Authenticité (Zaire) Zairians had resumed use of their given names. After Mobutu was forced to flee the country in the First Congo War in 1997, President Laurent Kabila renamed the country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Authenticité (Zaire) Authenticité, sometimes Zairianisation in English, was an official state ideology of the Mobutu regime that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in what was first the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville, later renamed Zaire. The authenticity campaign was an effort to rid the country of the lingering vestiges of colonialism and the continuing influence of Western culture and to create a more centralized
2/27th Battalion (Australia) 2/27th saw heavy fighting as the 21st Brigade led the 7th Division's efforts to capture the high ground around Shaggy Ridge. In mid-October, the 2/27th helped turn back a heavy Japanese counterattack around John's Knoll and Trevor's Ridge, before the 21st Brigade was relieved. Halfway through the campaign, in mid-November, Bishop was replaced as battalion commander by Lieutenant Colonel Keith Picken, and returned to a staff position. Picken subsequently led the battalion throughout the remainder of the war. By early January 1944, the 2/27th was withdrawn from the fighting and in March 1944 it returned to Australia. A further period