Search results for ""Author Kristof Titeca""

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by the infamous Joseph Kony, is a rebel group that was active in Northern Uganda from the second half of the 1980s. The rebellion became notorious for the use of extreme violence, in particular its large-scale abductions of civilians, of which more than half were children. Rebel Lives is a visual story about life inside the rebel group: based on photographs taken by LRA commanders between 1994 and 2004, the book documents life inside the group, and depicts the rebels as they wanted to be seen among themselves and by the outside world. Kristof Titeca, senior lecturer in Development Studies and expert on the LRA, collected this material, and used it to trace the photographed (former) rebels. Together with Congolese photographer Georges Senga, he travelled back to photograph the former rebels in their current context, and give a voice to these actors. This visual story is not only about the LRA. It is a story about conflict in all times, and all places, where the limits of victim and perpetrator have become blurred, where people struggle to survive and find their place, and where children in particular bear the brunt of this tension.

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The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been widely derided as a failed state, unable to meet the basic needs of its citizens. But while state infrastructure continues to decay, many essential services continue to be provided at the local level, often through grassroots initiatives. So while, for example, state funding for education is almost non-existent, average school enrolment remains well above average for Sub-Saharan Africa. This book addresses this paradox, bringing together key scholars working on public services in the DRC to elucidate the evolving nature of governance in developing countries. Its contributions encompass a wide range of public services, including education, justice, transport, and health. Taking stock of what functions and why, it contributes to the debate on public services in the context of ‘real’ or ‘hybrid’ governance beyond the state: does the state still have a function, or is it no longer useful and relevant? Crucially, how does international aid help or complicate this picture? Rich in empirical detail, the contributors provide a valuable work for students and scholars interested in the role played by non-state actors in organizing statehood – a role too often neglected in debates on post-conflict reconstruction.

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