1929–2019
Writer and economist, rapporteur of Benin's National Conference
In the 10 March 1991 first round he took third place with 165,174 votes (14.21%); one reference gives 162,498 votes instead.
Beninese writer, economist and politician. Born in Porto-Novo in 1929, he served as Dahomey's information minister from 1960 to 1963. In the 1991 presidential election he placed third in the first round with 14.21% as the candidate of Notre Cause commune, and in 2006 he became Benin's first Médiateur de la République.
Also known as: Albert Tevoedjre
Activities and affiliations
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1960–1963
Ideology and propaganda
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1960–1963
Benin state institutionsMinister of Information
Government and administration -
1960–
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1958–1960In Paris wrote L'Afrique révoltée and Afrique debout and edited the left-wing paper L'Étudiant Noir.
- 1960–1963Secretary of state at the presidency and information minister of Dahomey.
- 1964–After a Harvard International Affairs Center appointment he taught at the Geneva Graduate Institute and Georgetown University.
- 1991–1996National Assembly deputy and chair of the commission on foreign relations, cooperation, development, defence and security.
- 1996–1999Minister of Planning, Economic Restructuring and Employment Promotion.
- 2006–2013First Médiateur de la République of Benin.
Related historical events
International civil servant and mediator, 1965-2005
After leaving Dahomeyan politics Tévoédjrè moved into international service. He entered the International Labour Office in 1965 as a manpower planning expert, was appointed regional coordinator for Africa at Addis Ababa on 1 March 1966 and was promoted to deputy director-general on 1 January 1969; in 1974 he was named director of the International Institute for Labour Studies with the rank of ILO deputy director-general. Teaching continued alongside, at the Sorbonne, Northwestern University and the National University of Côte d'Ivoire.
After the ILO he turned to social-prospects research. From 1 January 1984 he devoted himself to the World Association for Social Prospects (AMPS), founded in 1976 on his initiative, and in 1987 he created the Pan-African Centre for Social Prospects (CPPS). In 1989 the centre hosted a Europe-Africa meeting and the first Porto-Novo Forum on Human Rights, organised with the Council of Europe and the Organisation of African Unity, which adopted the Porto-Novo Declaration for a contract of solidarity; the CPPS also originated the African Humanitarian Initiative, which brought medical and nutritional relief to refugees, notably in the Great Lakes region.
From February 2003 he served as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative for Côte d'Ivoire, mediating among the protagonists of the civil war over implementing the Linas-Marcoussis accords. He submitted his resignation in a letter of 24 November 2004, and the UN announced that it would take effect at the end of January 2005. The French Wikipedia dates the mandate itself to February 2003-February 2005 while separately listing a December 2004 resignation, so the closing date is not recorded uniformly. Pierre Schori of Sweden was appointed to succeed him effective 1 April 2005.