Alphonse Massemba-Débat

Alphonse Massamba-Débat

Alphonse Massemba-Débat (* 1921 in N'Kollo near Brazzaville ; † March 25, 1977 there ) was President of the Republic of the Congo from 1963 to 1968 .

Politician

Massemba-Débat, who was originally a teacher, belonged to the left wing of Fulbert Youlou's unity party Union Démocratique de la Défense des Intérêts Africains (UDDIA). 1960 to 1961 he was President of Parliament. After three days of serious unrest, later called Les Trois Glorieuses , President Youlou was overthrown by a military coup on August 15, 1963 and Massemba-Débat became head of a transitional government.

president

Following the proclamation of a new constitution, he became president on December 19, 1963. Its prime minister became Pascal Lissouba . During his tenure in office he advocated moderate socialism in economic policy , otherwise he stuck to the authoritarian system of his predecessor. In February 1964 he decided to be the first leader of Francophone Africa to recognize the People's Republic of China , which the latter honored with development aid.

At the beginning of 1965 he was guest of Ernesto Che Guevara , who at that time was working with Laurent-Désiré Kabila in the neighboring Congo-Léopoldville without real success and was allowed to use Brazzaville as a supply base. The approximately 600 Cubans present in the country helped to repel a coup against Massemba-Débat in mid-1966.

In 1966, he replaced the previous unity party UDDIA with a new one called the Mouvement National de la Révolution (MNR). Another coup ended his term in office on September 4, 1968, and the military junta that followed was increasingly oriented towards the Soviet Union .

death

After the assassination of his successor, President Marien Ngouabi on March 18, 1977, he was accused of being involved in the murder. Shortly afterwards he was executed without trial.

literature

• Alphonse Massemba-Debat , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 22/1977 from May 23, 1977, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)