Notes - Empty Hands, Open Arms - page 194

99 What he didn't squander William Reno, Warlord Politics and African States , (Boulder: Lynne
Rienner, 1998), 35. Referenced in Turner, The Congo Wars , 44.
99 The symbol of Mobutu Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost , 304.
99 Mobutu presided over Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz , 98.
99 The Congo's distribution networks Turner, The Congo Wars , 35. Despite the Congo Crisis, the
country's economy continued to grow by 7 percent a year, but this stopped with Mobutu's greatest
blunder. In 1973, in the largest nationalization of privately owned companies in the history of
Africa, he confiscated $1 billion in foreign-owned farms and businesses, then shared them with
his elite, keeping a large portion for his tribe and himself. Mismanagement and neglect drove busi-
nesses into the ground; many of them were simply liquidated, the new, wealthy Congolese owners
never intending to run them and using their proceeds for luxury items. Foreign investors, having
lost so much, subsequently refused to take even the smallest risk. Turner and Meditz, “Introduc-
tion,” in Meditz and Merrill, Zaire: A Country Study , xliv-xlv; Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr.
Kurtz , 96-98.
100 After the Congo Crisis Turner and Meditz, “Introduction,” in Meditz and Merrill, Zaire: A

Country Study , xxxi.
101 But after an attempt at He became involved with an independent association in Kinshasa com-
posed of people from Djolu, which then merged with a larger group that included people from the
six territories surrounding Djolu. Four government ministers from that region chose advisors from
this association, and in 1993, the minister of external affairs picked Albert. But as soon as he had,
the minister was appointed governor of Orientale, the province to the east of Équateur. Though
Albert moved with him to Kisangani, the tribalism in the minister's cabinet caused steady conflict.
Kokolopori was just across the provincial border, and Albert worked to facilitate trade with it, but
the minister's supporters contested his position, accusing him of not being aligned with Orientale's
interests. To keep peace, the minister let him go.
101 With the Cold War over “One of the most egregious instances occurred in Bandundu in 1978,
when the security forces summarily executed about 500 people following a minor uprising set off
by a self-proclaimed prophet. Another occurred in 1981, when perhaps 100 diamond miners were
killed in Kasai-Oriental. The incident that gained the greatest international attention and that had
the most serious repercussions for the Mobutu regime was the May 1990 massacre of students at
the University of Lubumbashi. Up to 100 students were killed in the incident, ultimately prompt-
ing most multilateral and bilateral donors to terminate all but humanitarian aid to Zaire.” Turner
and Meditz, “Introduction,” in Meditz and Merrill, Zaire: A Country Study , xlvii.
101 Bureaucrats took similar measures Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz , 99.
102 Officials sold everything Hochschild writes, “During the Tokyo real estate boom, the Congo's
ambassador to Japan sold the embassy and apparently pocketed the money.” King Leopold's
Ghost , 306.
102 In when Mobutu Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz , 128.
102 In rural areas Turner and Meditz, “Introduction,” in Meditz and Merrill, Zaire: A Country
Study , liii; Alden Almquist, “The Society and Its Environment,” in Meditz and Merrill, Zaire: A
Country Study , 63.
104 Even the army lootings In In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz , Michela Wrong describes “two rounds
of looting so terrible they have become historical landmarks in people's minds, so that events are
labelled as being 'avant le premier pillage' or 'après le deuxième pillage', before and after the loot-
ings” (20). In Planet of Slums , Mike Davis refers to the same lootings, which took place in 1991
and 1993, and which were also called the jacquerie (194).
104 The Kinois had been Turner and Meditz, “Introduction,” in Meditz and Merrill, Zaire: A Coun-

try Study , xlviii, l-li.