Inventing the Congo --;Henry Morton Stanley, Leopold II and the "red rubber" scandal; Congo as chaos, Lumumba as diable --;independence and the 1960s crisis; from Congo to Zaire --;Mobutu's production of an "authentic" national identity; cancer, Kabila and the Congo --;Central Africa at the end of the 20th century.
Understanding the current civil war in the Congo requires an examination of how the Congo's identity has been imagined over time.