Fulbert Youlou

Fulbert Youlou in priestly robe, 1963

Fulbert Youlou (born July 19, 1917 in Madibou; † May 5, 1972 in Madrid ) was the first President of the Republic of the Congo .

Catholic clergyman

Youlou was born in Madibou near Brazzaville , he belonged to the Lari tribe. As a child, he chose a career as a priest and attended a seminary in Brazzaville from 1929. He later studied in Akono and Yaoundé in Cameroon . There he met Barthélemy Boganda , who later became Prime Minister of the Central African Republic . He temporarily worked as a teacher and then studied in Libreville and Brazzaville theology . Ordained priest in June 1946, he was appointed vicar of a parish in Brazzaville.

politics

Youlou's political career began when the Congo was part of French Equatorial Africa . In the French parliamentary elections of 1956, Youlou ran unsuccessfully, but was considered the undisputed leader of the Lari tribe. In the same year he founded the Union Démocratique de la Défense des Intérêts Africains (UDDIA) and the magazine Cette Semaine ( This Week ) against the country's dominant socialist party MSA (affiliated with the French SFIO ). In November 1956 the party achieved great success in local elections, Youlou became mayor of the capital Brazzaville, his ally Stéphane Tchichiellé won in Pointe-Noire . In March 1957 parliamentary elections were held in the Congo, in which the MSA and UDDIA each won 21 of the 45 seats. The leader of the MSA Jacques Opangault became Prime Minister, Youlou Minister of Agriculture. With his party, he joined the collection movement Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), which was spread throughout French Africa . Youlou appeared publicly in priestly robes and called himself Abbé, although he lost his ministry in 1956 after breaking a vow . He supported de Gaulle's constitutional referendum for the Fifth Republic in September 1958 and became head of government of the Congo in November after a member of the MSA switched sides. Tensions grew between the two major parties, each based on different tribes: In January 1959 there were bloody clashes in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, with around 200 dead. Youlou solved the problem by arresting Opangault and other opposition activists. In elections in July his party won 51 of the now 61 seats and he was able to take over the presidency. His competitor Opangault also won a parliamentary seat, but was still in prison. Both were quickly reconciled, Opangault became a minister and together they unveiled a statue of General de Gaulle at the celebrations for the independence of the Congolese Republic on August 15, 1960.

president

The union of the four previous territories of French Equatorial Africa , which Youlou was striving for, did not materialize because of the resistance of Gabon . In 1960 he interfered in the crisis in what had been the former Belgian Congo and initially supported Joseph Kasavubu , who belonged to a related Bakongo tribe, but then Moise Tschombé . In 1960 he hosted two conferences in Brazzaville at which African leaders discussed how to solve the Congo crisis . In the same year, on his initiative, a conference of various anti-colonial groups from Angola took place in Brazzaville; however, the goal of forming a common front was not achieved. In 1962, Youlou abolished democracy in his country; his UDDIA became a unity party .

exile

Youlou's presidency ended shortly thereafter. While still on a state visit to Vienna in July , he was overthrown and imprisoned in a military coup on August 15, 1963 after serious unrest . When Moise Tschombé became Prime Minister in neighboring Léopoldville , he is said to have organized Youlou's escape across the Congo in February 1962. Up until Tschombé's fall a few months later, he tried to get back to power from Léopoldville in Brazzaville. After Mobutu's putsch on November 25, 1965, he was no longer wanted and fled to Europe in early 1966. When he was not allowed to enter France, he went into exile in Spain , where he died in 1972.

His successors adopted a Marxist course, but mostly stuck to Youlou's reference to de Gaulle and France.

Web links

• Jean FÉLIX-TCHICAYA (biography entry at the French National Assembly ; French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution , Volume I, Anatomy of an Explosion , Cambridge / Mass. & London, MIT Pres, 1968