CBON IMPOSES UPON THE GABONESE PEOPLE A DISTRACTION CALLED: RETURN TO AUTHENTICITY ! CBON IMPOSE AUX GABONAIS UNE DISTRACTION APPELÉE: RETOUR À L’AUTHENTICITÉ !
English version When he took power in 1965, Joseph Désiré Mobutu had an urgent need to create a unifying national identity that would allow him to create a cult of personality that would make him the only strong man in the country. His solution: create a concept of return to authenticity that would make him the number one patriot. The return to authenticity consisted of renaming the country Zaire, changing the names of cities, forcing citizens to abandon their Christian first names for African first names, imposing the use of abacost instead of the Western suit-tie, etc. This had a real psychological impact. For many Zaireans, it was a necessary step in mental decolonization, a way to regain African pride flouted by decades of Belgian colonial regime. However, it is indisputable to say that this ideology did not solve any of the country’s structural problems and ended up serving as a smokescreen to mask disastrous governance and state kleptocracy. Very quickly, authenticity in Za...
