The National University of Zaire (French: Université nationale du Zaïre, or UNAZA) was a federated university in Zaire (the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). It was formed in August 1971, initially as the National University of the Congo (Université nationale du Congo), when the country's three existing universities and 17 technical colleges were merged into a single administrative structure. The reforms were designed to allow the Congolese dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, and his governing Popular Movement of the Revolution party greater control over the Congolese university system which had previously been a source of political dissent. The reform also allowed the Zairian state to break the ties which had traditionally connected the country's university education to the Catholic