mzeiya
Elder Lister
"If you want to steal, steal a little cleverly, in a nice way. Only if you steal so much as to become rich overnight, you will be caught" – Zaire (present-day DR Congo) thieving strongman Mobutu Sese Seko, criticized corruption in Zaire on May 20, 1976.
As usual, he didn’t take his own advice. He’s estimated to have stolen between US$4 billion and $15 billion from the people during his 32-year rule.
He erected for himself the now in-ruins Gbadolite palace, in his ancestral home south of the Ubangi River at the border to the Central African Republic. Nicknamed the "Versailles of the Jungle," he built an international airport, Gbadolite Airport, which could accommodate a Concorde near it.
He built two palaces outside Gbadolite at Kawele. One was an elaborate complex of Chinese pagodas. Mobutu also constructed a nuclear bunker that could house more than 500 people, and it was the largest in Africa; this was the only nuclear bunker in Central Africa.
Mobutu had plenty of other residences: a lavish townhouse in Paris, a 32-room estate in Switzerland, and a 16th-century castle in Spain.
Mobutu was deposed in May 1997, after rebel forces led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila overran his government and forced him into exile. Already suffering from advanced prostate cancer, he died three months later on September 7, 1997, aged 66 (fairly young, considering the age of some of Africa's long-ruling big men today), in Morocco.
Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (meaning "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake") was buried in a private ceremony attended only by members of his family in the European cemetery in Rabat, Morocco's capital. Only the initials MSS mark the grave. Much of the wealth stolen from Zaire during his rule – and after - has never been recovered.
In the nostalgia that has developed in the years since his departure, there is Mobutu revisionism in parts of DRC. In 2021 a monument in memory of Mobutu was erected in Gbadolite.
As usual, he didn’t take his own advice. He’s estimated to have stolen between US$4 billion and $15 billion from the people during his 32-year rule.
He erected for himself the now in-ruins Gbadolite palace, in his ancestral home south of the Ubangi River at the border to the Central African Republic. Nicknamed the "Versailles of the Jungle," he built an international airport, Gbadolite Airport, which could accommodate a Concorde near it.
He built two palaces outside Gbadolite at Kawele. One was an elaborate complex of Chinese pagodas. Mobutu also constructed a nuclear bunker that could house more than 500 people, and it was the largest in Africa; this was the only nuclear bunker in Central Africa.
Mobutu had plenty of other residences: a lavish townhouse in Paris, a 32-room estate in Switzerland, and a 16th-century castle in Spain.
Mobutu was deposed in May 1997, after rebel forces led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila overran his government and forced him into exile. Already suffering from advanced prostate cancer, he died three months later on September 7, 1997, aged 66 (fairly young, considering the age of some of Africa's long-ruling big men today), in Morocco.
Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (meaning "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake") was buried in a private ceremony attended only by members of his family in the European cemetery in Rabat, Morocco's capital. Only the initials MSS mark the grave. Much of the wealth stolen from Zaire during his rule – and after - has never been recovered.
In the nostalgia that has developed in the years since his departure, there is Mobutu revisionism in parts of DRC. In 2021 a monument in memory of Mobutu was erected in Gbadolite.
