Fulbert Youlou

Fulbert Youlou ( born July 19, 1917 in Madibou; † May 5, 1972 in Madrid) was the first President of the Republic of Congo.

Catholic priest

Youlou was born in Madibou in Brazzaville, he belonged to the lari strain. As a child, he chose the Priest career and attended a seminar in 1929 in Brazzaville. Later he studied in Akono and Yaoundé in Cameroon. There he learned Barthelemy Boganda, the future Prime Minister of the Central African Republic, know. He worked occasionally as a teacher and then studied in Libreville and Brazzaville theology. After his ordination in June 1946 he became vicar of a church in Brazzaville.

Policy

Youlous political career began even in the time when the Congo was part of French Equatorial Africa. In the French parliamentary elections of 1956 Youlou ran without success, but was regarded as the undisputed leader of the Lari tribe. (Associated with the French SFIO ) against the dominant party in the country socialist MSA in the same year he founded the party Union Démocratique de la Défense of interets Africains ( UDDIA ) and the magazine Cette Semaine (This week ). In November 1956, the party achieved great success in the local elections, Youlou was mayor of the capital Brazzaville, his ally Stépahne Tchichiellé won in Pointe- Noire. In March 1957, parliamentary elections were held in Congo, where MSA and UDDIA each won 21 of 45 seats. The leader of the MSA Jacques Opangault was head of government, Youlou Minister for Agriculture. He joined with his party of widespread across French Africa Rassemblement Démocratique Africain Rally ( RDA). Youlou appeared publicly in priestly garb and called Abbé although he had in 1956 lost his ministry because he had broken a vow. He assisted in September 1958, de Gaulle's constitutional referendum for the Fifth Republic and was established in November Prime Minister of Congo, after a deputy of the MSA had changed sides. Between the two major parties, which were based respectively on different strains, tensions were growing: In January 1959, it came in Brazzaville and Pointe -Noire bloody confrontations with about 200 deaths. Youlou solved the problem by letting Opangault and other opposition take into custody. In elections his party won in July 51 of the 61 seats now and he could take over the presidency. His rival Opangault also reached a parliamentary seat, but sat still in prison. Both were reconciled quickly, Opangault became Minister and together they unveiled at the celebration of the independence of the Congolese Republic on August 15th 1960 a statue of General de Gaulle.

President

The target of Youlou Union the previous four territories of French Equatorial Africa did not materialize because of the resistance of Gabon. He mingled in the 1960 crisis in the former Belgian Congo and supported initially Joseph Kasavubu, who belonged to a related Bakongo tribe, but then Moise Tshombe. In 1960, he hosted two conferences in Brazzaville, where African leaders discussed the solution of the Congo crisis. In the same year a conference of various anti- colonial groups from Angola was on his initiative in Brazzaville instead; the objective of forming a common front has not reached. 1962 managed Youlou in his country democracy from; his UDDIA was Unity Party.

Exile

Youlous presidency ended shortly thereafter. In July still a state visit to Vienna he was after serious riots on August 15, 1963 overthrown and imprisoned by a military coup. As Moise Tshombe became prime minister in neighboring Leopoldville, he is said to have organized Youlous escape over the Congo in February 1962. Up to Tshombe fall a few months later he tried to come out of Léopoldville back to power in Brazzaville. After Mobutu's coup on 25 November 1965, he was no longer welcome and fled to Europe early 1966. When he was not allowed to enter France, he went to Spain into exile, where he died in 1972.

Although his successor beat a Marxist course, but mostly held firmly to Youlous based on de Gaulle and France.