ABSTRACT
The history of Zaire's debt crisis is a chequered one. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Zaire earned a reputation as the 'sick man of Africa' due to its increasing inability to meet its debt obligations and its all too apparent unwillingness to adhere to IMF austerity programmes. During this period Zaire attained an almost unparalleled notoriety for economic mismanagement and disaster. However, in 1983 all this changed as Zaire mended its bridges with the IMF and its western creditors. Zaire's subsequent faithfulness to the IMF's dictates earned it a new and contrasting reputation as the Fund's model pupil in Africa. More recently, however, Zaire has broken with the IMF yet again. This chequered development raises a number of questions. We might start by asking what Zaire's role in these events has been? Is Zairean debt attributable to the mismanagement and profligacy of the Mobutu regime as many commentators insist, or is it the result of adverse developments in the world economy? How are we to interpret Zaire's off-on-off relationship with the IMF? Is Mobutu's reconciliation with the Fund in 1983 to be seen as the reform of a reprobate ruler? Is this simply a return to his former profligate ways, or is it to be seen as reflecting some element of dubiety about the efficacy of the IMF cure for indebtedness? We shall attempt to answer these questions by describing the origins of Zaire's debt and the progress of its relationship with the IMF.
