Catherine Lee Porter

This research examines the role of women and their political participation during the independence movement and secession crisis of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It explores how women were used as duplicate foils, both as paramilitary freedom fighters and nurturing mothers of the nation, creating a parallel dichotomy. It traces the development of threaded gendered identities that formed before colonialism, matured throughout the colonial period, and prevailed through the end of the Congo Crisis. This history is presented as a longer trajectory of how women within the southeastern provinces helped to create and maintain their identity and political voice of the newly independent nation. This is examined within the context of decolonization, and how these ideas were used as a source of power and femininity for many. Within this, women are centered at the forefront of Congolese political conversations, within a history that focuses on the independence of the Congo from the eastern provinces rather than Leopoldville and the history of the Cold War.