“In our African tradition, there are never two chiefs; there is sometimes a natural heir to the chief, but can anyone tell me that he has ever known a village that has two chiefs? That is why we Congolese, in the desire to conform to the traditions of our continent, have resolved to group all the energies of the citizens of our country under the banner of a single national party.”

Young and Turner, p. 211

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In our African tradition, there are never two chiefs; there is sometimes a natural heir to the chief, but can anyone te…" by Mobutu Sésé Seko?
Mobutu Sésé Seko photo
Mobutu Sésé Seko 25
President of Zaïre 1930–1997

Related quotes

Jeremiah Denton photo
Laisenia Qarase photo
Sitting Bull photo

“I am here by the will of the Great Spirit, and by his will I am chief.… I want to tell you that if the Great Spirit has chosen anyone to be the chief of this country, it is myself.”

Sitting Bull (1831–1890) Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man

Testimony to the Dawes Commission (22 August 1883)

H.L. Mencken photo
Lee Kuan Yew photo
Anthony Wayne photo

“It is not thus that the Black Snake, the great General Wayne acted; he was a true warrior and a brave man; he was equal to any of our chiefs that we have, equal to any that we have ever had”

Anthony Wayne (1745–1796) Continental Army general

Reverend John Heckewelder, in his History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States, Chapter XXXIII, p. 192. [emphasis added]
Context: …They also make a distinction between a warrior and a murderer, which, as they explain it, is not much to our advantage. It is not, say they, the number of scalps alone which a man brings with him that prove him to be a brave warrior. Cowards have been known to return, and bring scalps home, which they had taken where they knew was no danger, where no attack was expected and no opposition made. Such was the case with those Christian Indians on the Muskingum, the friendly Indians near Pittsburg, and a great number of scattered, peaceable men of our nation, who were all murdered by cowards. It is not thus that the Black Snake, the great General Wayne acted; he was a true warrior and a brave man; he was equal to any of our chiefs that we have, equal to any that we have ever had…

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Our chief want in life, is somebody who shall make us do what we can.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Considerations by the Way
1860s, The Conduct of Life (1860)

Barack Obama photo

“Immigration is our origin story. And for more than two centuries, it’s remained at the core of our national character; it’s our oldest tradition. It’s who we are. It’s part of what makes us exceptional.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, Naturalization Ceremony speech (December 2015)
Context: Just about every nation in the world, to some extent, admits immigrants. But there’s something unique about America. We don’t simply welcome new immigrants, we don’t simply welcome new arrivals -- we are born of immigrants. That is who we are. Immigration is our origin story. And for more than two centuries, it’s remained at the core of our national character; it’s our oldest tradition. It’s who we are. It’s part of what makes us exceptional.

George W. Bush photo

“Why don't they ask [Saddam's intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush] to give us something we can use to help us make our case”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

to prove he had WMD
from Ron Suskind, The Way of the World, p. 364 https://books.google.ca/books?id=AhVMo1UTXbcC&q=%22can+use%22#v=snippet&q=%22can%20use%22, on Bush's frustration at the results of secret meetings between British intelligence and Saddam's intelligence chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush (early January 2003)
2000s, 2003

Peter Kropotkin photo

“Throughout the history of our civilization, two traditions, two opposing tendencies have confronted each other”

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geogr…

Source: The State — Its Historic Role (1897), X
Context: Throughout the history of our civilization, two traditions, two opposing tendencies have confronted each other: the Roman and the Popular; the imperial and the federalist; the authoritarian and the libertarian. And this is so, once more, on the eve of the social revolution.
Between these two currents, always manifesting themselves, always at grips with each other — the popular trend and that which thirsts for political and religious domination — we have made our choice.
We seek to recapture the spirit which drove people in the twelfth century to organise themselves on the basis of free agreement and individual initiative as well as of the free federation of the interested parties. And we are quite prepared to leave the others to cling to the imperial, the Roman and canonical tradition.

Related topics