4-504: Marie-Antoinette Mobutu ( Marie-Antoinette Gbiatibwa Gogbe Yetene ; c. 1941 in Banzyville – 22 October 1977 in Genolier , Canton of Vaud , Switzerland ), also known as Mama Mobutu , was the first wife of Mobutu Sese Seko and First Lady of Zaire . Marie-Antoinette was an ethnic ethnic Ngbandi born in Banzyville (modern-day Mobayi-Mbongo) in the Équateur Province in c. 1941, while
8-695: A few years after Mobutu's burial. Mobayi-Mbongo Mobayi-Mbongo , formerly known as Banzyville or Banzystad , is a town in Nord-Ubangi Province , in the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , on the Ubangi River . It lies opposite the Central African town of Mobaye . It is the administrative center of the territory of the same name. As of 2012 the estimated population
12-607: The Congo was still under Belgian colonial rule . She met and married Joseph-Désiré Mobutu , another Ngbandi, who was later on 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. Marie Antoinette bore
16-460: The most out of all of Mobutu's wives, a total of nine children: 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
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