This article argues for the potential of sociolinguistic methods to write post-colonial African history using a case study of the Mobutu regime’s use of Lingala as its language of power (langue du pouvoir) in order to rule Congo-Zaire. Oral history interviews conducted in DRC from 2019 to 2021, corroborated by sociolinguistic and political science analyses from the period under study, reveal how the Mobutu regime’s use of Lingala contributed to the privatization of the Zairian state, and the fracturing of Zairian society, but also the strengthening of Zairian and later Congolese national identity.

A detailed study of weathered pyrochlore in the laterite above carbonatite at Lueshe, NE Zaire, has been made in order to determine its chemical and textural variations. Pyrochlore in fresh carbonatite at Lueshe is close to an ideal formula of (Ca,Na)2Nb2O6(OH,F) (where a general formula is A2−xB2O6(OH,F)1−y·zH2O. The first and principal change on weathering occurs at the base of the profile and involves the leaching and partial exchange of A cations together with hydration. This change appears common to weathered pyrochlore worldwide. As a result weathered pyrochlore at Lueshe has a large apparent A cation deficiency with A totals between 0.25 and 0.59. The B cations remain stable. Abundant kalipyrochlore is unique to Lueshe and is thought to be related to the abundance of potassium feldspar in the fresh carbonatite, showing that the actual composition of weathered pyrochlore is a characteristic of a particular deposit. Weathered profiles at Lueshe are not simple trends from the least to most leached compositions. Further factors including variation in whole rock mineralogy and chemistry, and cation exchange and uptake are responsible for local concentrations of strontio-, bario- and calcium-rich, sodium-poor pyrochlore in the ore body, as well as rims of ceriopyrochlore on kalipyrochlore. The most important textural relationship in the Lueshe pyrochlore is the intimate intergrowth with crandallite in the most weathered parts of the laterite. Although pyrochlore persists throughout the weathering profile, niobium-beating goethite is thought to represent the final product of pyrochlore breakdown.

Some twenty kimberlite pipes outcrop along the eastern and western borders of the Kundelungu plateau, Shaba Province, Zaire. They are arranged roughly along two north-south trending alignments. The pipes probably intruded the Bangweulu Block, which stabilized around 1800 Ma. The exceptionally fresh kimberlites contain mantle-derived nodules (peridotites and eclogites), as well as megacrysts which may reach up to several cm in diameter. The most important megacrysts are garnets, ilmenites, clinopyroxenes, orthopyroxenes and olivines. Micas and diamonds are rarely observed. The clinopyroxenes can be subdivided in two groups: (1) a Ca-rich, low-T type, similar to the Cr-rich diopsides found in ‘depleted’ (granular) peridotites; and (2) subcalcic clinopyroxene comparable to the megacrysts and to the clinopyroxenes of ‘fertile’ (sheared) peridotites. The orthopyroxenes are less frequent and are Ca-poor enstatites (0.07–0.42 wt.% CaO) and Ti-bronzites (CaO <1.3 wt.%). All the analysed garnets are Ca-rich (>4.5 wt.% CaO) and all fall in the lherzolite field defined by Sobolev et al., 1973. The low-Ca garnets which appear in many diamond-bearing kimberlites have never been observed in Zaire, neither in the diamond-poor Kundelungu pipes nor in the diamond-rich Mbuji-Mayi pipes. The ilmenites define a trend close to the ‘magmatic Mg-enrichment trend';. The olivine macrocrysts have Fo contents comparable to those of peridotites (Fo90–93). The ultramafic nodules comprise lherzolites, harzburgites, pyroxenites, wehrlites and dunites. The granular textures and P-T equilibrium conditions (770–1380°C and 28–61 kbar) deduced from their mineral compositions, show clearly that they were derived from a mantle zone on the continental geotherm (90–190 km depth). The eclogite nodules, which are less frequent, contain only two mineral phases (pyrope-almandine-grossular and omphacite), and the texture and the mineral compositions are similar to those of Roberts Victor eclogites. Our findings support the conclusion of Nixon and Condliffe (1989) that low-T peridotites, eclogites and pyroxenites derived from ‘depleted’ lithosphere, while Cr-poor garnet, subcalcic diopside and bronzite megacrysts cristallized from fertile asthenosphere.

Muellerius capillaris was the only species of nematode recovered from the lungs of young and adult sheep and goats of north-east Zaire. The prevalences were of 19% (sheep) and 32% (goats). The slug Atoxon pallens contained larvae in natural conditions and represents a potential intermediate host. The land snails Achatinidae (Achatina stuhlmanni and Limicolaria spp.) could not be experimentally infected with M. capillaris larvae.

Kamedo is a Swedish Disaster Medicine study organization that sends observers to disaster areas anywhere in the world to study recent events, collect useful information, and identify problems relative to the practice of Disaster Medicine. The results of these investigations are published in the KAMEDO Reports, and the English versions will be published in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine.

Three of the recent reports follow: 1) KAMEDO Report 69: Ebolus Virus Epidemic in Zaire, 1995; 2) KAMEDO Report 70: The German Rescue and Emergency Organizations: a) Industrial Chemical Fire, Memmingen, Germany 23 January 1997; b) Fire at the Düsseldorf Airport, 01 April 1996; and c) Bus Accident on the Autobahn in Rosenheim, Germany; and 3) Terrorist Attack with Sarin, 20 March 1995. In addition, a catalog listing all of the KAMEDO Reports available in English is provided.

L'étude histologique des coupes des rayons osseux des nageoires pectorales de Clarias gariepinus pêchés entre décembre 1985 et février 1986 dans le bassin de la Luki (Zaïre) a montré que ces organes possèdent des marques cycliques pouvant être reconnues et envisagées comme critères d'âge.Ces deux types de marques, probablement synchronisées avec l'alternance saison sèche/saison des pluies, sont bienindividualisées : zone de croissance active (Z) et des lots de lignes d'arrêt de croissance (LAC).

Three severe outbreaks of cassava mealybug (CM), Phenacoccus manihoti, have occurred in Zaire. Two were associated with droughts. The third occurred in the driest part of the country and ended only when nearly all cassava plants had been killed. Native coccinellid predators sometimes greatly reduced CM populations, but only after the cassava crop had been heavily damaged. The exotic coccinellid Diomus sp. may be an effective biological control agent in Kinshasa, where CM on a hybrid form of cassava remained common during the rainy season. CM populations in Kinshasa declined greatly in the second year after the release of the exotic parasitoid Epidinocarsis lopezi. In one study the number of mummies with E. lopezi increased with host densities up to 20 CM per shoot tip. Since CM populations remained low after the releases of E. lopezi it is tentatively concluded that E. lopezi, despite considerable rates of hyperparasitism, prevents CM outbreaks over the whole area of its distribution (130,000 km2) in western Zaire.