Émile Derlin Zinsou
Émile Derlin Henri Zinsou | |
---|---|
Iropa Maurice Kouandété | |
Personal details | |
Born | Ouidah, Dahomey | 23 March 1918
Died | 28 July 2016 Cotonou, Benin | (aged 98)
Spouse | Florence Atayi Guy Gaspard |
Profession | Politician, physician |
Signature | |
Émile Derlin Zinsou (23 March 1918
Biography
Early life and medical career
Zinsou was born in Ouidah on 23 March 1918. 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.[2]
Political career and presidency
Zinsou was one of the founders of Dahomey's first political party, the
He served in the
After Dahomey achieved independence, Zinsou became the ambassador to France. Under Maga, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1962 to an abrupt dismissal in 1963. He was Francophone Africa's candidate for the role of the secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity in 1964. In early 1965 he was an advisor to the South African Anglo-American Corporation in Paris. Zinsou was again foreign minister from late December 1965 to 1967 in General Christophe Soglo's administration.[3]
Following the
Later life and death
He is said to have opposed the one-party Marxist policies of Mathieu Kérékou, who ruled Benin from 1972 to 1990. On 17 March 1975, following an attempted coup led by Janvier Assogba, Zinsou was accused of being complicit. He was sentenced to death in absentia.[5]
On 16 January 1977 an attempted coup d'état took place in Benin with a group of armed men led by renowned French mercenary "Colonel" Bob Denard. The operation, called Opération Crevette (or Operation Shrimp), was mounted in order to oust leftist President Mathieu Kérékou. In his autobiography, Bob Denard has mentioned that Emile Derlin Zinsou was to be reinstated in power in the aftermath of the coup, and that he was in fact waiting on board the mercenaries' plane that fled the country when the coup attempt failed. Zinsou has often denied being linked to the coup, but refused to comment on Denard's writings.
In 1990, Zinsou returned to Benin after his 17-year exile. He opposed the new constitution in the referendum of 2 December 1990 but was unsuccessful.[5] Zinsou was a mediator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during that country's civil war in the late 1990s; he arrived in Kinshasa on 20 September 1999, along with fellow mediator Padre Matteo Zuppi, and met with President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.[6]
Zinsou was, as of 2007, the Honorary President of the
Notes
- ISBN 9781134264902.
- ^ a b Houngnikpo & Decalo 2013, p. 373.
- ^ a b c d Houngnikpo & Decalo 2013, p. 374.
- ^ "A Job with Little Future". Time. Time Inc. 19 December 1969. Archived from the original on 14 December 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2008.
- ^ a b c Houngnikpo & Decalo 2013, p. 375.
- ^ "Congolese mediators meet Kabila", BBC News, 23 September 1999.
- ^ Chales Yansunnu, "Mathieu Kérékou refuse l’école des anciens présidents" Archived 27 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Fraternite, 15 June 2007 (in French).
- ^ Thibaud Nagnonhou, "5e Conseil national de l’UNDP : Le Président Zinsou et les siens jettent leur dévolu sur Yayi Boni", L'Informateur, 23 January 2006 (in French).
- ^ Release No 69-83F (1969). "Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages" (PDF). NASA. pp. 16–17.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Staff (29 July 2016). "Bénin: mort de l'ex-président Derlin-Zinsou". Le Figaro. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
- ^ "Former President of Benin, Emile Zinsou, dead". Africanews. 29 July 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
- ^ Staff (29 July 2016). "Bénin: disparition de l'ancien président Emile Derlin Zinsou" (in French). Radio France Internationale. Retrieved 29 July 2016.
References
- Houngnikpo, Mathurin; Decalo, Samuel (2013). Historical Dictionary of Benin. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0810871717.