Growing Democracy

The People of DRCongo are Shedding Light on the “Heart of Darkness"

For most Canadians, when we think of Africa - if we think of it at all - we picture a continent struggling to overcome its colonial past. Tragically for the people who live there, this image is not entirely wrong; Africa has seen nine military coups since 2020. But there is cause for hope.

Despite a history of outside exploitation and ongoing inner turmoil, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is making positive strides. Its people offer a valuable lesson to much of the western world. Where several well-established democracies are seeing the internal rot of populism, hyper partisanship and movements toward autocracy, DRC and its people are working to overcome potentially devastating handicaps to create a government that is, to borrow a phrase, by the people and for the people.

When we read mainstream media, we see that DRC rarely gets mentioned, and when it does make the news it’s because of either disease or warfare. Regular consumers of media know the experience can be fraught. This is largely due to the nature of the beast; both what it is and what it isn’t. The media consists of profit-seeking businesses, and like any business it provides us with what it knows we want. What it’s not is a pacifier ready to soothe our jangled nerves. Simply put, bad news sells.

​The news we get out of DRC is very much a case in point. There are positive developments, but we won’t read about this in mainstream media, not because of any sort of cover-up but rather out of rational business decisions. But there is good news.

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