The Congo mission of CODESRIA took place in September 1997, in the interregnum between the First Rebellion against Mobutu and the Second Rebellion against Kabila. The mission comprised two members, Jacques Depelchin and Mahmood Mamdani (chair).1 Conceptualized as the first of a two-phased focus on the crisis in the Great Lakes region, the Congo mission was to concentrate specifically on the region of Kivu. In that context, the Mission was asked : a)to meet different categories of people to establish a sense of the situation on the ground; b)to engage local researchers with a view to recommending a research agenda directly relating to the crisis in the region; c)to recommend a programme of action to be followed by CODESRIA in the region