The scientist-president overthrown after the Congo's first free election
In 1977 a military tribunal sentenced him to death for complicity in Ngouabi's assassination, and only the intervention of Omar Bongo of Gabon saved him from the firing squad.
A biologist trained in agronomy and genetics who became prime minister of Massamba-Débat's government in 1963 at the age of 32. Under the People's Republic he was sentenced to death for alleged complicity in Ngouabi's assassination, then released into exile in France; at the 1991 sovereign national conference he led the early rounds for transitional prime minister before losing the fourth ballot to Milongo. In 1992 he led the social-democratic UPADS to victory over Sassou Nguesso and became the Congo's first democratically elected president, only to be driven into exile again by the 1997 civil war.
Career timeline
- 1956Agricultural engineering diploma, École Supérieure d'Agriculture, Tunis
- 1961Doctorate in science, University of Paris; researcher at ORSTOM
- 1963–1966Prime minister under Massamba-Débat, also minister of agriculture
- 1966–1970Professor of genetics; director, École Supérieure des Sciences
- 1977Death sentence for alleged role in Ngouabi's assassination, commuted to life
- 1979–1990Exile in France; UNESCO director for exact and natural sciences
- 1991Founded the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS)
- 1992–1997President; overthrown after the 1997 civil war
The opposition leader from Pool who ended one-party rule
On 7 November 1988 and 20 November 1989 he wrote to President Sassou Nguesso proposing a national round table on the country's problems.
A Congolese politician from Mboloki in Kinkala District, Pool, who founded the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI) and pressed for a multiparty system while the one-party state still stood. At the 1991 sovereign national conference he opened the parties' addresses and backed André Milongo's election as transitional prime minister, making him a key opposition figure of the democratic transition. He lost the 1992 presidential runoff to Lissouba and, appointed Lissouba's prime minister of national unity during the 1997 civil war, was ousted by Sassou Nguesso's loyalists and went into exile.
Career timeline
- 1989Founded the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI); party statutes filed with the Interior Ministry
- 1991Opened the parties' addresses at the sovereign national conference
- 1992Second in the first round of the presidential election (20.32%); lost the runoff to Lissouba
- 1994Elected mayor of Brazzaville
- 1997Appointed prime minister of national unity by Lissouba; ousted into exile when Sassou Nguesso's loyalists took Brazzaville
- 2000Sentenced to death in absentia by a Congolese court
- 2005Returned under amnesty, parliament adopted the amnesty law
- 2007Elected to the National Assembly
The World Bank official who steered the transition
Two days before the 2002 election he withdrew his candidacy, saying 'the conditions for a transparent vote were not guaranteed.'
A finance technocrat who served as the Congo's first treasurer-general after independence and later as a World Bank executive director. When the one-party system collapsed, the 1991 sovereign national conference elected him transitional prime minister on a fourth ballot, giving him executive power to steer the country toward multiparty elections. After the transition he founded the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda) and remained a leading opposition figure against Denis Sassou Nguesso.
Career timeline
- 1964First treasurer-general (Trésorier Payeur Général)
- 1969–1973Director General of Investments, Ministry of Planning
- 1975–1976Economic and financial adviser to the Prime Minister
- 1976–1983Executive director, African Development Bank
- 1986–1990Executive director, World Bank
- 1991Founded the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda)
- 1991–1992Prime minister of the transition
- 1993–1997President of the National Assembly
Founding of the Congolese people’s republic
At his January 1970 swearing-in, Ngouabi vowed "fidelity to the Congolese people, to the revolution, and the Congolese Labour Party."
A military and political leader of Congo-Brazzaville. He led the establishment of the Congolese Labour Party and people’s republic in 1969, organizing Marxist-Leninist one-party institutions. His assassination in 1977 was followed by military-party succession struggles.
Career timeline
- 1968Led the coup grouping as head of the National Revolutionary Council (CNR)
- 1968–1977President of the Congo
- 1969Founded the Congolese Labour Party (PCT)
- 1969Renamed the country the People's Republic of the Congo, Africa's first Marxist-Leninist state
- 1974Re-elected chairman of the PCT Central Committee
