Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

ENVY AS A DECIMATING FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 411
revolution. But because the most reliable and talented individuals among
the population still, for the most part, live in small settlements so that
each of them is very conspicuous, it follows that they will form a
disproportionate number of the revolution's victims. In this way these
areas have entered upon long-term development entailing a 'negative
selection' of those who might eventually have been responsible for
economic and educational development. According to the reports before
us, the rebels first massacre those who are 'better' than themselves,
which may often mean nothing more than two years' attendance at a
mission school or the possession of a sewing-machine or of a bicycle. In
the New York Times of October 4, 1964, we read:
Medara Aka, 23 years old, was considered a Congolese 'intellectual' by
virtue of a year at the University of Oregon. He had taken a teacher-training
course on an American scholarship, gone back to Leopoldville to teach
English in a secondary school and three weeks ago returned here to see his
family. The next day the rebels took Lusaka. Mr. Aka was immediately
singled out. 'You're an intellectual, aren't you?' asked the rebel leader. 'You
have even been to America, our greatest enemy. You are too smart. You are
an enemy of the revolution. ' With that, the young man was taken to the town
square and beheaded.
His death is but one of thousands of examples of the rebel army's
deliberate liquidation of anyone with more than a rudimentary education.
With rebel units of the Stanleyville Congolese People's Republic now in
control of roughly a fifth of the Congo, this liquidation has reached
staggering dimensions.
No one knows how many 'intellectuals' have been slain. Congolese with
some degree of higher education are still few in the Congo. Under Belgian
rule, the Congo's educational pyramid was broadly based but reached a peak
at the secondary level. Few Congolese at the time of independence held
posts higher than a clerk.
Now, in the northern and eastern provinces of the Congo, where the
rebels hold sway, even the clerks have been wiped out.
'Here in Moyen Province,' said a Catholic missionary in Lusaka today,
'there is hardly a Congolese alive with more than a primary education. ' He
added: 'This means, quite simply, that this part of the Congo has been set
back thirty years. ,21
21 B. L. Garrison, 'Congo Rebels Kill "Intellectuals" as Enemies of Their Revolution,'
New York Times, October 4, 1964, p. 4.