How Versailles appeared in the jungle: The sad story of an African dictator and his dream city

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Far and deep in the tropical African forest lies a dilapidated city. More than two hundred thousand people live in the city. This would not be unusual, but half a century ago it was a miserable village that was not even on the map. Then a big city, a dream city, a fairytale city, a real "Versailles" - Gbadolite, which was visited by the top officials of the most influential states of the world, grew up here. Now these are ruins, recaptured by the jungle, and only pitiful dull echoes of its former beauty and grandeur remain from it. What happened to the thriving city and the one who built it?

Gbadolite is located one thousand kilometers from the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kinshasa. Fifty years ago there was a village with a population of about one and a half thousand people. This settlement was not even on the maps. Everything changed when dictator Mobutu Sese Seko came to power.

In just ten years, the newly minted president has transformed the abandoned village where he was born into a vast, prosperous city. There was an airport, luxurious five-star hotels, supermarkets, schools, hospitals, equipped with state-of-the-art high-tech equipment. Gbadolit had a three thousand two hundred meters long runway built for the supersonic Concorde. All this today lies in ruins. The jungle is gradually conquering its territory from people.

Mobutu seized power in 1965 in a military coup. The military dictatorship of the totalitarian regime of President Mobutu Sese Seko lasted three decades. The dictator was born in the jungle of Congo, the largest country in Africa and the poorest and most distressed of them all. Perhaps the implementation of such an arrogant and monumental project compensated for some of Mobutu's childhood mental trauma …

History knew a lot of dictators, and they all demonstrated similar examples of narcissism, embodying the wildest fantasies. It is not enough to build yourself a luxurious palace. You need to map a new city built according to your own design. Mobutu has no monuments in the Congo in the truest sense of the word. But it is enough to look around, being in Gbadolite - this is all his monument. After the pyramids, this city is the most valuable monument that man has built for himself. A former journalist who became a billionaire and so passionately adored art. And even though this year there will be no celebration of the anniversary of the ascent of Mobutu, his name is inscribed in history.

It all started a long time ago. Congo has just emerged from the disaster of Belgian rule. King Leopold II, perhaps the most egregious of all colonialists, turned the country into his fiefdom, slaughtering and enslaving the population in order to enrich himself on ivory and rubber. Congo had a chance of independence with Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. The CIA helped Belgium destroy him. Joseph Desiree Mobutu, who was a reporter and editor at the time, saw it as his chance for a better life.

In 1963, Mobutu was invited by President John F. Kennedy to the White House and recruited to the side of the capitalists on the African Cold War battlefield. Two years later, he declared himself head of state, renamed his country Zaire, and himself Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu wa for Banga (which means “an almighty warrior who, thanks to endurance and unshakable will to victory, will move from conquest to conquest, leaving behind fire”) and adopted his infamous leopard-skin hat.

Mobutu amassed enormous personal wealth through the exploitation of his country's population and corruption. He consolidated his power in Zaire through a system of economic and political patronage that made him the darling of the United States. Skillfully exploiting the tensions that arose between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Mobutu received significant support from the West and its international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. They were ready to endlessly fund his whims, despite widespread human rights violations and uncontrolled inflation, into which the country was rapidly slipping.

The level of corruption was simply staggering. According to the most conservative estimates, the dictator stole $ 5 billion from his country's treasury, but some sources cite the figure as up to $ 15 billion. Mobutu owned luxurious mansions all over the world and loved to travel the world. He went shopping with a lot of his family and lavish fanfare on specially chartered Boeing 747 and Concorde jets. Mobutu's possessions included a 16th century castle in Spain, a 32-room palace in Switzerland, and numerous residences in Paris, the French Riviera, Belgium, Italy, Cote d'Ivoire and Portugal. However, the most striking example of his eccentric quirks was closer to home, in Gbadolite.

This remote village on the border with the Central African Republic has become, at the request of Mobutu, a luxurious city, often referred to as the "Versailles of the Jungle". Here the dictator erected three large marble-faced palaces, a 100-room motel run by the Mobutu family, an airport with a vast airstrip long enough to accommodate the Concorde. Also, a nuclear bunker was built here, which can accommodate more than 500 people. The satellite communications station provided color television and telephone communications. There were modern schools, excellent hospitals, and even a Coca-Cola bottling plant.

The dictator's palace contained many splendid works of art. There were many paintings, sculptures, furniture in the style of Louis XIV. Everything was faced with marble from Carrara in Italy. The residence had two huge pools surrounded by loudspeakers from which his favorite Gregorian chants and classical music poured. The palace hosted large-scale receptions and countless bright evenings with Taittinger champagne, salmon and other gourmet dishes served on moving conveyor belts by Congolese and European chefs.

Mobutu has hosted many international dignitaries at his private residence, including Pope John Paul II, King of Belgium, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali, self-proclaimed emperor of the Central African Republic Jean-Bedel Bocassa. His 8 guests at various times included American television evangelist Pat Robertson, oil baron David Rockefeller, businessman Maurice Tempelsman, and even CIA director William Casey.

Throughout the Cold War, Mobutu helped the Soviet Union stay away from Africa's fabulous natural wealth. But after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US and Western powers no longer wanted to fund Mobutu. Instead, they began to pressure Mobutu to democratize the regime. The Bush administration even denied him a visa when he tried to visit Washington. The dictator then lamented: “I am the last victim of the Cold War, which the United States no longer needs. The lesson is that my support for American politics means nothing."

In 1996, suffering from cancer, Mobutu went to Switzerland for treatment. When he returned home, the rebels took up arms and, with the help of an alliance with neighboring states, overthrew Mobutu. His army offered little resistance. Mobutu fled his country to Togo and then to Morocco, where he died at the age of 66. Mobutu's palaces in Gbadolita were destroyed and looted by the rebels. They smashed the luxurious furniture, tore off the beautiful silk curtains and stole everything of value. Many buildings don't even have a roof now. The Coca-Cola bottling plant, which once employed 7,000 people, has come to a halt and has been converted into a UN logistics base. The unfinished building of the Ministry of Water Resources turned into an impromptu school. Gbadolite became a shadow of himself. “The jungle has taken over the land. Roman-style columns now protrude from under the trees, the huge vases flanking the ornamental lake have been entwined with vines, and the tiered pools are filled with green maggots,”noted documentary filmmaker Robin Barnwell.

The magnificent five-star Nzekele Motel is now abandoned and running, but still open for business. The empty movie theater has ripped seats and holes in the place of the projector. The airport is practically non-operational. Only two or three tiny planes fly from the UN a week.

The "brutal" dictator Mobutu still has supporters. His ruined home is looked after by a handful of loyalists who willingly give visitors a guided tour for money. “I care about this place because it belongs to us. Although Mobutu died, he left it to us,”said one of the self-styled caretakers. François Cosia Ngama, whose grandmother taught Mobutu's mother, recalls the glorious days of Gbadolite's past, when the palace employed from 700 to 800 chauffeurs, cooks and other attendants, as well as more than 300 soldiers. “When I came here, I felt like in paradise. It was wonderful. Everyone ate as much as they wanted,”Ngama recalls dreamily. “People were poor, but we didn't notice it at the time,” he continues. “We thought it was okay. The army was organized and well paid. There were clothes from the Netherlands and the women had money to buy them. In education, teachers received good salaries and did not complain. Some needed big bags to carry all the money every time they were paid a salary. Most of the teachers had their own transport. It’s not like that now.”

Elias Mulungula, a former minister who remained loyal to Mobutu, said: “President Mobutu was a positive dictator, not a negative one. He knew what methods to use to maintain unity, security and peace for his people. You could feel at home anywhere in the Congo under the Mobutu regime. There is no freedom without security. He understood what people needed. Even opponents of Mobutu agree that Mobutu was more useful than some of his successors. And certainly preferable to the current president, Kabila's son Joseph, who is accused of corruption, human rights violations and attempts to stay in power beyond his term of office. “Mobutu was a dictator, but we had a state with him. Today we do not have a state - it is a jungle. Kabila kills more than Mobutu. Kabila is three times richer than Mobutu. Mobutu was respected in the international community. Kabila is behaving wildly and violently,”said Joseph Olengankoy, who was arrested by the Mobutu regime 45 times.

Many also complain about the senseless destruction of Gbadolite. Mobutu was not just a dictator, he was a great builder. His house was furnished by local artists. He was generous and allowed them to become famous all over the world. “But after his death, people destroy, not preserve. Today the city is just a shadow, and nature has regained its right. If I went back there today, I would feel desperate,”says Olengankoy.

Now it is impossible to look at the city without tears. Elias Mulungula, who has been Mobutu's translator for four years, shares this opinion: "If I go to Gbadolite today, I cannot help but cry like Jesus cried looking at Jerusalem." Mulungula, 52, was a minister in the Mobutu government, but admits: “I am always more proud when people greet me as 'lord translator' than when they say 'former minister'. Working as a translator for Mobutu was a privilege. He was a very kind leader, a gentleman. He couldn't eat without making sure other people had already eaten. He was open and loved to joke."

Only 18 years have passed and Xanadu has become a pitiful excuse, a mockery of Mobutu's insane wealth. A dilapidated brown and gold gate still stands at the edge of a large estate opposite a cluster of small houses built of clay, wood, and dried grass. Mami Yonou, 26, who lives there, says, "We were unhappy with how much Mobutu spent when the locals suffered, even though he gave us gifts, clothes and money."

Children pick up rusty pieces of scrap metal to let cars pass, past vegetation, anthills and the control panel where security personnel once checked on visitors. On a winding road almost three kilometers long, it is now empty. In the distance, you can see a multi-level Versailles-style fountain that used to play instrumental music. Now the pool is dry, the lining is cracked and weeds are growing there.

Mobutu can be treated in many ways. But this is all history. The dictator is no longer alive. All this splendor should remain in state ownership. The mistake of this country is that they destroyed and plundered everything. They did this to erase Mobutu's memory, but history must be preserved. History can be positive or negative, but it remains our history, and we must pass it on from one generation to the next. The palace in Gbadolite is the death certificate of memory.

It's sad when this happens in a modern, seemingly civilized world. But, unfortunately, it happens. Read our article about another state, whose history is sad, but at the same time instructive how people live today in a country whose history is similar to the parable of the biblical executions: unrecognized Somaliland.