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Zaire The External Estate
Non-African expatriate numbers fell from 110,000 before
independence to a figure fluctuating between 40,000 and
60,000
thereafter, but foreigners remained a significant elite
social
force in Zaire. Belgian colonial officials, missionaries,
and
businessmen predominated in the preindependence era.
Belgian
colonial officials and security personnel left during the
crisis at
the start of the Katangan secession in 1960, and their
positions
were quickly Africanized. But Belgian employees of private
companies left more gradually. Although they still
constitute the
majority of resident aliens in Zaire, if refugees are
excluded,
Belgian traders and settlers have been supplanted or
joined over
time by Greek, Levantine, Portuguese, Italian, and
Indo-Pakistani
family-based mercantile networks. West Africans constitute
another
elite expatriate group.
These family-based transnational businesses generally
began in
trade and moved on to acquire farms, mills, and small
factories. In
addition, trade manipulation (including smuggling, rigged
invoices,
and illicit currency transactions) is an important source
of
windfall profits, indulged in by Zairians and foreigners
alike.
Despite the expulsion of West African traders in 1971 and
the
temporary expropriation of Mediterranean and Asian
businesses in
1973 and 1974, many family-owned transnational businesses
have
remained. In 1980, for example, fully half of Kisangani's
locally
owned businesses were in the hands of resident Greeks and
Asians.
Most significant as a reference group for Zairian
elites are
the several thousand foreign personnel of various
nationalities who
serve in the foreign-aid missions, public-sector agencies,
and the
education system. They are much more socially fragmented
than their
colonial-era predecessors, in that Belgians, French,
Americans, and
Japanese have created separate social milieus, each with
their own
schools, clubs, and religious institutions. Yet their
common
cosmopolitan life-style, frequent travel, automobiles, and
expensive household consumer goods effectively define
Zairian
elites' standards and aspirations for the "good life."
Western missionaries are a case apart. Although
diminished in
number and influence, they continue to work toward the
institutionalization of African churches. Their
progressive
Africanization of church hierarchies, modest consumption
standards
relative to other expatriates, willingness to work in
rural areas,
and, most important, their provision of high-quality
health care
and education have earned them a high status throughout
much of the
country.
Data as of December 1993
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