Congo’s president cuts free of his would-be puppetmaster

IN THE LAWLESS eastern parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, nomads and sedentary folk often clash. Cattle-rearing groups rub up against crop-growers over access to land. In the absence of a strong state, disputes can quickly turn violent. By contrast another type of nomadism obsesses the population in Gombe, the wealthy core of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa: that of elected officials.Few politicians are loyal to ideas or people. Instead they head for the best grazing. “The Congolese politician is the most unstable human ever to exist,” says Félix Momat Kitenge, until recently a government minister. “He will change with the breeze.” Others call it, in French, (political nomadism).