�������t¶��

Joseph Kasavubu became president following the 1960 election, held a month before independence, and Patrice Lumumba became the prime minister.

African names roll apart like the heads of dried flowers crushed idly between thumb and forefinger—Ngoma, Mukenge, Mulele, Kasavubu, Lumumba.

“Tribal chiefs, heads of unions, and the like. They say it was a pretty motley assembly. Joseph Kasavubu wavered between boycotting and trying to run the show. Lumumba got out of jail just for the occasion. They settled on a parliamentary system of government. Elections will be mid-May. Independence day, June thirtieth.”

Since the ousting of President Joseph Kasavubu in 1965, Mobutu has managed to create a genuine nation in Za�re, even though its 24 million people are fractured into 100 tribes, speak dozens of dialects, and are spread over 895,000 square miles, much of it primitive jungle.

"The mission I conferred upon him in 1964 has been completed," Kasavubu explained to a joint session of the new Parliament.