Joseph Conrad described in his novella Heart of Darkness Congo’s chaotic wilderness at the height of the colonial period: vast stretches of land that seem to swallow up periodic signs of Western civilization, and “hollow men” with little concern for anything except their immediate profit and even less concern for the natives themselves. That record of exploitation weighed heavily on the republic after the Europeans had left, giving it over to whichever strongman would wrestle control for it.

On this day, October 27, in 1971, at the decree of president and “father of the nation” Joseph-Desiré Mobutu — who has been compared to Conrad’s antagonist Colonel Kurtz — the Democratic Republic of the Congo renamed itself Zaire.

To legitimize his rule, Mobutu not only renamed the country, but also started a series of renaming of cities from European to African names — so Léopoldville became Kinshasa and Elisabethville became Lubumbashi. He also renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko (The all-powerful warrior who goes from triumph to triumph). He was tolerated, if not welcomed, by the West, because of his anti-communist stance, but his legitimacy declined after the fall of the USSR. By 1997, Zaire reverted back to its former name.