Culture

Last week, Congo installed the winner of its first multi-party presidential election in 40 years: Joseph Kabila is now the leader of the war-torn country.

Mvemba Dizolele describes the Congolese response to their historic elections as 'giddy'. Mvemba is an American citizen who was born and raised in Congo. He talks with Dick about his detention as a young man by the dictator who had employed his father, why he became an American…and what it was like to encounter a pygmy taller than he is.

When Nelson Mandela was released from jail in 1990 and during the subsequent 1994 independence and elections in South Africa, the United States displayed a dramatic commitment to the democratic movement in Africa that has not been in evidence since. That seemed to change, however, with the U.S.-sanctioned arrest of Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, on March 29, 2006, for human rights violations in neighboring Sierra Leone.

The Mushangi area is nested high in eastern Congo's mountains, far from the capital, Kinshasa, on the border with Rwanda. The hills are barren, stripped of their lush vegetation both by erosion and by a seemingly never-ending conflict. While the rest of Congo prepares for the second round of presidential elections scheduled for Oct. 29, the people of Mushangi worry about one thing: survival.

A series presenting DRC's Tchomia IDP Camps by Pulitzer Center grantee, Mvemba Phezo Dizolele.

Photos chronicling Pulitzer Center grantee Mvemba Phezo Dizolele's reporting in DRC.

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) is established by the UNSC in monitoring the peace process among the various ethnic conflicts.

Kinshasa is Congo's capital and one of the country's largest cities.

Despite the presence of the world's largest peacekeeping mission, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains in the grip of civil war. The reason is clear. A flood of small arms and light weapons undermines the 17,000 United Nations troops' mandate to protect civilians.

Bukavu in a city located east of the DRC and the capital of the South Kivu province.

A series of photographs capturing the influence of cellular phones on the daily lives of people in DRC.

Mining is becoming a growing industry in DRC where many farmers are switching jobs to join the destructive industry.