Love in Times of Humanitarian Intervention– Sex, Gender Relations and
Humanitarian Intervention in Goma, DR Congo
„In Goma there is no love – everything is about dollars“ is a common saying of young men
in Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More
than just referring to 'love', this statement illustrates the complex terrain of moralities and
materialities in Goma and refers to dynamic gender relations in the context of protracted
violent conflict and humanitarian intervention.
This contribution focuses on the underresearched interactions and social practices going
on in the contact zone of peacekeeping missions and the local population. This contact
zone will be conceptualised as market of intervention, where sex becomes a commodity.
The market of intervention influences economic opportunities, sociopolitical hierarchies,
normative stereotypes as well as the urban infrastructure and shapes local imaginations of
'modernity' being characterised by western goods and life style.
Zooming into the social practice of transactional sex, I analyse how the market of
intervention might aggravate sexual exploitation, yet opens up manifold opportunities and
enhances conceptions of the self at the same time. Young women engage in transactional
sex reflecting on their obligations towards their family, striving for income or trying to fulful
certain desires. Men, too, identify the opportunities generated by the market of
intervention, yet are often marginalised because of social, ethnic and gender-related
reasons. The unequal distribution of resources and asymmetric relations of exchange
perpetuate patrimonial relations on the one hand, while on the other allow some actors
(mostly educated young women) to perform their dream of a ‚good life’ - at least to a
certain extent. Without downplaying the prevalent images of rape and sexual abuse, I shed
light on often neglected yet very present heterogeneous experiences and social practices
of and dealing with long-term humanitarian intervention.