|
|
Article: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MR KURTZ.(President Joseph-Desire Mobutu)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- African Business
- Article date:
- October 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 IC Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
In 1965, Joseph-Desire Mobutu, son of domestic servants, a one-time journalist, army officer and Belgian spy, executed a coup and declared himself President of the newly independent Belgian Congo. For the next three decades, he systematically plundered this vast central African nation with an avarice which exceeded mere greed.
Zaire, as Mobutu was to later rename the country, possessed an enormous cornucopia of natural resources - rubber, timber, gold, diamonds, uranium, copper, cobalt, manganese, tin, and zinc - which should have made it one of the richest nations in Africa. Instead, thanks to Mobutu's comprehensive looting, it became one of the poorest on ...