Editing Zaire (section)

===Mobutu===
In 1965, [[Congo Crisis|as in 1960]], the division of power in [[Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville)|Congo-Léopoldville]] (a [[Belgian Congo|former Belgian colony]]) between President and Parliament led to a stalemate and threatened the country's stability.<ref name=":0">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Meditz|Merrill|1994|p=46}}.</ref> [[Mobutu Sese Seko|Joseph-Désiré Mobutu]] again seized power.<ref name=":0" /> Unlike the [[1960 Republic of the Congo coup d'état|first time]], however, Mobutu assumed the presidency, rather than remaining behind the scenes.<ref name=":0" /> From 1965, Mobutu dominated the political life of the country, restructuring the state on more than one occasion, and claiming the title of "Father of the Nation".<ref name=":1">{{Harvard citation no brackets|Meditz|Merrill|1994|p=44}}.</ref> He announced the renaming of the country as the Republic of Zaire on 27 October 1971.<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Kisangani| first1 = Emizet Francois| last2 = Bobb| first2 = Scott F.| title = Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo| publisher = Scarecrow Press| series = Historical Dictionaries of Africa| volume = 112| edition = 3, illustrated| date = 2009| pages = li, 102| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FvAWPTaRvFYC| isbn = 9780810863255}}</ref>

When, under the [[Authenticité (Zaire)|authenticité]] policy of the early 1970s, Zairians were obliged to adopt "authentic" African names rather than European monikers. Mobutu dropped Joseph-Désiré and officially changed his name to ''Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga'', or, more commonly, Mobutu Sésé Seko, roughly meaning "the all-conquering warrior, who goes from triumph to triumph".<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Meditz|Merrill|1994|p=45}}.</ref>

In retrospective justification of his [[Second Mobutu coup d'état|1965 seizure of power]], Mobutu later summed up the record of the First Republic as one of "chaos, disorder, negligence, and incompetence".<ref name=":1" /> Rejection of the legacy of the First Republic went far beyond rhetoric.<ref name=":1" /> In the first two years of its existence, the new regime turned to the urgent tasks of political reconstruction and consolidation.<ref name=":1" /> Creating a new basis of legitimacy for the state, in the form of a single party, came next in Mobutu's order of priority.<ref name=":1" />

A third imperative was to expand the reach of the state in the social and political realms, a process that began in 1970 and culminated in the adoption of a [[Constitution of Zaire|new constitution]] in 1974.<ref name=":1" /> By 1976, however, this effort had begun to generate its own inner contradictions, thus paving the way for the resurrection of a Bula Matari ("the breaker of rocks") system of repression and brutality.<ref name=":1" />