During the last quarter of English class this year, a frequent topic of discussion, one diligently reminded by Dr. Lawrence, was the importance of lesser-known countries. As was revealed to our class through our study of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini, the majority of countries across the globe are not very well known. While there are certain countries that everyone seems to know about, such as the U.S. or France, many countries are lost among the turmoil of these better-known countries. However, the lesser-known countries are no more or less important than any other country, and they deserve to be seen by the rest of the world, for their struggles and for their beauties. For example, Dominica deserves to be known as the independent country it is, not mixed up with the Dominican Republic. Kuwait deserves to be known as more than an oil reserve. Nepal deserves to be known for more than Mount Everest and its odd-shaped flag.

Dr. Lawrence allowed the ninth graders to explore this idea of lesser-known countries by having each student write a formal research paper on an unknown country of their choice. I chose the Democratic Republic of the Congo for its biodiversity and ethnic diversity, and completing this assignment really did allow me to develop a perspective on the world from the viewpoint of a country one wouldn’t hear about every day. In the context of the events that are currently taking place across the world, in both well-known and lesser-known countries, and as a sort of “thank you” to Dr. Lawrence for his dedicated and inspiring teaching, I decided to share my research paper in the hopes that it might encourage others to learn more about all countries of the world and understand that they and their people deserve to be valued and respected for everything they have to offer.

Imagine the world as a stage. Beautiful, breathtaking sets, from mountains to lakes to forests to cities. A rich plot filled with war, violence, politics, discrimination, yet also justice, love, peace, equality, diversity, and happiness. However, one thing is amiss: the characters. These characters are not people; they are places—countries, to be exact—and the main roles, the ones that feature throughout the whole play and have the most lines, are places like the US, Britain, and China. In total, however, there are 195 roles in the play (“How Many Countries”). Over a hundred countries are deemed “minor roles” on the global stage, overshadowed by the protagonists everyone loves. However, there is more to these “minor” characters than meets the eye. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (also known as the DRC, the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or the Congo) is a prime example of a “minor role” of a country that has so much more to offer than people know. Few people know much about the DRC, yet it has numerous unique qualities, including internal conflicts that directly affect civilians, rich natural resources and biodiversity, and abundant ethnic diversity, and it deserves to have its voice heard around the world.

The DRC is located in central Africa and is bordered by nine countries: Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic (Kurian, “Geographical Features”), with the equator passing through the country towards the north. Occupying an area of 2,344,858 square kilometers, a size almost equal to one-fourth of the US (“Democratic Republic”), and home to 102,262,808 people, it is the fifteenth most populated country in the world (“Countries in the World”) and the eleventh…

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