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This article argues for a thematic and periodization shift in the approach to the history of Congo's decolonization. It demonstrates how debates about cultural heritage and demands for cultural restitution became important aspects of Congolese interpretations of decolonization, and argues that they played an important role in the national and international politics that were central to the construction of the cultural sovereignty of the postcolonial Zairian state. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When the first political troubles broke out in Léopoldville in January 1959, and the mobs demanded—for the first time violently and publicly—independence for the Congo, Brussels circles were the first to be surprised. Belgian specialists in colonial affairs did not even know of most of the parties thrust brusquely into the limelight: the Abako of Joseph Kasavubu, the Mouvement national congolais (M.N.C.) of Patrice Lumumba, and many ethno-political groups with their mystifying initials. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]