“The Last American”: A Diplomat in Zaire

way, involved servicing to the degree I could the American input to the University. I would bring guest lecturers, host seminars, select exchange students, participate in University programs, etc. And of course, at the Centre, we had our own English classes, a library, and a feature film operation. All this activity was not only welcomed, but well rewarded.

We-my wife and I, and the Fulbrighters and the PCV's-were accorded hospitality beyond measure. This contrasted with the antagonism we-especially me, as a white-would sometimes be made to feel in shops and markets, and from the police and the military, given a deep, pervasive reservoir of hatred among many for the colonial Belgians they may have known.

Another "dark" side of this environment (pun not intended) was that the University was considered a place of exile for educated people not trusted back in the capital, Kinshasa, and as a consequence the university was always on the short end of the stick when it came to financial and logistic support. It goes without saying that teachers and students always felt watched-and they were-and they were careful not to be openly critical of the government. But in private...

2. The 70s were coming out of the civil war that had wracked the Congo during the 1960s, following a sudden independence, the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, and the rise to power of Joseph Mobutu. What effects of this recent history did you observe during your time there?

Except for the changes of commercial activity in Kisangani mentioned above, there wasn't much else immediately evident in Kisangani of the turmoil of the rebellions. Except in a physical sense. The rusting, burned out ruins of the rail yards and rolling stock across the river from the city offered a constant reminder of earlier violence. And having lost about half its population by 1975, the city was, not surprisingly, half deserted. Large areas in the "European" sector, except for a few sqatters, had been abandoned and in some places actually quite hidden by the reassertion of plant grown. With all the shortages and breakdown of communications, there wasn't much need to use the main city much, anyway.

Would you believe, never fully abandoned, the "talking drum" method of communication was very active again? Messages were regularly sent at night all over the entire Congo Basin. Externals, of course, of the Mobutu regime were ubiquitous. His photos in all prominent places, "spontaneous" street

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