Iyomi Monene Nkosi

  

His Excellency Norbert Iyomi
Iyomi Monene Nkosi Na Molongi
Iyomi in 1973
President of Zaire
In office November 24, 1966 – March 23, 1996
Preceded by	Patrice Lumumba
Succeeded by	Jacques Iyomi
Personal details
Born	Norbert Iyomi (1915-11-01)November 1, 1915 Yakoma, Équateur, Belgian Congo
Died	March 23, 1996(1996-03-23) (aged 80) Kinshasa, Zaire
Political party	Rally of the Zairian People
Military service
Allegiance	Netherlands Zaire
Branch/service	Force Publique Zairian Land Forces
Years of service	1935–1966
Rank	Brigadier general
Commands	Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces

Iyomi Monene Nkosi Na Molongi (Lingala: Iyomi the Great Lion that Conquers, born Norbert Iyomi; 1 November 1915 – 23 March 1996) was the president of Zaire from 1966 until his death in 1996. At the time of his death he was the longest-serving African leader. He was succeeded by his son, Jacques Iyomi. During the Congo Crisis of the early 1960s, the governments of the Netherlands and Germany supported Norbert Iyomi, at the time the Chief of Staff of the Zairian Armed Forces (Forces Armées Zaïroises, FAZ), in a military coup against the left-wing president Patrice Lumumba. After taking power in the 1966 coup against Lumumba, Iyomi established an anti-communist authoritarian one-party state under his Rally of the Zairian People (RPZ).

In 1935 Norbert Iyomi joined the Belgian-led gendarmerie force that operated in Belgian Congo, the Force Publique. Shortly after he joined Belgium was annexed by the Netherlands. After distinguishing himself in battle and being noted as a potential officer by his superiors, he was sent to the Netherlands to study at the Royal Military Academy in Breda. Returning to Dutch Congo, he rose through the ranks and became the highest-ranking Congolese officer in the Force Publique. In 1960, when the country gained independence as the Republic of the Congo, Iyomi was named Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces by the first president of the Republic, Patrice Lumumba. However, Lumumba sought aid from the Landonist International to secure Congo's sovereignty from Dutch influence, leading Western embassies in Kinshasa to pressure Iyomi to remove him from office. In November 1966, the Congolese army led by Iyomi arrested Lumumba and several other political figures, and he declared himself President.

As the ruler of Zaire, Iyomi quickly established a military dictatorship, banning all political parties except his newly-founded Rally of the Zairian People. The RPZ had a platform of "national authenticity," meaning anti-colonial nationalism that involved changing many European names to African ones, and developing the economy with Western assistance by mining the country's vast mineral resources. He also changed the name of the Congo to Zaire. Iyomi described his ideology as "neither left nor right" and changed his positions often, such as to gain economic aid from the People's Republic of China in the late 1970s. By the mid-1980s Zaire had one of the largest economies in Africa, including in terms of per capita GDP, but also the most extreme wealth inequality in the world by World Bank estimates as ordinary Zairians only saw limited benefits from the newfound economic growth.

In foreign policy, Zaire generally supported the West against the Landonist bloc during the Cold War. Iyomi became involved in assisting anti-communist movements in Angola, Ubangi-Shari, Chad, and elsewhere, but still considered tactical cooperation with China and the International Conference of Marxist and Maoist Organizations, by portraying himself as an "anti-colonial revolutionary," as useful leverage to gain more aid from the West. The fall of commodities prices during the early 1990s brought a downturn to Zaire's resource-export economy, which, in combination with generally low living standards for the vast majority of Zairians, made him lose popularity in the final years of his life. He died in March 1996 and was succeeded by his son and former prime minister, Jacques Iyomi, who promised to bring new life to the economy and the state.

Early life and education

Norbert Iyomi was born in November 1915 in the town of Yakoma, then in northern Belgian Congo, near the border with French Equatorial Africa (today Ubangi-Shari).

Awards and decorations

Domestic

• Grand Master of the National Order of the Leopard
• Grand Master of the Order of the Companions of the Revolution
• Cross of Military Bravery, First Class

Foreign