Mobutu expo lays bare DR Congo dictator's troubled legacy 30 years on

Mobutu Sese Seko ruled the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than three decades as a dictator who plundered the country's vast mineral wealth while propped up by the West.

But 30 years after his fall, an exhibition at the National Museum in the capital Kinshasa -- opened at his family's initiative -- hopes to tell the "another side" of the story of a man who many Congolese still blame for the corruption that has penetrated every aspect of the country's life.

His son, Nzanga Mobutu, acknowledged that the exhibition, "Mobutu, A Life, A Destiny", skirts the darker side of his father's time in power.

After taking power in a coup in 1965, the former general changed the country's name to Zaire, installed a single-party system, muzzled the opposition and embezzled taxpayers' money with abandon to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

Mobutu Sese Seko funded his extravagant lifestyle by plundering the DRC's resources. By ERIC FEFERBERG (AFP)

Yet in an interview with AFP, Mobutu's son explained that he hoped the museum would fill in the gaps in the "incomplete" or "a bit biased" history of the DRC since independence from Belgium -- especially for the Congolese youth.

In the face of the country's ongoing bloody conflict and economic woes, many of the country's young people have begun to express nostalgia for an era they cannot remember.

US, European puppet

Ever since Mobutu died from prostate cancer in exile in Morocco in 1997, following his toppling by Laurent-Desire Kabila's Uganda and Rwanda-backed rebellion, the former dictator's legacy has divided the DRC.

The current President Felix Tshisekedi and rumba star Fally Ipupa are among prominent figures who have signed the Mobutu exhibition's guest book.

'Mobutu, A life, A Destiny' is on show at the National Museum in Kinshasa. By Glody MURHABAZI (AFP)

But Abbot Joseph Mpundu, a standard bearer for the repressed 1992 protests against Mobutu's rule, takes a dim view of any rehabilitation of the ex-dictator's image.

For the priest, Mobutu kept the country under the thumb of the "Americans and Europeans", who were eager to maintain their access to Congolese minerals and promote a bulwark against Cold War-era communism in Africa -- at the cost of supporting Mobutu's "corruption and authoritarianism".

For Congolese former deputy Enoch Ruberangabo, who comes from an ethnic Tutsi community in the restive east, Mobutu was a leader who "allowed community tensions to fester".

Those tensions erupted after the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis over the border in Rwanda, fuelling a cycle of bloody conflict in the eastern DRC that continues to this day.

Mobutu-era nostalgia

Historians and researchers have pointed to the continuation during the Mobutu era of a system inherited from Belgium's brutal colonial rule, in which the central government sucks up all the proceeds of the country's bountiful natural riches.

Nzanga Mobutu said he wants the exhibition to tell 'another side' of his father's story. By Glody MURHABAZI (AFP)

Under Mobutu, that then morphed into an extractive enterprise, where informal access to the corridors of power allowed individuals to fill their bank accounts with the proceeds from those resources.

Mobutu's fall in 1997 did nothing to stop the rot. Even today, "if you try to bring order, the system will crush you," an administrative official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Despite its vast natural resources, which include gold, diamonds, uranium, cobalt and copper, the DRC ranks among the world's poorest countries.

In the end, the Mobutu era left few visible traces behind: a handful of palaces and monuments to the late dictator lie decrepit, while virtually no infrastructure from his time survives to this day.

When Mobutu fell, "we realised that his grandeur was built on hot air," said Ruberangabo, the former lawmaker.

But in a DRC struggling to quell a fresh onslaught in the east, where the M23 militia has seized swathes of the mineral-rich region with Rwanda's backing, some today see Mobutu as a leader who knew how to keep the country united.

For law student Aaron Mbungu, who attended the exhibition, the former leader represents "the symbol of national leadership".

And while Mobutu remains a dictator to Daniel Dimasi, the urban planning student told AFP he believes "his name is not mentioned enough among the good men and great men of this country".

In the face of the current crisis, some young Congolese have begun to look on the Mobutu era with nostalgia. By Glody MURHABAZI (AFP)

"Young people, faced with unemployment and a lack of prospects, are idealising the past and glamorising the Mobutu era," said Congolese political scientist Christian Moleka.

After enjoying a certain success since opening in mid-October, the Mobutu exhibition has been extended indefinitely.

Still in Morocco, Mobutu's corpse has not been returned to the DRC for burial.