Using the notion of ‘colonial durabilities’, this Special Issue borrows from previous works on ‘imperial

debris’ (Stoler, 2008), ruins of modernity (Hell & Schönle, 2010) and colonial nostalgia (Dossier

Spécial, Politique Africaine) in order to explore the multiple ways by which ‘colonialism’ continues to

shape the contemporary political landscape of the African Great Lakes Region (GLR), in the

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda. Moving away from

conventional views that see colonialism through a static conceptualization of time, and therefore, as a

specific historical era confined to ‘the past’, this Special Issue examines how colonialism – in the form

of discourses, policies, institutions, and socio-political practices –informs present-day politics, societal

conflict and everyday life in the GLR. Across the various disciplinary traditions of African studies, the

question of what is ‘post-colonial’ has been widely debated, but more systematic approaches to

unearthing how the (violent) lingering of colonial states, economics and politics into contemporary

national landscapes is maintained, are still scarce. In addressing this research gap, this Special Issue

gathers scholarly works that seeks to provide novel analytical and empirical material on the active role

of colonial residue in shaping armed conflict, international intervention, violence, economic activities,

knowledge and identities in the GLR.