2024
50 years after Zaireanisation :
What did it mean?
What consequences ?

Introduction

In his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 1973, General Mobutu, the Zairean head of state, declared that he wanted to recover economic assets held by foreigners.
On his return to the country, the head of state addressed the Congolese people and made two important speeches (on 30 November and 26 December 1973) to explain what “Zaireanisation” would entail. Two years later, he retraced his steps in his 25 November 1975 speech on the restitution of Zairean property.

The various stages of Zaireanisation can be summarised as follows:

• The acquisition of foreign commercial companies by Zairians;
• The takeover of Belgian companies by Congolese affiliates;
• Control over the marketing of raw materials and nationalisation of companies distributing petroleum products;
• The allocation of Zairean properties.
• And later the return of properties to their former owners (speech of 25 November 1975).