Open AccessA Truly Free State in the Congo: Slavery and Abolition in Global Historical Perspective
Author(s) -
John Donoghue
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
slavery today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2333-7222
DOI - 10.22150/stj/uluw7758
Subject(s) - democracy , capitalism , dictatorship , colonialism , state (computer science) , context (archaeology) , civil society , political economy , political science , economic history , law , sociology , history , politics , algorithm , computer science , archaeology
The differences between slavery now and then are less important than the historical links that bind them, links in an awful chain of bondage that bind the history of the transatlantic slave trade from Africa to the resurgence of slavery in Africa today. As this article illustrates, nowhere is this truer, both in historical and contemporary terms, than in the Congo. The links binding the Congo to the history of human bondage were first forged in the crucible of early modern capitalism and they have been made fast by the proliferation of “free market reform” today, which despite the fundamentalist cant of its advocates, has hardly proven to be a force of human liberation; instead, placing the last 500 years of the Congo region in global context, we can see how capitalism has proven to be the world’s greatest purveyor of human bondage. The article concludes with an argument that the reconstruction of civil society in the Democratic Republic of Congo after decades of war, dictatorship, and neo-colonial rule depends crucially on the continued success of an already impressive Congolese abolitionist movement. Without making an end to slavery, once and for all, civil society can hardly prosper in a country where slavery has historically brought about its destruction.