BELGIAN CONGO: After 50 Years

Under red, blue, green and yellow lights at a club in Léopoldville's sprawling native quarter, women in grass skirts and men with chalked bodies stomped to the hard rap of a hollow-log drum. Then Gerald Tzinga and his Rock-a-Mambo Band took over, and white-shirted clerks sedately circled the concrete floor with their partners. With dances, military parades, bicycle races, football matches and the mass distribution of medals for faithful service, the Congo celebrated last week the soth anniversary of its annexation by Belgium.*

The half-century has seen the Congo achieve an economic miracle, become the world's leading producer of industrial...

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