Albert Teveodjré
| Albert Tevoedjré | |
|---|---|
| Information Minister of Dahomey | |
|
In office December 30, 1960 – October 22, 1963 |
|
| Preceded by | None (office established) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
10 November 1929 Porto-Novo, Dahomey |
| Political party | Dahomeyan Unity Party |
Albert Tevoedjré (born 10 November 1929) is a Beninese writer and politician. He was Information Minister of Dahomey (now Benin) from 1960 to 1963.
Tevoedjré was educated at Toulouse, Fribourg, and Geneva. He taught at secondary schools at Cahors, Dakar, and Porto Novo before travelling to Paris to pursue a writing career. While in Paris he wrote L'Afrique révoltée in 1958 and Afrique debout in 1959. He also served as editor in chief of the left-wing newsper L'Etudiant Noir. During this time he frequented left-wing circles to discuss political affairs. At these and various cultural conferences across Europe and Asia, he learned to speak German, English, and Spanish, besides his native French.
Before independence was obtained from France, Tevoedjré helped found the proindependence organization Mouvement Africain de Libération Nationale and the Ligue pour la Promotion Africaine, as well as leading the Syndicat National des Ensignants du Dahomey. In February 1960, Teveodjré participated in a strike at the Technical College of Cotonou. The demonstrators requested to fire two professors who failed several students and had them expelled.
In October 1960, Tévoédjrè applied for a government position. He received the job of administrative secretary of the Dahomeyan Unity Party (P.D.U). His first job was to announce that a group of people were to inform the uneducated about news from the government perspective. Those who were literate could read three government-sponsored newspapers: L'Aube Nouvelle, La Nation, and La Depeche du Dahomey. Tevoedjré had previously written columns for one of these, L'Aube Nouvelle.
President Maga named the new ministers in his government on December 30, and chose many leaders from the former R.D.D. and P.N.D. He also chose several relative newcomers, like Bertin Borna under the Labor and Civil Service and Teveodjré, the new Information Minister. At this position he began suspending the publication of Justin Ahomadegbé-Tomêtin's opposition newspaper, Dahomey-Matin, and its predecessor, Cotonou-Matin, in April 1961. This was in accordance with a law limiting the freedom of speech passed in February of that year.
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