Few things in life are certain. The sun will rise, the sun will set, and journalists will look at an African crisis and almost inevitably chalk it up primarily to tribal rivalries — and usually they depict those rivalries as “ancient” (and thus somehow immutable). This lazy shorthand almost always obscures more than it elucidates and helps to keep Africa shrouded in myths and cliches.
Tim Butcher's article on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Prospect Magazine is thus especially welcome. Butcher argues that the problems in the Congo are attributable far more to historical circumstances surrounding the exploitation of mineral resources than to largely incidental ethnic conflicts. While this argument may carry with it its own reductionist dangers, it far surpasses the hoary tribal explanation in sophistication and nuance.
