-African residents that reside in the DROC, most of these are mainly of Belgian decent. (Lerner, 42)The official spoken language throughout DROC is French; other spoken languages are Lingala, Kingwana (a dialect of Kinswahili or Swahili), Kikongu, and Tshiluba. (Rosenberg, 4)Religion, both Western and indigenous, occupies pride of place in today's DROC. The Catholic church and the various Protestant groups claim well over half of DROC's population as active members, and as a matter of fact about 80% of the Congolese population are Christian, predominantly Roman Catholic. (Leslie, 73) Most of the non-Christian adhere to either traditional religions or synergetic sects. Traditional religions embody such concepts as monotheism, animism, vitalism, spirit and ancestor worship, witchcraft, sorcery and others that vary widely among the ethnic groups. (Background Notes, 4) The educational system, one of the great avenues for mobility, within the DROC has faced a great deal of difficulties over the years. However, despite the deterioration of the educational system in recent years, about 80% of the males and 65% of the females, ages ranging between six and eleven were enrolled in a mixture of state and church-run primary schools in 1996. At higher levels of education, males greatly outnumber females. The elite continues to send their children abroad to be educated, primarily in Western Europe. (Background Notes, 4) From a personally opinionated perspective, in analyzing the information and all of the discussion of how poor DROC actually is, I can't seem to understand how anyone, even the elite can afford to send their children to college, but then again maybe that's just another debate topic. One may wonder why a country so high in minerals and natural resources is so poor? It would be naive to brush this off with an answer as simple as placing the blame upon the vast population of the country, but I must admit that the reasons for the t...
