Cyrille Adoula

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Cyrille Adoula (1964)

Cyrille Adoula (born September 13, 1921 or September 13, 1923 in Léopoldville , † May 24, 1978 in Lausanne ) was Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1961 to 1964 .

Early years

Adoula's year of birth is uncertain, according to different statements he was born in 1921 or 1923. He belonged to the Mongala people. After attending a Catholic mission school, he attended the St. Joseph Institute, where he graduated in 1941. He worked for several companies in Léopoldville (Kinshasa), the capital of the Belgian colony at the time , before he was the first African to be hired by the central bank of the Belgian Congo. He joined a Belgian trade union and became its general secretary for the Congo.

Politician

Before independence

In 1958 he was one of the signatories of a memorandum to the Belgian Governor General, in which, after a speech by Charles de Gaulle, who was again called to power, in neighboring Brazzaville , political reforms were also called for in the Belgian Congo.

In 1958 he was one of the co-founders of the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) party, along with Patrice Lumumba , and in 1959 was a member of this party's delegation to the talks on the future of the colony in Brussels . In July 1959 there was a break within the party when some politicians who were considered moderate - including Adoula - separated from Lumumba and, under the leadership of Albert Kalonji, formed an alliance with the Association des Bakongo pour l'Unification, l'expansion et de la Défense de la Langue Kikongo ( ABAKO ) by Joseph Kasavubu . In December 1959, he became vice-president of the joint organization of several federalist parties. After his return from the Brussels conference, he separated again from Kasavubu, because he was too fixated on the interests of the Bakongo . In the spring of 1960 he founded the Federation Générale des Travailleurs du Kongo (FGTK), which became a member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (IFGB). He took the position of general secretary of his union.

After independence

After the country gained independence, Kasavubu became president and Lumumba became prime minister. After Lumumba's fall, he became Minister of the Interior in the cabinet of the new Prime Minister Joseph Iléo in September . In the following months he represented his country several times before the United Nations . In addition, he took part in negotiations with Antoine Gizenga , who had renounced the central government and established a short-lived counter-government in Stanleyville . In the summer of 1961, the state parliament was able to resume its work after several months of paralysis.

On August 2, 1961, he was appointed Prime Minister by Kasavubu and, despite the dominance of supporters of Lumumba, who was murdered in January, confirmed by both houses of parliament. Together with Antoine Gizenga, he represented the Congo at the Conference of the Non-Aligned States in Belgrade in September . Some of the states represented there had so far recognized Gizenga's counter-government. With the conquest of Katanga by UN troops in December and the temporary escape of Moïse Tschombé , the central government largely regained control of the country a year and a half after independence. Gizenga and Kalonji, the latter brief "diamond emperor" of Kasai, were arrested in January 1962. In 1963 Adoula also took over the office of Foreign Minister .

In the following years Adoula tried to give the Congo a new federal constitution. Various rebellions in several provinces, including the renewed secession of Katanga under Chombé until early 1963, weakened his government. On June 30, 1964, he resigned as head of government. President Kasavubu appointed Moïse Tschombé, who was returning from exile in Spain , to be his successor . Tschombé's cabinet also included Kalonji as Minister of Agriculture, while Gizenga was under house arrest for around a year.

Further career

In 1965 a coup ended Joseph-Desiré Mobutu Kasavubu's presidency. Adoula became ambassador to the USA and later to Belgium and the European Community . He was a member of Mobutu's government from 1969 to December 1970 as Foreign Minister. Adoula had been in Switzerland for health reasons since 1970, where he died on May 24, 1978 in Lausanne at the age of 56.

family

Adoula was married and had five children.

literature

Web links

Commons : Cyrille Adoula  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Munzinger Person Archive: Cyrille Adoula (read on August 4, 2016)
  2. ↑ washingtonpost.com, Cyrille Adoula, 56, Was Premier of the Congo in 60s , May 27, 1978 (accessed August 4, 2016)
  3. ↑ Munzinger Person Archive: Cyrille Adoula (read on August 4, 2016)
personal data
SURNAME Adoula, Cyrille
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Congolese politician, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
DATE OF BIRTH September 13, 1921 or September 13, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Léopoldville
DATE OF DEATH May 24, 1978
Place of death Lausanne