“For authenticity not only implies a profound knowledge of one's own culture, but also a respect for the cultural heritage of others.”

Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo

“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.”

Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo

“Despite the huge organization created to perpetuate the slavery of the black man, the whites of Europe could not extinguish the flame of freedom and dignity in black Africa.”

Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo

“A fruit falls only when it is ripe; but in the storms and the tempests of history the fruit falls, whether ripe or not.”

Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo

“What becomes of the leader in all this? I announce that I am today taking leave of the Popular Movement of the Revolution, so that it may choose a new leader… Understand my emotion.”

Mobutu Sese Seko DR Congo

“If yesterday I fought as an enemy, today you have become a friend and ally with the same national interest, loyalty, rights and duties as myself.”

Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe

“Africa should have one identity, one nationality, one people, one currency, one army.”

Muammar Gaddafi Libya

“The decisions taken by the conference will be applied in order and in freely accepted discipline. This is not defeatism, it is not capitulation, it is a question of national responsibility.”

Mathieu Kérékou Benin