Word: za
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Beneath an asthmatic fan, the pianist eases from a tired collection of pop tunes to Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory. It is a curious switch because there is hardly any glory in the seedy Kinshasa bar near the banks of the sluggish Zaïre River and little hope for the country that bears the river's name. Though its debts are small on an international scale-only $5.1 billion-Zaïre is a financial basket case, a country so broke, so mismanaged, so beset by the global recession and, ultimately, so corrupt that...
Aside from export setbacks-prices for copper and cobalt dropped sharply-much of the loan money that flowed in was not spent wisely. Among Mobutu's development projects was a huge undertaking to dam the Zaïre River and to build a 1,100-mile-long power line to the Shaba copper-producing region at a total estimated cost of about $1 billion. Eight months after the power was finally turned on in 1981, the current was switched off. Shaba province happens to be self-sufficient in electricity. Says one Western diplomat: "If ever there was a white...
...Zaïre, Lester Green, 45, a Protestant missionary, climbs out of his Land Rover near the village of Lolwa, deep inside the Ituri rainforest. In fluent Ki-Swahili, he asks where he might find the Walese Pygmy tribes. Soon a guide is hacking his way through the dense undergrowth. Green follows, Bible in hand...
Most missionaries are also Most missionaries are also careful to avoid offending the sensibilities of the increasingly successful black churches that are independent of Western denominations and missions. The largest of these is the Kimbanguist church in Zaïre, which has 3.5 million members. There are more than 6,700 independent denominations in Africa with a total membership of 30 million. Some are highly orthodox in doctrine, while others incorporate tribal rites in their services and even accept polygamists in church offices. These growing black churches are sending out missionaries of their own. Among them is Ken Okeke...
...Deuxième is best remembered for its rescue of 2,500 European civilians trapped when Katangan rebels tried to take over the Zaïre city of Kolwezi in 1978. More than 100 civilians were killed before two daring airdrops brought some 600 paratroopers to engage the rebels in street-by-street fighting that ultimately restored order. The French lost four men in the entire operation. Since Kolwezi, the Deuxième REP has been incorporated into France's equivalent of a Rapid Deployment Force...