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The Policy of National Integration in Zaïre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Wyatt MacGaffey
Wyatt MacGaffey
Affiliation:
Professor of Anthropology, Haverford College, Pennsylvania.
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Extract

National integration continues to be a matter of considerable debate and experiment among those concerned with the administration of Zaïre, but has attracted little attention elsewhere, even within the country. It is not to be confused with another policy – or alleged policy – that of suppressing tribalism in favour of national solidarity. Although ‘tribalism’ and ‘regionalism’ are constantly denounced by President Mobutu Sese Seko and other officials, they are major sources of corruption which the Government, by its practice, actively encourages by frequently reassigning all personnel in the higher ranks of the public service, and making sure that an ethnic mix is maintained in every agency. Officers commonly complain that the only thing that matters is one's tribal designation, not one's ability or performance. Engineered ‘tribalism’ of this sort has nothing to do with ancestral traditions and communal habits.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1982 , pp. 87 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

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2 Ibid.

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