"It was very luxurious, it was very luxurious like you were in paradise, when you were in this building you forgot that death existed" said Jean Bangeswa, one of Mobuto's personal body guards. The palace alone cost $100 million dollars to build, and at its peak cost $15 million dollars to run per month.
"We left New York and came here, a Concorde spent two days at that airport," Jean stated. Mobutu, along with his lavish palaces, also built an international airport large enough to land a Concorde on. It was rumored that Mobutu would send his mistresses on the Concorde to Paris for shopping trips with suitcases full of $100 bills.
"President Mobutu really loved tilapia, he loved champagne, rose champagne" Goye, a chef that used to cook for the president said. "For a party I would make food for 2,000 people." Mobutu would hold large lavish parties, hosting thousands of guests. He would hold events at the largest of his three estates in the town of Gbadolite, using the other ones as suites for his guests to stay.
Mobutu's palaces consisted of one which was filled with elaborate Chinese pagodas, and another which was a modern mansion. These two palaces were mainly used as residences for Mobutu and his guests. The final palace was an elaborate three story structure which was mainly used for public functions.
In the end, all of his palaces were looted down to the bare bones concrete, for the valuable objects that laid beneath its walls . The once lavish international airport that held multi million dollar jets on its tarmac, was reduced to a crumbling control tower with vines crawling through the terminals. The ruins of the palaces today are lonely concrete walls scattered around a half-tiled molding pool. And with the absence of a man to run them, the palaces are nothing but a physical memory of the once powerful dictator.