's political centre to Congo's war complex. While it is often claimed that military entrepreneurismalism in the DRC has undermined political stability in Uganda, we argue that the activities of Ugandan military entrepreneurs and networks under their control were an integral part of Uganda's governance regime. Crucial to the development of this entrepreneurialism was the existence of pre-war transborder networks of economic exchange that were connecting Congo to eastern African markets. Military control over these highly informalised networks facilitated UPDF commanders' access to Congo's resources. Rather than operating as privatised sources of accumulation, these military shadow networks were directly linked to the inner circles of the Ugandan regime