# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/mobutu-sese-seko
# Generated: 2026-08-31T13:51:00.772Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/mobutu-sese-seko"
name: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
slug: "mobutu-sese-seko"
description: "He ruled Zaire for thirty-two years through a kleptocracy so vast his personal fortune reached billions while his country's currency collapsed. Mobutu Sese Seko built power on a 1960 coup that killed a democratically elected leader, then held it with U.S. backing, a cult of personality, and Concorde shopping trips to Paris."
tagline: "Congolese politician and military officer, the first and only president of Zaire from 1971 to 1997 (1930 – 1997)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Mobutu.jpg"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1930-10-14"
deathDate: "1997-09-07"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           65.72
  momentum:             1.795619094367407
  historical:           28.152492
  currentAttention:     12.17857142857143
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  65
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Politicians"
    slug: "politicians"
  - name: "Politician"
    slug: "politician"
  - name: "Politics"
    slug: "politics"
  - name: "Journalism"
    slug: "journalism"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0782891/"
    handle:    "nm0782891"
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q164535"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Mobutu%20Sese%20Seko"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ary.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%88_%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%8A_%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%88"
    title: "موبوتو سيسي سيكو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%88_%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%89_%D8%B3%D9%8A%D9%83%D9%88"
    title: "موبوتو سيسى سيكو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ast.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%88_%D8%B3%D8%B3%D8%B3%D9%88%DA%A9%D9%88"
    title: "موبوتو سسسوکو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%82%D1%83_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BE"
    title: "Мабуту Сесе Секо"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%83%D1%82%D1%83_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%B5_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BE"
    title: "Мобуту Сесе Секо"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%81_%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%87_%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8B"
    title: "মোবুতু সেসে সেকো"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C%CE%BF%CE%BC%CF%80%CE%BF%CF%8D%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85_%CE%A3%CE%AD%CF%83%CE%B5_%CE%A3%CE%AD%CE%BA%CE%BF"
    title: "Μομπούτου Σέσε Σέκο"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D9%88%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%AA%D9%88_%D8%B3%D8%B3%D9%87_%D8%B3%D9%88%DA%A9%D9%88"
    title: "موبوتو سسه سوکو"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mobutu_S%C3%A9s%C3%A9_Seko"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://fr.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://pl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"
    title: "Mobutu Sese Seko"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in 1930, he rose to Chief of Staff of the Congolese Army during the 1960 Congo Crisis, when he deposed Patrice Lumumba's elected government with American and Belgian support and installed a regime that executed Lumumba in 1961. He seized full power in a second coup in 1965, declared the Popular Movement of the Revolution the only legal party in 1967, and renamed the country Zaire in 1971 and himself Mobutu Sese Seko in 1972. He presided over widespread human rights violations and a totalitarian system built on corrupt patronage, amassing between $50 million and $5 billion as his country suffered hyperinflation and debt. Cold War anti-communism won him decades of Western support and ties to apartheid South Africa, China, and Israel. By 1990 economic collapse forced him into coalition; in May 1997 Laurent-Désiré Kabila's rebels overran Zaire and drove him into exile, where he died of prostate cancer three months later in Morocco.