Includes bibliographical references and index.

The Belgian Congo -- Independence and Clashing Personalities -- Lumumba the Legend: 1960-61 -- ONUC versus Katanga and Others: 1961-92 -- Prime Minister Tshombe -- The NLC in Retreat -- Plots, Mutiny and Revolt -- The First Invasion of Shaba: 1977 -- The Second Invasion of Shaba -- The Single Party State -- Genocide in Burundi and Rwanda -- The End of the Mobutu Era -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo -- Bleak Prospects.

This is the exciting saga of the second largest country in Africa, one which has had a full experience of civil wars, tribal uprisings, revolts, plots against Presidents, and separatist invasions since being suddenly plunged into independence in 1960. The book examines how a UN force stepped in to prevent the mineral-rich province of Katanga from breaking away, staying for nearly four years, after which quarrelling war lords fought for central power. In 1965 Mobutu came to power ruling as a dictator of his Single Party State, until he was finally toppled in 1997 by a Tutsi-back invasion force led by Kabila.