Background
Charles David Ganao was born in 1928 in Djambala in the Plateaux region, in a family of the Teké aristocracy.
Charles David Ganao was born in 1928 in Djambala in the Plateaux region, in a family of the Teké aristocracy.
After secondary educa¬tion he went to training college and became a teacher, then a headmaster and an inspector of education. He went to France in 1960 to attend a training course for diplomats at the Quai D’Orsay.
After his education, on returning home he was appointed head of political affairs in the Congolese Foreign Ministry. On August 15, 1963 he was Foreign Minister in the provisional government set up after the revolution, and was confirmed in the post after the elections under different Prime Ministers. He was active in the diplomacy surrounding the Congo, being particularly hostile, as Foreign Minister of a revolutionary government, to the return of Tshombe.
He was one of the leading critics at the UN of the US-Belgian airdrop in Stanleyville in 1964. An urbane and sociable diplomat, his political demise in 1968 was more due to circumstance than any error of which he had been guilty, which made his eventual return easier.
He became an official of the United Nations, based in Vienna. He retired in 1990.