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Zaire EARLY HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Zaire's precolonial past is characterized by
considerable
complexity. A diversity of social aggregates developed in
Zaire,
ranging from the small, autonomous groups of hunters and
gatherers
of the Ituri Forest in the northeast to the centralized
chiefdoms
and large-scale state systems of the savanna, from the
settled
village communities of the interior to the predominantly
Muslim and
Arab trading communities of the eastern region. In order
to bring
a measure of coherence to our understanding of this
otherwise
confusing mix of peoples and cultures and to appreciate
their
enduring political, economic, and social legacies, it is
important
to specify the broad criteria by which they can best be
differentiated from each other. One criterion is the size
and scope
of the societies concerned; another concerns the ways in
which
power was distributed between rulers and ruled; a third
focuses on
the different impact of early Westernizing influences on
their
traditional social systems.
Data as of December 1993
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