'Building a nation also means dreaming together': the 50th anniversary of Democratic Republic Congo's independence

This book examines the celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of independence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2010. It focuses on the state's staging of the independence anniversary as a 'turning point' on the path to a better future. The author interprets this endeavour, against the backdrop of the current economic, political and social 'misery' in the Congo, as an attempt - despite criticism of the government and of state failure in general - to mobilise popular nationalist sentiment and to strengthen national cohesion through the celebrations. The work is based on a three-month placement with the commission that organised the celebrations on behalf of the government. The key finding is that the Congolese people's distinctly strong sense of national identity - at least in the capital, Kinshasa - is rooted in the evoked experience of shared suffering (from all the hardships of history and contemporary daily life) and is reflected in hopes for the future ('dreams') that are strongly influenced by religion.