10 Most Brutal African Dictators

3. Mobutu Sese Seko - DR Congo

By Frank Hall [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In many ways, Mobutu Sese Seko was the archetypal African dictator. He took control of the country under democratic pretences only to transform it into a one party state. His untouchable position of power was used to amass a huge personal fortune. His government was plagued by nepotism and corruption. Worst of all, he committed vast atrocities against his own population.

A keen study of Charles de Gaulle and Niccolò Machiavelli, Mobutu fronted a pair of coups d'état in the turbulent years following Congo's 1960 independence. Five years after deposing the country's first elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, Mobutu took full control of the entire nation and declared a state of emergency, promising the restoration of democracy in due course. It didn't happen. Mobutu abolished the prime ministerial position and then dissolved parliament before declaring his own Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution the only legal political party in the country.

Mobutu soon bared his nationalist teeth, embarking on a programme of 'national authenticity'. Congo was renamed Zaire, European styles of dress were banned, and baptising a child with a Western name became illegal. Mobutu himself adopted the snappy moniker 'Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga' - 'the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake.'

For the next quarter of a decade, Zaire's 'Helmsman' was unshakeable. Mobutu's cult of personality was hugely insidious. Immediately recognisable by his leopard skin toque, no other name but the leader's was permitted in the media, and the evening television news was trailed by the deified image of 'the Messiah' emerging through clouds as if a god. Mobutu's political rivals were hanged in broad daylight, and huge sums of money were embezzled from the state under his kleptocratic rule.

Mobutu was finally overthrown by a Rwandan-led invasion headed by Laurent-Désiré Kabila. The country was renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo, but in truth, it was much the same. Soon, Congo fell into a decade long period of internecine civil war, claiming the lives of nearly six million natives. Plus ça change...

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Editorial Team
Editorial Team

Benjamin was born in 1987, and is still not dead. He variously enjoys classical music, old-school adventure games (they're not dead), and walks on the beach (albeit short - asthma, you know). He's currently trying to compile a comprehensive history of video game music, yet denies accusations that he purposefully targets niche audiences. He's often wrong about these things.