Colonial legacy of the holocaust in Congo (Zaïre)

According to Professor Adam Hochschild from the University of Berkeley: “It is an oversimplification to blame Africa’s [especially the Congo] troubles today entirely on European imperialism; history is far more complicated. And yet, consider Mobutu again. Aside from the color of his skin, there were few ways in which he did not resemble the [Belgian] monarch who governed the same territory a hundred years earlier”. Indeed, there is a colonial legacy that Mobutu perpetuated in the post-colonial era (from formal independence in 1960 to 1997). According to David Van Reybrouck: “Congo was independent, true enough, but the Belgians not only ran things economically, they also maintained a total grip…