Rebel Governance in Civil Wars: Beyond Greed and Ideology

In the newly published anthology Rebel Governance in Civil Wars, researcher Kasper Hoffmann contributes a chapter about the governance by Mai Mai rebels in eastern Congo.

In the chapter he argues that neither greed nor ideology alone can explain why some rebel groups choose to govern civilians during civil wars. Rather, drawing on research among the Mai Mai of eastern Congo, he shows that both morality and material interests shape rebel governance of civilians. In particular he shows rebel leaders adopted beliefs they shared with civilians to legitimize their claims to rule. Such beliefs emerged from incongruous sources, principles rooted in an old cosmology combined with much newer notions of both Christianity and nationhood