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The WB and IMF response to corruption in Mobutu's Zaire: Additional References

Few sources, unfortunately, deal with the role of the World Bank and IMF in Mobutu's Zaire exclusively, even fewer on their positions vis-à-vis the autocrat when it came to issues of corruption in particular. The sources uncovered will hence be introduced as follows: the couple focussing on the Bretton Woods institutions first; subsequently the more general works and the 'classics', of which several make extensive reference to WB/IMF actions during Mobutu's rule. To find out more about the topic at stake, the U4 Helpdesk thus recommends combining the study of the most to-the-point readings with getting hold of some of the more general works, and looking up WB/IMF in their respective indices.

I. Works on the WB and IMF

1. Leslie, Winsome J. 1987. The World Bank and Structural Adjustment in Developing Countries: The Case of Zaire. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

Content: Zaïre offers an extreme case against which to judge World Bank efforts at using its aid to spur policy and administrative reform. The description of the bank's record in Zaïre offers careful documentation of the intricacies of manoeuvring within Zaïre, and can serve as a cautionary tale for any foreign experts who may be insufficiently wary about the difficulties of trying to impose standard recipes on African economies. Note, still, that the analysis only proceeds up until 1987, and thus does not include the later years of WB involvement and its ultimate withdrawal from Zaire in 1993.

2. Mboma, Ne. 1979. Zaïre: La lourde tutelle du FMI - Une thérapeutique qui risque de tuer le malade. Demain l'Afrique (19): 56-57.

Availability: Details may be provided by the African Institute at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium

II. 'Classics' and General Works on Zaire under Mobutu

A. Works in English

3. Young, Crawford and Thomas Turner. 1985. The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Content: Young and Turner's book is a basic reader for anyone interested in the history of the DRC. It deals with, inter alia, the IMF intervention of the late 1970s, and has a comprehensive index.

4. Gould, David J. 1980. Bureaucratic Corruption and Underdevelopment in the Third World: The Case of Zaire. New York: Pergamon.

Content: Gould deals more specifically with issues of corruption under Mobutu, yet covers mainly the 1970s.

5. Leslie, Winsome J. 1993. Zaire: Continuity and Political Change in an Oppressive State. Boulder: Westview.

Content: This book is written by the same author as the book on the WB's role, yet provides new insights at a later stage and covering a more comprehensive set of issues.

6. Gran, Guy and Gaven Hull (eds.). 1979. Zaire: The Political Economy of Underdevelopment. New York: Praeger.

Content: This edited volume also tends to be regarded as a classic, yet covers only, as does Gould, the first half of Mobutu's tenure. It is also heavily influenced by the 1970s discourse on dependent development and the structural underdevelopment of the peripheries in the world system. Although the analysis is interesting, it is to some extent plagued by a wish to make reality fit into the model.

7. Kelly, Sean. 1993. America's Tyrant: The CIA and Mobutu of Zaire. Washington DC: American University Press.

Content: This book gives the authoritative account of some of the other policies vis-à-vis the Congo that emerged from Washington DC, yet not from the Bretton Woods institutions headquartered there. In many respects, as Kelly shows, the CIA's close links to Mobutu to some extent limited the scope for independent initiatives from the WB and IMF.

B. Works in French

8. Péan, Pierre. 1988. L'article 15. In L'argent noir: corruption et sous-développement, edited by P. Péan. Paris: Fayard.

Content : 'Article 15' is another popular expression of the 'fend for yourselves' ideology promoted by Mobutu, also referred to as 'débrouillez-vous', 'la débrouille' or 'System D'. Péan's analysis thus focuses on how most people's focus on using any means available in their struggle for survival fed into the culture of corruption that trickled down from the higher levels of the system.

9. Mutamba Lusaka, Gaston. 1999. Congo/Zaïre. La faillite d'un pays. Déséquilibre macro-économique et ajustements (1988-1999). Cahiers africains (37-38).

Content: This work gives a comprehensive account of how Congo's economy, with all its more or less graspable aspects, evolved from just before the political liberalisation started until Kabila père had led the country into war.

Availability: Details may be provided by African Institute at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium