Editing Zaire (section)

==Culture==
{{main|Authenticité (Zaire)}}
The concept of authenticity was derived from the MPR's professed doctrine of "authentic Zairian nationalism and condemnation of regionalism and tribalism".<ref name=":7" /> Mobutu defined it as being conscious of one's own personality and one's own values and of being at home in one's culture.<ref name=":7" /> In line with the dictates of authenticity, the name of the country was changed to the Republic of Zaire on 27 October 1971, and that of the armed forces to Zairian Armed Forces (Forces Armées Zaïroises—FAZ).<ref name=":7" /><ref name="kisanganibobb">{{cite book|author1=Emizet Francois Kisangani|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FvAWPTaRvFYC&q=27+october+1971+zaire&pg=PR51|title=Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo|author2=Scott F. Bobb|date=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810863255|page=i|access-date=29 April 2016}}</ref>

This decision was curious, given that the name ''Congo'', which referred both to the [[Congo River|river Congo]] and to the mediaeval [[Kongo Empire]], was fundamentally authentic to pre-colonial African roots, while ''Zaire'' is in fact a Portuguese corruption of another African word, ''Nzadi'' ("river", by Nzadi o Nzere, "the river that swallows all the other rivers", another name of the Congo river).{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}} General Mobutu became Mobutu Sésé Seko and forced all his citizens to adopt [[African languages|African]] names and many cities were also renamed.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Some of the conversions are as follows:

*Léopoldville became [[Kinshasa]]
*Stanleyville became [[Kisangani]]
*Élisabethville became [[Lubumbashi]]
*Jadotville became [[Likasi]]
*Albertville became [[Kalemie]]

In addition, the adoption of Zairian, as opposed to [[Western culture|Western]] or [[Christianity|Christian]], names in 1972 and the abandonment of Western dress in favour of the wearing of the [[abacost]] were subsequently promoted as expressions of authenticity.<ref name=":7" />

Mobutu used the concept of authenticity as a means of vindicating his own brand of leadership.<ref name=":7" /> As he himself stated, "in our African tradition there are never two chiefs&nbsp;... That is why we Congolese, in the desire to conform to the traditions of our continent, have resolved to group all the energies of the citizens of our country under the banner of a single national party."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Young |first1=Crawford |last2=Turner |first2=Thomas Edwin |title=The rise and decline of the Zairian state |date=1985 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=9780299101107 |page=211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aipzAAAAMAAJ&q=%22two%20chiefs%22 |access-date=11 July 2020}}</ref>

Critics of the regime were quick to point out the shortcomings of Mobutism as a legitimising formula, in particular its self-serving qualities and inherent vagueness; nonetheless, the MPR's ideological training centre, the Makanda Kabobi Institute, took seriously its assigned task of propagating through the land "the teachings of the Founder-President, which must be given and interpreted in the same fashion throughout the country".<ref name=":7" /> Members of the MPR Political Bureau, meanwhile, were entrusted with the responsibility of serving as "the repositories and guarantors of Mobutism".<ref name=":7" />

Quite aside from the merits or weaknesses of Mobutism, the MPR drew much of its legitimacy from the model of the overarching mass parties that had come into existence in Africa in the 1960s, a model which had also been a source of inspiration for the MNC-Lumumba.<ref name=":7" /> It was this Lumumbist heritage which the MPR tried to appropriate in its effort to mobilise the Zairian masses behind its founder-president.<ref name=":7" /> Intimately tied up with the doctrine of Mobutism was the vision of an all-encompassing single party reaching out to all sectors of the nation.<ref name=":4" />