Background
Marien Ngouabi was born in 1938 at Ombellé, Cuvette Department, in kuyu territory. His family was of humble origins.
Marien Ngouabi was born in 1938 at Ombellé, Cuvette Department, in kuyu territory. His family was of humble origins.
From 1947 to 1953, he went to primary school in Owando. In 1953, he went to study to the Ecole des enfants de troupes Général Leclerc in Brazzaville and in 1957 he was sent to Bouar, Oubangui-Chari (now the Central African Republic).
He is young enough to have been untainted by service in the French army in Indochina or Algeria. He became Com¬mander of the Brazzaville Paratroop battalion but in June 1966 he was reassigned. Objecting to this move and discontented at a proposal to incorporate the army in the militia, Ngouabi, then a captain, with a number of fellow Kouyou, ransacked the headquarters of the ruling party and surrounded the members of the government in the sports stadium.
He took power at 30 and first entered the limelight some two years before the coup in 1966 as a spokesman for a “northern” group in the army, hostile to the government of President Massemba-Debat. Since taking power, he has also assumed all the trappings of Brazzaville’s revolutionary verbalism and has even, possibly to his own surprise, caused several lurches further left. His rule has been also characterised by what his own radio station has called “the permanent plot”.
President Massemba-Debat, out of the country at the Afro-Malagasy Joint Organisation (OCAM) conference in Tananarive, brought the situation under control on his return. Although Ngouabi was reduced in rank, the heads of the army and policy were changed, and the army-militia proposal abandoned.
Later Ngouabi was given the post of head of General Studies Bureau at the general staff headquarters, but he was clearly still in a turbulent frame of mind and in July 1968, President Massemba- Debat invited anyone who considered themselves more equipped than himself to rule the country to say so. No one did, but shortly afterwards Captain Ngouabi was arrested and subsequently liberated by paracommandos over whom he still had considerable control. After several days of confusion, during which there were rumours of a coup, President Massemba-Debat re-emerged in his job, but with Ngouabi now elevated to Chief of Staff, as well as the presidency of the National Revolu¬tionary Council.
This phase lasted a month and early in September 1968 Massemba-Debat was eased out (although his supporters in the militia fought a last ditch stand at what became known as “Camp Biafra”). Ngouabi, however, seemed to be sharing power with Captain Alfred Raoul, who was made Prime Minister and temporary head of state. Both Ngouabi and Raoul were promoted major at the end of September 1968. At the beginning of January 1969 Ngouabi became head of state, thus confirming his real power as head of the army and revolutionary council. Raoul, from then on, increasingly played second fiddle and was later demoted from Prime Minister to Vice-President, until his dismissal in December 1971.
In January 1970, under Ngouabi’s inspiration, the MNR of Massemba- Debat was transformed into the Congolese Workers’ Party (PCT) with the red flag, complete with hammer and sickle and (temporarily) the Internationale as national anthem. This ostensible adop¬tion of the full trappings of a Com¬munist state was not accompanied by practical influence on policies until much later, after two major attempts to overthrow the government.
The first was the right-wing plot of Lt. Kikanga in March 1970 and the second was the left-wing plot of Lt. Diawara in February 1972. The latter plot in particular seemed to create a siege mentality in Ngouabi, as Diawara fled to the bush in the Brazzaville area, and was at large for the next 14 months. In April 1973 Diawara was finally caught and shot and his corpse publicly exhibited in the sports stadium. The intervening period had seen Ngouabi increasingly concerned at this challenge to his authority and credibility.
Under attack from the left, both at home and in France, Ngouabi tried to give more body to the usual rhetoric by taking on the French. In March 1972 he visited Paris (his first journey outside Africa since becoming President) and called for the revision of co-operation agreements. In September he introduced controls on the repatriation of profits of foreign businessmen and, after a quarrel with the French over payments for postal services, nationalised France- Cable and the relay station in Brazzaville of the French radio (the Free French station in the second World War). In December he bitterly attacked French imperialist exploitation. But the French business interests, notably in oil and timber, have clung on and the Peoples’ Republic remains in the franc zone and an associate of the EEC.
Even with the death of Diawara, Ngouabi still has problems resolving the contradictions of his position.
In December 1972 Ngouabi, in an attempt to broaden his political base, accepted party recommendations to reestablish a popular assembly and a prime minister, all massively approved by referendum on June 24, 1973.
An intelligent and hard-working officer, his skill at assimilating the revolutionary style of Brazzaville has helped him to survive. His own personality embodies the contradictions of Brazzaville politics, as he veers between ideological harangues and pragmatic action. His realism is shown in his foreign policy, where he has fostered good relations with Zaire and Gabon— states with totally different ideologies to the Congo.
Although he maintains relations with the Eastern bloc and Cuba and has refused to resume relations with the USA (broken in 1965), he has developed increasingly good relations with his two closest neighbours, both ideologically very different-President Bongo of Gabon and President Mobutu of Zaire.
Once in power, President Ngouabi changed the country's name to the People's Republic of the Congo, declaring it to be Africa's first Marxist–Leninist state, and founded the Congolese Workers' Party
Short, tubby and of a serious demeanour