Abstract :
[en] The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the countries in the world that meets all the climatic conditions to feed its population. As a result, it is theoretically capable of making do with domestic production to feed its population without resorting to imports. It has arable land, a diversity of climates and a hydraulic network that can provide good irrigation and agriculture throughout the year. Its population is predominantly young and can be used as a labor force.
However, the DRC is paradoxically one of the countries most affected by famine and food insecurity in the world. Its potential remains underexploited. National production shows a glaring deficit, far from meeting the food needs of the population and forces the country to turn to imports. To date, all the indicators prove that food and nutritional security (SAN) in the DRC cannot be guaranteed without resorting to imports.
In 2014, the chronic malnutrition rate was 43% for whole country and 17% in Kinshasa (INS, 2013-2014). At the end of the CPI analyses carried out between July and December 2019, 26% of the population analysed were in a situation of acute food insecurity (Phases 3 and 4), of which more than 4 million were in an emergency situation (Phase 4). Projections from January to May 2020 indicate that around 13.24 million people, or 28%, will be acutely food insecure (Phases 3 and 4), of which more than 3.4 million will be in an emergency situation (Phase 4) (DRC CPI, 2019).
In urban areas in general, and in Kinshasa in particular, the unemployment rate is considerable. People in paid employment represent 35% of the active population (E-QUIBB / DRC 1-2016: 215). This unemployment limits households' access to food and exposes them to chronic food insecurity.
This situation has led to a great impoverishment of the population, forcing households to reorganise themselves by adopting various strategies. Some have developed a number of these practices, using the mobilisation of all members and diversifying sources of income. Others are reducing the quality and number of meals. Some heads of households explicitly or implicitly solicit children's contribution to the household budget. Others have made it a 'social norm': bi tie te bi lie te (who does not contribute does not eat).
We wanted to understand the impact of all these practices and strategies on social relations within households. To do this, a qualitative study was carried out in three sites in Kinshasa, namely: Limete, Ndjili and Makala. For more than six months, we monitored consumption in 30 households divided into three categories: poor, average and well-off. Using semi-directive interviews, direct observations, life stories and consumption records, we observed and questioned the different actors involved in the survival of the households. This information was supplemented by the consumption records, which made it possible to take a sample of each household's daily consumption. As a model for data production and analysis, we used the theory of social practices. The socio-anthropological method was used as an analytical grid to grasp the different logics of action developed by the actors around food.
The results of the study show that fundraising practices vary from one environment to another, from one household to another, and even from one individual to another. Culinary space appears to be a divisive and unifying factor in all the sites. The people in charge of preparation vary from one site to another and from one household to another. It is mainly the woman who is in charge of cooking. When she works outside her household, she is replaced by another woman who is either a relative, her daughter or her maid.
Consumption is the time of all issues where we observed the division between the entitled and the excluded, individualism, the failure to take into account the notion of family, the instability of the alliance with the change of allies according to circumstances; a moment of unity for some households, of sharing, contradiction and solidarity towards parasitic households for others. In short, this is the moment when we can observe the crisis in solidarity and solidarity in the crisis in the poor and intermediate class.
