Zaire

A republic that existed in today's Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1971 to 1997 .

After winning the Congo Crisis, Joseph Desiree Mobutu , who was the president of Leopoldville Congo at the time , changed the name of the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Zaire, and also changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko . In 1997, with the victory of the rebels led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the First Congo War, the name of the country was restored to 'Democratic Republic of the Congo'.

The name of the country comes from the Zaire River , another name for the Congo River , and the Congolese word for river , 'nzere', was written as 'Zaire' in Portuguese .

Mobutu Sese Seko , with the support of Western powers , ousted Joseph Kasavubu in 1965 . Mobutu later founded a party called the Revolutionary Popular Movement, ran for the presidential election in 1970, and was elected president. On October 27, 1971, he changed the name of the country to Zaire and changed the capital, place names, and city names to the local language.

During his term, Mobutu implemented a totalitarian dictatorship and implemented a policy of idolization by promoting Mobutuism.[2] And, by claiming to be an anti-communist leader, he received enormous support from Western powers, and with that support, he engaged in illicit wealth and extravagance. As a result, Zaire's economy stagnated and corruption became rampant.

However, as the international community entered a post-Cold War mood, Western powers began to demand a multi-party system and power distribution in Zaire, but Mobutu continued to postpone the demands of the Western powers. However, with the bloody suppression of university student protests in Lubumbashi in 1990 , public opinion in the international community deteriorated and opposition forces expanded significantly, ultimately forcing the country to accept the demands of Western powers.

Meanwhile, as many refugees flowed into Rwanda due to the Rwandan civil war , Zaire protected Hutu power massacres such as Interahamwe who fled from Rwanda , and massacred 500,000 Hutu refugees in Zaire. Eventually, Rwanda, angry at this, invaded Zaire , and Zaire's intervention in the Rwandan civil war led to Mobutu's downfall. In 1997, Mobutu was ousted as the capital was occupied by the rebels of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who joined forces with Paul Kagame . Laurent-Désire Kabila, who later took power, changed the country's name from Zaire to the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

The title is La Zaïroise. It is the national anthem of Zaire, used from 1971 to 1997 . The lyrics were written by Joseph Lutumba and the music was composed by Simon Pierre Bocca di Mpassi Londi.

Even today, people protest while holding the Zaire flag and singing the national anthem. #

In the Molocyian Republic, a small national body, the tune of this song is used as the country.