In the often opaque labyrinth of land reform in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new book sheds crucial light on a force too often overlooked: civil society. Titled “The Collective Footprint of North Kivu’s Civil Society in the Land Reform Process in the DRC”, this work by Olivier Bahemuke Ndoole offers a rigorous and heartfelt account of the local actors fighting to put land at the center of social and environmental justice.
In the DRC, to speak of land is to step into a system inherited from colonialism — a tangle of statutory law, customary rights, and political interests. It’s a system riddled with conflict, where unequal access to land feeds community tensions and insecurity. Yet amid this complexity, a collective voice is rising from North Kivu — a region long scarred by conflict — to demand land rights that are more inclusive, transparent, and just.
This is not another dry academic report. It’s a grounded, documented story of commitment. Olivier Bahemuke, himself a grassroots activist, pays tribute to the work of local organizations such as ACEDH (Action for the Consolidation of the Rule of Law and Human Rights), FAT (Friends of the Earth Forum), and PIDP (Integrated People’s Development Program). Together, these groups have amplified the voices of rural communities in the national debate over land reform.
The author details how these civil society structures built alliances with customary chiefs — often the first guarantors of land rights in villages — as well as with international organizations and government institutions. Through advocacy campaigns, community consultations, and concrete proposals, they managed to make themselves heard in a process often tightly controlled by political elites.
But the book does not sugarcoat the reality. It also addresses the hurdles: resistance from segments of the government, ongoing insecurity, rampant corruption, and a land administration system sometimes quicker to sell off land than to listen to the people who live on it. These activists operate in this chaotic environment, often at great personal risk.
Olivier Bahemuke also strongly emphasizes the link between land justice, social justice, and climate justice. Securing land rights for communities means protecting forests, ecosystems, and building sustainable alternatives to exploitative development. He argues that land reform must go beyond technical or legal adjustments — it must be profoundly transformative.
With a foreword by Professor Severin Mugangu Matabaro, the book is rich in case studies, sharp yet accessible legal analysis, and testimonies that give depth and humanity to a collective struggle too often kept off the media radar.
At a time when land issues are at the heart of environmental tensions across Central Africa — land grabbing, industrial plantations, mining exploitation — The Collective Footprint stands out as a vital resource. Yes, it documents. But more than that, it inspires. Bahemuke reminds us that meaningful reform doesn’t just trickle down from the top. It takes root in villages, in community meetings, in unlikely alliances between traditional chiefs and NGOs, in small everyday acts of resistance. And that voices like his are essential to keep that memory alive.
By Kilalopress