François Tombalbaye
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François Tombalbaye | |
---|---|
فرنسوا تومبالباي | |
Prime Minister of Chad | |
In office 26 March 1959 – 11 August 1960 | |
Preceded by | Ahmed Koulamallah (as President of Provisional Govt.) |
Succeeded by | Hissène Habré (as PM of independent Chad, in 1978) |
Personal details | |
Born | François Tombalbaye فرنسوا تومبالباي 15 June 1918 Free French Forces |
Battles/wars | World War II Chadian Civil War (1965–1979) |
François Tombalbaye (
A native of the south of the country, Tombalbaye began his career as a teacher during
In 1973, he founded a new party, the
Early life
Tombalbaye was born on 15 June 1918 in the village of
During World War II, Tombalbaye fought for Free France against the Nazi-backed Vichy regime.
Early political career
In 1946/7, Tombalbaye formed a chapter of the Chadian Progressive Party (PPT) in Sarh and rallied members of his clan and other Sara speakers to the party. After a Muslim trader mocked the Sara people as mere beasts in November 1947, he helped to direct violent protest in N'Djamena. In 1949, the French government revoked his teaching position as punishment to his involvement in political activism. A year later, he went on to direct the PPT newspaper, AEF Nouvelle but shut down the same year after French repression. In 1952, he won a seat in the colonial territorial assembly and was elected to French Equatorial Africa general council in 1957, where he served as vice-president. Tensions between him and Lisette grew in the late 1950s after the 1956 loi-cadre reforms where individual colonies politicians are allowed to negotiate their own constituents, rather than maintain the federation of colonies of French Equatorial Africa.[1] He later succeeded Gabriel Lisette as head of the Chadian Progressive Party (PPT) in March 1959 after coming under pressure, heading Chad's colonial government from 1959. He ruled the country during its independence on 11 August 1960, and was appointed its first head of government.
Presidency
Tombalbaye managed to create a coalition of progressive forces from both the north and south of the country and isolating the more conservative Islamic factions in the center as a colonial legislator. After independence, he adopted an autocratic form of government, eliminated opposition both within his party and outside his party by banning all other political parties. In 1963 Tombalbaye dissolved the National Assembly in response to rioting. He began nationalizing the civil service, replacing French administrators with less competent locals. He imposed a "National Loan", greatly increasing taxing, to fund the nationalization.
In October 1968, Tombalbaye was a guest of President Lyndon B. Johnson in Washington, D.C. Following brief talks with Johnson, he traveled to Texas, meeting with research scientists at ICASALS (International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies), part of Texas Tech University.
Tombalbaye's
France agreed to enter the fray, provided that Tombalbaye initiate a series of reforms to the army, government, and civil service. Taxes and laws imposed arbitrarily by Tombalbaye were to be rescinded, and the country's traditional sultans had their role as tax collectors restored, for which they received 10% of the income. He agreed to France's terms in 1969 and Chad embarked on a gradual liberalization process. In elections in 1969, several hundred political prisoners were released from prison, but Tombalbaye was still the only candidate on the ballot.
A further sign of liberalization came in 1971 when Tombalbaye admitted to the Congress of the PPT that he had made mistakes. Steps were taken to reform the government, and more Gorane were included in his new government. Order seemed to have been restored, and France withdrew its troops from the country.
During the early 1970s, he chose to follow DRC strongman Mobutu Sese Seko in his move towards remaking African cultural institutions.
Progress came to a grinding halt in August 1971, when an attempted
Nevertheless, Tombalbaye felt insecure with his own government as well. Tombalbaye arrested major PPT leaders, including Malloum, for allegedly using witchcraft to overthrow him in what was known as the "Black Sheep Plot," for the animals they allegedly sacrificed.[citation needed] The politician Kalthouma Nguembang was also implicated in this plot; she was arrested and tortured as a result.[2]
In August, Tombalbaye disbanded the PPT and replaced it with the
Overthrow and death
Meanwhile, the drought worsened throughout Africa, so in order to improve the dismal economy, people were forced to "volunteer" in a major effort to increase cotton production. With his support in the south diminished, Tombalbaye lashed out at the army, making arbitrary promotions and demotions. Finally, on 13 April 1975, after some of the country's leading officers had been arrested for involvement in an alleged coup, he was reportedly shot in his own palace, succumbing to his gunshot wounds afterwards. His body was secretly buried in Faya. The military installed Félix Malloum, by then a general, as the new head of state.
See also
- Decolonization in Chad
- Tombalbaye government
References
- ISBN 9780195382075.
- ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5, retrieved 2021-01-20
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-08-10.