Shafts of equatorial sunshine pierce the jungle canopy and stained-glass windows of a tiny chapel, capturing the dictator's head in a halo of multicolored light. An imposing man in a gray sharkskin suit and shiny black shoes, he clasps his large hands and kneels in prayer, silently reciting the Eucharist service.
Zaire's President Mobutu Sese Seko seldom misses Sunday Mass. It is a ritual he has faithfully observed during his nearly 30 years of absolute power, a tenure marked by the torture and killing of his opponents and corruption that has funneled much of his nation's wealth into his private pocket. Now 62 and in robust health, Mobutu governs from his native fiefdom of Gbadolite, a jungle village close to the equator. Surrounded at all times by heavily armed troops, he remains impervious to the growing clamor among 35 million Zairians for an end to his disastrously autocratic rule.
"If my people need me," Mobutu says with a smile, "I can certainly remain in power for another five, 10 or even 20 years." Any hope that he will peacefully step aside is belied by the name he took for himself several years after he seized power in the 1960s: Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga (the all powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, shall go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake).
After church, Mobutu joins guests for a flute of his favorite pink Laurent Perrier champagne at the nearby presidential palace. Like an amiable monarch amid courtiers, he bows gracefully to kiss a woman's hand and banters politely with a local Jesuit priest before herding everyone across an immense terrace toward a buffet laden with lobster and thick steaks. In the 100 degrees heat, a wave of satisfaction seems to envelop the presidential party, a sense that all is still well in this remote hinterland far from the chaos afflicting the rest of the country.
Mobutu's personal fortune, built on a network of private businesses, the pilfering of public resources and skimming the foreign aid that has flowed into his country, has been estimated at $5 billion. He has bank accounts in Switzerland and other countries, an apartment on Avenue Foch in Paris, a palatial villa at Cap-Martin on the French Riviera and other residences in Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Senegal. When pressed, he swears on his "honor as a Christian and a chief" that his available funds amount to "no more than $10 million." He does concede, however, that this absurdly low figure does not include his foreign real estate holdings and other assets he does not consider liquid.
In Gbadolite, Mobutu lives in a series of garish palaces guarded by soldiers drawn from his own Bangala tribe. An early riser, he often tunes in newscasts via satellites. It was after watching the televised execution of his old friend President Nicolae Ceaucescu of Romania, for example, that he decided to embark Zaire on its now stalled "transition to democracy." After breakfast he accords audiences that can stretch into the afternoon; then he relaxes with % his family or studies biographies of men he admires, including Napoleon and De Gaulle. Mobutu is fascinated by Machiavelli, whose treatise The Prince he used to keep at his bedside.