This chapter queries Congolese relationships with soil, subsoil, and the natural world more generally. In Congo the past 250 years have been characterized by the prying of Congolese from their land. First, there were the Arab slavers; then, during the imperial and colonial eras, land dispossession was an important tactic of rule. In the postcolonial era, the wounds created during previous regimes have festered, and disputes over who has the right to which land fuels much of the current fighting in eastern Congo. As people seek to reconcile with this violent past, they return to the land—to the soil, the subsoil, and the ancestral power it contains. Through farming, mining, and conservation efforts, Congolese work to rebuild relationships with the natural world. By returning to the soil, they suggest that the ecological can serve as a register of repair, a form of public healing.
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