Alphonse Massamba-Débat | |
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President of the Republic of the Congo | |
In office 16 August 1963 – 4 September 1968 |
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Preceded by | Fulbert Youlou |
Succeeded by | Alfred Raoul |
Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo | |
In office 16 August 1963 – 19 December 1963 |
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Preceded by | Post abolished 1959-1963 |
Succeeded by | Pascal Lissouba |
Personal details | |
Born | 1921 Nkolo, French Equatorial Africa |
Died | March 25, 1977 |
Cause of death | Executed |
Alphonse Massamba-Débat (1921 – March 25, 1977) was a political figure of the Republic of the Congo who led the country from 1963 until 1968.
He was born in Nkolo, French Equatorial Africa, in 1921, and was a member of the Lari tribe. He attended missionary school and by age 13 was a teacher in Chad. By 1940 he had joined the anti-colonialist Chadian Progressive Party and served as the general secretary of the Association for the Development of Chad in 1945. In 1947 he moved back to Congo and became the headmaster at a school in Brazzaville and joined the Congolese Progressive Party (PPC).
By 1957 Massamba-Débat had joined Fulbert Youlou's Democratic Union for the Defense of African Interests party, stopped teaching and became the Minister of Education and two years later he was elected to national assembly. In 1959 he was made president of the assembly and remained in power, later serving as minister of state and of planning but he began to criticize the administration of Congo's first president, Fulbert Youlou, whom many perceived to be overly reliant on France.
When the President of the Republic of the Congo, Fulbert Youlou, was deposed in a coup d'état on August 15, 1963, the presidency was suspended. Massamba-Débat, Chairman of the National Council of the Revolution, was declared Prime Minister the next day, and the National Council of the Revolution was declared the only legal political party in the country. Massamba-Débat was elected President on December 19, 1963, with Pascal Lissouba standing in as the new Prime Minister.