FREE ESSAY ON ZAIRE - ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN POST-INDEPENDENT AFRICA

ZAIRE - ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN POST-INDEPENDENT AFRICA

Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire
Economic Development in Post-Independent Africa
The situation in Zaire (today The Democratic Republic of Congo) under the reign of Mobutu
Sese Seko is a good illustration of an African tragedy. A nation so rich in national
resources - having some of the largest diamond mines in the world - destined for success
and growth, becomes victim to one of the worst administrators (if you can even call him
that) of the 20th century and one of the best "corruption artist" of all time. 
Corruption engulfed the young nation shortly after independence and it hasn't seen
daylight ever since. In a time when Asian countries, Central American countries, and
South American countries are making magnificent headway towards development, a tyrant
thief who embodies everything evil, sets one of Africa's main prospects in reverse. This
was the situation in Zaire that we shall look at today and examine. We shall focus on the
country of Zaire (1965 - 1997), which was Mobutu's. Mobutu has been toppled as of May 16,
1997 and the country renamed The Democratic republic of Congo. 
The Oxford American Dictionary defines a "State" as, "an organized community under one
government." Zaire was anything but organized, anything but a community, and had anything
but a government. To justify the claim that Zaire is a good illustration of a "failed
state," we shall show several examples that support this statement. Examples and
illustration include Mobutu's acceptance of bribes from foreign governments, misuse of
government budget, embezzlement of export earnings, diversion of foreign aid and loans, a
failed Treasury, a failed Central Bank, a highly centralized government, chronic
wide-spread rent-seeking, a lack of long-term planning, no political development and
stability, near agricultural failure, nepotism, bad investments, inability to repay
national debt, human services failure, and overall government failure. All of these
contributors to this "failed state" are a direct result of corruption. "Corruption has
detrimental effects on economic development. It decreases the efficiency of the civil
service and its ability to formulate and implement government development policies, and
it robs the country of vast sums of foreign exchange needed for investment" (George
Ayittey 262). In other words, corruption puts a "stranglehold on the economic and
political levers of powers" (Kempe Ronald Hope Sr. 90-91), thus making it virtually
impossible for a government to operate.
The cause of the failed state rest directl