The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State

1. The State in Zaire: An Introductory Perspective

I The State in Zaire: An Introductory Perspective Part One "Colonie beIge" On the walls of hundreds of Zairian homes in southern Shaba, some of them quite modest, hang oil paintings.I This urban folk art is truly syncretic . The medium is European in origin, although the "canvas" typically is flour-sacking; the motifs are Mrican, chosen to appeal to a local audience . The themes are varied-mermaids, leopards, villages, cities-but unquestionably one of the most popular is "Colonie beIge" ("Belgian colony"). Virtually all Zairian urban folk artists have this theme in their repertory; we reproduce two paintings on "Colonie belge" by Tshibumba Kanda-Matula, one of the most prolific urban artists. Graphically portrayed are a number of the political themes we wish to develop in our search for understanding ofthe Zairian state.2 In both paintings the most striking attribute of the colonial state is force, present in several vectors. Dominating the center ofthe canvas is the Mrican soldier, coercive backbone of the state. Colonie Beige depicts the soldier in a pose which vividly communicates both the strength and brutality ofthe system. The prominent number 3011 on his uniform perhaps symbolizes the highly impersonal, bureaucratized, inhuman state. All state personnel are uniformed, a further association with force and military might. Stretched helpless on the ground is the colonial subject, who suffers the wrath of the state for some nameless transgression of the web of regulation which surrounds him. The source ofpower and authority in the colonial state, the Belgian administrator, savors his pipe with the calm selfassurance oftotal command over the situation. Further in the background is the ubiquitous public works department, or ''T.P.M."-a familiar agency to most rural men, who had been required during much of the colonial period to provide it with service, often unremunerated. The concrete, physical presence of the state was most visible in its administrative out3 6 The State in Zaire posts; here Tshibumba selects the prison to visually represent the state. The two women, who have brought food for the prisoner, gaze directly at us in forlorn entreaty, inviting our further contemplation of the many meanings in this portrait. The Fabians, students ofZairian urban art, spell out one ofthese meanings, suggesting continuing colonial residues in the contemporary state: Colonial experience, although chronologically a thing of the past, remains an active element ofpresent consciousness. Paintings ofColonie beige express the omnipresence ofpowerful, organized, and bureaucratic oppression of the little man as he feels it now, in a system whose decolonization remains imperfect and which constantly uses the former oppressor as a negative counterimage.3 The companion painting, EtatIndipedant du Congo, refers to the initial version of the colonial state, which was a personal fiefdom of King Leopold II (Congo Free State, 1885-1908). However, its imagery is of broader application. Buildings of a distinctive, stereotypical architecture are the physical manifestation ofthe state, while the twin flags-the Congo colonial banner with yellow star on blue field, and the black-red- and yellow-banded Belgian flag-are its icons. Its human agents are again impersonal ; thus their backs are toward us in this portrait. The emaciated, skeletal African subjects are in the background, incongruous neckties offering a striking metaphor of cultural subordination. The state is a soldier, and its subjects are prisoners. In this study, we wish to step behind the portraits and to seek out the state in post-colonial Zaire. We want to grasp its nature, peer beyond its ideological images and public metaphors to perceive its realities. Formal structure imperfectly mirrors its inner mechanism; publicly asserted purposes bear little resemblance to its actual behavior. Through the prism of the state, projected upon our own flour-sacking, we hope to compose a portrait of politics in the Mobutu era, from 1965 to 1980. In our representation of the state, embodying politics as process over time, we must incorporate one dimension missing from the Tshibumba imagery: state decline. Colonie Beige and Etat Indipedant du Congo depict state ascendancy; its hegemony over the recumbent prisoner, the grieving women, and the bare-chested but necktied subjects is unmistakable and unchallengeable. Yet embedded within every state is the latent possibility of deflation of its power and authority, of loss of its legitimacy, of decay of its institutional structure. The Tshibumba prisoners may abscond, and The State in Zaire 7 the seemingly docile subjects may cast off their neckties; the center may not...