Mobutu the Mighty

It is no secret that Muhammad Ali is the overwhelming favorite among Zaireans for next week's Ali/Foreman fight in Zaire. But whatever the outcome, the real winner will be President Mobutu Sese Seko. The ballyhoo for "The Fight of the Century" has made the proud President's country an international household word--though a frequently mispronounced one (Zeye-ear).

Carefully orchestrated publicity campaigns are nothing new to Mobutu's 23 million subjects. Every night the television station in the capital city of Kinshasa begins its news with a vision of heavenly clouds slowly dividing. As sonorous music swells, a dark, bespectacled face topped with a leopardskin cap emerges to fill the screen. It is the visage of Mobutu, 44, also known as "le Guide," "le Clairvoyant," "le Redempteur." Without undue modesty, he has also chosen another name for himself that roughly translates as "the all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and will to win, will go from contest to contest leaving fire in his wake." Most of the news items are about Mobutu, and the broadcast closes with a commentary on "Mobutuism"--an amalgam of nationalist and self-help bromides that are credited with having "made of Zaire and Zaireans what they are today." Adulation of Mobutu does not stop at the TV tube. Millions of Zaireans sport the presidential likeness on T shirts, and songwriters frequently mention Mobutu in their lyrics.

The aura of princely grandeur surrounding Mobutu is further bolstered by a life-style that includes palatial residences in each of Zaire's eight provinces and others in France, Belgium and Switzerland. There is not only a luxurious palace in Kinshasa but a 20-sq.-mi. "presidential domain" at N'sele, 40 miles away, which contains two more residences and a swimming pool billed as Africa's largest. To shuttle between his international chain of palaces, Mobutu uses the national airline, Air Zaire, as a personal transport service. His high-handed habit of commandeering planes at a whim has made Air Zaire's timetables something of a joke. When Mobutu visited West Germany last spring, he took the line's 747 for himself and a DC-10 for his wife, leaving Air Zaire suddenly without its two largest planes.

Excessive as it seems, this flamboyant life-style and mandatory adulation are not necessarily all an egregious ego trip. By making himself the center of a national personality cult, Mobutu has succeeded in forging an unprecedented degree of unity among the nearly 200 tribes speaking more than 75 different languages that make up the former Belgian Congo's population. In 1965 when Mobutu, then an army commander, led the bloodless coup that deposed President Joseph Kasavubu, the country had endured five disastrous years of anarchy, civil war and bloodshed. Although rich in natural resources, Zaire was totally unequipped to utilize them when Belgium granted independence in 1960. Industrial development came to a halt when investors refused to risk their money in the unstable country. Today, under Mobutu's absolute rule (he has declared himself President for life), Zaire boasts more than 7,000 university graduates who make up the core of a growing native managerial class. There is an estimated $3.5 billion in foreign investment at work or committed in the country. Zaire is the world's largest producer of cobalt and exporter of industrial diamonds. It ranks fifth in copper production and expects to nearly double its annual output by 1980.

Chinese Doctors. A $227 million loan from the U.S. will enable Zaire to develop its hydroelectric potential, and Gulf Oil has begun offshore production, which may satisfy the country's domestic fuel needs by the end of next year. The prospect of abundant power has prompted Reynolds Metals, among a number of other industrial giants, to express interest in investing. As a result of Mobutu's visit to Peking last year, Kinshasa now swarms with Chinese doctors and agricultural technicians. The Japanese have been asked to help build Zaire's first transnational railroad. The French and Belgians are planning a new deepwater port at Banana, Zaire's only direct sea outlet on its short 23-mile Atlantic coastline.

While zealously pursuing foreign capital, Mobutu has tried to purge his country of foreign customs. As part of his "authenticity" campaign, Mobutu changed the name of his country to Zaire (meaning river). He decreed that all Zaireans discard Christian names for African ones. Throbbing tom-toms replaced the 21-gun salute as official greeting for visiting heads of state. In what was perhaps a further attempt to consolidate his personal power, last summer Mobutu banned Santa Claus.

Although many of these cultural reforms seem minor or even whimsical, they nevertheless reflect a serious attempt to restore dignity to a people demoralized by centuries of colonial rule. As one Western ambassador observed: "This was not a nation until he took over, only an amalgam of bickering regions and tribes. Now there is a national identity that never existed before. The masses don't begrudge Mobutu his luxurious lifestyle. In fact, they seem to take pride in it."

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