The family, between mutual aid and conflict
In the Congo, family means not just parents, brothers and children, but all relatives to the second, third and even fourth degree. All cousins are considered brothers, and referred to as such, so that when it comes to siblings in the sense we understand it, the Congolese will specify: "same father same mother". The birth rate being what it is, it's easy to understand that a simple family is enough to fill a cell phone's address book three times over, and it's thanks to it and through it that the Congolese find housing, jobs and so on. The strong solidarity between family members banishes individualism. It depends on a solid structure underpinned by ethnicity and the clan, made up of a group of individuals who refer to a political, artistic or even religious personality. However, this extended family unit is tending to lose its importance with economic change and the urbanization of Africa. This is reflected in a gradual decline in traditional solidarity and individualization, sometimes leading to marginality. As a result, the Congolese, like most Africans, find themselves confronted today with a cultural dualism, between the desire to preserve their cultural identity and the need to integrate into a rapidly changing world influenced by Western culture.
A hierarchical society
African society is highly hierarchical. This hierarchy, marked by prohibitions, naturally confers strong group cohesion and a fixed social organization. One of the keys to Congolese society is the ambivalent relationship with the family, where the individual experiences both constraint and necessity. Holding one's place in the family, by redistributing one's possessions, is the foundation of identity and prestige, and the more obvious the success, the more pressing the demand. For many, this forced solidarity is one of the main explanations for the endemic corruption that afflicts the country. Failure to comply with this requirement leads to an amenity that can degenerate into open conflict, or even underground warfare, with the intervention of the ndoki, the sorcerer, with the aim of weakening or eliminating the member who doesn't follow the rules. The urban environment, with its opportunities for rapid enrichment and inequalities far more marked than in the village, sees the fiercest confrontations between family members. Keeping one's place between personal success and respect for the mutual support networks that undermine it is the challenge of every Congolese, between the ideal of "Western-style" life and African reality.
Initiation rites
Some ethnic groups have a social structure based on age classes. From the first signs of puberty, nubile young people are introduced, through initiation rites, to the traditions of the tribe, giving the latter great cohesion through individual membership of a group. Once they have undergone the rites, the boys or girls are considered adults, and have the same rights and obligations as the latter. Initiation is generally made up of symbolic tests that mark the character of the young initiate. It often takes place outside the village, in the bush or in a sacred place. The young man learns the secret language that enables him to acquire the rules of the tribe and gain access to the mysteries of the universe and the forces of nature. The young initiate then undergoes a series of often difficult trials. The end of the rite marks rebirth, after the death of childhood. This rebirth is symbolized by external signs (shaved head, jewelry, body paint, etc.), and usually a purifying bath in a sacred pond or river confirms the young person's membership of the initiates' group.
The healer and the sorcerer
Healers are still very numerous in Congolese towns. Herbalists are traditional health doctors. They derive their knowledge from direct transmission by an elder, or may establish themselves as plant specialists without any particular skills. The knowledge of a good healer is not limited to prescribing plants: the way in which they are consumed and gathered, and the rituals that sometimes surround them, all play a part in the effectiveness of the remedy. Evil never strikes by chance in the Congo, and no death is natural. Any "suspicious" illness is perceived as the necessary desire to cause harm, so symptomatic treatment is futile until the "sponsor" of the evil and his motive are unmasked. The ndoki is the man through whom evil happens, drawing his power from kundu, which enables him to split into two, to penetrate the world of spirits and to act on others. Kundu is not in itself an evil force; it's how you use it that counts. To counter the powers of the ndoki, the nganda, commonly known as the "fetishist", is called in. The nganda's function appears to be twofold: he uses his power to identify the ndoki and the person behind the evil. Once this has been done, he becomes a kind of mediator between aggressor and victim, bringing them together with a view to calming the conflict and putting an end to the aggression. But this type of "amicable" settlement only applies to grievances that can be redressed. When the aggressed person dies, after the culprit has been named, the victim's family and close friends may decide to seek redress themselves posthumously. This is where the nimba, or "massacres" in Lari, are unleashed: all those who wish to see the supposed culprit put to death. This out-of-character, murderous mob justice often crystallizes around the death of a young man, when an uncle, usually on his mother's side, is accused of being the sorcerer. Punishment is usually meted out without appeal and, if he doesn't have time to flee, the uncle risks being burned with a car tire or stoned to death. The permanence of witchcraft practices and the importance of their unifying role against a backdrop that can be extremely violent remain one of the keys to the Congolese imagination.
