Background
Simon Pierre Tchoungui was born in Nkolmending, Mefou Division, Center Province of Cameroon on 28 October 1916. He belonged to the Ewondo / Bulu group collectively known as the Beti people
Simon Pierre Tchoungui was born in Nkolmending, Mefou Division, Center Province of Cameroon on 28 October 1916. He belonged to the Ewondo / Bulu group collectively known as the Beti people
He attended the Ayos school for health assistants, founded in 1932 by Eugène Jamot.After his schooling he worked as a medical assistant in Yaoundé and Mbalmayo. During World War II he enrolled as a soldier in the Free French Forces from 1942 to 1945. He then studied at Dakar Medical School, qualifying as a surgeon to 1947, when he returned to Cameroun. He studied at the University of Paris from 1950 to 1956, gaining a PhD in Medicine. In 1960 Tchoungui was medical superintendent of Yaoundé Central Hospital.
He was Minister of Health from 1961 until June 1964, when he was appointed Minister of National Economy.
He became Prime Minister of East Cameroon on November 20, 1965, and Vice-President of the Union Nationale Camerounaise (UNC) in 1966.
He resigned his premiership in May 1970 and was asked by President Ahidjo to stay on his job, which finally ceased to exist in June 1972, with the creation of a unitary system.
A distinguished physician and World War veteran who turned to party poli¬tics at the mature age of 50. Aloof and competent, Dr Tchoungui is greatly admired in international medical circles since he gained his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1956 at the University of Paris with a brilliant thesis “La tuberculose au Cameroun".
