Abstract
When Laurent Désiré Kabila’s forces drove out the remaining vestiges of Mobutu Sese Seko’s crumbling thirty-year-old dictatorship in May 1997. a mood of uncertainty prevailed both within Zaire and the international community. Zairians had suffered for over three decades while Mobutu, supported by various international actors such as the United States, France, and Belgium, had bled the country dry. It has been estimated that Mobutu and his close friends pillaged between U.S.$4 billion and U.S.$10 billion of the country’s wealth, siphoning off up to 20 percent of the government’s operating budget, 30 percent of its mineral export revenues, and 50 percent of its capital budget.2 Zaire’s formal economy had shrunk by more than 40 percent between 1988 and 1995. Its foreign debt in 1997 was around U.S.$14 billion. At U.S.$117, its 1993 per capita gross domestic product was 65 percent lower than its 1958 pre-independence level.3 While there was little disagreement about how bad the past was, there were few willing to place bets on the future. Kabila was a relative unknown, having spent much of Mobutu’s reign as a small-time career rebel ensconced in the east and engaged in gold smuggling and the occasional armed attack. When Kabila’s rebels took the capital, Kinshasa, and Kabila proclaimed himself president of the country—renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—few foreign observers were sure if he would be a savior or a successor to Mobutu’s dictatorial ways.
The author would like to thank Edouard Bustin, John Clark, Erik Kennes, and Michael Nest for providing valuable assistance, constructive criticism, and insightful suggestions to earlier drafts of this work.
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Notes
Carole J. L. Collins, “The Congo Is Back!” Review of African Political Economy, no.72 (1997): 277–278.
Carole J L. Collins, “Reconstructing the Congo,” Review of African Political Economy, no.74 (1997): 592.
For a discussion of Africa’s “New leaders,” see Dan Connell and Frank Smyth, “Africa’s New Bloc,” Foreign Affairs 7, no.2 (March/April 1998): 80–94.
William Gálvez, Che in Africa: Che Guevara’s Congo Diary (Melbourne/New York: Ocean Press, 1999).
For good discussions of Kabila’s life and his early career as a rebel leader, see Erik Kennes, Essai biographique sur Laurent Désiré Kabila (Brussels: Cahiers Africains, 1999), and Wilungula B. Cosma, Fizi 1967–1986: Le Maquis Kabila (Brussels: CEDAF, 1997).
Gérard Prunier, “The Great Lakes Crisis,” Current History 96, no 610 (May 1997): 195.
For in-depth discussions of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, see Timothy Longman, “Rwanda: Chaos from Above,” in Leonardo Villalón and Phillip Huxtable, eds., The African State at a Critical Juncture: Between Disintegration and Reconfiguration (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998), and Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda (New York: Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 1998).
Michael G. Schatzberg, “Beyond Mobutu: Kabila and the Congo,” Journal of Democracy 8, no.4 (5997): 80; Peter Rosenblum, “Endgame in Zaire,” Current History 96, no.610 (May 1997): 201.
Thomas Turner, “The Kabilas’ Congo,” Current History 100, no.645 (May 2001): 215; Frank J. Parker, “From Mobutu to Kabila: An Improvement?” America 177, no.8 (Nov. 1997).
Peter Rosenblum, “Kabila’s Congo,” Current History 97, no.619 (May 1998): 194.
John Pomfret, “Rwanda Led Revolt in Congo,” Washington Post, 9 July 1997.
Francois Ngolet, “African and American Connivance in Congo-Zaire,” Africa Today 47. no.1 (2000): 70.
David Aronson, “Mobutu Redux?” Dissent 45, no. 2 (spring 1998): 21.
David Aronson, “The Dead Help No One Living,” World Policy Journal 14, no.4 (1997).
Jean-Claude Willame, “The ‘Friends of the Congo’ and the Kabila System,” Issue: A Journal of Opinion 26, no.1 (1998); Ngolet, “African and American Connivance in Congo-Zaire.”
Mel McNulty “The collapse of Zaïre: implosion, revolution or external sabotage?” Journal of Modern African Studies 37, no 1 (1999): 73.
Florence Aubenas, “Dans Goma Libéré, la Rebellion Impose sa Loi,” Libération, 14 March 1997; Le Monde, “Triple faillite française,” 19 March 1997.
Peter J. Schraeder, “Cold War to Cold Peace: Explaining U.S.-French Competition in Francophone Africa,” Political Science Quarterly 115, no.3 (2000).
For a more in-depth discussion and analysis of the mining sector, see Erik Kennes, “Le secteur minier au Congo: ‘Décormexion’ et descente aux enfers,” in Filip Reyntjens and Stefaan Marysse, eds., L’Afrique des Grands Lacs. Annuaire 1999–2000 (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2000).
Tom Cohen, “Kabila Sworn In, Assuming Sweeping Powers to Rule Congo,” Associated Press, 29 May 1997, accessed through http://www.ap.org
Edouard Bustin, “The Collapse of ‘Congo/Zaire’ and Its Regional Impact,” in Daniel Bach, ed., Regionalisation in Africa: Integration and Disintegration (Oxford/Bloomington: James Currey/Indiana University Press, 1999), 88
Stefan Lovgren, “Mobutuism without Mobutu,” U.S. News and World Report 123, 24 November 1997, 50.
Ibid
Quoted in Milan Vesely, “Carving up the Congo,” African Business (October 1998): 12.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Milan Vesely, “Congo. Profit and Loss Account,” African Business (January 1999): 37.
François Misser, “The Carpet-Bag Generals,” African Business (December 1999): 31.
Ibid, 31–32.
Ibid.
See Mats Berdal and David M. Malone, eds., Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000).
Thomas Turner, “War in the Congo,” Foreign Policy in Focus: Columbia lnternational Affairs Online 4, no.5 (1999).
Mwayila Tshiyemba, “Ambitions rivales dans l’Afrique des grands lacs,” Le Monde Diplomatique, January 1999.
Milan Vesely, “Supping with the Devil?” African Business (September 1999): 36.
Ibid., 37.
François Misser, “Kabila Turns Diamonds to Dust.” African Business (Jul./Aug. 2000): 31–32.
Michela Wong, “Fear of Genocide Powers Rwanda’s Regional Ambitions,” Financial Times, 1 September 1998; Victoria Brittain, “Africa Heads Towards New Genocide,” The Guardian, 31 August 1998.
Mel McNulty, “The Collapse of Zaïre: Implosion, Revolution or External Sabotage?” 55; Jerzy Bednarek, “La ‘Marionette’ Kabila Rebondit sur L’Ogre Rwandais,” Africa International (December/January 1999): 38–41; Frederic Fritscher, “Un Régime Impopulaire qui s’efforce de Jouer sur la Fibre Nationaliste,” Le Monde, 6 August 1998, 2; Frederic Fritscher, “Le Congo-Kinshasa rend le Rwanda responsable de la crise qu’il traverse,” 7 August 1998, 4; and Remy Ourdan, “A l’Est, la Population Vit dans la Peur des Bombardements,” Le Monde, 28 August 1998.
Musifiky Mwanasali, “The View from Below,” in Berdal and Malone, eds., Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. 2000).
The Lusaka peace agreement has two parts: military and political. In addition to the ceasefire and troop withdrawal, the military part provides for the deployment of a UN force and the neutralization of the rebel groups. The political part calls for the establishment of an “inter-Congolese” dialogue, the transition to a democratic government, and the re-establishment of state authority throughout the entire national territory. See Filip Reyntjens, “Briefing: The Democratic Republic of Congo, from Kabila to Kabila,” African Affairs, no 100 (2001): 313.
BBC World Service, 22 January 2001. One of the most thorough inquiries to date suggests that the assassin, Rachidi Kasereka, was motivated by disenchantment among the military, particularly former “child soldiers” from the eastern part of the country (Stephen Smith, “Ces Enfants-Soldats Qui Ont Tue Kabila,” Le Monde, 10 February 2001). However, many questions remain unanswered, especially with regards to the possible involvement of participants from the south of the country and the possible involvement of Angola (Turner, “The Kabilas’ Congo”). A full and complete explanation is unlikely to ever emerge.
Norimitsu Onishi, “Congo: Ban Ends on Political Parties,” New York Times, 18 May 2001, 6.
François Misser, “Lessons in Statecraft,” African Business (April 2001).
Robin Denselow, “Quiet Spoken: UN Fears Cyprus-Style Division in Congo,” The Guardian (Manchester), 28 June 2001, 1.
Ibid.
Danna Harman, “The Calm in the Eye of Congo,” Christian Science Monitor, 7 May 2001, 1.
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© 2002 John F. Clark
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Dunn, K.C. (2002). A Survival Guide to Kinshasa. In: Clark, J.F. (eds) The African Stakes of the Congo War. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403982445_4
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