Carole JL Collins and Steve Askin
So he finally kicked the bucket! Zaires former despot Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (the cock who goes from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake), one of the worlds quintessential symbols of excess and venal corruption for the past three decades, has finally departed this world.
And as we sum up his life and legacy, we must appreciate what a consummate thief this man was. During his 66 years, Mobutu whom French former co-operation minister Bernard Kouchner once called a walking bank vault in a leopard-skin hat managed to steal not only much of his countrys wealth but also its political credibility, its morality, even its very name.
The man who slept with a volume of Machiavelli next to his bed became a consummate practitioner of double-speak and double-dealing, which helped him retain power for 32 years and amass a fortune in misacquired wealth variously estimated at between $5-billion and $10-billion.
Recruited by Belgian and United States intelligence services in the late 1950s, Mobutu was appointed to head the newly independent Congos army in July 1960 by the charismatic Patrice Lumumba, the Congos first (and only) democratically elected prime minister. Mobutu promptly betrayed him, using CIA funds channelled through the United Nations to turn the army against him and to overthrow him by years end.
In early 1961, Mobutu helped contrive Lumumbas death. In following years CIA covert aid helped him suppress regional rebellions in which hundreds of thousands died. In late 1965, Mobutu seized power for good.
It was in 1971 that he stole his countrys name. Striving to shore up his dubious political legitimacy by playing on nationalist aspirations, Mobutu decreed an old Portuguese mispronunciation to be an authentic African name, imposing it on his country and people. He even stole peoples names, demanding that they adopt authentically African ones instead. And in a unique political fashion statement he declared a Mao-style suit, the abacost, the new national dress.
It was a morality play come to life when a follower of Lumumba, long-time rebel adversary Laurent Kabila, finally chased Mobutu from the Congolese capital Kinshasa in May and restored Zaires original name, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mobutu parlayed Western anti-communism into a virtual licence to pillage Zaires public sector. The West cynically touted Mobutu as a democrat even as he created a cult of personality and a one-party state which enrolled all Congolese as party members at birth.
In return for aid, loans and outright bribes, Mobutu effectively rented out his country to various Western governments and enterprises: to the US for covert arms flows to Angolan Unita rebels; to France for its Chad and Central African Republic operations; to a German company for rocket tests.
At his death, he left almost 70% of Congolese unemployed.The World Bank now estimates Zaires per capita income has dropped almost two- thirds since independence, to the lowest of all 174 countries listed in the UN Development Programmes 1996 Human Development Report.
When Mobutu finally fled the country for good in May, so did many close family members and friends. These designer refugees, with cash-filled briefcases and cell phones, choked airport lounges as they scrambled to find a haven for themselves and their ill-gotten wealth. One whole plane-load landed in South Africa, suitcases bulging with cash from ex-Zaires Central Bank.
The World Bank and International Monetary Fund lenders who helped fill Mobutus pockets will no doubt distance themselves from the late thief, claiming they have always favoured good governance and bear no blame for ex-Zaires current chaos. But their past collusion with his kleptocratic feats have led some to ask if good governance shouldnt be a two-way street.
Isnt the legacy of poverty and $14- billion in foreign debt that Mobutu bequeathed the Congo equally their legacy and responsibility? Shouldnt a dictator like Mobutu come with a money-back guarantee from the Western governments and international institutions which helped him steal so much?
Even prior to his death, many Mobutu critics had begun urging Western governments to back a systematic global search to locate and reclaim for the Congolese people the bank accounts, palaces and villas, and other wealth that Mobutu and his cronies have stashed around the globe.
When Mobutu died on September 7 after a year-long battle against prostate cancer, he left many survivors to enjoy what remains of his loot, including some 30 family members in Rabat and other relatives and cronies scattered in exile worldwide. He also leaves $14-billion in debt and numerous villas, hotels, investments and bank accounts, not only in Europe, but also Senegal, Cote dIvoire, Morocco, Kenya, Chad and South Africa.
Wanting to avoid the outpouring of anger his burial in the Congo might provoke, Mobutus survivors have wisely chosen to lay him to rest in Rabats Catholic cemetery.
Carole JL Collins is a former American Friends Service Committee Southern Africa representative and Steve Askin is a financial investigator and labour activist