Hardly had Mobutu Sese Seko, the former President of Zaire, met his ignominious death in his Moroccan exile, when his Belgian son-in-law Pierre Janssen spilt the beans in a book that has shocked the world. Janssen tells all and makes shattering revelations about the paradoxes in Mobutu's character and the true nature of life in his court. Fran?ois Misser and Alan Rake have both been reading A la cour de Mobutu - by Pierre Janssen. Published by Michel Lafon, Paris. (in French only).

There was a sad contrast between the discreet funeral in Rabat, Morocco, on 13 September attended by only a few relatives and the life of incredible luxury at Mobutu's court just months before.

His Belgian son-in-law, Pierre Janssen, has just written a spellbinding, insider's book that spills the beans about his father-in-law's extraordinary lifestyle. Now that Mobutu is dead he feels free to make shattering revelations about his adopted family.

Janssen, a young Belgian businessman brought up in a strict Catholic background in a respectable middle-class family, tells how he fell, by chance, into the big-time.

About $3m was spent on his wedding to Yaki - Mobutu's daughter by his first wife, brought up by his second wife on the death of her mother.

On the great wedding day Mobutu bought his daughter three different outfits, one for the ceremony at the Mairie (mayor's office), a second for the church, and a third for the evening party. All were designed by the top French fashion designers, Nina Ricci, Jean Louis Scherrer and Christian Lacroix.

A few days earlier "the Marshal", as Janssen calls Mobutu, had virtually emptied various jewellers in the plushy Place Vendome in Paris to decorate his daughter and his womenfolk.

Sparkling throng
No less than 2,500 guests were invited. Three aircraft were chartered to carry the guests - ambassadors, consuls, charges d'affaires, special counsellors, kings and princes, prime ministers, diamond magnates and Arab millionaires.

The sparkling throng drank over 1,000 bottles of the best French champagne. The cheapest bottle cost no less than $150 and the most expensive $750.

A special aircraft was hired at $75,000 just to bring the four-metre-high wedding cake from Paris. After the wedding the newlyweds were offered a house in Brussels, a villa in Kinshasa, an apartment in Monte Carlo and a Range Rover.

Janssen also tells of the splendours of Mobutu's palace at Gbadolite. It was protected by 40-metre-high iron railings topped in gold. The building itself was made of the best marble imported from Carrara in Italy or from Brazil. The chandeliers were made of Venetian Murano crystal glass.

He tells of the world jet-setters who poured in to meet Mobutu. They included Ted Turner, the billionaire husband of the American actress Jane Fonda and the boss of the CNN TV network, who wanted to launch an African news TV channel based in Kinshasa.

Mobutu's secret love life
Janssen also unveils curious details about Mobutu's secret love life. The Zairean leader married Mama Bobi, his uncle's widow, and also had an affair with Bobi's twin sister Kossia who bore him two sons. Both of these "mapassa" (twin sisters in Lingala) were extremely influential and powers behind the throne.

Mama Bobi became Mobutu's second wife. Her wardrobe with over 1,000 different dresses compared with Imelda Marcos. When she travelled, even on the shortest journey, Bobi brought a minimum of 100 trunks with her.

Mobutu's own staff learnt many tricks from their master. They bought champagne at $15 a bottle and sold it on to the President's household at three times more. Mobutu's trusted lieutenants and special advisers worked out dozens of scams to make a profit out of their boss.

Hostage to his women
In fact Mobutu was manipulated by his entourage. He was a hostage to the terrible twins that he had married, who had the final say over all financial decisions, says Janssen.

The "Great Leopard", as he liked to call himself, was also highly superstitious. He took no important decisions without consulting witch doctors from all over Africa. Most important was his Senegalese guru, Ndiuga Kebe.

Once he convinced Mobutu that some of his most valuable antique furniture was full of "bad fluids" that would attract evil. Mobutu got rid of the furniture.

One day Janssen surprised Mobutu in some secret ceremony as he was drinking the warm blood of a chicken. He found it so revolting that could hardly swallow it. Though Yaki told Janssen not to believe all the stories he heard about her father, on that occasion he could not help remembering all the unlikely gossip that he had heard about human sacrifice and even cannibalism.

How Janssen met Yaki
Janssen met Yaki through a Zairean business friend Jean Jacques Dambana, who himself had married Yango Mobutu, another of Mobutu's daughters. A frequent guest at the chateau Fond Roi, in Brussels, friendship with the beautiful Yaki sprung up as the young couple discussed skiing and cinema.

Soon Janssen found himself in the society of young members of the family. Even before they had taken their final school exams, they drifted around in the latest Mercedes cars and lived like princes in huge luxury apartments, spending from inexhaustible purses. Yaki herself did not go out much. She lived like a small wild animal in a castle, in the middle of a park, which belonged to her mother in the smartest suburb of Brussels. It had 15 rooms, seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms and the whole groundfloor was given over to servants and security men.

Janssen meets his father-in-law
Yaki took Janssen to see her father for the first time on his luxury yacht, the Kaman-yola, moored on the Zaire river. Mobutu met them alone in an immense dining room where the precious wooden panels were encrusted in gold. Loudspeakers diffused the music of Gregorian choirs. Mobutu introduced himself in elegant French. Then he clapped his hands and immediately he was surrounded by Maitres d'Hotel waiting on his slightest word. One of the dishes offered was monkey meat which Mobutu promised would be "beautifully prepared".

Later Mobutu took his son-in-law for a picnic in a jungle village. Mobutu drove his old Chevrolet shooting break himself, with Janssen sitting next to him on the front seat. The women were not invited!

Mobutu and the CIA
Janssen is not a political animal and he says he stayed out of Mobutu's politics, but he did learn a lot all the same.

Janssen says that much is explained by the fact that Mobutu was always a fanatical anti-communist, even when he was a young man making his first sorties into journalism, long before he had tasted power.

A year before the Congo's independence he had been head-hunted by the director of the CIA in the country. Two years later he was given the US Legion of Merit by President Kennedy. Then he met George Bush, just before Bush became the head of the CIA and agreed to make Zaire the headquarters for all CIA operations in central Africa.

Mobutu was hooked and absorbed huge quantities of CIA money in return for his services. The Americans used him as an intermediary in channelling money to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA in Angola.

A former head of the CIA in Zaire told Janssen that nearly $25m was sent through Kinshasa to the UNITA rebels. Mobutu made sure to take his cut.

Anything for money
As Mobutu's power expanded and his extended family became ever more demanding, he would do anything for money. The former Prime Minister of Belgium Leo Tindemans said at first he was impressed by his talent, power and intelligence. "Then everything changed and he was only interested in money, no matter where it came from - private companies or foreign governments. He had no idea about a financial policy...but what did it matter as long as the money continued to flow."

Janssen says he frequently witnessed how Mobutu always travelled with Vuitton attach? cases stuffed full of American dollars. No cheques for him, nor worthless Zairean currency, just hard dollars. Frequently Janssen heard him ordering his staff late at night to provide three million dollars ready for him to travel the next morning.

One day Mobutu was in a restaurant in the Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo, with the whole family. After a sumptious meal he was presented with a bill for $38,000, but this time his attach? case was missing. Mama Bobi had been "gripped with shopping fever" and had gone to Cartier's to buy jewellery. She had taken the attach? case with her. Mobutu sent out a messenger and Mama Bobi took out just enough money to meet the restaurant bill and then returned to her shopping.

Cracking jokes
Mobutu's French cook, Alain Troubat, in an interview with the Brussels daily, La Libre Belgique, describes Mobutu as charismatic, polite, and cordial with a strong sense of humour. Troubat says he liked to crack jokes especially about the Belgians, his former colonial masters. He says Mobutu was rich but gave away a lot to those around him, but those who became rich through him were not as generous to their dependants.

The retired Belgian ambassador Alfred Cahen told La Libre Belgique, "I know everything Mobutu can be blamed for, but he was my friend. When he came to power he was not in the army. He wanted to become a journalist but was recruited into the Force Publique. After that he was sacked from a Roman Catholic school because he spent the night with a young lady... He did a lot of great things at the beginning but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

"His greatest mistake was the Zaireanisation of foreign assets at the end of 1973... He started to jail all my friends... He became a dictator for sure and there was something in his nature. Eventually his worst side came out".

The sons of the late President Joseph Kasavubu, and the late prime ministers Patrice Lumumba and Moise Tshombe all blame Mobutu for the deaths of their fathers. However, Kasavubu's daughter, Justine, now the Congo's ambassador to Brussels paid a strange tribute to him, "Mobutu is dead, not Mobutism."

She meant that the culture of venality and corruption permeated every level of Zairean society under Mobutu's rule. It is now so entrenched in the system and will take years to eradicate. Mobutu had much to answer for.

Long but interesting piece.

can any good thing ever come out of nazaret (africa). The list is endless

mobutu
idiamin
ghadafi
abacha
ibb
iyadema
gbagbo

smh 4 africa.

He got off easy.

Bastard Mobutu, I remembered how he was ousted by late Lauren Kabila (the sleeping president) the father of a madman called Joseph Kabila. USA, Belgium and Mobutu destroyed DR Congo (formerly known as Zaire)

Gaddafithe2nd:
Bastard Mobutu, I remembered how he was ousted by late Lauren Kabila (the sleeping president) the father of a madman called Joseph Kabila. USA, Belgium and Mobutu destroyed DR Congo (formerly known as Zaire)

they indeed destroyed DRC