Authentic propaganda

Mobutu Sese Seko was the effective leader of Congo-Kinshasa or Zaire from 1965 to 1997. Colonel Mobutu took power during the Congo crisis by overthrowing the left-leaning government of Patrice Lumumba. His foreign policy was pro-Western, Mobutu's regime having good relations with France, Belgium, Israel, Morocco and the United States. Mobutu also established relations with China during Mao's pro-American tilt. (This explains the curious fact that Maoist group didn't condemn Mobutu outright.) Zaire's clashes with rebels based in socialist Angola were an integral part of the Cold War. Domestically, Mobutu put himself forward as a Black African nationalist, campaigning for “authenticity” in culture, religion and dress. Until 1990, Mobutu was the virtual dictator of Zaire, amassing a huge fortune in the process. A seven-year period of shaky co-habitation with some opposition groups followed. In 1997, rebel forces headed by Laurent Kabila (a very jaded leftist who never belonged to the coalition government) finally overthrew Mobutu with support from Rwanda and Uganda. Interestingly, both nations had pro-American governments, suggesting that the United States had finally lost confidence in its old ally in Kinshasa…

This was still in the future in 1989, when Mobutu gave an extensive interview to French reporter Jean-Louis Remilleux, so extensive that it fills an entire book. In “Dignity for Africa”, the Zairian leader talks about his early life and education, dodges the issue of Lumumba's assassination, and expounds on “authenticity”. While nominally claiming that his regime is democratic, he cheerfully admits that there is only one legal political party. Mobutu argues at length that newly independent colonies can't have parliamentary Western-style democracy, since competing political parties will inevitably become tribal-based. His goal is to unite all Congolese tribes into a single Zairian nation, something that necessitates one party rule. The point of “authenticity” is to create a united Zairian culture as expressed in art, dance, theater and novels. All Western (including Christian) names were banned and replaced by African ones (thus, Mobutu Sese Seko's original name was Joseph-Desiré Mobutu). The Catholic Church in Zaire introduced a special “Zaire rite” in its liturgy, which Mobutu actually managed to get approved by the Vatican. During the interview with Remilleux, Mobutu even defends the more frivolous aspects of “authenticity”, such as the “awasuite” (“away with the suite”), a new and somewhat Maoist-style clothing introduced by the regime. I originally assumed the awasuite was somebody's idea of a joke! At least he doesn't mention the rumble in the jungle…

I don't know how Zaire's propaganda looked like during the 1960's or 1970's, but in 1989, Mobutu says very little about the Cold War or the fight against Communism – perhaps due to the decline of the Eastern bloc? Instead, he directs most of his criticism at the Western powers, trying to put himself forward as a Pan-Africanist and representative of the Third World. The old dictator demands debt reductions, accuses human right groups of colonialist hypocrisy, and emphasizes how unfairly Zaire has been treated by its former colonial master Belgium. At the same time, Mobutu tries to put himself forward as an international statesman of some stature, the book being filled with photos of the Zairian leader as he meets Reagan, Mitterrand, King Hassan II of Morocco and even Mao. Mobutu strongly implies that it was him (who else!) who made the rapprochement between the ANC and the South African apartheid regime possible, not to mention peace in Angola and the independence of Namibia. More seriously, he proudly mentions Zaire's intervention in Chad against Gaddafi's Libya.

I can't say that “Dignity for Africa” is *the* most interesting book around, being essentially a propaganda pitch for Mobutu's “authentic” regime, but if things Congolese are of interest to you, I suppose you could give it a glance or two.