Kasika
Village
The view from part of the center of Kasika village in the Luindi Chiefdom, March 2023
The view from part of the center of Kasika village in the Luindi Chiefdom, March 2023
Country Democratic Republic of the Congo
ProvinceSouth Kivu
TerritoryMwenga
ChiefdomLuindi
Time zoneUTC+2 (CAT)

Kasika is a village located in the Luindi Chiefdom within the Mwenga Territory of the South Kivu Province, situated in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Geographically positioned at 965 meters above sea level, Kasika strategically lies near Kihovu and Kahulile, approximately 108 kilometers from Bukavu, near the Rwandan border. The region is more than clusters of mud huts built around a Catholic parish on a hill overlooking a valley. It was the headquarters of the customary chief of the Nyindu ethnic community, whose house and office sat on a hill opposite the parish, a series of large, red-brick structures with cracked ceramic shingles as roofing, laced with vines.[1]

Kasika is one of the most affluent areas of the South Kivu Province, with gold mining being a significant contributor to the village's economy.[2][3] Incidentally, artisanal gold mining and its trade in the region is the subject of numerous semi-legal and illegal smuggling.[4][5] As a result, much of the gold mined artisanally in Kasika is smuggled out of the countries, usually to Uganda, but also Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi, and from there, allegedly in Dubai.[6]

The region is infamous for the Kasika massacre that occurred in 1998 during the Second Congo War, where the Rally for Congolese Democracy, a Rwandan-backed armed group, committed a range of abuses against civilians, including "deliberate killings, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, disappearances, harassment of human rights defenders, abuses against women, and recruitment of child soldiers".[7][8]

History

The royal tombs of the Kasika massacre, where Mwami François Mubeza III, the traditional leader of Kasika, was killed with the members of the royal court and more than 100 others by the RCD rebel group.

According to Daniel P. Biebuyck, a Belgian anthropologist specializing in Central Africa, the region was traditionally occupied by the Nyindu people. By late 1951, the Nyindu people had predominantly established themselves in the Mwenga Territory, with borders adjoining the Shi, the Bembe, and the Lega-Basimwenda.[9][10][11] Biebuyck also notes that the region experienced significant population shifts with diverse Bantu ethnicities coexisted in the same village—Nyindu, Lega, Bembe, and Shi—all primarily engaged in agriculture, hunting, trading, and animal husbandry.[12][13][14]

Kasika massacre

On August 24, 1998, amid the Second Congo War, over 1,000 people were killed in Kasika and its nearby villages by Rally for Congolese Democracy (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie: RCD) and Rwandan soldiers, according to the United Nations.[15][16] The majority of the corpses found on the 60 km journey from Kilungutwe village and Kilungutwe River to Kasika were mainly women and children.[17][18] Women were raped before being disemboweled with daggers from the vagina.[19][20] Over three hundred civilians were massacred in Kasika, including the family of the Mwami (king) of Lwindi Chiefdom François Mubeza III and his disemboweled wife, Yvette Nyanghe, who was pregnant with twins. More than 37 corpses were found in the royal plot alone, including priests, nuns, and several parishioners.[21][22][23]

Economy

Agriculture is the backbone of the economy of the Kasika village and the entire Mwenga territory. Cassava, bean, maize and groundnut are among the soil-adapted food crops grown in the village of Kasika in the Mwenga territory in the South Kivu province.[24][25][26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Two conflicts, One Village: The Case of Kasika". Peace Insight. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  2. ↑ Wassomukokya, François; Mukungilwa, Bitondo; Muteleka, Cyprien; Mutimanwa, Jean Michel; Kasese, Richard Minyota (December 2004). "Rapport final des consultations participatives de la base pour l'élaboration du Document de Stratégies de Réduction de la Pauvreté (DSRP) Territoire de MWENGA - Province du Sud Kivu". Sous la coordination du SERACOB (in French). Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  3. ↑ "20 Years On from the Kasika Massacre, Women Survivors Share Their Stories | Women For Women". Women for Women International. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  4. ↑ Doumenge, C.; Schilter, C. (1997). "Les Monts Itombwe: D'une enquête environnementale et socio-économique à la planification d'interventions au Zaïre" (PDF). UICN - Union mondiale pour la nature, Brazzaville, Congo. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  5. ↑ Mwetaminwa, Justin; Vircoulon, Thierry (February 2022). "Un scandale sino-congolais L'exploitation illégale des minerais et des forêts par les entreprises chinoises au Sud-Kivu" (PDF). Institut français des relations internationales. Retrieved 2023-03-20.
  6. ↑ Doumenge, C.; Schilter, C. (1977). "Les Monts Itombwe: D'une enquête environnementale et socio-économique à la planification d'interventions au Zaïre" (PDF). UICN - Union mondiale pour la nature, Brazzaville, Congo. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  7. ↑ "CASUALTIES OF WAR". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  8. ↑ Stearns, Jason (2012). Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa. New York City, United States: PublicAffairs. pp. 250–251. ISBN 978-1610391078.
  9. ↑ Biebuyck, Daniel P. (1982). "Lega Dress as Cultural Artifact". African Arts. 15 (3): 59–92. doi:10.2307/3335913. ISSN 0001-9933.
  10. ↑ "VARIA". Annales Aequatoria. 24: 536–543. 2003. ISSN 0254-4296.
  11. ↑ Kasimba, Yogolelo Tambwe Ya (November 1990). "Essai d'Interprétation du Cliché de Kangere (dans la Région des Grands Lacs Africains)". The Journal of African History. 31 (3): 353–372. doi:10.1017/S0021853700031133. ISSN 1469-5138.
  12. ↑ Biebuyck, Daniel P. (1982). "Lega Dress as Cultural Artifact". African Arts. 15 (3): 59–92. doi:10.2307/3335913. ISSN 0001-9933.
  13. ↑ Biebuyck, Daniel P. (1981). Statuary from the Pre-Bembe Hunters: Issues in the Interpretation of Ancestral Figurines Ascribed to the Basikasingo-Bembe-Boyo. Tervuren, Belgium: Royal Museum of Central Afrika. pp. English, French, and Dutch.
  14. ↑ Biebuyck, Daniel P. (1973). Lega Culture; Art, Initiation, and Moral Philosophy Among a Central African People. Berkeley, California, United States: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02085-6.
  15. ↑ "RDC: 22 ans après le massacre, retour à Kasika où la blessure des charniers reste vive". RFI (in French). 2020-09-04. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  16. ↑ "RDC: polémique après un tweet de l'ambassadeur du Rwanda sur le massacre de Kasika". RFI (in French). 2020-08-26. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  17. ↑ "Life for women in the country that 'never turned the page of conflict'". The Independent. 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  18. ↑ "ACHPR, Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda | How does law protect in war? - Online casebook". casebook.icrc.org. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  19. ↑ "ACHPR, Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda | How does law protect in war? - Online casebook". casebook.icrc.org. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  20. ↑ "20 Years On from the Kasika Massacre, Women Survivors Share Their Stories | Women For Women". Women for Women International. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  21. ↑ "ACHPR, Democratic Republic of the Congo v. Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda | How does law protect in war? - Online casebook". casebook.icrc.org. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  22. ↑ "CASUALTIES OF WAR". www.hrw.org. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  23. ↑ Bulambo, Didier Mwati (2010). République Démocratique du Congo: 13 ans sous la main du diable: de l'AFDL de L.D. Kabila au CNDP de Nkundabatware (in French). Paris, France: Edilivre Aparis. p. 212. ISBN 9782353354658.
  24. ↑ JamboRDC, La Rédaction (2022-09-23). "Sud-Kivu : Des cultivateurs se plaignent de la faible production de manioc dans certaines chefferies de Mwenga -" (in French). Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  25. ↑ "Sud-Kivu: les agriculteurs de Mwenga formés sur la culture améliorée du manioc". Radio Okapi (in French). 2011-08-29. Retrieved 2023-03-21.
  26. ↑ Neema Ciza, Angélique; Casinga Mubasi, Clérisse; Amani Barhumana, Richard; Kabike Balyahamwabo, Delvaux; Namegabe Mastaki, Jean-Luc; Lebailly, Philippe (2021-01-01). "Impact des activités non agricoles sur la sécurité alimentaire au Sud-Kivu montagneux". Tropicultura (in French). doi:10.25518/2295-8010.1761. ISSN 0771-3312.

2°55′58″S 28°31′47″E / 2.93278°S 28.52972°E / -2.93278; 28.52972

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