Marie-Antoinette Mobutu

Marie-Antoinette Mobutu
Marie-Antoinette and Mobutu arrive in Kinshasa in April 1977.
First Lady of Zaire
In office 1955–1982
President	Mobutu Sese Seko
Succeeded by	Bobi Ladawa Mobutu
Personal details
Born	Marie-Antoinette Gbiatibwa Gogbe Yetene c. 1941 Banzyville, Équateur Province, Belgian Congo
Died	22 October 1977(1977-10-22) (aged 35–36) Genolier, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland
Spouse(s)	Mobutu Sese Seko ​ ​ (m. 1955; her death 1977)​
Children	9 (including Kongulu Mobutu)

Marie-Antoinette Mobutu (born Marie-Antoinette Gbiatibwa Gogbe Yetene; c. 1941 in Banzyville), also known as Mama Mobutu was the first wife of Mobutu Sese Seko and First Lady of Zaire.

Biography[]

Marie-Antoinette was born in Banzyville (modern-day Mobayi-Mbongo) in Équateur Province in c.1941 while the Congo was still under Belgian colonial rule. She was an ethnic Ngbandi. She met and married Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, a member of the same ethnic group and then a non-commissioned officer in the Force Publique, in 1955 at the age of 14.^[1] That same year, she gave birth to their first son, Jean-Paul "Nyiwa". She attended Catholic mission schools and had supported the Roman Catholic Church despite her husband's later struggle with the Catholic clergy.^[2][1]

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. A vast mausoleum was raised in her honor. She is buried in the Gombe commune in Kinshasa, where the president's residence is placed.

References[]