DR Congo, one of Africa's largest nations, is home to an estimated 250 ethnic groups. In 1800, however, the territory we now call DR Congo looked vastly different.
Before the Berlin Conference, the name "Congo” referred to a kingdom in present-day northern Angola, western DR Congo, the Republic of Congo, and southern Gabon. No other parts of what is now DR Congo identified as Congo - only the western region, today’s Bas-Congo province.
Historical records show that in 1800, most of North and South Kivu belonged to the Kingdom of Rwanda. Other populations pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of Burundi or maintained ties to their Ugandan ancestors.
The populations of both Kivus included the Banyarwanda - Tutsi and Hutu, who formed the majority - as well as the Bahunde, Banande, Bashi, Barega, Banyanga, Batembo, Babembe, Bafuliiru, Bavira, Bahavu, Banyindu, Batwa, and Barundi in the Rusizi Plain. None of these groups paid allegiance to the Kingdom of Congo.
On February 5, 1885, King Leopold II of Belgium gained international recognition as the owner of the Congo Free State. Overnight, all these populations became Congolese. Colonial authorities forced them to sever ties with their former kingdoms. This forced transformation affected nearly every population in what is now DR Congo. The Bakongo were compelled to ignore their king in M'banza-Kongo, renamed São Salvador by the Portuguese in northwestern Angola. The Ngbandi became Congolese despite their ties to what is now the Central African Republic. The Lamba people were made to abandon allegiance to their chief, Mushili.
All of these ethnic groups became Congolese on February 5, 1885, when Leopold II received international recognition of his claim.
Before that date, ethnic groups in the eastern territories identified themselves as subjects of the kingdoms of Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi. The Congolese Banyarwanda, Bahunde, Bashi, Babembe, Bavira, Bahavu, Banyanga, and Bafuliiru paid allegiance to the King of Rwanda. The Banande answered to their king in Uganda. The Barundi served their king in Burundi.
After February 5, 1885, the ruler of the Congo Free State unified these populations under a single identity: Congolese. When the Congo Free State officially became the Belgian Congo on November 15, 1908, the situation evolved.
Among the populations encountered by the colonizers, only the Congolese Kinyarwanda-speaking communities were considered problematic - a perceived obstacle to colonial policy.
Colonial administrators viewed Kinyarwanda-speaking people as a hindrance to their objectives and devised strategies to counter what they saw as a threat. These policies began in Rwanda and, over time, contributed to the conditions that culminated in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. They also planted seeds of division in eastern DR Congo through a decree that recognized the Bahunde, Banande, Bashi, Barega, Banyanga, Batembo, Babembe, Bafuliiru, Bavira, Bahavu, Banyindu, and Batwa as Congolese, but excluded Banyarwanda.
In the mid-1990s, the government of Zaire weaponized this decree to disenfranchise and denationalize the Banyarwanda in eastern Zaire, targeting both Hutu and Tutsi. Rwanda’s President Habyarimana, through Mutuelle des agriculteurs de Virunga (MAGRIVI), an organization he funded to target the Tutsi in eastern DR Congo, convinced Mobutu that the Hutu were Congolese, while the Tutsi should be denationalized.
Since then, the denationalization of the Tutsi has dominated Congolese politics. Today, President Félix Tshisekedi is implementing policies rooted in decisions made decades before his presidency.
Has today’s DR Congo shrunk to the size of Habyarimana’s Rwanda, unable to accommodate its own citizens? The answer lies not in geography, but in the poisonous legacy of colonial division; a legacy that continues to shape Congolese politics and identity.
The writer is a media specialist, historian, and playwright.