Recent warfare in Eastern DRC, especially since 2015, is marked by violence inspired by ‘race’ narratives. Identity politics around ‘race’ is used to legitimise ‘expressive’ or reprisal-oriented violence against ‘Hamitic’ or ‘Tutsi’ minorities. The case of the Banyamulenge of South Kivu is examined in this article. Following Autesserre, we show that one-dimensional narratives – in this case of ‘race’ – tend to over-simplify the dynamics of political violence. Anti-Hamitic racism is derived from colonial ideas around race hierarchies, and has resulted in systematic killings of Banyamulenge civilians in what resembles a ‘slow genocide’. Expressive violence has, in turn, produced a lack of concern for the plight of Banyamulenge civilians among the military, humanitarians, media, scholars and NGOs. Given armed alliances between local Maimai forces, Burundian and Rwandan opposition and the DRC army, such ‘race’ narratives cruelly legitimise violence against civilians from ‘Tutsi’ communities, associated by neighbouring communities with Rwanda. Resultant displacement, starvation and killing of Banyamulenge civilians in this context amount to an on-going, slow-moving genocide. As the COVID-19 crisis unrolls, the decolonisation of identity politics in Eastern DRC, and in South Kivu in particular still seems very remote.

刚果民主共和国东部地区最近的战争，尤其是自2015年以来，以“种族”叙事为灵感的暴力活动为标志。围绕“种族”的身份政治被用来合法化针对“狂热”或“图西族”少数民族的“表达性”或报复性暴力。本文研究了南基伍省Banyamulenge案。在奥特塞雷之后，我们表明，一维叙事（在本例中为“种族”）倾向于过度简化政治暴力的动态。反对种族主义的种族主义来自围绕种族等级制的殖民思想，并导致系统性地杀害了Banyamulenge平民，这类似于“缓慢的种族灭绝”。反过来，表达性暴力使人们对军队，人道主义者，媒体，学者和非政府组织中Banyamulenge平民的困境缺乏关注。鉴于当地的Maimai部队之间的武装联盟，布隆迪和卢旺达的反对派以及刚果民主共和国军队，这种“种族”叙事残酷地使针对“图西”社区的平民的暴力行为合法化，而邻国与卢旺达有关联。在这种情况下，由此导致的流离失所，饥饿和杀害Banyamulenge平民，构成了持续不断的，缓慢的种族灭绝。随着COVID-19危机的展开，东部刚果民主共和国，特别是南基伍的身份政治非殖民化似乎仍然很遥远。