Mobutu Sese Seko

October 14, 1930 – September 7, 1997

Congolese army officer who seized power in 1965 and ruled the country, which he renamed Zaire, until rebels overthrew him in 1997.

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Biography

Mobutu Sese Seko was born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in Lisala, in the Belgian Congo, in 1930. He served in the colonial Force Publique and was drawn into politics as independence approached. By the Congo Crisis of 1960 he was chief of staff of the Congolese army.

In 1960, with American and Belgian support, he deposed the elected government of Patrice Lumumba, and the government he installed arranged Lumumba's execution in 1961. He kept command of the army and in November 1965 took power himself in a second coup, becoming president. He made his Popular Movement of the Revolution the only legal party in 1967, renamed the country Zaire in 1971, adopted the name Mobutu Sese Seko in 1972, and promoted an 'authenticity' campaign to strip away colonial culture.

His long rule rested on a personality cult, a corrupt patronage network and serious human rights abuses, and it is often described as a kleptocracy, as Zaire suffered runaway inflation and heavy debt. His anti-communism brought him strong backing from the United States, France and Belgium. Economic decline and unrest forced him to accept a multiparty system in 1990, and in May 1997 rebels led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila drove him into exile. He died of prostate cancer in Morocco that September.