Mary Ngouabi

Mary Ngouabi

Marien Ngouabi (also N'Gouabi ; * 1938 in Ombele; † March 18, 1977 in Brazzaville ) was head of state of the Republic of the Congo from 1968 to 1977 .

soldier

Ngouabi came from the north of the country. He joined the army and attended the military academy in Strasbourg . In 1964 he was promoted to captain . In 1966 he was briefly expelled from the army because of his refusal to take part in a coup against President Alphonse Massemba-Débat , and was reinstated after the coup failed. He was counted to the left wing of the ruling unity party Mouvement National de la Révolution (MNR) . He was briefly detained in July 1968, but was quickly freed by other soldiers. Whether he took part in the coup of September 4, 1968, which put an end to Massemba-Débat's presidency, remained unclear.

president

On December 31, 1968, he became chairman of the junta , which appeared under the name Conseil national de la révolution , the new president. On December 31, 1969, he changed the name of the country from "Republic of the Congo" to " People's Republic of the Congo". Without completely severing ties with France , the country entered into close ties with the Soviet Union under his leadership . The previous unity party was replaced in December 1969 by a new one under the name Parti Congolais du Travail (PCT). In 1975 he was re-elected as president, the result was quite clear due to lack of competition.

However, some coup attempts against him have been linked to France. He is said to have refused the mid-1970s, the date for Portuguese Angola belonging exclave Cabinda with their oil reserves to bring under control.

Like his predecessor, he also had good relations with the People's Republic of China , which he visited in July 1973.

death

Ngouabi was murdered on March 18, 1977 in another attempted coup. Some actual or suspected perpetrators were caught and executed. His predecessor Massemba-Débat, who was also executed on March 25, 1977, also came under suspicion. His cousin Joachim Yhombi-Opango followed him as head of state .

Today is March 18, Memorial Day in the Republic of Congo, the only university in the country in Brazzaville was named Université Marien Ngouabi in his honor, and in August 2005 a stele was inaugurated in Pointe-Noire in his memory.

literature

• The Brazzaville assassination . In: Peter Kaiser / Norbert Moc / Heinz-Peter Zierholz: Shots in Dallas. Political murders 1948 to 1984 . Dietz, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-320-01051-4 , pp. 421-437.
• People's Republic of the Congo: Marxist Socialism in Uniform . In: Heinrich Bechthold: States without a nation. Socialism as a power factor in Asia and Africa . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-12-915260-1 , pp. 312-324.