May-May

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Demobilized May-May fighters

Mai-Mai (alternative spellings Mayi-Mayi or Maï-Maï ) is a collective name for various regional militias in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

organization

These armed forces are under the direction of warlords , traditional tribal leaders, village chiefs or politically motivated resistance fighters. The May-May have only weak internal cohesion. Often there is no contact with other May-May groups. Different groups have allied themselves with a variety of domestic and foreign government and guerrilla groups at different times. The term Mai-Mai does not refer to a specific movement, affiliation or political goal, but to a wide range of groups that mostly only operate locally.

origin

Local militias follow a martial tradition in Eastern Congo that goes back to the May-May uprising in 1905-07 in German East Africa . This tradition was fatally confronted with modern warfare and then became independent. The name goes back to the traditional healer Doctor Kanyanga, who claimed that modern rifle bullets would roll off like water from fighters consecrated with its holy water if they strictly adhered to rules such as not washing themselves in order not to lose their magic protection. The name Mai-Mai goes back to this magic water and means "water-water" in Lingála . Due to the brutalization of the civil war, the rules were adapted: "This is not how fighters should wash, but they should rape women."

Congo War

During the Second Congo War , they were mainly deployed to defend their regional areas against Rwandan forces. They are mainly active in North Kivu and South Kivu . It is assumed that the Congo War was prolonged by the magic water theory, since the death of a fighter is never due to wrong decisions, but only to one's own fault (failure to comply with the rules). During the armed conflict in Eastern Congo, they also protected villages against attacks by the regular army.

swell

  1. ↑ http://www.lebenshaus-alb.de/magazin/005461.html (January 19, 2009).
  2. ↑ http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/mái (January 19, 2009).
  3. ^ Dominic Johnson : Congo. Wars, Corruption and the Art of Survival. Brandes & Apsel publishing house, Frankfurt / M. 2008. page 117.
  4. ↑ http://www.linksnet.de/en/artikel/23968 (January 19, 2009).
  5. ↑ France 24