MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

Leading up to the 1984 presidential elections, the Congolese government sponsored a propaganda record that was meant to raise support for Mobutu, who at that moment had been in office for almost twenty years. Both sides of the LP contain the same 26 minutes-long song Candidat na biso Mobutu (Our Candidate is Mobutu). The cover of the LP presents a characteristic picture of Mobutu in his iconic outfit: the abacost, a leopard-skin toque and carved wooden stick. It demonstrates how music was used by the Zairean government to 'unite' the country and, in a somewhat subtler way, to warn critics not to openly criticise Mobutu.