Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa za Banga ( mə-BOO-too SESS-ay SEK-oh; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997), often shortened to Mobutu Sese Seko or Mobutu and also known by his initials MSS, was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the first and only president of Zaire from 1971 to 1997. Previously, Mobutu served as the second president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 1965 to 1971.

Mobutu served as the fifth chairperson of the Organisation of African Unity from 1967 to 1968. During the Congo Crisis in 1960, Mobutu, then serving as Chief of Staff of the Congolese Army, deposed the nation's democratically elected government of Patrice Lumumba with the support of the U.S. and Belgium. Mobutu installed a government that arranged for Lumumba's execution in 1961, and continued to lead the country's armed forces until he took power directly in a second coup in 1965.

To consolidate his power, Mobutu established the Popular Movement of the Revolution as the sole legal political party in 1967, changed the Congo's name to Zaire in 1971, and his own name to Mobutu Sese Seko in 1972. Mobutu protected his rule through an intensely totalitarian regime and corrupt patronage network to regime supporters. He presided over widespread human rights violations. He attempted to purge the country of all colonial cultural influence through his program of "national authenticity". Mobutu was the object of a pervasive cult of personality.

Mobutu claimed that his political ideology was "neither left nor right, nor even centre", but was primarily recognized for his opposition to communism within the Françafrique region and received strong support (military, diplomatic and economic) from the United States, France, and Belgium as a result. He built close ties with the governments of apartheid South Africa and Israel. As a result of the Sino-Soviet split, Mobutu established close relations with China.

Mobutu was notorious for corruption and nepotism: estimates of his personal wealth range from $50 million to $5 billion, amassed through economic exploitation and corruption as president. His rule has been called a kleptocracy for allowing this personal fortune even as the economy of Zaire suffered from uncontrolled inflation, a large debt, and massive currency devaluations. Mobutu was further known for extravagances such as shopping trips to Paris via the supersonic Concorde aircraft.