A firm commitment must be made to ensure transparency and accountability in the government and key businesses in the region. Relations between the DRC and the international community should be bolstered and international institutions strengthened to regulate domestic and regional conditions. But such change cannot occur before domestic reform. To yield visible short- and long-term results, the DRC government must remain committed to a zero-tolerance policy on corruption. One way toward such a change would be to require all members working with the AMP government to declare their assets and business interests upon entering and leaving office.

Additionally, to avoid the widespread sale of illegal resources, trade and smuggling along international borders with neighboring countries should be heavily controlled. To aid with such monitoring, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and the African Union, both of which have extended membership to the DRC, can suggest strategies and provide the infrastructure to monitor the trafficking of illegal coltan and other smuggled natural resources. With the technology boom of the 1990s well in the past, democracy taking hold in the DRC in July 2006, and the withdrawal of neighboring countries’ militias in the region, it is tempting for spectators to turn a blind eye to rebel activity in the east. However, if this rebel activity continues, terror and corruption will only embed themselves deeper in the region.

Conclusion

Whether the mineral in international demand is coltan or timber, gold or alluvial diamonds, the AMP government, and future governments, must be prepared to deal with the corruption and violence that surrounds its vast natural wealth. Even if government militias have withdrawn from the region, the Ituri and Kivus provinces are plagued by greedy settlers. If the government uses international support, such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, in conjunction with regional groups, including the African Union, the DRC government can take on the 18,000 rebels remaining on their territory. Complacency and corruption are now the government’s only potential banes.

Perhaps the chief contradiction of Heart of Darkness is that the enlivened force of evil is indescribable: Kurtz as the embodiment of evil is, in the end, nothing more than a vacuous void. For Marlow, the wilderness “echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.” Today, perhaps this nothingness, the missing presence of a unified, competent authority, signals the timeless need for citizen involvement in the DRC government. Plagued by kleptocracy, with only a short respite from authoritarianism 40 years ago, the political climate of the DRC has had no lulls for rejuvenation and redevelopment. Now, however, provided that the Congolese people do not settle for governmental concessions and instead demand complete transparency about its involvement in mining activities, they can push for change. With democratic foundations now in place, the future can be in the hands of the people. And if the people of the DRC so desire, natural resources can, for the first time in the country’s history, constitute a great blessing, rather than an age-old curse.