TY - BOOK ID - 77894017 TI - The rise and decline of the Zairian state AU - Young, Crawford AU - Turner, Thomas PY - 1985 SN - 0299101134 1283991020 9780299101138 029910110X 9780299101107 0299101142 9780299101145 9781283991025 PB - Madison, Wis. DB - UniCat KW - Mobutu Sese Seko, KW - Mobutu, Joseph-Désiré, KW - Seko, Mobutu Sese, KW - Sese Seko, Mobutu, KW - Mobutu, Sese Seko, KW - Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu wa za Banga, KW - Congo (Democratic Republic) KW - Politics and government KW - Mobutu, Sese Seko KW - Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga KW - Mobutu, Joseph Désiré UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77894017 AB - Zaire, apparently strong and stable under President Mobutu in the early 1970s, was bankrupt and discredited by the end of that decade, beset by hyperinflation and mass corruption, the populace forced into abject poverty. Why and how, in a new state strategically located in Central Africa and rich in mineral resources, did this happen? How did the Zairian state become a "parasitic predator" upon its own people? The authors examine the political history of Mobutu's Zaire, looking at critical structures and patterns of societal flux, inequality, and cleavage, in particular the urban-rural nexus, the problematic of class formation, and the fluid patterns of cultural pluralism. ER -