In the national museum in Kinshasa, young visitors pause beneath huge photographs of Mobutu Sese Seko, drawn to images of a leader who once made Zaire visible on the global stage.
Mobutu, a charismatic but notoriously corrupt ruler, took power in a 1965 coup and governed for more than three decades. At the height of his rule he moved among royalty and world leaders and presided over landmark events such as the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
Amid persistent political instability and long-running armed conflicts, a surprising nostalgia for the relative order of his years has taken hold. An exhibition about his life, organized by his son Nzanga Mobutu, recently opened in Kinshasa and has drawn large crowds that include pop stars, politicians and other public figures.
Visitors often express a bittersweet view: while acknowledging that his rule was not without brutality and corruption, many say the country felt more respected and stable then. An 18-year-old architecture student at the show reflected that, for many, the absence of open war is a major part of the appeal.
Mobutu built a one-party state and promoted a personality cult: state television routinely featured his image, and campaigns reshaped national identity, at times banning Western suits and Western names. Backed by Western powers for his anti-communist stance during the Cold War, he projected Zaire as a reliable partner while enriching himself — constructing an ornate jungle palace, importing luxury goods on Concorde flights and cultivating a lavish public persona.
That comparative stability stands in stark contrast to the violence that followed his fall. In the mid-1990s a rebellion that began in the east spread across the country. Mobutu fled Kinshasa in 1997 and died months later in exile in Morocco. From 1997 onward the country was consumed by successive regional wars that some estimates put at 3 to 5 million deaths. Conflict has persisted in the east, flaring again in recent years: Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized two major eastern cities in early 2025 and now control parts of the mineral-rich region.
The Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the world’s poorest nations. The World Bank reports that more than 70 percent of the roughly 120 million people live on under $2.15 a day.
The Kinshasa exhibition displays iconic images of Mobutu in his dark glasses, leopard-skin hat and ebony cane, placed alongside photographs with figures such as John F. Kennedy, John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II, underlining the argument that he made the country matter internationally. Attendees have ranged from musicians and lawmakers across the political spectrum to visitors like Mike Tyson, who came for the Rumble anniversary.
East Congo politician Juvenal Munubo, who was invited to the show, said people remember the unity and order of Mobutu’s decades and that many feel the country was more stable then. Nzanga Mobutu has said the exhibition is meant to teach young Congolese about that period, arguing that his father provided discipline and the ability to repel external threats.
The display’s popularity has symbolic significance: President Félix Tshisekedi visited the exhibition, a notable gesture given that his father, Etienne Tshisekedi, was once one of Mobutu’s fiercest opponents and Félix spent part of his youth in exile.
Some observers worry that elements of ‘Mobutu-ism’ are re-emerging. In September, some politicians swore oaths of loyalty to President Tshisekedi in rituals that recalled the old era. For those who long for order, the memory of the so-called Leopard of Zaire still prowls the corridors of power.