This thesis tried to look on the impact of the European colonial legacy on the peace durability after internal conflicts. Using comparative case study of Congo Brazzaville and Central African Republic, both part of the least peaceful region in the world, it analysed if the restorative process, retributive process and structural process were impacted by European colonial legacy. A favor of unilateral punishment and retributive judicial practices hint that colonial legacy and top-down approach to internal conflict still impact the prospect of peace durability. Furthermore, there is still a strong involvement of French power into local politics in both Congo and Central African Republic, by supporting in both conflict one leader over the others and, thus, influencing the restorative and retributive process. Peace durability was impacted by the fact that it didn’t favor reconciliation and dialogue between all sides, reproducing the power system in place in colonial time between the colonial power and the colony, and further marginalized one part the population, such as the Pool region for Congo, or the Bangui capital for Central African Republic. The durability of peace is thus fragilized in both contexts.
On the other front, European colonial legacy also impacted the formulation and application of reform and forward-looking programs, by fueling neopatrimonial practices. In other words, as the colony was treated as the Colonial power personal object, this process translated into similar practices in the structural process of forward-looking policies. Reforms were made to benefits the people in power or to create loyalties to them, same as in colonial time, which hinders the prevention of potential future grievances. This further aggravated the resurgence of conflict in Central African Republic, were there was a lack of initiative on the structural process side, while it further marginalized the Pool region for Congo as not beneficiary of structural reform and changes.
This research thus suggest that colonial legacy can impact and hinder the durability of peace, by neopatrimonial practices inherited from colonial time and by not addressing grievances in a reparative way. This thesis further deepens the understanding of peace as a continuum in the African continent: it suggests that peace durability can be easily overturn and is fragile, since current colonial legacy fueled instability. This also explain why expert warn about a potential start
of internal conflict during the Congo-Brazzaville election in 2021, as peace durability is fragile, and the core issues of conflict are hindered by the lack of national dialogue and the prominence of neopatrimonial practices.
While this thesis focus on the case of Congo-Brazzaville and Central African Republic, European colonialism had an impact on the whole continent. When local initiative is favored over international involvement, like the case of Congo and the subvention for local organism in the reintegration of ex-combatant and administrative groups, it tends to create more stabilizing positive result. Using regional agencies as well, such as the African Union, can help to bypass some of the current impact of colonial legacies. Incidentally, there needs to be more bottom-up approach that comes from the civil societies in order to foster durable peace in order to also limit neopatrimonial practices.
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