MOBUTU’S Power Intoxication
Mobutu’s political philosophy embraced all spheres of Congolese life and culture, to the extent that he invoked many Congolese deities. Some of the deities were embedded in the totem. He chose Leopard as his totem. It was known that Mobutu carried a walking stick always inscribed with either the head of a leopard or any significant part thereof. He also wore a headgear which was made of leopard skin. The prowess of the leopard is well known in the animal kingdom. Little wonder that his strong belief in native medicine and hence his absolute confidence his totem which enabled him to rule in a dictatorial manner since absolute power corrupts. For many years he plundered the nation’s wealth under the high sounding titles like ‘ Unificateur, tout puissant, fondateur president, le Grande Guide, Mobutu Seseseko’ meaning Unifier, powerful Founder president of the popular movement of the Revolution and Leader Mobutu Seseseko.
Mobutu’s biographer quoted him as saying that he considered the entire vast Congolese territory as his own estate, ironically behaving like the Belgian Monarch King Baudouin who also considered the territory as his plantation. To sustain his rule, during the ‘politics of authenticity’ after his visit to China in1970, having imbibed the doctrine of Maotsetung, he changed Congo to Zaire, borrowed Chinese mode of dressing in order to drop the use of ties which he branded western. Citizens were made to change their baptizimal/colonial names. This Cultural Revolution affected famous musician like Franco who became Luambo. Franco and many other professionals fled to neighboring countries in Europe and America. Franco occasionally criticized Mobutu in his lyrics like ‘course au pouvoir’ meaning’ ‘ Bid for power’. He often fled to Brazzaville, reconciled with him, when pardoned; he would release another LP in praise of the dictator.
However, as time rolled on, he suffered under the upsurge of Democracy when Laurent Kabilla assisted by troops from neighboring Uganda and Rwanda invaded Congo Republic. Mobutu went on exile to Morocco. What an irony for Mobutu Seseseko Kuku wazu Mbanga, a great warrior
Whose life ended as he could not live for ever as proclaimed by his totem . Demobututisation followed thereafter as Zaire reverted to Democratic Republic of Congo. The new Congo led to reverting to former nomenclature.
More importantly, a quote from documentary film ‘ Les Annes du Mobutu’ summarizes the events in Mobutu era:
Le Zaire de Mobutu, ce sont trente ans de drame, de passions, d’espoire, et deception. C’est une longue histoire d’amour-haine avec la Belgique. C’est aussi l’inexorable delingue economique et social d’un pay qui, a son independence, etait pourtant l’un des fleurons de l’Afrique, un pay que les geologies appelaient “ un scandale minier” , tant son sous-sol est riche.
TRANSLATED TO READ: Mobutu’s Zaire has been thirty years of suffering, hope and disappointments. It is a long story of hatred and love for Belgium. It is also the continuous economic decline of a country that at independence was one of the jewels of Africa, a country described by geologists as ‘ Mining scandal’ because its subsoil is so rich but management of resources very poor.
It must be stressed again that it was the political power employed by Mobutu that fascinated chief Madu Ndigba to court the mystical power of the totem.
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I want to congratulate Ambassador Ukpong on his publications. I want also to make the following comments on the first article on Mobutu Sesseseku and his totem. Totemism seems to be universal in the ancient world. There is hardly any nation where they never had totems. Some of these totems have survived civilization and enlightenment, especially through the political class. One sees them in the coat of Arms of many nations. Here in Germany for example, apart from the Eagle in their National Coat of Arm, Berlin has the Bear as her totem and Bayern the Lion. Most of these political totems are beasts of prey. May be, these count for the inhuman behaviours of most political leaders all over the world. Even in the Old Testament Bible we found something of the sort. Daniel’s vision of four beasts in Daniel chapter 7 is a good example. Totemism is earliest version of the funny theory of evolution of the human species from animals.
Yes some believe their totem so much that they forget God almighty. All said and done the same fate that awaits all living beings await them, - death. Yes Lions, Bears, and Leopards even Dragons die. Mobutu forgot that. But death does not bother about what a person believes or not believe. If human beings were capable of learning from history, I think there would have been no more arrogant and wicked leaders who eat up their people as beasts of prey. If Mobutu wished to be strong as the Leopard to ward of foreign predators from destroying his people (Agu na-eche mba as the Igbos would say) it would have been a different case, but being a Leopard to eat up the people he was suppose to protect is bad enough, yet the country continues to exist while he is long dead in exile.His fate awaits all his like.
Dee Mike
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