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Young people in Kinshasa are flocking to an exhibit at the national museum that highlights the life and rule of Mobutu Sese Seko, the charismatic and notoriously corrupt leader who seized power in 1965 and ruled for more than 30 years.
Mobutu built a personality cult and a one-party state, and at the height of his influence he mingled with royalty and presidents and staged grand events—most famously the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Backed by Western powers for his anti-communism, he pushed a program of “authenticity,” banning Western-style suits and names, while presiding over massive personal enrichment: an ornate jungle palace, luxury imports flown in by Concorde and a lavish personal lifestyle amid widespread poverty.
Despite that record, many Congolese—especially younger visitors to the exhibit—express nostalgia for what they remember as greater stability and international respect under Mobutu. “To be sure, his reign wasn’t appreciated by everyone,” said Marie-Ange Makeya, an 18-year-old architecture and urbanism student visiting the show. “But at least the country was respected, and there was no war.” Juvenal Munubo, a politician from eastern Congo invited to the exhibit, acknowledged Mobutu’s controversy but said people recall a stronger sense of national unity. “We recognize that the DRC was much more stable than it is now,” he said.
Mobutu’s fall came in the mid-1990s as a rebellion that began in the east spread; he fled Kinshasa in 1997 and died months later in exile in Morocco. What followed were back-to-back regional wars that devastated the country: estimates put the death toll in the millions. Conflict has persisted in the east since, and in recent years violence has surged again—most recently with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels capturing major eastern cities in early 2025 and controlling significant territory in mineral-rich regions.
Congo remains desperately poor: the World Bank notes that over 70% of the nation’s roughly 120 million people live on under $2.15 a day. It is against that backdrop that Nzanga Mobutu, one of Mobutu’s sons and leader of a small political party, organized the Kinshasa exhibit. He said the goal was to inform young Congolese and defend his father’s legacy. “Whether he was a dictator or not a dictator, I mean: What do you want? Should we let our country be attacked and our women raped?” Nzanga Mobutu told NPR. “We had discipline, when countries tried to attack we had a response.”
The exhibit displays numerous photos of Mobutu in his trademark dark glasses, leopard-skin hat and ebony cane, often pictured alongside world leaders such as John F. Kennedy, Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II—images that underline the message of a leader who made the country count on the world stage. Visitors have included Congolese pop stars, politicians across the spectrum and international figures such as Mike Tyson, who travelled to Kinshasa to commemorate the Rumble in the Jungle anniversary. Even President Félix Tshisekedi toured the exhibit; his appearance was symbolic because his father, Etienne Tshisekedi, was one of Mobutu’s staunchest opponents and Félix spent part of his youth in exile.
Some observers worry that features of Mobutu-ism are reappearing in contemporary politics. In September, politicians swore oaths of loyalty to President Tshisekedi in a ritual critics say echoes Mobutu’s style. For many Congolese yearning for security and order, the exhibit has become a focal point for a complicated nostalgia: admiration for the stability and international stature associated with Mobutu, alongside the contested memory of his authoritarianism and kleptocracy.
