ABSTRACT
Two political upheavals in May 1997 are symptomatic of the condition of contemporary African states. The collapse of Mobutu's kleptocratic regime in Zaïre was closely followed by the overthrow of the democratically elected government in Sierra Leone [Collins, 1997; Gourevitch, 1997; Riley, 1997].
Mobutu's replacement by the Democratic Republic of the Congo under Laurent Kabila is evidence of much broader and generally progressive contemporary developments in Africa. Ruled in a malign and authoritarian way for 32 years by Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire's state was a mechanism for the self-enrichment of a clique which surrounded the president. Contrary to Western notions of the state, which stress impartiality and the public interest, Zaïre was moulded to serve the interests of the few. For some, the emergence of Kabila's government, along with similar developments elsewhere in central Africa, was a sign that an old, essentially corrupt, pro-western political order was coming to an end. It remains to be seen whether Kabila's new government wi l l have the political wi l l and the external funding to reconstruct a modern economy and polity out of Mobutu's devastation.
