Hundreds of extravagant wreaths were laid on the steps of the People's Palace in honour of President Laurent Kabila's funeral yesterday.
Most, however, were fakes, garish bouquets fashioned from cloth flowers and bearing no dedication.
Now Congo is in the hands of Mr Kabila's 31-year-old soldier son, Maj Gen Joseph Kabila, and it remains to be seen whether his new government, declared illegitimate by Belgium, the former colonial power, also proves to an imitation of the real thing.
Tens of thousands of people turned out to bid farewell to Mr Kabila yesterday in a long public ceremony marred by violence against white journalists.
Press vehicles were stoned as mourners lining the routes to the People's Palace, mostly young men and women, hurled abuse and made threatening gestures. Many wagged their fingers violently and shouted "We know the truth".
But despite the massive crowds and public expressions of loss, it was a lonely burial for Mr Kabila, the statesman. Only six African presidents attended, four of whom - Zimbabwe, Angola, Sudan and Namibia - are Kabila military allies in the 2-1/2year civil war.
Rwanda and Uganda, the central African countries that swept Mr Kabila to power in 1997 but are now leading a rebel insurgency against his regime, were not represented.
Inside the palace, heavily armed Zimbabwean and Angolan troops stood guard over Mr Kabila's white and gold coffin, a sure sign of persistent instability in a country where the president cannot even trust his closest aides.
After orations by religious and political figures, eight army generals sweated heavily as they struggled to lift the remains of their corpulent leader on to a gun-carriage. The body was later buried in a marble mausoleum at the Palace of the Nation.
Mr Kabila was shot three times by his own bodyguard last Tuesday in an assassination still surrounded by more questions than answers. Yesterday a sense of anger towards Western countries, which many Congolese believe had a hand in the killing, turned to violence before and after the ceremony.
Journalists and diplomats from Belgium, Congo's former colonial master, were targeted for particular abuse. A camera crew for the national Belgian television station, RTLB, was attacked and robbed of money and equipment.
"Kabila was a great patriot. He wasn't afraid of Western aggressors, who want to steal our diamonds and our wealth. He was one of us," a student from the University of Nairobi said at the funeral.
Maj Gen Joseph Kabila is due to be inaugurated as president today, a senior government official said yesterday. He kept a remarkably low profile at yesterday's burial, arousing speculation that he enjoys only a tenuous hold on power.
Dressed in a sharp black suit and surrounded by bodyguards, he did not speak publicly at any of the ceremonies. He met the Foreign Minister of Belgium, the only high-ranking Western official at the funeral, who said afterwards he did not recognise Maj Gen Kabila's authority.
"The message was that he has a legitimacy problem," said the Minister's spokesman, Mr Olivier Alsteens. Congolese opposition groups have already rejected Maj Gen Kabila's appointment, arguing the country is a democracy and not a monarchy.
Immediately after the funeral the Belgian delegation embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the main foreign actors in the war to search for a peaceful solution.