Mobutu, Joseph

views updated

Mobutu, Joseph 1930-1997

Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga (Joseph-Désiré) was born on October 14, 1930, at Lisala in the Mongala region, located in the province of Equateur, in what was then called the Belgian Congo. The child of Alberic Gbemani and Marie Madeleine Yemo, he belonged to a family that included three sons. He was baptized on December 2, 1930, and christened Joseph-Désiré. He began study at the Primary School of Saint-Anne in Léopoldville (Kinshasa) in 1937 but was forced to leave the school after the death of his father in 1938. He recommenced his elementary and intermediary studies at the School of the Christian Brothers in Coquilathville in 1946. He was dropped from this school in 1948 for having prolonged his scholastic vacations to Léopoldville without authorization.

This expulsion marked Mobutu’s departure from school and the beginning of his career in the colonial army. Colonial rule required that students dismissed from school be incorporated into the colonial army, and Mobutu entered the army in February 1950. He was sent to the École des Cadres in Luluabourg, where he was trained as a typist. He obtained his secretarial certificate in 1952 and joined the general staff of the colonial army in Léopoldville in 1953. He was promoted to sergeant in April 1954 but quit the army in 1955. He debuted in the journalism community in 1956 as a member of the editorial committee for the journal Actualités africaines and became the editor-in-chief several months later. In 1958 he made his first trip to Belgium, acting as a newspaperman at the Universal Exposition of Brussels. He returned to Belgium in 1959 as a professional apprentice to the Office of Information and Public Relations for the Belgian Congo and the Inforcongo. Mobutu also took classes at the Press House and at the Institut Supérieur d’Études Sociales, both in Brussels. Numerous observers have suggested that it was during this stay in Belgium that the Belgian secret service and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) first recruited him.

As a former sergeant in the colonial army, Mobutu was promoted to colonel and chief of staff of the new Congolese army in July 1960 by Patrice Lumumba. In January 1961 Mobutu was promoted to general major and major chief of state of the National Congolese Army. He became lieutenant general in November 1965, then marshal in December 1982. Despite his military achievements and the legend around the battle of Kamanyola, Mobutu and the Congolese army never achieved major military victories without the help of foreign troops. This was the case with the two wars of Shaba in 1977 and 1978, won with the combined help of Morocco, Belgium, and France. Abandoned by his allies in 1996, Mobutu was unable to stop the advance of rebel troops led by Laurent Désiré Kabila with the help of Rwanda and Uganda. As a result in May 1997 Mobutu was forced to flee to Morocco, where he later died of prostate cancer.

Mobutu’s adherence to the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC; National Congolese Movement) in December 1958 marked the beginning of his political career. Starting in 1960 he was charged with the MNC Lumumba in Belgium and represented this political party from April through May 1960 at the Conference of the Economic Round Table, charged with studying the economic terms of independence in the Congo. Named major chief of state in the new Congolese army in July 1960, he attempted his first military coup with a group of Congolese university students. This takeover not only removed Lumumba from power but also provided the impetus for his eventual assassination. Mobutu’s motivations for seeking to overthrow and eliminate Lumumba were twofold. In 1960 Mobutu was considered a part of the évolués, that is, the Congolese elite who occupied an intermediary social position between the Belgians and the majority of the Congolese people. During this period each of the Congolese évolués vied for leadership. Second, it is important to place this conflict within the context of the cold war. The Europeans and Americans accused Lumumba of being a communist, and as an agent of both the Belgian and the American secret services, Mobutu contributed to his elimination. However, Mobutu did not take supreme control but instead left power in the hands of Joseph Kasa-Vubu as head of state. On November 24, 1965, Mobutu attempted his second overthrow and became president of the republic, establishing a military dictatorship. On May 20, 1967, Mobutu created the Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR; Popular Revolutionary Movement), the state party. Starting in October 1971 a new type of nationalism was implemented to purge the country of colonialist traces. The name of the country was changed from Democratic Republic of the Congo to Zaire, and the names of the cities, avenues, and former colonial places were rechristened with African names. In 1972 the people of Zaire were invited to reject their Christian first names and adopt authentically African names. Mobutu himself rejected his Christian first name (Joseph-Désiré) and took the name of Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga.

In a demonstration of his political agenda of authenticity and for his own personal prestige, Mobutu welcomed the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman heavyweight fight or “Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974. For African Americans, this fight in Africa symbolized a type of return to their roots. According to Ali, his trip to Kinshasa established a relationship between African Americans and Africans. In preparation for this fight, Kinshasa was embellished with new public works, most notably public lighting along the capital’s major avenues. The MPR declared its nationalism “authentic,” that is to say, “returning” to African cultural values. It proclaimed Zaire’s nonaffiliation and rejected imported ideologies, capitalism as much as communism. In the course of its evolution, the MPR agenda was systematized. Its doctrine was “authentic Zairian nationalism;” its ideology, authenticity; its platform, the return to authenticity. Together these elements constituted “Mobutism,” which was defined as the teachings, the thoughts, and the actions of the president-founder. This ideological construct made Mobutu the “inventor” of society. In his function as president of the republic, he was the “manager” of the entire Congolese state. This political schematic made the president-founder the primary organ of the party and thus of the republic as a whole. In keeping with this postulate, he became the living symbol for the nation’s viability and the guarantor of its continuation. His was a lifetime mandate that could not be breached except in the event of insanity. Thus the concept of a “return to authenticity” furnished sufficient basis for the legitimization of Mobutu’s power.

Mobutu’s reign was characterized by a systematic pillaging of the country and a lack of any infrastructure developments, such as schools, hospitals, or viable roads. According to one estimate from the World Bank, Mobutu exploited about $15 billion in public funds for family and personal expenses. He placed this money in foreign accounts, and upon his death the new Congolese authorities attempted to reclaim the money. Some banks declared that there was nothing left in any of the accounts, and other banks claimed that there had been millions of dollars rather than billions. In truth the country had become weakened by a long civil war, and the government that succeeded Mobutu was neither strong enough nor organized enough to reclaim the money. Thus when Mobutu relinquished power in 1997, he left his country in enormous debt to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

SEE ALSO Ali, Muhammad (USA); Central Intelligence Agency, U.S.; Corruption; Decolonization; Liberation Movements; Lumumba, Patrice; Neocolonialism