{"id":202,"date":"2026-09-01T13:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/?p=202"},"modified":"2026-09-01T15:28:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T15:28:43","slug":"v-les-combattants-the-origins-of-a-congolese-diaspora-political-protest-patrick-b-litanga-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/01\/v-les-combattants-the-origins-of-a-congolese-diaspora-political-protest-patrick-b-litanga-2\/","title":{"rendered":"V \u2014 Les Combattants: The Origins of a Congolese Diaspora Political Protest \u2014 Patrick B. Litanga"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"202\" class=\"elementor elementor-202\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-39e4b9b e-con e-atomic-element e-flexbox-base \" data-id=\"39e4b9b\" data-element_type=\"e-flexbox\" data-e-type=\"e-flexbox\" data-interaction-id=\"39e4b9b\">\n    \t\t\t<h2 data-interaction-id=\"ff9df14\" class=\"e-heading-base\"><strong>Les Combattants: The Origins of a Congolese Diaspora Political Protest <br>Patrick B. Litanga <br>Eastern Kentucky University,<br>USApatrick.litanga@eku.edu<\/strong><br><br><\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"e-paragraph-base\" data-interaction-id=\"0156c80\">Type your paragraph here<\/p>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-08bc3c5 e-con e-atomic-element e-flexbox-base e-1be072a \" data-id=\"08bc3c5\" data-element_type=\"e-flexbox\" data-e-type=\"e-flexbox\" data-interaction-id=\"08bc3c5\">\n    \t\t\t<p class=\"e-paragraph-base\" data-interaction-id=\"5cbf06a\"><strong><em>ABSTRACT: <\/em><\/strong><em>Joseph Kabila\u2019s ascension to the presidency of the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo (DRC) in 2001, following the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila,coincided with an uptick in political activism among the Congolese diaspora in WesternEurope and North America. Between 2004 and 2018, Congolese diaspora political groupsand personalities staunchly opposed Joseph Kabila\u2019s regime through marches, petitions,boycotts, and even physical aggression against Congolese officials and Kabila\u2019s supporters.Over time, these various Congolese diaspora protest groups became known as \u201cLesCombattants\u201d. This article examines how the recent political history of DRC led to theemergence of Les Combattants in the Congolese diaspora and the types of claims LesCombattants advanced against the Congolese state and the international community.Considering their geographic spread (in Western Europe and North America), the scope oftheir claims, and the longevity of their protest, this paper argues that Les Combattants\u2019political resistance signaled a fundamental shift in the way Congolese diaspora politicalactivists interact with the Congolese state.<\/em><strong><em>KEYWORDS: Congolese Politics, African Diasporas, Political Resistance,Diaspora Political Mobilization<\/em><\/strong><br><br><\/p>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d23ff1f e-con e-atomic-element e-flexbox-base e-04560db \" data-id=\"d23ff1f\" data-element_type=\"e-flexbox\" data-e-type=\"e-flexbox\" data-interaction-id=\"d23ff1f\">\n    \t\t\t<p class=\"e-35ed1b4-900bc9d e-paragraph-base\" data-interaction-id=\"35ed1b4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ARTICLE-1-1.pdf\" target=\"_self\" class=\"e-paragraph-link-base\">\n\t\tDownload PDF\n\t<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Les Combattants: The Origins of a Congolese Diaspora Political Protest Patrick B. Litanga Eastern Kentucky University,USApatrick.litanga@eku.edu Type your paragraph here ABSTRACT: Joseph Kabila\u2019s ascension to the presidency of the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo (DRC) in 2001, following the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila,coincided with an uptick in political activism &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":364,"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jacadng.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}