Essay: Mobutu Sese Seko – Democratic Republic of Congo

From 1960 to the late 1990’s, the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as the Belgian Congo and later known as Zaire, was controlled by the iron grip of power that was Mobutu Sese Seko. While simultaneously controlling the country’s army and working to gain complete control of the nations resources, he also fended off attacks from rebel groups and created political instability amongst his own political party. Mobutu was born on October 14, 1930, in Lisala, Belgian Congo, and died on September 7, 1997, in Rabat, Morocco. He was originally named Joseph Mobutu, until he changed his name to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, which means “the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”. Mobutu Sese Seko created chaos and havoc in Zaire by creating political instability, attempting to “Africanize” the country, and fracturing the infrastructure of the economy.
In Mobutu’s early years in government and working as a reporter, he was able to infiltrate a Congolese nationalist group and was able to work his way up to where he was able to heavily influence political matters to change the shape of power in the government. Seko began his career in 1949 in the Belgian Congolese army, the Force Publique, rising from a clerk to a sergeant major, the highest rank then open to Africans in the country. After his discharge from the Belgian-Congolese army, which then was known as the Force Publique, Seko became a reporter for the local newspaper known as L’Avenir or “the future” in English, and an editor for the weekly newspaper Actualités Africaines. Through Seko’s press contacts and sources, he met the leader of the Congolese nationalist group Mouvement National Congolais known as Patrick Lumumba. He joined the movement a short time later in 1958, as he shared many of the same beliefs as a majority of the groups members and adherents. When the Congo became independent on June 30, 1960, the coalition government of President Joseph Kasavubu and Premier Lumumba appointed Seko as the Secretary of State for National Defense. Eight days after Seko was appointed at this prestigious position, the Congolese soldiers in the Belgian-Congolese Army mutinied against their Belian superior officers. As one of the few men in the country with any control over the army, Seko was heavily able to influence and destabilize the powers struggle that began between the President and the Premier. While Seko secretly supported the President’s efforts to dispel the Premier from the country, he did not show it to the public. When Premier Lumumba tried to rally his loyal forces to try and fight President Kasavubu in September of 1960, Seko took advantage of the power and military confusion and seized control of the government with his own loyal forces. When this happened, he announced that all politicians in the country would be neutralized which made the current government unstable. However, despite all of this effort Seko turned control of the government back over to Kasavubu, who in return made Seko the commander in chief of the armed forces. In 1965, after a power struggle had developed between President Kasavubu and his premier, Moise Tshombe, Mobutu removed Kasavubu in a 1965 coup and became “president”. Seko attempted to soften the military nature of his regime by filling government posts with civilians. However, this attempt failed because a great deal of the civilians that were appointed had little idea what they were doing, and as a result the infrastructure of the government suffered.
While in charge of 20 million people during his time as the head of the Congolese government, Mobutu tried his hardest to instill a sense of national and continental pride in his people, but in doing so he created more conflicts than he solved. When Seko took control of the country in 1965 via a coup, he changed the name of the country from the Belgian Congo to Zaire to try and make his people gain more of a sense of pride in their country, after the conflicts with the Belgians almost completely destroyed any self respect and honor that they still had in Zaire. He also changed his name just to sound more African to his followers. With his original name being Joseph Désiré Mobutu, he changed it to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga, which means “the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake”. Zaire was able to achieve a period of cultural creativity and inspiration during this period that is unmatched throughout the rest of their history. However, by attempting to bypass ethnic borders and attempting to unite almost 450 languages into one, Seko managed to anger more people than he managed to inspire. A great deal of people still believed in the old ethnic ways of doing things, and many that were extremely angered by these attempts began to dissent against him.
When he took charge of the government in 1965, Mobutu Sese Seko attempted to revitalize the economy by nationalizing all of the nations resources, trying to take a page out of the book of communism and by also trying to demand the popular support of the only political party in the country. After the Congo became independent in 1960, the economy that was left behind by the Belgians was in very poor shape. When Seko got into power, he attempted to revive the national economy, as it had become even more decrepit during the power struggles of the 1960’s. Despite being a devout communist fighter and promising to the rest of the world that he did not like communism, Seko took a page out of the communist book and nationalized copper and diamond mines, as well as the agricultural assets that the Zaire had retained despite the changes in leadership. However, even after this and the encouragement of foreign investment, agricultural demands were still not met and so the need for outside food imports increased, which made Zaire fall into even deeper debt. As they fell into deeper debt, the country continued to decline and the economy continued to worsen after only a very brief period of it rising. During both of Seko’s reelections to the presidency in 1970 and 1977, his regime promised to better the economy and make Zaire a better place to live. However, even though these promises were made, they were not kept, as Seko’s regime had little success in establishing the conditions needed for economic growth and development. As he began to gain money and resources in his own personal estate, Seko began to neglect Zaire while he amassed one of the largest personal fortunes in the world, so as a result the countries infrastructure began to fall apart.
Over the years Seko remained efficient and good at maintaining his rule in the face of internal rebellions and attempted coups. He was vigilant and tried to last until the very end, but after the end of the Cold War in the 1990’s, Seko lost almost all of his Western financial support, which was provided in exchange for Seko’s intervention of many of Zaire’s neighbors. As his country began to decline and he became ill, Seko finally relinquished control of the government in May of 1997 to a rival rebel group leader known as Laurent Kabila, whose forces had begun to seize large amounts of power as Seko’s health began to decline. He was exiled out of the Congo and ended up in Morocco. A very short time late, Seko died in Rabat, Morocco, of prostate cancer. In conclusion, Mobutu Sese Seko was able to accomplish most of his political goals, but his career eventually came crashing down and he was unable to finish out his life with pride. Although he was a dictator, he still tried to better his country and help out his fellow countrymen, which shows that he was not all bad. He tried to make decisions that sat favorably with his “subjects” and attempted to do well in his position.