The  webinar discussed the impact of years of violent conflict on men and boys, as well as women, in the DRC and the work of male allies who are resisting violent masculinity through programmes, interventions and policies being developed to counter these harmful militarised social norms, as well as the findings of research conducted by WILPF in partnership with the Living Peace Institute.

It was introduced by Dean Peacock, Director of the WILPF Mobilizing Men for Feminist Peace (MMFP) programme and was moderated by Pierrette Kengela, a gender expert from the DRC who work with the MMFP programme. The panellists were: 

Annie Matundu Mbambi, former president WILPF, DRC

Paty Siwala, Programme Manager, National Democratic Institute, DRC

Benoit Ruratotoye, Research and Training Director, Living Peace Institute, DRC

Key Takeaways: 

The context of conflict in the DRC and beyond

Dean Peacock began by emphasizing that working on militarised masculinities continues to be critical and he said that “WILPF …..[was] established in 1915 in the middle of the first world war at a time not entirely dissimilar to the one we are in at the moment with a war raging in Europe and threatening to spill over and conflicts emerging elsewhere as well.”

Peacock added that in the Ukraine war, we see issues related to militarised masculinities “on full display”. 

Annie Matundu Mbambi began by stating that as a peace organization, we can’t only plead for peace, but we also need to question the root causes of violence, in the DRC, we have been in a “cycle of armed conflict” and we have been unable to come out of that and this is why the research work is critical. 

Paty Siwala said that the research indicated that several groups of men, including armed groups, adolescents and young men in conflict zones and politicians were the target groups. These groups are contritbuting to to the construction of militarised masculinities, as well as those trying to develop programmes to contribute to peace.

Boys and Men in conflict in Goma

Benoit  Ruratotoye explained research was undertaken in North Kivu, Goma in the East of the DRC because it represents part of the socio-political context of the DRC that has caused war, violence and sexual violence. This region of the DRC is where hundreds of armed groups operate and it is very militarised and where militarised masculinities are the most aggressive. The research sought to unpack and better understand how war influences the construction of militarized masculinity. The research population included men, veterans, as well as adolescents and families.

A big question posed to the panelists is why do we have so many young boys and men joining armed groups. For Annie Matundu Mbambi,  it was important to understand that men are educated to manifest their masculinity by using violence to survive,  but there are also other factors such as impunity, poverty, structural violence and joblessness that shape masculinity. She added that when men can’t provide for the family, their feelings of shame and frustration grows and it leads some of them into criminality and – in the case of the DRC – to  join armed groups and to perpetrate violence against women. 

Ruratotoye said that the collective trauma of society is really pushing the youth to join armed groups as they are promised that this is a job and when there is joblessness and trauma, some youth are motivated to join because they want to avenge their ethnic groups. Ruratotye added that there is no sense of solidarity and some of the men find refuge in the armed groups.

Paty Siwala said that most of the men and boys in the military spend the majority of their life in an environment which has been militarized and in this sense, the construction of masculinity is mostly affected by the exposure of violence during their childhood. However, Siwala added, more men are leaving the army out of frustration and they are joining  armed groups because they want respect and they use violence as a language to express themselves,  a language to express their unhappiness and their frustration.

Impact of violence and conflict on combatants and on civilians

Ruratotoye said that the fighters and veterans are stigmatized and rejected by the society and – because of what they did – they are suffering psychologically and without help. This experience will backfire on their lives and their relationships with others and for this reason, they are violent and, although they could be hiding their suffering and trauma , they are manifesting it at home. He argued that it is critical to have interventions to help them because this cycle of violence leads to violent generations. 

Commenting on how this trauma is managed, Ruratotoye said that men manage it through taking dangerous routes such as using alcohol or taking drugs as a means to forget, while women are more likely to seek help.

Matundu Mbambi stated that societal gender norms were built to associate masculinity to power, violence and control. In this  regard, men need to be hard to dominate and to protect others, and we ignore that both men or women are militarised in the way they conduct themselves. She also believes that masculinity is really a burden  on men, leading them sometimes to abuse their power by using violence and intimidating others, with the ongoing sexual violence in the conflict in the East as an example. 

Commenting on the necessary intervention, Matundu Mbambi said that it is important to strengthen alliances with feminist activists and support the emergence of movements.

Promising practises and recommendations

Ruratotoye highlighted that the Living Peace Institute continues to work with men through focusing on positive masculinities and working on mental health. To deconstruct negative masculnities you need mental health.

Finally, Peacock closed the discussion by noting that Matundu Mbambi spoke of the structural factors while Ruratotoye brought an important critical analysis about “the importance of recognizing and addressing trauma” for the men who have perpetrated violence, and added that all the speakers brought a nuanced perspective of the root causes and the strategies that are needed to address militarized masculinities and to address men’s violence in the DRC. In his words, the work doesn’t end especially, as many of the strategies are now under implementation.  The importance of conducting more  research on men’s resistance to militarized masculinities was also emphasized.

Resources

You can watch the full webinar here

You can read the research report launched here 

For those interested in reading more on militarised masculnities, this resource by Alan Greig remains critical: Men, Masculinities & Armed Conflict: Findings from a four-country study by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.