Gbadolite: The Versailles of The Jungle

Deep in the rainforest, more than 1,000 km from Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of the Congo, lies the decaying city of Gbadolite, home to nearly two hundred thousand people. Fifty years ago, Gbadolite was a just small village of 1,500 with mud brick houses. It wasn’t even marked on maps, until Mobutu Sese Seko became the president. Within a decade, Gbadolite was transformed into a sprawling city with an airport, five-star hotels, supermarkets, hospitals with high tech facilities, and palatial homes for Mobutu. All of these are in ruins today swallowed by the jungle. A dysfunctional fountain at Mobutu’s former residence in Gbadolite. Photo: Sean Smith DROC’s (then called Zaire) despotic ruler Mobutu Sese Seko sieged power in 1965 in a bloodless military coup, and established himself as the country's military dictator. During his totalitarian regime that lasted three decades, Mobutu amassed vast personal wealth through exploitation and corruption, and solidified his grip on the country with a system of economic and political patronage that made him a darling with the United States. Capitalizing on the tensions of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, he gained significant support from the West and its international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, which was more than willing to bankroll him despite the widespread human rights violations and uncontrolled inflation the country was spiraling into. President Mobutu Sese Seko with his signature leopard-skin cap. The level of corruption was mind-blowing. According to the most conservative estimates, he stole $5 billion from his country’s coffers, but some sources put the figure as high as $15 billion.