Mobutu: 'One Chief, Not Two'

ZAIRE

For more than a decade, Mobutu Sese Seko, 45, has ruled Zaire with style and forcefulness--a fact that his countrymen are seldom allowed to forget. Commonly referred to by his own government and press as Le Guide, Mobutu restored stability to the former Belgian Congo and unified its 100 tribes into a true nation after the bloody civil war of the 1960s. Since then, the shy, scholarly army commander has become a flamboyant, African cult figure whose rule sometimes seems akin to that of a god-chief. Mobutu's portrait, capped by the leopard-skin hat that has become his trademark, is everywhere to be seen in the capital city of Kinshasa and throughout the country.

Mobutu personally ordained everything from the country's total nationalization program two years ago to such personal touches as dictating that Zaireans drop their Christian names for African ones, address one another as "citizen" and "citizeness," and wear a form of national dress--batik sarongs for women, tunic suits for men. Absolute wealth has tended to follow absolute power; Mobutu--whose personal interests include property in Spain and Switzerland --has been widely described as one of the wealthiest men in Zaire.

But Zaire is in serious economic trouble; its fortunes rise and fall on the world price of copper--the country's principal export --which has dropped from $1.41 to 68-c- per lb. over the past two years. Zaire has recently begun to pay the price for Mobutu's grandiose development schemes, including a national airline, a $1 billion hydroelectric project and a new $800 million copper complex. The government was forced to devalue the currency by 42% this spring and has defaulted on $400 million in foreign loans. The inflation rate has shot up to 120% over the past three years, while per capita income remains about $90 annually. In recent months there have been serious shortages of bread, rice and other staples, and increasing signs of both disease and discontent.

Despite an abortive coup last year, Mobutu remains unchallenged in his control over both the Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR), Zaire's only legal political party, and the country. In a rare interview, Mobutu spoke with TIME Correspondent William McWhirter at his spacious villa, which looks out over the rapids of the Zaire River and across to the border of Brazzaville. "For all his dashing flamboyance in public," reported McWhirter, "Mobutu was surprisingly low-keyed and serious. He was nevertheless lively, outspoken and outwardly untroubled about the future of his country and the continent." Excerpts from the interview:

ON INTERVENTION IN ANGOLA. It is a normal episode for young countries. Zaire has known a lot of turbulence in the past--secessions, rebellions, civil war, and that is what I feel is going on in Angola. There was much more violence than we had, much more vested interest from the outside than in 1960 [in the Congo]. The thing that concerns us is the quantity of heavy sophisticated arms and equipment that the Russians and Cubans have amassed in that country. We cannot, in the face of that, be indifferent. [But] I really don't think the Russians and Cubans intend to repeat their Angola experience in other places in Africa. It would be a terrible error on their part. Africa is mature enough to resolve its own problems.

ON WAR IN RHODESIA. It is inevitable. It is absolutely inevitable. The only people still being dragged down in the world are black people. Black people cannot go to colonize in Britain. They cannot go to the U.S. and colonize Connecticut. As far as Zimbabwe [Rhodesia] is concerned, as far as justice is concerned, Africa cannot stay with its arms crossed. It has got to do something to get rid of [Prime Minister] Ian Smith. I am not saying that all white Rhodesia must go--just the clique that holds power there. I am sure a lot of whites would like to stay in the country, and if they do, their rights as a minority group will be respected. I am not talking in the name of the national leaders of Zimbabwe, but they probably feel the same way I do.

ON RHODESIAN GUERRILLAS. Those who want to help Africa to be free would do better to help the countries who have proved and shown that they are able to help the liberation movements rather than come in themselves with the kind of direct involvement that only leads to confrontation. But take the situation in Namibia. Take the situation in Zimbabwe. As far as the West is concerned, after Angola, the Russians and the Cubans can't go into Zimbabwe and other countries. But Africans would applaud them if they walked in tomorrow. It doesn't matter what the color of their skin is. We were pleasantly surprised to see [Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger in his Lusaka speech taking a position for the liberation of southern Africa. In that area there has never been a position stated by the Americans.

ON AFRICA'S STABILITY.

As an American, you have 200 years of independence behind you. We have not been independent for 20 years. What are 20 years in the life of a country or a continent? When we've been going 200 years, our grandchildren will have made certain progress. We have our problems. But things will come. What were the first 20 years like in America?

ON MOBUTU'S PROGRAM OF ZAIREAN "AUTHENTICITY." Authenticity is very simple. It is what you are. It is what I am. It has nothing to do with culture. It is an attitude. The key is not to return to the past but to recover it. We take from our history what is valid for the present. Our women don't wear pants, they don't wear wigs, they don't wear lipstick. Because of this return to authenticity we have a huge culture we can draw from. We still have much "decolonizing" to do of our own spirit, our own culture. It is a question of mentality, not race, black or white.

ON HIS STYLE OF GOVERNING. I am not a Westerner--I am a Zairean, an African. I live with technology like anyone else in the world, but this is an African democracy. It has one chief, not two, not three.

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