Pascal Lissouba

Background

Pascal Lissouba was born on November 15, 1931 in Tsinguidi, Congo. He was a son of Albert Lissouba and Marie Bouanga.

Education

At 16 he went to France to complete his secondary education, going on in 1953 to the Ecole Supérieure d’Agriculture in Tunis, from which he graduated in 1956, first in his year. After obtaining a science degree from the Sorbonne he joined the French National Centre for Scientific Research. In 1961 he became a doctor of science (the Congo’s first) and returned home to become head of the agriculture services.

Career

After the revolution of 1963 he became one of the eight-man administration which ruled until the December elections, then he was appointed Prime Minister under Massemba-Debat as President. He also held the portfolios of Agriculture, Rural Economy and Forestry, showing his particular interests.

Although he came to power with the reputation of being an uncompromising Marxist, in office he showed an increasing grasp of the limited possibilities of its immediate application in a small impoverished country. This soon earned him criticism from the militants of the left, especially among the “jeunesse”, but it was the growing economic difficulties of the country that seem to have been behind his eventual resignation in April 1966. His successor, Ambroise Noumazalay, who had been one of his critics, behaved with a similar pragmatism in office.

Lissouba is sometimes reproached with complicity in the deaths of a number of leading personalities of the regime in February 1965 and in November 1969 he and Massemba- Debat were actually tried by Ngouabi for this, but were acquitted. There is no doubt that the atmosphere of 1965, a period in which the lawless activities of the armed youth movement were at their worst, must have been discouraging for Lissouba.

Since his resignation he has been in the political “garage”, teaching in Brazzaville. He made a brief reappearance on party bodies when Ngouabi came to power, but seems to have quarrelled with him and was subsequently put on trial. Lissouba was also involved in a strange challenge with Ngouabi in which they both surrendered money given to them by the Chinese, to party funds. In December 1972 Eissouba again appeared to be in the ascendant when he was nominated to the Political Bureau of the ruling party, and it was strongly rumoured that Ngouabi was planning to appoint him Prime Minister. However, in February 1973 he was arrested in connection with the new Diawara plot of that month. In April he was put on trial, accused of having had contacts with Diawara, but was acquitted because of insufficient evidence.

Politics

Was at first considered an extremist, although it became apparent that he was one of the more outstanding and reasonable Brazzaville revolutionaries. Despite a reputation for integrity, he was tainted by the political murders and lawlessness of his period as Premier and the economic deterioration of the period did not help his standing as an economist. Yet, in the political maelstrom of Brazzaville, he is still spoken of as a contender for power.

Membership

National Movement of the Revolution

Personality

Following his overthrow, Lissouba lived in exile in London. He intended to return to the Congo for the 2002 elections, but in December 2001 he was tried in absentia in Brazzaville, and convicted to 30 years labor for treason and corruption, related to a $150 million oil deal with the American company Occidental Petroleum.

References

• premier ministre de la r publique du congo: pascal lissouba, fulbert youlou, joachim yhombi-opango, alphonse massamba-d bat, bernard kol las
  2010
• Le Congo de Pascal Lissouba (Points de vue concrets) (French Edition)
  1996