The Congo: The Short-Sleeved Society

When President Joseph Mobutu showed up in Leopoldville's King Baudouin Stadium for his first major public appearance last week, the 30,000 people on hand thought it odd that he was in informal khakis instead of his bemedaled full-dress general's uniform. There was a reason. Mobutu was there to urge his nation to get down to work. For five years, he claimed, politicians had "sacrificed the country for their own interests" and had brought it "hatred, quarrels and corruption." "The Congo no longer produces," he said, "the people no longer work."

All that...