Mobutu Sese Seko: President of Zaïre, from 1965 to 1997
Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga (born Joseph-Desiré Mobutu; 14 October 1917 – 7 September 1997) (/məˈbuːtuː ˈsɛseɪ ˈsɛkoʊ/ (listen)) was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The country was known as Zaire for much of his rule.
Mobutu Sese Seko | |
|---|---|
 Mobutu in 1983 | |
| President of Zaire | |
| In office 24 November 1965 – 16 May 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Kasa-Vubu |
| Succeeded by | Laurent-Désiré Kabila |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 14 October 1917 Lisala, Belgian Congo |
| Died | 7 September 1997 (aged 79) Rabat, Morocco |
| Nationality | Congolese |
| Political party | Popular Movement of the Revolution |
| Spouse(s) | Marie-Antoinette Mobutu (Deceased) Bobi Ladawa |
Mobutu is commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko.
During the Congo Crisis, Mobutu led a coup against the nationalist government of Patrice Lumumba. He wanted to take control of the government of Congo-Léopoldville. He soon became the army chief of staff. In 1965 he led a second coup to be Prime Minister. Then in 1967 he established a presidential form of government headed by himself. As part of his program of “national authenticity,” Mobutu changed the Congo's name to Zaïre in 1971. He changed his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko in 1972. Mobutu established a one-party state and a cult of personality. He was an anti-communist.
During his reign, Mobutu built a highly centralized state. He attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence. He got a large personal fortune through economic exploitation and corruption. Because of this some people called his rule “kleptocracy.” The nation suffered from uncontrolled inflation, a large debt, and massive currency devaluations. By 1991 economic deterioration and unrest led him to agree to share power with opposition leaders. He used the army to stop this change. In May 1997 rebel forces, led by Laurent Kabila, removed him from the country.
Mobutu Sese Seko is notorious for the corruption, nepotism, and embezzlement of billions of dollars that took place during his reign. He also had extravagances such as Concorde-flown shopping trips to Paris. Mobutu presided over the country for some four decades, despite many reports of abuses and human-rights violations. As such, many have described him as the "archetypal African dictator".
Mobutu died in 1997 of prostate cancer in Morocco.
References
This article uses material from the Wikipedia Simple English article Mobutu Sese Seko, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki Simple English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.