In an ancient fable, the organs of the body quarrel bitterly over their respective importance. The head boasts of its wisdom and leadership. The eyes insist that without vision the body would stumble blindly. The mouth and hands claim superiority through nourishment and labour. Each part asserts its own indispensability while dismissing the contributions of the others.

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Eventually, the organs unite against the belly, convinced that it does no real work while consuming all the food. They deprive it of nourishment in protest. Yet before long they discover that the belly's unseen function, digesting and distributing nutrients, is essential to the survival of every organ. Humbled, they welcome it back into the coalition.

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Then another crisis emerges. The body's most neglected and reviled member, the organ responsible for elimination, grows weary of contempt. Viewed as inferior and unworthy, it decides to teach the others a lesson and ceases to perform its humble duty.

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Waste accumulates. Poison spreads. The proud head throbs with pain, the sharp eyes blur, the mighty belly weakens, and the entire body swells in agony. Desperate, the coalition begs the outcast organ to return. Terms are agreed, harmony is restored, and the body learns a fundamental truth: every organ matters, and survival depends on cooperation.

This timeless fable offers a sobering lesson for Africa, where many nations continue to struggle with the challenge of forging unity among diverse communities.

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Europe learned this lesson through centuries of bloodshed. Before identity politics was tamed, Europeans slaughtered one another in wars driven by ethnic, religious and linguistic divisions. Over time, countries such as Britain forged broader national identities that transcended English, Scottish and Welsh distinctions. France, Germany and others followed similar paths, subordinating narrower loyalties to build cohesive states. Their overriding objective became collective prosperity and influence rather than the supremacy of one identity over another.

Like the organs in the fable, they learned through painful experience that no part of the body can be ignored, humiliated or wished away without consequences for the whole.

The Great Lakes region offers a contemporary illustration. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) cannot build a stable national body while expecting certain communities to dissolve their distinctive identities into others. Nor can it thrive when the concerns of some groups are dismissed as illegitimate simply because they are politically inconvenient.

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For decades, questions surrounding citizenship, belonging and representation in eastern DR Congo have generated tensions that remain unresolved. Whether one agrees with them or not, communities expressing concern about demographic change, land rights, political representation or cultural preservation are not necessarily attacking the nation. It is a warning of deeper imbalance within it.

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Kinshasa should recognise that the national body has been swelling for too long. Durable stability will not come from denial but from the unconditional integration of all communities into a framework that guarantees equal citizenship, protects legitimate interests and allows diversity to coexist within a shared national identity.

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DR Congo is hardly unique. In South Sudan, ethnic rivalries continue to threaten national cohesion. In Sudan, longstanding perceptions of cultural and political dominance by northern riverine elites have fueled recurring rebellions and conflict. Across East Africa and beyond, similar tensions reveal the dangers of identities competing for supremacy rather than accommodation.

The lesson of the fable is not that differences should disappear. It is that they must be managed honestly and fairly. When legitimate grievances are routinely dismissed, resentment accumulates. Trust erodes. The national organism becomes inflamed.

The organ of elimination is neither glamorous nor celebrated, yet ignoring its function poisons the entire body. Likewise, disregarding the anxieties of communities that fear the loss of their political voice, ancestral lands or cultural heritage does not strengthen unity; it weakens it.

True patriotism does not require every community to become identical. It requires a commitment to a common future while recognising and respecting differences.

The proud organs in the fable discovered too late that their survival depended upon the very member they had scorned. DR Congo, and indeed much of Africa, would do well to heed that lesson before the swelling becomes unbearable.

The writer is an ideator and alternative development financing strategist.