Background
Mathieu Kérékou was born in 1934, at Kouafra in the Atakora Province of northern Dahomey.
Mathieu Kérékou was born in 1934, at Kouafra in the Atakora Province of northern Dahomey.
After schooling in Soudan and Senegal, he went to the Officers' School at Frejus in France,
He first came to public notice when, as the commander of the paratroop unit at Ouidah, he played a vital role in the coup which overthrew General Soglo on December 17, 1967. Although he was President of the Military Revolutionary Committee set up after the coup, he was not a member of the army government subsequently set up under President Alley and Prime Minister Kouandete, who had been the coup leader. He preferred to exercise influence behind the scenes and was reportedly an active participant in the frequent meetings of all army officers which took place at this stage.
After the army handed over power to Dr Emile Zinsou in the summer of 1968 and went back to barracks, Kerekou went to France on a year’s course for senior officers, so he was absent when Kouandete staged his second coup on December 10, 1969, starting the process which led to the abortive elections of
March 1970 and the crisis which eventually brought the “big three” civilian politicians (Ahomadegbe, Apithy and Maga) to power. In the military reshuffle organised by President Hubert Maga in July 1970 Kerekou, now a major, emerged in the strategic position of Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army under Colonel de Souza.
The next vital event for him was the disastrous army mutiny of February 1972 in which there was an attempt to assassinate Colonel de Souza. Kouandete was subsequently arrested. Kerekou emerged in this period as the army strong man who, through his personal efforts and control over the largely northern rank and file, helped pull together a demoralised army which had nearly fallen apart. But after Kouandete and other army men were sentenced to death by the special court in May 1972, Kerekou successfully opposed carrying out the sentence (the two men come from the same Somba village and had closely parallel careers).
Even in May 1972, when Ahomadegbe constitutionally took over the Presidency from Maga, there were rumours that the army might soon take over and Kerekou was mentioned as the one man with authority enough to do it. The quarrels of the Presidential Council, leading to inertia, extravagance and corruption in government circles, made them increasingly unpopular and when Kerekou finally staged his coup on October 26, 1972, power, as he said later, was there for the taking
His first actions after becoming Head of State were to detain all the members of the previous government in the north and set up a Commission of Enquiry mto their activities while in government. He also formed a government composed entirely of army officers under 40 and under the rank of major. The senior officers were kicked upstairs to posts in various state corporations. (In February
1973 several including former President Alley, were arrested and goalcd for plot¬ting) After the coup Kerekou also amnestied Kouandete and his co-plotters and released them from detention a month later, although they were not reintegrated into the army.
At the end of November Kerekou announced a programme for the revolution, based on advice from a Commission set up to make a national stocktaking. The programme stressed national independence and called for a revision of the co-operation agreements with France and a review of other international relationships such as the Afro-Malagasy Joint Organisation (OCAM), the Entente and the franc zone. Relations with France started badly with the postponement of a scheduled visit by President Pompidou because of the coup and government warnings to French businessmen. Relations deteriorated with an anti-French demonstration after the coup plot was announced, but excesses (such as the breaking of windows in the French cultural centre) were condemned by the government.
Kerekou improved relations with Nigeria and in April 1973 he kept Dahomey out of the Francophone West African Economic Community because Nigeria and Ghana were not members. At the end of April he was promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel.
Evangelical Christianity (formerly lapsed Roman Catholic, briefly Islam) On 28 September 1980, Kérékou converted to Islam while on a visit to Libya, and changed his first name to Ahmed, but he later returned to the use of the name Mathieu.
A tough-minded, modest army officer, who kept himself in the background in Dahomey’s political turmoil until the coup of October 1972 thrust him into the hot seat. Then he rapidly revealed a style of his own, combining accessibility and a desire to maintain a dialogue with Dahomey’s turbulent students and workers, while at the same time unquestionably showing who was the boss. His emphasis on “national independence” has led to an enthusiasm for “the revolution” unknown since the period of the first “revolution” in October 1963. Kerekou’s main problem, having encouraged the belief that his advent to power was a revolution, is to sustain its momentum.
After leaving office in 2006, Kérékou stayed out of politics and spent time at his homes in Cotonou and Natitingou in northwestern Benin, his native region. He suffered a health crisis in 2014 and was taken to Paris for treatment. Although he recovered, he continued to suffer health problems, and he died in Benin on 14 October 2015 at the age of 82. His death was announced in a statement by President Thomas Boni Yayi. No cause of death was stated.A week of national mourning was declared.