Well, by the time that Mobutu was toppled at least 10 countries had either diplomatic, military, economic, some sort of direct assistance to this rebellion, which is a previously unheard of thing. One of the reasons I think that the Washington establishment and the western analysts didn t really pick up on this as it was happening is there was a really general feeling that it s never happened in Africa. I think that the significance is that you re starting to see tremendous African cooperation at a time when we ve really been looking at a lot of major shifts in world politics as large units breaking down into smaller and smaller fragments, and the fear of the turmoil that that causes. One sees leaders in Africa emerging, her seeking strength through a kind of broader unity. You see people talking like President Museveni of Uganda speaks of trying to create very large regional, political, and economic federations.
Some people talk of the United States, of Africa.
Well, Philip Gourevitch, thank you very much. All Rights Reserved.