Zaire

Helen Winternitz’s claim that “Zaire’s tortured history began in the late 15th century, when the Portuguese sailed down Africa’s west coast and found the Kongo Kingdom” (Opinion, Nov. 10) innocently reflects the Eurocentrism of so many Western observers. Zaire’s history started when the area was first occupied by people. Central Africa was not some sort of savage paradise when the first Europeans “discovered” the Kongo Kingdom.

For sure, much of Zaire’s agony for the past 36 years since independence can be attributed to external influences of the Cold War. The root causes lie as much or more, however, in the basic system of beliefs and values of the various Zairian cultures. What we see as the “kleptocracy” of President Mobutu Sese Seko and his entourage is more due to the basic value systems than anything imbued in them by the Americans or the Belgians and Portuguese before us. We who know there is much good in Zaire and its people should stop scapegoating and try to see if there is not a better way to accommodate traditional Zairian cultures and the exigencies of modernization.

RICHARD MATHERON

Escondido

The writer was the U.S. ambassador to Swaziland, 1979-82, and was U.S. consul for Kivu Province, 1963-65.

* Re “West Must Not Dither on Zaire,” editorial, Nov. 8:

How do we handle the starving in Zaire? Send food stamps, not our troops. No more Somalias!

LYLE TALBOT

Lancaster