A mural of former President Mobutu outside the mayor’s office in Gbadolite. When Joseph Desire Mobutu took power he renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga (meaning ‘the all-powerful warrior who, because of endurance and an inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake’)

Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian