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“The Zairean experience is based on a political philosophy that we call authenticity. This is an awareness on the part of the people of Zaire that they should return to their beginnings and search for the values of their ancestors.”

Source: Address to the UN General Assembly, New York, 4 October 1973 (UN translation from French)

Context Addressing the UN General Assembly, he explained Zaire's policy of authenticity, under which the country had taken its new name and citizens had dropped Christian first names.

Portrait of Mobutu Sese Seko
Mobutu Sese SekoDR Congo · 1930–1997
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