Marie-Antoinette Mobutu


Marie-Antoinette Mobutu, also known as Mama Mobutu, was the first wife of Mobutu Sese Seko and First Lady of Zaire.

Biography

Marie-Antoinette was an ethnic Ngbandi born in Banzyville in the Équateur Province in 1941, while the Congo was still under Belgian colonial rule. She met and married Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, another Ngbandi, who was later a non-commissioned officer in the Force Publique, during 1955 at the age of 14. That same year, she gave birth to their first son, Jean-Paul "Nyiwa". She attended Catholic mission schools and supported the Catholic Church despite her husband's later struggle with the Catholic clergy.

Children

Marie Antoinette bore the most out of all of Mobutu's wives, a total of nine children:
  • Jean-Paul "Nyiwa";
  • Ngombo;
  • Manda;
  • Konga;
  • Ngawali;
  • Yango;
  • Yakpwa;
  • Kongulu;
  • and Ndagbia.

    Death

Marie-Antoinette died of heart failure on 22 October 1977 in Genolier, Switzerland, at the age of 36. After she died, a vast mausoleum was raised in her honor. She is buried in Gbadolite, just outside the chapel in which she was originally buried by her husband. Her relatives relocated her remains from the chapel as it was destroyed a few years after Mobutu's burial.

Awards