Background
Émile Derlin Zinsou was born on March 22, 1918, at Ouidah, Dahomey,
Émile Derlin Zinsou was born on March 22, 1918, at Ouidah, Dahomey,
He was educated at Porto Novo and the Ecole William Ponty in Senegal. He studied medicine at the Dakar Medical College and qualified as a doctor. Zinsou was a physician in the French army from 1939 to 1940. Afterwards he operated a private practice and began to become involved in colonial politics.
He had become interested in politics in Dakar, and in Dahomey he became editor of a paper, “La Voix du Dahomey”. In 1945 he was one of those who helped Sourou Apithy to form the Dahomey Progressive Union (UPD) and was a Councillor of the French Union from 1947 to 1953. In 1948 he headed the Assembly’s enquiry into the causes of bloodshed in Madagascar. In Paris he was one of Senghor’s group on Indépendants D’Outremer (IOM), and formed a close political association with the Senegalese leader, working particularly for the retention of the federation of French West Africa. In 1953 he resumed medical practice and left the political scene for a while to set up medical practice in Ivory Coast but in 1955 he was elected Senator for Dahomey in Paris, always on the IOM ticket.
In France he participated in various West African political groupings launched by Senghor in the following years (the Convention Africaine, the Parti Federal Africain and the Parti de Regroupement Africaine). He played an active part in the July 1958 Cotonou congress of the PRA, of which he was for eight months co-secretary-general. At this time he was back working with Apithy, whom he had split with in 1951. But Apithy’s decision to withdraw from the Mali Federation put an end to Zinsou’s federalist hopes, and he resigned in April 1959 from the post of Minister of the Economy (with his political colleagues Ignacio Pinto and Alexandre Adande).
He re-emerged when his small party joined the grand independence coalition in 1960, and was elected to the National Assembly in December 1960. In the same month he became president of the Supreme Court, also becoming Ambassador to Paris in July 1961. In February 1962 he dropped this unusual dual role to become Foreign Minister, which post he held until the overthrow of Maga in October 1963, when he was arrested at the airport and held for a short period under house arrest.
For the next two years he chose to live in Paris (although not actually exiled). His contacts were such that he was an unsuccessful candidate for the post of OAU Secretary-General against Diallo Telli in 1964. He had the support of Senghor and a number of Francophone states, but not, reportedly, that of Houphouet Boigny. In this period Zinsou worked as an adviser on African affairs in Paris to the Anglo-American Corporation of South Africa.
When, a month after throwing out Apithy and Ahomadegbe in 1965, General Soglo took full powers, Zinsou was brought back as Foreign Minister, a post he held for two years until December 1967 brought a new military coup. It was a measure of Zinsou’s standing, and Dahomeyan’s respect for his inter¬national contacts, that the young officers who overthrew Soglo wanted Zinsou to stay on, but he refused.
Later, after an abortive election in which all former ministers were forbidden to stand, the army handed the Presidency to Zinsou early in July 1968. He was confirmed in power by a popular referendum in which he received 76.3% of the votes.
In power he refused to permit the three former Presidents to enter the country. The army and the trade unions were ready with some complaints to accept the reforms he was trying to introduce. However, Colonel Kouandete, the young coup-maker of 1967, who had been responsible for giving power to Zinsou, and had been re¬warded with the post of army commander, was himself in trouble. The former army commander and President,
Colonel Alley, was arrested in July 1969 accused of plotting, and in October there were attempts on the life of Kouandete. In the atmosphere of mutual suspicion, Kouandete began to suspect Zinsou, and finally decided to teach him a lesson by removing him. Zinsou reportedly narrowly escaped assassination when he was arrested. He was later permitted to leave the country, and has been living in Paris ever since. Both President Maga and President Kerekou have accused him of plotting from Paris, a charge he has denied.
A convinced federalist in the 1950s he worked closely with Leopold Senghor in his unsuccessful crusade to keep the West African Federation united, but he was never able to crack the electoral hold of the “big three”. Foreign Minister for two different Presidents (Hubert Maga and Gen. Soglo), he was one of the politicians more trusted by the soldiers, which was one reason why power handed to him in 1968 when the soldiers, felt the need to return to the barracks. Although a competent President, he had the misfortune to come up against the turbulent Colonel Kouandete at the height of his ambition. Kouandete put Zinsou in power, and took it away from him.
Urbane, intelligent, but always the “fourth man” in the Dahomeyan political power game. Well-connected internationally, he has always suffered politically for the lack of a power base.
Zinsou died in his home on 28 July 2016 in Cotonou, Benin. He was 98 years old.
His father was a well-known teacher, Bode Zinsou, a Mother from the Savalou area who had settled in Ouidah.