Word: congos
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Come over here," ordered General Joseph Mobutu, President of the Congo. "Now turn around...
...Mobutu had only recently stripped the governors of nearly all their administrative powers. They no longer control their provincial police; they can no longer even set foot outside their provinces without Mobutu's written permission. It was typical of the way the general has been running the Congo since he seized power eight months ago. But if his methods have been anything but democratic, he has at least taken charge of a land in which for five chaotic years no one was in charge...
...Chameleon. It often seems that way. Durable Unilever has been a father figure in African enterprise since Lord Leverhulme, founder of the firm's British branch, in 1911 won a concession from Belgium's King Leopold II to develop a 1,875,000-acre plantation in the Congo. The company planted oil palms for its soap, later prospered by buying farm products from the Africans and selling household goods to them -pocketing a profit on both ends. Reaching out, U.A.C. also became the biggest merchandiser in the 14 former French colonies of Africa and got a substantial hold...
When independence swept in, the omnipresent company was a ready target for criticism, or, as Unilever's African Group Chairman Arthur Smith recalls: "It was so convenient for some people to stigmatize the company." U.A.C. absorbed some severe losses, notably in the Congo and Ghana, but proved to be more adaptable than an African chameleon. Rather than cut and run, it decided to stay and grow along with a yearning market. During the terrifying upheavals in the Congo, Unilever men opened new plantations even while existing ones were being overrun by the Simbas. The company also opened up more...
...McMurtrie Godley III, LL.D., U.S. Ambassador to the Congo...