In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (34 page)

The nation carved out of central Africa by Belgium's King Leopold was originally known as the Congo Free State. When Belgium took over the administration it was dubbed Belgian Congo—to distinguish it from French Congo across the river—and was known as Congo after independence. In 1971 the country, its river and its currency were all rebaptised Zaire by President Mobutu. When Laurent Kabila took over in 1997 he reverted to the names of the previous era. The rechristening has led to some confusion, with Congo and the Congolese often mistaken for their neighbours across the water. Congo-Brazzaville is another country entirely, and not the subject of this book.

President Kabila's Congo is a place where being a little too free with one's opinions can cause problems with the authorities. In the very few cases where individuals living in the country have voiced views that could conceivably trigger repercussions, I have changed their names.

 

AFDL
Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire. The coalition of four rebel movements set up in east Zaire in 1996, which swore to bring down Mobutu. Laurent Kabila, originally the movement's spokesman, became its leader.

CNS
Sovereign National Conference. First convened in August 1991, this was a vast talking shop embracing political parties and representatives of Zairean civil society with a mandate to pave the way from single party rule to multiparty democracy.

DSP
Division Spéciale Présidentielle. Mobutu's private army, this elite military unit was recruited almost entirely from the president's equatorial region. In stark contrast with the FAZ, its fighters were better paid and properly equipped.

FAZ
Forces Armées Zairoises. The regular Zairean army. Rarely paid and barely trained, the FAZ's lack of discipline and cowardice were so notorious, Congolese citizens would pun that it was ‘défazé' (‘out of it').

Lingala
The lingua franca of Congo, it is also the adjective used in Africa to refer to the country's music.

MIBA
Minière du Bakwanga. State-controlled diamond mining operation based in the town of Mbuji Mayi.

MPR
Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution. The party set up by Mobutu. Until the declaration of multiparty democracy, every Congolese was supposed to be a member.

RPF
Rwandese Patriotic Front. The Tutsi-led rebel group that won
control of Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 genocide masterminded by Hutu extremists.

SNIP
Service Nationale d'Intelligence et de Protection, one of the many incarnations of the country's intelligence services. Under the stewardship of the Terminator, the sinister individuals who worked for it were known as ‘the owls', a reference to their predilection for nocturnal visits.

UNITA
União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola. Angolan rebel movement led by Jonas Savimbi, dedicted to the overthrow of the former Marxist government in Luanda. Its leaders were on good terms with Mobutu, whose country acted as a conduit for US arms deliveries and a useful rear base for UNITA fighters trying to avoid disarming as required under a UN peace deal.

Further Reading

For a gripping, impeccably researched account of King Leopold's exploitation of the Congo,
King Leopold's Ghost
written by Adam Hochschild and published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1998 is unbeatable. Hochschild focuses on the individuals who brought Leopold's barbarity to public awareness, often at considerable personal cost, including British journalist Edmund Morel, diplomat Roger Casement and black Americans George Washington Williams and William Sheppard.

The White Nile
and
The Blue Nile
by Alan Moorehead, published by Penguin in 1962 and reissued many times since, sets Henry Morton Stanley's exploration of the Congo in the context of the West's gradual discovery of the African continent. Stanley is just one of the many driven explorers, curious aristocrats and obsessed missionaries who feature in an atmospheric, often highly moving account.

The River Congo
by Peter Forbath, published by Houghton Mifflin Company in 1977, is the geographical and historical story of
the great river. More narrowly focused in its subject matter than the Moorehead books, there are places where they overlap.

Stanley himself was a consummate journalist and knew how to tell a story with all the verve, style and dash required to reach the widest audience.
Through the Dark Continent
, Volumes One and Two, published in 1878, is a wonderful tale of an expedition into the unknown.
The Congo and the Founding of its Free State
, published in 1885, is a more eccentric and opinionated work, including a fascinating list of tips on how to survive the tropics. The
Autobiography
of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, published in 1909 and edited by his wife Dorothy Stanley, also gives a strong taste of the man.

Sean Kelly gives a readable and detailed exposition of the interventionist role the United States has played in Zaire in his
America's Tyrant
, published by the American University Press in 1993.

The Congo Cables
by Madeleine Kalb, published by Macmillan in 1982, is a blow-by-blow account of the dramatic events before and after independence, from Lumumba's murder to Mobutu's takeover, as seen through the eyes of the Western ambassadors, UN officials and superpower leaders responding to one of the biggest crises of the Cold War. Currently out of print, it probably gives more detail than the ordinary reader requires.

The Rwanda Crisis—History of a Genocide
by Gerard Prunier, published by Kampala's Fountain Press in 1995 and reissued since, remains the definitive account of Rwanda's 1994 genocide. Clear, authoritative and utterly compelling.

Background Material

In writing about the end of the regime I drew on material published in
Les Derniers Jours de Mobutu
(Éditions Gideppe) in 1998 by Honoré Ngbanda Ko Atumba, a fascinating account of Mobutu's final years by the former secret service chief and close aide;
La chute de Mobutu et l'effondrement de son armée
by exiled General Ilunga Shamanga (published privately) and
Dans la Cour de Mobutu
by son-in-law Pierre Janssen, published by Michel Lafon in 1997.
Les
Dérives d'une Gestion Prédatrice
by Professor Mabi Mulumba, the former premier, published in Kinshasa in 1998, was also helpful.

For those interested in the president himself, Mobutu attracted more than his fair share of hagiographers. In
Mobutu—Dignité pour l'Afrique
, published by Albin Michel in 1989, the president got the chance to tell his story to sympathetic journalist Jean-Louis Remilleux. Out of print now (published in the 1960s), but positively oozing admiration, are
Mobutu, L'Homme Seul
and
Mobutu: Le Point de Départ
by Francis Monheim, a Belgian journalist who covered the independence years. Leaning heavily in the opposite direction is
Le Dinosaure—le Zaire de Mobutu
by Colette Braeckman (Fayard,1992), a Belgian journalist who has reported on events in central Africa for many years.

The problem with many of the books written about Zaire by Zaireans is that they are either turgid PhD theses unsuitable for general readers or are marred by personal score-settling.
Mobutu—l'Incarnation du Mal Zairois
by former prime minister and turncoat Nguz Karl i Bond, published by Rex Collings in 1982, is of historical interest.
Mobutu et l'Argent du Zaire
, written by former secret service man Emmanuel Dungia and published by l'Harmattan in 1993, is full of juicy tit-bits. Professor Isidore Ndaywel e Nziem is to be congratulated on his broad-ranging
Histoire Générale du Congo
(Duculot, 1998), a priceless reference work for anyone studying the country.

On the academic front, Crawford Young remains the authority in the English language, although you'll be hard put to find his lucid works on the shelves of contemporary bookshops. In French (and Flemish if you can read it), Jules Marchal is still battling to keep Belgium's past in the public eye.
L'État Libre du Congo—Volumes 1 and 2,
published in 1996 by Éditions Paula Bellings and
E. D. Morel Contre Leopold II
(L'Harmattan, 1996) are matter-of-fact and scrupulously researched accounts of the colonial era.

Abacha, Sani

Actualités Africaines
magazine

AFDL
see
Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire

African Development Bank

Albert II, King of the Belgians

Ali, Muhammad

Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL)

advances on Kinshasa

Angola's involvement

arms

birth of (1996)

enters Camp Tsha Tshi

enters Kinshasa

legal and moral crusade

in Lubumbashi

and M's fortune

and Nzimbi

Rwanda's involvement

takes Kisangani

takes over the Democratic Republic of Congo

Uganda's involvement

Angola

rebels invade Shaba (1970s)

UNITA-held territory

Angolan army

Antwerp

Article

Askins, Steve

Atlantic Ocean

Authenticity

 

Bandundu

Bank of Zaire

Banyamulenge

Baramoto Kpama Kata

Bas-Congo

Baudouin I, King of the Belgians

Belgian Congo (1908-60)

the 1960 mutiny

apartheid policy

atrocities committed by Leopold's agents

established

and Kimbangu

see also
Congo (1960-71); Congo (1997- ); Congo Free State; Zaire

Belgium

and the AFDL's legal and moral crusade

classifies Congolese ethnic groups

Congolese exiles

and Congo's infrastructure

and Congo's mineral deposits

distances itself from Congo

intervention in Zaire

and Kabila

mercenaries

and M's payroll

M's properties in

presidential bank accounts

secret services

uranium deal

and the Zairean army

Belgolaise bank

Bemba, Jean Pierre

Berlin conference (1884-5)

Big Vegetables (Grosses Legumes)

Binza

Blumenthal, Erwin

Bobozo, Sergeant Joseph

Brazzaville

civil war

and Kinshasa

Bretton Woods agreement

Britain

Brussels

Congolese students in

Matonge

M's properties

Rhode St Genèse

Soviet activity in

‘special accounts'

Uccle

Universal Exhibition (1958)

US embassy

Bukavu

Burton, Richard

Burundi

death of president

Bush, George

 

Camp Tsha Tshi

Cap Ferrat, France

Casa Agricola Solear estate, Algarve

Casement, Roger

Central African Republic

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

Chad

Château Fond'Roy, Brussels

Chernobyl

Chevallier, Jerome

China/Chinese

Churchill, Sir Winston

CIA
see
Central Intelligence Agency

Clinton, Bill

CNS
see
Sovereign National Conference

Collins, Carole

Congo (1960-71)

economy

first African member of the IAEA

flag and anthem

independence achieved (1960)

see also
Belgian Congo; Congo (1997-); Congo Free State; Zaire

Congo (1997-)

economy

the handicapped in

minerals

named

rebel movement

see also
Belgian Congo; Congo (1960-71); Congo Free State; Zaire

Congo Free State (1885-1908)

see also
Belgian Congo; Congo (1960-71); Congo (1997-); Zaire

Congo river (Zaire river)

Congo-Brazzaville

Congolese army

in Kasai

M chief of staff

see also
Zairean army

Conrad, Joseph:
Heart of Darkness

Coquilhatville
see
Mbandaka

Crocker, Chester

Cuban mercenaries

 

de Beers

Denard, Colonel Bob

Devlin, Larry

Diaka, Mungul

Division Spéciale Présidentielle (DSP; Special Presidential Division)

fires on M's plane

in the Hotel Intercontinental

the Lubumbashi massacre

Mahele killed

and Uncle Fangbi

 

Eetvelde, Edmond van

Einstein, Albert

Eisenhower, Dwight D.

Elizabethville

see also
Lubumbashi

Eluki Monga, General

Endundu, José

Equateur province

Eritrea/Eritreans

evolué

Executive Outcomes

 

Fangbi, Uncle

FAZ
see
Forces Armées Zairoises

First Shaba War

Force Publique

Forces Armées Zairoises (FAZ)

Foreman, George

France

and the AFDL's legal and moral crusade

distances itself from Congo

intervention in Zaire

and Lukulia's escape

mercenaries

Mobutu's press conferences

M's properties

and Rwanda

and the Zairean army

French Congo

 

Gabon

Gaddafi, Colonel Muammar

Garde Civile

Gaulle, Charles de

Gbadolite

Gbemani, Albéric (M's father)

Gécamines

Germany

Gillon, Mgr Luc

Girault, Charles

Giscard D'Estaing, Valéry

Goma

Gombe, Kinshasa

Gorbachev, Mikhail

Goreux, Louis

Great Lakes region

Guevara, Che

 

Habyarimana, Juvenal

Haig, Alexander

Hammarskjöld, Dag

Hassan II, King of Morocco

Hochschild, Adam:
King Leopold's Ghost

Horta, Victor

Hotel Intercontinental, Kinshasa

L'Atmosphère nightclub

Hotel Ivoire, Abidjan

Hotel Memling, Kinshasa

Hotel Van Eetvelde, Avenue Palmerston, Brussels

Hutus

 

IAEA
see
International Atomic Energy Agency

Ilunga Shamanga, General

Inga hydroelectric dam

Inga-Shaba power line

interahamwe

International African Association

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Interpol

Israel

Italy

M's properties in

police

 

Janssen, Pierre

Japan, and Rwanda

Jaycox, Kim

Johnson, Lyndon B.

 

Kabila, Laurent

appearance

compared with M

Gbadolite seized

and King Mizele

a Maoist with keen commercial instincts

and the massacre of Hutu refugees

meeting with M (4 May 1997)

and the Ndombolo

and a new Congolese army

rechristens Congolese names

style of leadership

welcomed in Lubumbashi

Kabila administration

Kalonji, Albert

Kamanyola

Kamitatu, Cléophas

Kamoto mine

Kanshi river

Kasai

empire

Kasavubu, President Joseph

and Lumumba

M neutralises

requests protection from the UN

sacks Tshombe

Katanga (Shaba)

Kaunda, Kenneth

Kawele

Kengo Wa Dondo, Léon

Kennedy, John F.

Khanafer, Harif

Khanafer, Naim

Khrushchev, Nikita

Kigali

Kigali airport

Kimbangu, Simon

Kimbanguist Church

Kinshasa

abortive
coup
attempt (1999)

AFDL advances on

and Brazzaville

central bank

cut off from mineral resources

described

dubbed ‘Kosovo'

and electrical power

French embassy

Gombe district

HIV in

and the Kongo Kingdom

M returns to (1996)

mercenaries in

Moslem community

and M's downfall

M's residences

music

new currency (1993)

nuclear reactor

riots and pillaging (1993)

survival in

US embassy

see also
Leopoldville

Kinshasa General Hospital
see
Mama Yemo hospital

Kisangani

see also
Stanleyville

Kivu, Lake

Kivu province

Kolwezi

Kongo kingdom

 

Ladawa, Bobi (Mobutu's wife)

Ladawa, Kossia

Lemera, south Kivu

Leopold II, King

his aim

bribery

divides the Congo into concessions

hands over the Congo to Belgium (1908)

motivation

profits from the Congo

and slavery

and Stanley

Leopoldville

see also
Kinshasa

Liberia

Libya

Likasi

Likulia Bolongo, General

Lingala (lingua franca of Congo)

Lingala (music)

Lisala

Livingstone, David

London

Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

Lualaba River

Luba tribe

Lubumbashi

and the AFDL

massacre

see also
Elizabethville

Lumumba, Patrice

appoints M army chief of staff

the Congo's first prime minister

in detention

and Kasavubu

M neutralises

monument to

the murder of

and the National Congolese Movement

personality

requests protection from the UN

and the Soviet Union

Lwangi, Celestin

 

Mabi Mulumba, Professor

Maboti, Litho (M's uncle)

Machiavelli, Niccolò

The Prince

McNamara, Robert

Mahele, General Donat Lieko

Makala, Kinshasa

Makala jail, Kinshasa

Malebo pool

Malu Wa Kalenga, Professor Felix

Maluku

Mama Yemo hospital, Kinshasa

Mandela, Nelson

Manhattan Project

ManiKongo tribe

Marchal, Jules

Marcos, Ferdinand

Masisi region, north Kivu

Mavua Mudima, Admiral

Mbandaka

Mbuji Mayi

Mende, Lambert

MIBA
see
Société Minière du Bakwanga

Les Miguettes, Savigny

Milosevic, Slobodan

Ministry of Information

Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Planning

Mitterrand, François

Mizele, King (Bernard Mizele Nsemi)

Mobutu, Bobi (née Ladawa; M's second wife)

Mobutu, Konga (M's son)

Mobutu, Kongulu (M's son)

flees

gambling

and Mahele's murder

searches for traitors

and Yoshad

death

Mobutu, Marie Antoinette (M's first wife)

Mobutu, Ngawali (M's daughter)

Mobutu, Niwa (M's son)

Mobutu, Nzanga (M's son)

Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (formerly Joseph Désiré Mobutu)

ambition

appearance

army chief of staff

and army riots

on Article

asked to resign

assets

birth

childhood

CIA supports

compared with Kabila

demonised

Devlin meets

education

in exile

extravagance

in the Force Publique

health

introduces Zaireanisation

joins the National Congolese Movement

journalism

and Kimbangu

and Leopold II

Lumumba's murder

Lumumba's personal aide

marries Marie Antoinette

meeting with Kabila (4 May 1997)

overthrown (May 1997)

‘peaceful revolution'

personality

personality cult

seizes control of Congo (September 1960)

sources of wealth

as a speaker

stirs up tribal hatreds for political gain

takes over after civil war

on theft

withdrawal to Gbadolite

death (8 September 1997)

tomb

Mobutu, Yakpwa (M's daughter; later Janssen)

Monaco

Mondjolomba, Eketebi

Monheim, Francis

Morel, Edmund

Morocco/Moroccans

Morris, Roger

mouvanciers

Mouvement Populaire de la Revolution (MPR)

Mukamba, Jonas

Mulele, Pierre

Mulemba, Jean-Baptiste

 

Nagasaki

Nanga, Mawampanga Mwana

National Congolese Movement

Ndaywel e Nziem, Professor Isidore

Ndjili airport

negritude

Ngaliema, Mount

Ngbanda Nzambo Ko Atumba, Honoré (‘the Terminator')

Ngbandi language

Ngbandi tribes

Ngobila Beach

Ngobila Beach Handicapped Mutual Benefit Society

Nguz Karl i Bond

Niarkos (Kinshasa mobster)

Nile River

Nixon, Richard

N'kamba

Nkrumah, Kwame

Nsele

Nyerere, Julius

Nzimbi Ngbale, General (M's cousin)

 

Office of Ill-Gotten Gains (OBMA)

Olomide, Koffi

Oppenheimer, Robert

Orwell, George

Animal Farm

The Road to Wigan Pier

Outeniqua
, SAS

 

pan-Africanism

Paris

Philippines

Pinochet, General Augusto

Pocock, Frank

Pointe Noire

Popular People's Committees (CPP)

Portugal/Portuguese

Prester John

 

Rabat

radicalisation

Reagan, Ronald

Rema, Bisengimana

Rhodesian mercenaries

Richardson, Bill

Rochereau, Tabu Ley

Roosevelt, Franklin D.