THIS country's recently deceased dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, became rich as many foreign loans and government budgets were pocketed by a leadership that was arguably the most corrupt in the world. As President of what was then Zaire, Mr. Mobutu amassed a fortune that by some estimates reached $8 billion.
But if Mr. Mobutu was the symbol par excellence of African-style corruption, with his family junkets on chartered Concorde jets and a personal barber flown in monthly from the Waldorf-Astoria, one need only gaze across the Congo River at Brazzaville, the capital of the Congo Republic, to find a more up-to-date model.
For four months now, two presidents, one current and one former, have fought bitterly for power in the former French colony, virtually leveling its once-quaint capital, in what diplomats and international bankers say is a naked contest for control of the lucrative trade in the country's annual production of 15 million tons of oil.
That is, it seems, the African way. The world's poorest continent is also the one where high government officials are least accountable to ordinary citizens. Left unstated, however, is the important role that outsiders play in encouraging what has become one of Africa's most destructive habits.
What makes this continent stand out is not the existence of such corruption but the stark background of poverty and the endless variety of brazen official thievery that takes place, often with the active cooperation of well-known Western corporations.
''In parts of Asia there is undoubtedly more corruption than you find in Africa,'' said one World Bank official who has worked extensively on the issue of corruption on both continents. ''The difference is that corruption in Asia is predictable.
''In many parts of Africa, there are virtually no rules, and the businessman never knows where he stands,'' the official said. ''This scares many investors away. Moreover, in Asia profits from corruption tend to be invested in productive activities. In Africa, the capital is consumed wastefully, or banked overseas.''
The Congo Republic scarcely has two million people, and yet many remain poor despite the country's fabulous wealth in oil and other resources. Almost from the time of independence in 1960, politics has been the affair of a small and rapacious elite who, through coups, assassinations and now highly ethnicized urban combat, have fought for economic control.
Known as the Pierre Cardin Marxist for his luxurious tastes, the former leader, Gen. Denis Sassou Nguesso, amassed enough money in 13 years in power to raise a private army in his northern ethnic homeland and has spent it freely in recent months to fight the Government to a standstill.
And diplomats say the current President, Pascal Lissouba, a plant geneticist by training, wasted no time after his election in 1992 in taking personal advantage of the country's abundant resources. Mr. Lissouba reportedly now owns a luxurious ''hotel particulier,'' or urban chateau, in one of Paris's priciest districts.
Scarcely concealed self-enrichment of this sort are rife throughout France's former central African colonies. In neighboring Cameroon, President Paul Biya was estimated in recent press reports to have amassed a private fortune of $75 million in his 15 years in power. Such wealth is said not to include two Presidential Boeing 747's, two palatial residences in Cameroon and opulent homes in France and Switzerland.
In the context of his region, however, Mr. Biya might be considered only moderately well off. Tiny Gabon, another oil-rich country with scarcely one million inhabitants, still largely lacks roads, schools and adequate health clinics, and yet President Omar Bongo, a hugely wealthy man, owns more Parisian real estate than any other foreign leader, according to the French weekly L'Autre Afrique.
The French Touch
A key to all of these presidential fortunes is the French oil company Elf Aquitaine, which dominates production -- and, according to its own former officials, politics -- in the region, helping keep friendly autocrats financially satisfied so as to maintain its hold on one of the world's richest petroleum zones.
But the French are far from alone. In oil-rich Angola, international bankers say, American companies play similar games with a deeply corrupt elite.
In Nigeria, another oil economy with fabulously wealthy leaders and crushingly poor citizens, not only oil but construction has been a favorite rich target for unscrupulous outsiders. Diplomats say one German engineering firm nearly cornered the market on big projects during the recent rule of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, riding the huge contracts it won for roads and bridges to emerge as one of Germany's biggest contractors -- and, through large kickbacks, helping make General Babangida one of Africa's richest leaders.
All of this raises the question of what the outside world can do to rein in corruption.
Some favor strengthening the obligations of foreign companies to conduct business honestly. The World Bank, which has begun to make corruption a major theme of its development programs, has threatened to cut off funds to blatantly corrupt countries. Kenya recently became the first target of this new approach.
Other experts say corruption can be beaten down only by building up African institutions and reinforcing democratic checks on highly centralized executive power. ''Corruption is a problem of systems and not individuals or cultures,'' said Robert Klitgaard, a Rand Corporation expert who wrote a seminal account of African corruption, ''Tropical Gangsters'' (Basic Books, 1990). ''In Africa corruption is such a big problem because the systems have broken down so completely.
''If somebody has monopoly power over a good or service and has discretionary power over whether you get it, and there is no accountability, there is going to be corruption. This is where we must work for change.''
Photo: In the armed struggle for the Congo Republic's oil trade, one victim was a 5-year-old, mourned by his mother. (Associated Press)
