The Congo-Zaire Experience, 1960–98

The Congo-Zaire Experience, 1960–98
Author: E. O'Ballance
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 231
Release: 1999-11-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0230286488

A fascinating account of a huge Central African country, almost completely unprepared for liberation from colonial rule in 1960 and plunged into the anarchy of factional struggles for central power, against a background of regional separatism. A UN force stepped in to prevent the mineral-rich province of Katanga from breaking away and stayed for nearly four years, after which quarrelling warlords fought for central power, or for or against separatism. In 1965, Mobutu came to power, ruling as a dictator his Single-Party State, until he was finally toppled in 1997 by a Tutsi-backed invasion force led by Kabila.

Le Zaīre, ex-Congo-Kinshasa

Le Zaīre, ex-Congo-Kinshasa
Author: Robert Cornevin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 132
Release: 1972
Genre: Congo (Democratic Republic)
ISBN:

General study of zaire - covers historical and geographical aspects, climate, the social and cultural anthropology of the country, political aspects, economic implications and social implications of the role of Belgium and subsequent independence, cultural change, etc. Bibliography pp. 125 and 126, maps and statistical tables.

Democratic Republic of the Congo - Kinshasa (Former Zaire).

Democratic Republic of the Congo - Kinshasa (Former Zaire).
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

Features information on the politics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire, compiled by Agora Telematica S.p.A. Highlights elections and describes the different political parties, such as the People's Progressive Party and the Forces of Freedom.

The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State

The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State
Author: Crawford Young
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
Total Pages: 522
Release: 1985
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0299101134

Zaire, apparently strong and stable under Presdident Mobutu in the early 1970s, was bankrupt and discredited by the end of that decade, beset by hyperinflation and mass corruption, the populace forced into abject poverty. Why and how, in a new african state strategically located in Central Africa and rich in mineral resources, did this happen? How did the Zairian state become a “parasitic predator” upon its own people?

East Along the Equator

East Along the Equator
Author: Helen Winternitz
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1987
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 9780871131621

In this brilliant mix of political journalism and travel writing, Helen Winternitz and fellow journalist Timothy Phelps witness what few Westerners have: life in the ecologically rich but financially impoverished American-backed dictatorship of Zaire, the former Belgian Congo.

Africa's World War

Africa's World War
Author: Gerard Prunier
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 570
Release: 2008-12-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199705836

The Rwandan genocide sparked a horrific bloodbath that swept across sub-Saharan Africa, ultimately leading to the deaths of some four million people. In this extraordinary history of the recent wars in Central Africa, Gerard Prunier offers a gripping account of how one grisly episode laid the groundwork for a sweeping and disastrous upheaval. Prunier vividly describes the grisly aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, when some two million refugees--a third of Rwanda's population--fled to exile in Zaire in 1996. The new Rwandan regime then crossed into Zaire and attacked the refugees, slaughtering upwards of 400,000 people. The Rwandan forces then turned on Zaire's despotic President Mobutu and, with the help of a number of allied African countries, overthrew him. But as Prunier shows, the collapse of the Mobutu regime and the ascension of the corrupt and erratic Laurent-Désiré Kabila created a power vacuum that drew Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and other African nations into an extended and chaotic war. The heart of the book documents how the whole core of the African continent became engulfed in an intractible and bloody conflict after 1998, a devastating war that only wound down following the assassination of Kabila in 2001. Prunier not only captures all this in his riveting narrative, but he also indicts the international community for its utter lack of interest in what was then the largest conflict in the world. Praise for the hardcover: "The most ambitious of several remarkable new books that reexamine the extraordinary tragedy of Congo and Central Africa since the Rwandan genocide of 1994." --New York Review of Books "One of the first books to lay bare the complex dynamic between Rwanda and Congo that has been driving this disaster." --Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times Book Review "Lucid, meticulously researched and incisive, Prunier's will likely become the standard account of this under-reported tragedy." --Publishers Weekly

Democratisation in the Dr Congo from Joseph Mobutu to Joseph Kabila

Democratisation in the Dr Congo from Joseph Mobutu to Joseph Kabila
Author: Hubert Kabasu Babu Katulondi
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2019-03-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 1728382874

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced one of the most complex, meandering, and uncertain democratisation processes in Africa. In 2016 the third cycle of elections was not organised. The Presidential Majority (M.P) was accused of concocting an amendment of the constitution aimed at granting a third term to the incumbent President Joseph Kabila. Furthermore, the introduction of a Voting Machine by the electoral commission fuelled violent protests and a political impasse. The DRC tittered on the brink of collapse into another civil war in 2016. Yet, against all odds, the Congolese electoral commission organised peaceful elections in December 2018. Stunningly, the presidential election was won by the opposition. A peaceful transfer of power at the helm of the state occurred for the first time in the country after 58 years of independence. The DRC is now regarded as a model of political alternation in power in Central Africa. The essay stems from the observation that predominant theorisations of Congolese politics fail to grasp the fecundity of the Congolese democratisation. Most scholars and analysts tend to focus on the deficits and flaws inherent in Congolese politics. Hence, they are often oblivious to foundational strides accomplished in this process as it unfolded in the DRC. This essay undertakes a modelled exploration of the democratisation process that unfolded in the DRC from the era of President Joseph Mobutu (1990–1997) to the dispensation of President Joseph Kabila (2001–2018). The effort utilises a paradigmatic framework to unravel the intricacies of a phenomenon occurring in a country which, at first glance, is often assumed to escape any ideal type. To this effect, the essay utilises Dr. Samuel Huntington’s Model of the Third Wave of Democratisation. It elucidates the causes, patterns, problems, and prospects of furthering this process in the DRC. The book proposes a dialectical approach propounding the possibility of the consolidation of democratisation in the DRC.