zaire - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Republic of Zairea

République du ZaïreRepubuliki ya ZaïreJamhuri ya Zaïre

← 1971–1997 →

Flag Coat of arms

Motto"Paix – Justice – Travail"[1] (French)

"Peace – Justice – Work"

AnthemLa Zaïroise

("The Woman of Zaire")

Capital Kinshasab

Languages FrenchLingala · KongoSwahili · Tshiluba

Religion Christianity, Baluba religion,Bantu religion

ZaireFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zaire /zɑːˈɪər/, officially the Republic of Zaire (French:République du Zaïre; French pronunciation: [za.iʁ]) was the name ofa Central African state, now known as the Democratic Republicof the Congo, between 1971 and 1997. The state's name derivesfrom the name of the Congo River, called Zaire in Portuguese,adapted from the Kongo word nzere or nzadi ("river thatswallows all rivers").[6]

The state was a right-wing single-party state and dictatorship,run by Mobutu Sese Seko and his ruling Popular Movement ofthe Revolution party. It was established following Mobutu'sseizure of power in a military coup in 1965, following five-yearsof political upheaval following independence known as theCongo Crisis. Zaire had a strongly centralist constitution andforeign assets were nationalized. A wider campaign ofAuthenticité, ridding the country of the influences from thecolonial period, was also launched under Mobutu's direction.Weakened by the end of American support after the end of theCold War, Mobutu was forced to declare a new republic in 1990to cope with demands for change. By the time of itsdisestablishment, Mobutu's rule was characterized bywidespread cronyism, corruption and economicmismanagement.

The state collapsed in 1996 amid the destabilization of easternZaire in the aftermath of the Rwandan Civil War and growingethnic violence. In 1997, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, at the head ofthe Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération duCongo-Zaïre (AFDL) militia, led a popular rebellion against thecentral government. With rebel forces making gains in the east,Mobutu fled the country, leaving Kabila's forces in charge.

Contents

1 Mobutu2 Constitutional changes3 Mobutism

3.1 Africanisation of names4 Authoritarian expansion

4.1 Centralisation of power5 Mobutist State Commissariats

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Zaire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaire

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Government Mobutist single-party statec[2]

De facto dictatorshipd

President - 1971–1997 Mobutu Sese Seko

Historicalera

Congo Crisis

- Countryrenamed 27 October 1971

- FirstCongo War 16 May 1997

Area - 1996 2,345,410 km²

(905,568 sq mi)

Population - 1996 est. 46,498,539

Density 19.8 /km² (51.3 /sq mi)

Currency Zaïre

InternetTLD

.zr

Calling code +243

a. Renamed from "Democratic Republic of the Congo"(République démocratique du Congo) on 27 October 1971.b. Changed from "Léopoldville" in 1966.c. Zaire became a de jure single-party state on December23, 1970,[3] but had been a de facto single-party state sinceMay 20, 1967, the date on which the MPR (MouvementPopulaire de la Revolution) was established. Zaireformally adopted a multiparty system on April 24, 1990,[4]

when Mobutu delivered a speech proclaiming the end ofthe single-party system. The country adoptedmultipartyism de jure with the passage of Law No. 90-002of July 5, 1990, which amended its constitutionaccordingly.[5]

d. 1990–1997.

6 Growing conflict7 First Congo War8 Standards and abbreviations9 References10 Further reading and external links

Mobutu

In 1965, as in 1960, the division of power in Congo-Léopoldville between President and Parliament led to astalemate and threatened the country's stability. Joseph-DésiréMobutu again seized power. Unlike the first time, however,Mobutu assumed the presidency, rather than remaining behindthe scenes.

From 1965, Mobutu dominated the political life of the country,restructuring the state on more than one occasion, and claimingthe title of "Father of the Nation".

When, under the authenticity policy of the early 1970s, Zairianswere obliged to adopt "authentic" names, Mobutu droppedJoseph-Désiré and officially changed his name to Mobutu SeseSeko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, or, more commonly, MobutuSésé Seko, roughly meaning "the all-conquering warrior, whogoes from triumph to triumph".

In retrospective justification of his 1965 seizure of power,Mobutu later summed up the record of the First Republic as oneof "chaos, disorder, negligence, and incompetence". Rejection ofthe legacy of the First Republic went far beyond rhetoric. In thefirst two years of its existence, the new regime turned to theurgent tasks of political reconstruction and consolidation.Creating a new basis of legitimacy for the state, in the form of asingle party, came next in Mobutu's order of priority.

A third imperative was to expand the reach of the state in thesocial and political realms, a process that began in 1970 and culminated in the adoption of a new constitution in1977. By 1976, however, this effort had begun to generate its own inner contradictions, thus paving the way forthe resurrection of a Bula Matari ("the breaker of rocks") system.

Constitutional changes

By 1967, Mobutu had consolidated his rule and proceeded to give the country a new constitution and a singleparty. The new constitution was submitted to popular referendum in June 1967 and approved by 98 percent ofthose voting. It provided that executive powers be centralized in the president, who was to be head of state, headof government, commander in chief of the armed forces and the police, and in charge of foreign policy.


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The president was to appoint and dismiss cabinet members and determine their areas of responsibility. Theministers, as heads of their respective departments, were to execute the programs and decisions of the president.The president also was to have the power to appoint and dismiss the governors of the provinces and the judgesof all courts, including those of the Supreme Court of Justice.

The bicameral parliament was replaced by a unicameral legislative body called the National Assembly.Governors of provinces were no longer elected by provincial assemblies but appointed by the centralgovernment. The president had the power to issue autonomous regulations on matters other than thosepertaining to the domain of law, without prejudice to other provisions of the constitution. Under certainconditions, the president was empowered to govern by executive order, which carried the force of law.

But the most far-reaching change was the creation of the Popular Movement of the Revolution (MouvementPopulaire de la Révolution—MPR) on 17 April 1967, marking the emergence of "the nation politicallyorganized." Rather than being the emanation of the state, the state was henceforth defined as the emanation ofthe party. Thus, in October 1967 party and administrative responsibilities were merged into a single framework,thereby automatically extending the role of the party to all administrative organs at the central and provinciallevels, as well as to the trade unions, youth movements, and student organizations.

Every seven years, the MPR elected a president who simultaneously began a seven-year term as president of therepublic. Every five years, a single list of MPR candidates was returned to the National Assembly. For allintents and purposes, this gave the president of the MPR—Mobutu—complete political control over the country.

Mobutism

The doctrinal foundation was disclosed shortly after its birth, in the form of the Manifesto of N'sele (so namedbecause it was issued from the president's rural residence at N'sele, 60 km upriver from Kinshasa), made publicin May 1967. Nationalism, revolution, and authenticity were identified as the major themes of what came to beknown as "Mobutism".

Nationalism implied the achievement of economic and political independence. Revolution, described as a "trulynational revolution, essentially pragmatic", meant "the repudiation of both capitalism and communism". Thus,"neither right nor left" became one of the legitimizing slogans of the regime, along with "authenticity".

Africanisation of names

The concept of authenticity was derived from the MPR's professed doctrine of "authentic Zairian nationalismand condemnation of regionalism and tribalism." Mobutu defined it as being conscious of one's own personalityand one's own values and of being at home in one's culture. In line with the dictates of authenticity, the name ofthe country was changed to the Republic of Zaire in October 1971, and that of the armed forces to ZairianArmed Forces (Forces Armées Zaïroises—FAZ).

This decision was curious, given that the name Congo, which referred both to the river Congo and to the ancientKongo Empire, was fundamentally "authentic" to pre-colonial African roots, while Zaire is in fact a Portuguesecorruption of another African word, Nzere ("river", by Nzadi o Nzere, "the river that swallows all the otherrivers", another name of the Congo river). General Mobutu became Mobutu Sésé Seko and forced all hiscitizens to adopt African names and many cities were also renamed.

Some of the conversions are as follows:

Léopoldville become Kinshasa


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A Zairan banknote of five zaires, 1979.(front)

A Zairan banknote of five million zaires,1992. (front)

Stanleyville became Kisangani

Élisabethville became Lubumbashi

Jadotville became Likasi

Albertville became Kalemie

Additionally, the zaïre was introduced to replace the franc as the new national currency. 100 makuta (singularlikuta) equaled one zaïre. The likuta was also divided into 100 sengi. However this unit was worth very little, sothe smallest coin was for 10 sengi. Many other geographic name changes had already taken place, between1966 and 1971. The adoption of Zairian, as opposed to Western or Christian, names in 1972 and theabandonment of Western dress in favor of the wearing of the abacost were subsequently promoted asexpressions of authenticity.

Authenticity provided Mobutu with his strongest claim tophilosophical originality. So far from implying a rejection ofmodernity, authenticity is perhaps best seen as an effort to reconcilethe claims of the traditional Zairian culture with the exigencies ofmodernization. Exactly how this synthesis was to be accomplishedremained unclear, however. What is beyond doubt is Mobutu'seffort to use the concept of authenticity as a means of vindicatinghis own brand of leadership. As he himself stated, "in our Africantradition there are never two chiefs … That is why we Congolese, inthe desire to conform to the traditions of our continent, haveresolved to group all the energies of the citizens of our countryunder the banner of a single national party."

Critics of the regime were quick to point out the shortcomings ofMobutism as a legitimizing formula, in particular its selfservingqualities and inherent vagueness; nonetheless, the MPR'sideological training center, the Makanda Kabobi Institute, tookseriously its assigned task of propagating through the land "theteachings of the Founder-President, which must be given andinterpreted in the same fashion throughout the country". Membersof the MPR Political Bureau, meanwhile, were entrusted with theresponsibility of serving as "the repositories and guarantors ofMobutism".

Quite aside from the merits or weaknesses of Mobutism, the MPR drew much of its legitimacy from the modelof the overarching mass parties that had come into existence in Africa in the 1960s, a model which had alsobeen a source of inspiration for the MNC-Lumumba. It was this Lumumbist heritage which the MPR tried toappropriate in its effort to mobilize the Zairian masses behind its founder-president. Intimately tied up with thedoctrine of Mobutism was the vision of an all-encompassing single party reaching out to all sectors of thenation.

Authoritarian expansion

Translating the concept of "the nation politically organized" into reality implied a major expansion of state


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Mobutu was the president of Zairefrom 1965 to 1997.

control of civil society. It meant, to begin with, the incorporation of youth groups and worker organizations intothe matrix of the MPR. In July 1967, the Political Bureau announced the creation of the Youth of the PopularRevolutionary Movement (Jeunesse du Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution—JMPR), following thelaunching a month earlier of the National Union of Zairian Workers (Union Nationale des Travailleurs Zaïrois—UNTZA), which brought together into a single organizational framework three preexisting trade unions.

Ostensibly, the aim of the merger, in the terms of the Manifesto of N'Sele, was to transform the role of tradeunions from "being merely a force of confrontation" into "an organ of support for government policy", thusproviding "a communication link between the working class and the state". Similarly, the JMPR was to act as amajor link between the student population and the state. In reality, the government was attempting to bringunder its control those sectors where opposition to the regime might be centered. By appointing key labor andyouth leaders to the MPR Political Bureau, the regime hoped to harness syndical and student forces to themachinery of the state. Nevertheless, as has been pointed out by numerous observers, there is little evidence thatco-optation succeeded in mobilizing support for the regime beyond the most superficial level.

The trend toward co-optation of key social sectors continued in subsequentyears. Women's associations were eventually brought under the control ofthe party, as was the press, and in December 1971 Mobutu proceeded toemasculate the power of the churches. From then on, only three churcheswere recognized: the Church of Christ in Zaire (L'Église du Christ auZaïre), the Kimbanguist Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.

Nationalization of the universities of Kinshasa and Kisangani, coupled withMobutu's insistence on banning all Christian names and establishing JMPRsections in all seminaries, soon brought the Roman Catholic Church and thestate into conflict. Not until 1975, and after considerable pressure from theVatican, did the regime agree to tone down its attacks on the RomanCatholic Church and return some of its control of the school system to thechurch. Meanwhile, in line with a December 1971 law, which allowed thestate to dissolve "any church or sect that compromises or threatens tocompromise public order", scores of unrecognized religious sects weredissolved and their leaders jailed.

Mobutu was careful also to suppress all institutions that could mobilizeethnic loyalties. Avowedly opposed to ethnicity as a basis for politicalalignment, he outlawed such ethnic associations as the Association of Lulua Brothers (Association des LuluaFrères), which had been organized in Kasai in 1953 in reaction to the growing political and economic influencein Kasai of the rival Luba people, and Liboke lya Bangala (literally, "a bundle of Bangala"), an associationformed in the 1950s to represent the interests of Lingala speakers in large cities. It helped Mobutu that hisethnic affiliation was blurred in the public mind. Nevertheless, as dissatisfaction arose, ethnic tensions surfacedagain.

Centralisation of power

Running parallel to the efforts of the state to control all autonomous sources of power, important administrativereforms were introduced in 1967 and 1973 to strengthen the hand of the central authorities in the provinces. Thecentral objective of the 1967 reform was to abolish provincial governments and replace them with statefunctionaries appointed by Kinshasa. The principle of centralization was further extended to districts andterritories, each headed by administrators appointed by the central government.


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The only units of government that still retained a fair measure of autonomy — but not for long — were theso-called local collectivities, i.e. chiefdoms and sectors (the latter incorporating several chiefdoms). The unitary,centralized state system thus legislated into existence bore a striking resemblance to its colonial antecedent,except that from July 1972 provinces were called regions.

With the January 1973 reform, another major step was taken in the direction of further centralization. The aim,in essence, was to operate a complete fusion of political and administrative hierarchies by making the head ofeach administrative unit the president of the local party committee. Furthermore, another consequence of thereform was to severely curtail the power of traditional authorities at the local level. Hereditary claims toauthority would no longer be recognized; instead, all chiefs were to be appointed and controlled by the state viathe administrative hierarchy. By then, the process of centralization had theoretically eliminated all preexistingcenters of local autonomy.

The analogy with the colonial state becomes even more compelling when coupled with the introduction in 1973of "obligatory civic work" (locally known as Salongo after the Lingala term for work), in the form of oneafternoon a week of compulsory labor on agricultural and development projects. Officially described as arevolutionary attempt to return to the values of communalism and solidarity inherent in the traditional society,Salongo was intended to mobilize the population into the performance of collective work "with enthusiasm andwithout constraint".

In reality, the conspicuous lack of popular enthusiasm for Salongo led to widespread resistance and footdragging (causing many local administrators to look the other way), while failure to comply carried penalties ofone month to six months in jail. The "voluntary" work was merely forced labor, and by the late 1970s mostZairians avoided their Salongo obligations. By resuscitating one of the most bitterly resented features of thecolonial state, obligatory civic work contributed in no small way to the erosion of legitimacy suffered by theMobutist state.

Mobutist State Commissariats

In the 1970s and 1980s, Mobutu's government relied on a selected pool of technocrats from which the Head ofState drew, and periodically rotated, competent individuals. They comprised the Executive Council and led thefull spectrum of Ministries or, as they were then called, State Commissariats. Among these individuals wereinternationally respected appointees such as Djamboleka Lona Okitongono who was named Secretary ofFinance, under Citizen Namwisi (Minister of Finance), and later became President of OGEDEP, the NationalDebt Management Office.

Ultimately, Djamboleka became Governor of the Bank of Zaire in the final stage of Mobutu's government. Hisprogress was fairly typical of the rotational pattern established by Mobutu, who retained the most sensitiveministerial portfolios (such as Defense) for himself.

Growing conflict

In 1977 and 1978, Katangan rebels based in Angola launched two invasions—Shaba I and Shaba II—into theKatanga Province (renamed "Shaba" in 1972). The rebels were driven out with military assistance from theWestern Bloc and China, particularly from the Safari Club.

During the 1980s, Zaire remained a one-party state. Although Mobutu successfully maintained control duringthis period, opposition parties, most notably the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), wereactive. Mobutu's attempts to quell these groups drew significant international criticism.


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As the Cold War came to a close, internal and external pressures on Mobutu increased. In late 1989 and early1990, Mobutu was weakened by a series of domestic protests, by heightened international criticism of hisregime's human rights practices, by a faltering economy, and by government corruption, most notably hismassive embezzlement of government funds for personal use. In June 1989, Mobutu visited Washington, D.C.,where he was the first African head of state to be invited for a state meeting with newly elected U.S. PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush.[7]

In May 1990, Mobutu agreed to the principle of a multi-party system with elections and a constitution. Asdetails of a reform package were delayed, soldiers began looting Kinshasa in September 1991 to protest theirunpaid wages. Two thousand French and Belgian troops, some of whom were flown in on U.S. Air Forceplanes, arrived to evacuate the 20,000 endangered foreign nationals in Kinshasa.

In 1992, after previous similar attempts, the long-promised Sovereign National Conference was staged,encompassing over 2,000 representatives from various political parties. The conference gave itself a legislativemandate and elected Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo as its chairman, along with Étienne Tshisekedi waMulumba, leader of the UDPS, as prime minister. By the end of the year Mobutu had created a rival governmentwith its own prime minister. The ensuing stalemate produced a compromise merger of the two governments intothe High Council of Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state andKengo Wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedlyover the next 2 years, they never took place.

First Congo War

By 1996, tensions from the neighboring Rwandan Civil War and genocide had spilled over to Zaire (see Historyof Rwanda). Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe), who had fled Rwanda following the ascension of anRPF-led government, had been using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as bases for incursion againstRwanda. These Hutu militia forces soon allied with the Zairian armed forces (FAZ) to launch a campaignagainst Congolese ethnic Tutsis in eastern Zaire, known as the Banyamulenge.

In turn, these Zairian Tutsis formed a militia to defend themselves against attacks. When the Zairiangovernment began to escalate its massacres in November 1996, the Tutsi militias erupted in rebellion againstMobutu, starting what would become known as the First Congo War.

The Tutsi militia was soon joined by various opposition groups and supported by several countries, includingRwanda and Uganda. This coalition, led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, became known as the Alliance des ForcesDémocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL). The AFDL, now seeking the broader goal ofousting Mobutu, made significant military gains in early 1997. Following failed peace talks between Mobutuand Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu fled the country, and Kabila marched unopposed to Kinshasa on May 17.Kabila named himself president, consolidated power around himself and the AFDL, and reverted the name ofthe country to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Standards and abbreviations

Regarding internet domains, Zaire's top-level domain was ".zr". It has since changed to ".cd".[8]

References

Constitution de la République du Zaïre, article 5: "Sa devise est : Paix — Justice — Travail". Source: Journal Officiel1.


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de la République du Zaïre (N. 1 du 1er janvier 1983)Thomas Turner, "Flying High Above the Toads: Mobutu and Stalemated Democracy", in Political Reform inFrancophone Africa (1997), ed. John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, page 70.

2.

Kaplan, Irving (ed.). Zaire: A Country Study. Third Edition, First Printing. 1979.3.Sandra W. Meditz and Tim Merrill (eds.). Zaire: A Country Study. Fourth Edition. 1993.4.Complete text of the Zairian constitution after the enactment of Law No. 90-002 of July 5, 1990 concerning themodification of certain provisions of the Constitution (http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Zaire1990.pdf)

5.

Peter Forbath, The River Congo, p. 19.6."Zaire's Mobutu Visits America", by Michael Johns, Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum #239, June 29,1989. (http://www.heritage.org/research/africa/upload/91612_1.pdf)

7.

"IANA Report on Deletion of the .zr Top-Level Domain (http://www.iana.org/reports/zr-report-20jun01.htm)."Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. 20 June 2001. Retrieved on 11 June 2009.

8.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library ofCongress Country Studies.

Further reading and external links

Macgaffey, J., 1991. The Real Economy of Zaire: the Contribution of Smuggling and Other UnofficialActivities to National Wealth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.T. Merril and S. Meditz, eds., Zaire: A Country Study (Area Handbook Series). Washington DC: Libraryof Congress Federal Research Division, 1994 (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/zrtoc.html).Young, C., and Turner, T., The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State. Madison: The University ofWisconsin Press, 1985, ISBN 978-0-299-10110-7.All you need to know about Zaire's election (http://www.angus-reid.com/tracker/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/10995).

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Categories: Former countries in Africa States and territories established in 1971States and territories disestablished in 1997 Zaire Former polities of the Cold WarStates and territories established in 1965 Single-party states

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