Overview

In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youth coalesced to revolt against Mobutu Seso Seko, president of Zaire/Congo since 1965. The rebels of the AFDL marched over 1500km in seven months to crush the dictatorship, heralding liberation as a second independence for Central Africa as a whole. US President Bill Clinton toasted AFDL leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his regional allies -- having developed a unique camaraderie and personal trust on the region's battlefronts -- as a 'new generation of African leaders' ushering in an 'African Renaissance.' Within months, however, the Pan-Africanist alliance fell apart. The AFDL's collapse triggered a cataclysmic fratricide between the heroes of liberation that became the deadliest conflict since the Second World War, drawing in eight African countries. This book draws on hundreds of interviews with protagonists from Africa and the international community to offer a novel theoretical and empirical account of Africa's Great War. Bridging the gap between comparative politics and international relations, it argues that the renewed outbreak of calamitous violence in August 1998 was a function of the kind of regime the AFDL was and how its leaders saw Congo, the region and themselves. As a Pan-Africanist liberation movement, the collapse of the AFDL government internally and the unravelling of regional order externally were inextricably linked.

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9780190864552

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Reviews

"""This is a rare combination: a book that combines exceptional academic rigor with deep, personal knowledge of a place and its main actors. As important for political scientists as it is for historians and congophiles."" -- Jason Stearns, Director, Congo Research Group, New York University and author of Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa""One of the most intelligent books on conflict in Africa that I have read in a long time. Based on an astoundingly comprehensive array of interviews with the key actors in this war."" -- William Reno, Professor of African Studies at Northwestern University, and author of Warfare in Independent Africa""An exceptionally well researched and argued book. Based on a wealth of hitherto unknown information, including many interviews with crucial stakeholders, it offers new and refreshing insights into very complex and dramatic events that continue to impact Central Africa up to the present day."" -- Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Antwerp, and author of Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda and The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996-2006""Why Comrades Go To War is a detailed and compelling account of the bitter grapes of post-colonialism in Africa. The authors range widely over Central Africa but provide a detailed account of the often sordid and always tragic events that ruined the lives of millions of people. I find an almost Greek tragedy - an inevitability - in the events they relate, but the authors wisely temper this impression by showing how the leaders' choices, fears, ambitions, greed, and mistakes made the tragedy modern. An important book."" -- William Polk, author of Violent Politics and Neighbors and Strangers, among many other books""Why Comrades Go to War is a welcome addition to the literature on the Congo Wars, first to overthrow Mobutu and then to overthrow his successor, Laurent-D'esir'e Kabila. Roessler and Verhoeven demonstrate that a focus on elite actors (above all, Kabila and his Rwandan Tutsi backers, Generals Kagame and Kabarebe) is essential to understanding why the first war led inexorably to the second."" -- Tom Turner, author of The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality""Africa's most deadly war was rooted not only in geopolitics, but in an ideological state conspiracy as well. This puzzling story is told in Why Comrades Go to War, a cross between a political people's magazine and a late twentieth-century overview of eastern and central Africa. A must for those wanting to track the labyrinths underpinning visible African events."" -- Gerard Prunier, author of The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide and From Genocide to Continental War""[Roessler and Verhoeven's] purpose is to answer the question: 'Why did comrades go to war?' and to view the conflict through the prism of 'liberation politic'. The merit of their book is that it includes interviews with many of the protagonists, clarifying critical details about their involvement ... The depth of the authors' research is impressive.""-- Times Literary Supplement ""A novel lens through which to understand the First Congo War . . . sure to provoke renewed discussion.""--International Affairs"

This is a rare combination: a book that combines exceptional academic rigor with deep, personal knowledge of a place and its main actors. As important for political scientists as it is for historians and congophiles. -- Jason Stearns, Director, Congo Research Group, New York University and author of Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa One of the most intelligent books on conflict in Africa that I have read in a long time. Based on an astoundingly comprehensive array of interviews with the key actors in this war. -- William Reno, Professor of African Studies at Northwestern University, and author of Warfare in Independent Africa An exceptionally well researched and argued book. Based on a wealth of hitherto unknown information, including many interviews with crucial stakeholders, it offers new and refreshing insights into very complex and dramatic events that continue to impact Central Africa up to the present day. -- Filip Reyntjens, Professor of Law and Politics at the University of Antwerp, and author of Political Governance in Post-Genocide Rwanda and The Great African War: Congo and Regional Geopolitics, 1996-2006 Why Comrades Go To War is a detailed and compelling account of the bitter grapes of post-colonialism in Africa. The authors range widely over Central Africa but provide a detailed account of the often sordid and always tragic events that ruined the lives of millions of people. I find an almost Greek tragedy - an inevitability - in the events they relate, but the authors wisely temper this impression by showing how the leaders' choices, fears, ambitions, greed, and mistakes made the tragedy modern. An important book. -- William Polk, author of Violent Politics and Neighbors and Strangers, among many other books Why Comrades Go to War is a welcome addition to the literature on the Congo Wars, first to overthrow Mobutu and then to overthrow his successor, Laurent-Desire Kabila. Roessler and Verhoeven demonstrate that a focus on elite actors (above all, Kabila and his Rwandan Tutsi backers, Generals Kagame and Kabarebe) is essential to understanding why the first war led inexorably to the second. -- Tom Turner, author of The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality Africa's most deadly war was rooted not only in geopolitics, but in an ideological state conspiracy as well. This puzzling story is told in Why Comrades Go to War, a cross between a political people's magazine and a late twentieth-century overview of eastern and central Africa. A must for those wanting to track the labyrinths underpinning visible African events. -- Gerard Prunier, author of The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide and From Genocide to Continental War [Roessler and Verhoeven's] purpose is to answer the question: 'Why did comrades go to war?' and to view the conflict through the prism of 'liberation politic'. The merit of their book is that it includes interviews with many of the protagonists, clarifying critical details about their involvement EL The depth of the authors' research is impressive. -- Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

Philip Roessler is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary, where he is also Director of the Center for African Development. He is the author of Ethnic Politics and State Power in Africa: The Logic of the Coup-Civil War Trap (2016). Harry Verhoeven is an assistant professor at the School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Qatar. He is the Convenor of the Oxford University China-Africa Network and author of Water, Civilization and Power in Sudan: The Political Economy of Military-Islamist State Building (2015).

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