African Congo Votes!

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, a former Belgian colongy that gained independence in 1960, faces its first multiparty elections in more than 40 years. The United Nations, aided by the European Union and the United States, has spent approximately $500 million into the electoral process in addition to providing logistical support, including aircrafts to transport the ballots. (The Congo has less than 400 miles of paved roads.) In addition, 17,000 U.N. troops and 2,000 European Union troops are on standby should there be any post-election violence. More than 25 million people are expected to cast their votes in 53,000 polling stations. They'll be voting for a president among a crowded field of 33 candidates and an additional 500 members of the country's National Assembly out of a field of close to 10,000.

Current President Joseph Kabila, 34, is the clear favorite in most polls. Nzanga Mobutu, 36, trails Kabila. Both men's fathers once ruled the Congo and both fathers have been described as dictators. Both sons are determined to see through democratic elections their fathers would have never have allowed. Joseph Kabila and Nzanga Mobutu are determined to distance themselves from their fathers' legacies, but as the nation prepares to make history, the world is evaluating the Congo's recent, violent past.

After gaining independence, the Congo was ruled for a short while by pan-Africanist Patrice Lumumba. Six months later, Prime Minister Lumumba was overthrown by his Army Chief of Staff Joseph Mobutu (Nzanga's father), a friend of the United States. Lumumba was subsequently murdered. Mobutu made himself president and changed the country's name to Zaire, which he ruled for the next 32 years. Mobutu also changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Mbengu Wa Zabanga, meaning the most powerful of all who went from village to village, conquering everything in sight, which he did.

By the middle of the 1990s, when Zaire's neighbor Rwanda invaded, there was little criticism among world leaders, who hoped to see Mobutu's rule end. In early 1997, after marching almost 2,000 miles mostly on foot, Rwandans along with a local Zairan, who joined their forces, Laurent Desire Kabila, entered the capital, Kinshasa, and brought Mobutu's rule to an end. Mobutu fled into exile in Morocco, where he died of colon cancer several months later, and Kabila was made president. He renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo, but he created enemies from his war allies, Uganda and Rwanda. In January 2001, Kabila's bodyguards turned on him and Kabila was gunned down. The Cabinet selected Kabila's 29-year-old son, Joseph Desire Kabila (the current president), the army chief of staff, to take his father's position.