MAGA (Hubert, Coutoucou)
Born in August, 1916 in Parakou (Dahomey)
Died May 8, 2000 in Cotonou (Benin)
Deputy representing Dahomey from 1951 to 1958.
Hubert Maga was born in August, 1916, in Parakou in Dahomey. Of modest origins, he began his studies at the primary school in Parakou before moving to the Victor Ballot school in Porto-Novo; well-endowed with intelligence, he then moved to Senegal, where he took classes at the Ecole Normale William Ponty in Gorée. For some years he worked as a teacher before becoming director of a school at Natitingou; after this he became an inspector of teaching in primary schools.
Beginning at scouting school, Maga engaged himself in trade-union work after World War II, eventually coming to be at the center of Dahomey's Teachers' Union. Simultaneously, he became embroiled in his first political combats; in 1945 he was elected a general adviser for the Atacora region, and in 1947 he was made a member of the Grand Council of the AOF (I don't know what this stands for.)
Maga presented himself in the legislative elections of June 17, 1951 in the Dahomey district at the head of a list of "Ethnic group Nord-Dahomey" (Could probably also be translated as "North Dahomey Ethnic Groups" - I don't know if Nord-Dahomey is a region or merely a descriptor.) In presenting the list, he affirmed his desire to rest apart from local and national political combinations: "All, you know our intentions: defending the interest of the populations of north and south Dahomey, without political pretense and without territorial division. As far as possible, we promise you we will seek the center of this Assembly, in concert with the experience of our precursors, the same materials, cultural and moral, susceptible to make all improvements indispensable to our economic rise and to give value to these regions. It is this which explains our independent position, without political etiquette." With 49,329 votes out of 115,333 cast, Maga's list carried one of the two seats provided; the other was filled by exiting deputy Sourou Apity.
"In the Assemblée, Maga sat at the center of a group of Independents from overseas. He was named a member of the Finance Committee, of which he was also secretary; of the committee on national education; and of the committee on parliamentary privileges. His parliamentary activity consists, essentially, of a proposition of a law, deposited on May 13, 1954, relative to the election of counselors of the Republic from overseas territories and Trust Territories.
In the course of his time in the legislature, Hubert Maga approved a project of law to institute the CECA (December 13, 1951); he voted for the investiture of Antoine Pinay to the presidency of the Council (March 6, 1952); for the same of Joseph Laniel (June 26, 1953); he supported the motion of Yvon Delbos pursuant to the investiture of Pierre Mendès France, designated president of the Counsel (June 17, 1954). Finally, he was among those who, on August 30, 1954, supported the project for a European Defense Community.
Hubert maga stood as a candidate with the renewal of his mandate at the legislative elections of January 2, 1956. He headed the list of the political group of which he was the leader, the Dahomeyan Democratic Movement (Mouvement démocratique dahoméen), which defended the idea of an "active federalism within the French union". Maga slightly improved his score compared to the preceding elections, winning 60,601 votes of the 179,119 cast, compared with 64,344 for the leader of the Dahomey Republican Party, Sourou Apithy. That same year, he left the Grand Council of the AOF.
Maga was made a member of the committee on national education and the committe of justice and legislation; he was named Secretary of the Assemblée on Jaunary 25, 1956. He intervened with the platform of the Assemblée on June 5, 1956, to comment on the colonial politics of government. Maga approved overall of the actions taken by the Mollet cabinet in Morocco and Tunisia, nevertheless noting his reservations: "We are anxious about the position which seems to be yours regarding the evolution of overseas territories. You appear, in effect, to consider the outlines of the law to be the sole gift to be made to these territories. We affirm that if an administrative decentrilization is necessary, it is clearly insufficient." The deputy from Dahomey became more critical regarding the Algerian politics of government; "It is not possible for us to follow you in an action which subordinates political negotiation to peace in Algeria, and which risks a definitive compromise to our real chance of pacification, of spirits and hearts, and the advent of Franco-Muslim friendship."
When Félix Gaillard was called to the presidency of the Council, in November of 1957, he handed Maga the position of Undersecretary of State; Maga helpd this position until the end of the Gaillard cabinet, on April 15, 1958.
Upon the occasion of the legislature's principle votes, Maga voted for the investiture of Guy Mollet (January 31, 1956); he chose not to take part in the balloting on the day a vote was held on the question of confidence in the Algerian politics of government (March 12, 1956); he voted to sustain the law pursuant to ratification of the treaties instituting the CEE and Euratom (July 9, 1957); he voted for the investiture of Félix Gaillard (November 12); on the same day he voted for the law relating to special powers in Algeria. He produced a vote of confidence for the program and politics of Pierre Pflimlin (May 13, 1958); on June 1, he tendered his support for Charles de Gaulle. On June 2 he voted, moreover, in favor of the law relative to giving him full powers.
Maga was elected a senator of the French Community in 1958, and applied himself entirely to his political activities in Dahomey; there he became, succesively, Minister of Labor (1958); Prime Minister (1959); and President of the Republic (1960). Thus it fell to him to lead the country after having voted for its independence, August 1, 1960. The following December saw the first legislative elections since independence; they saw a victory for the Dahomeyan Unity Party, born of the fusion of the Dahomeyan Democratic Gathering of Hubert Maga and the Dahomeyan Nationalist Party of Sourou Apithy.
Maga lost power following the strikes and manifestations of October, 1963; Colonel Christophe Soglo seized power. Maga took refuge in Côte d'Ivoire, but continued to intervene in Dahomeyan politics from Abidjan. It was to him that the people turned, in 1970, to "put a term" to the institutional crisis that shook the country. Maga inaugurated a system of rotating presidencies (the presidential council), with a biannual madate, but this fragile institutional edifice was destroyed in May of 1972 with the coup d'etat spearheaded by Mathieu Kérékou. Under his aegis, Dahomey (which became Benin in November of 1975), began to engage in Marxism-Leninism.
Hubert Maga then retired from political life. He died on May 8, 2000, in Cotonou.
"Justin Tomêtin Ahomadégbé Éphémère chef de l'État."
editJustin Tomêtin Ahomadégbé - transitory chief of state.
He had elegant mein (? I think - no dictionary at hand to check, and Babelfish is no help); he passed happily from European costume to a three-piece boubou (yeah, doesn't make sense; I'd expect a "three-piece suit" and a boubou; but this is what it says). He had in equal measures plenty of humor, loved good cheer, knew how to take the good side of life (don't know this phrase, but I suspect it means "enjoy the good life"), but his blows of anger were Homeric. In his professional life, he was a doctor - a dentist, but he preferred politics by far, a passion which he shared with a large number of his compatriots. He was mayor, deputy, president of the Assemblée nationale. And president for a short while, for several months, from May 7 to October 26 1927, the date upon which he was removed by a military coup conducted by a battalion chief named Mathieu Kérékou A great figure in independent Dahomey (today Benin), Justin Tomêtin Ahomadégbé died of a "long illness" the 8th of March last, at the Hubert Maga National University and Hospital Center in Cotonou, named for the first president of this little nation in West Africa. A man who was, over the course of the first twenty years of independence, the "brother enemy" (again, don't know this idiom - that's what it is literally) of Ahomadégbé...
In that age, political life was "rated" (I suspect divided, but am not certain) by three parties and their charismatic leaders, Maga, Sourou Migan Apithy et Ahomadégbé, each of whom, while supporting their respective fiefs, understood the importance of the game of alliances and un-alliances.
Born "around" 1917 in the royal city of Abomey, in the center of the country, Justin Tomêtin Ahomadégbé began his essential primary studies at the Catholic school of that city, before joining the Victor Ballot Primary Superior School in Porto Novo. Following this, he entered medical school in Dakar, from which he left in 1941. Several weeks later he was mobilized and sent to the front, in France, to fight Nazi Germany. Once demobilized he returned to the country, with the grade of sergeant, and exercised his profession in different establishments before entering politics.
In 1947 he was elected to the first general council of Dahomey, under the colors of the Popular African Bloc, of which he was secretary general. In 1956 he created, with some friends, another party, called the Dahomeyan Democratic Union, which along with the parties of Maga and Apithy animated local political life for several decades. In 1957 he entered the grand council of French West Africa; he was elected deputy in the legislative elections of April 2, 1959, and mounted to the presidency of the National Assembly, a post which he held just until November 1960. On December 11, 1960, he presented himself in the presidential election, but was beaten by Maga.
On May 29, 1961, he was arrested and thrown into prison after being implicated in a supposed plot against the security of the state. Freed the next year, he opened a clinic in a popular neighborhood of Cotonou, but quickly reacquainted himself with politics, in October of 1963, on the occasion of the popular explosion that carried off the Maga regime. Ahomadégbé integrated himself into the provisional government formed by the new master of Dahomey (literally - I love the phrase), Colonel Christophe Soglo. He was Minister of State, in charge of a department the size of his ambitions, the Ministry of Work, Social Affairs, Health, Public Works, and National Education.
In January, 1964, Soglo transferred power to an "Apithy-Ahomadégbé" coalition; the first took office as president, while Ahomadégbé became vice-president and chief of the government. Quickly, the experiment was cut short. Finding that his ally was "making the shade to him" (another idiom I don't know; either it means shadowing him, having him shadowed, or casting a shadow over him - plotting against him, in other words) Apithy resigned with a crash. This crisis made it more amenable for Soglo to retake power on December 22, 1965; following this Dahomey knew a long period of instability. At last, a presidential council, comprising Maga, Ahomadégbé, and Apithy, with a presidency that changed every two years, was set up on May 7, 1970. The first-named inaugurated this system for the first two years, before passing the relay, on May 7, 1972, to Ahomadégbé, who the military destroyed five months later. The three men passed more than nine years in prison before being freed by their overthrower, Mathieu Kérékou.
Odd - this is where it ends. Nothing about his later life at all. Wonderfully flowery, don't you think?
Joseph APITHY
editAPITHY (Sourou, Migan, Marcellin, Joseph)
Born April 8, 1913 in Porto-Novo (Dahomey) Died December 3, 1989 in Paris
Member of the First and Second Constituent National Assemblies of Dahomey-Togo
Deputy for Dahomey from 1946 until 1958
After legal and economic studies at the Free School of Political Sciences, at the National School for Economic and Social Organization (could be "National School of the Economic and Social Organization") and at the Improvement Center in Business Administration of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, Joesph Apithy "passed the patent" (not sure - I think this means he gained his diploma) as an expert accountant, and became police chief (?) of counseling societies (?) in the courts of appeal of Paris and Dakar. Married, he was father to two children. Having voluntarily signed up (to the army), he saw action in the campaign of 1939-1940 as an artillery officer.
In 1945, as a Socialist candidate, he was elected by the college of non-citizens, as a deputy representing Dahomey and Togo at the First National Constituent Assembly, with 6,600 votes of 9,057 cast. Named a member of the Commission on Overseas Territories, he took part in debates on the situation of France's overseas territories.
Reelected by the college of non-citizens, again as the Socialist candidate, as a deputy for Dahomey-Togo at the Second National Constituent Assembly (1946), witn 8,096 votes of 9.069 cast, he was named a member of the Commission on Overseas Territories.
He deposed a preposition of a resolution to create a "case of reprocess" in Togo and participated in the discussion over proposed laws about the Constitution, the French Union, and local assemblies in the départements and overseas territories. He was elected attorney general of Dahomey.
In the legislative elections of November 1946, he was, as candidate of the SFIO, reelected deputy from Dahomey with 32, 977 votes out of 33,605 cast. He was named a member of the Commissions on Overseas Territories and Methods of Communication, the Commission on Economic Affairs and the Commission of Finances. He deposed a proposition for a law on the funcioning of the grand councils of the AOF and another regarding the creation of the cooperative African bank in the AOF and Togo. He became secretary of the National Assembly (1949) and frequently took part in the discussion of questions regarding the AOF and overseas territories, particularly regarding the incidents in Porto Novo on April 20, 1951. He voted for the candidacy of Leon Blum as president of the provisional government (December 12, 1946), and the confirmation of the Blum cabinet (December 17, 1946 - confirmation was accorded), against the confirmation of the Ramadier government (May 8, 1947), against the Statute of Algeria (August 27, 1947), against the Marshall Plan (July 17, 1948) and for the Statute regarding the Council of Europe (July 9, 1949).
In 1951 he was, as a candidate of the French Union, reelected deputy for Dahomey to the Second Legislature, with 53,463 votes out of 147,350 cast (332,867 inscribed - whatever that means). He was named a member of the Commission on Overseas Territories, the Commission of Accountancy, the Committee which controlled the funds to encourage textile production, and a supplicatory judge at the High Court of Justice. Elected Secretary of the National Assembly (1951-1955), he was inscribed into the group of Independents and Peasants for Social Action.
Joseph Apithy deposed a proposition of law meant to accord fiscal advantages to metropolitan enterprises which reinvested a part of their profits into productive activities situated overseas. He presented the report of the Commission on Overseas Territories on the proposal of the Malbrant Resolution, which would assimilate executive administration in overseas France with that of the city (not sure what, exactly, this means, but that's roughly what it says), and the opinion of that commission regarding the projected law authorising the president of the Republic to ratify the treaty instituting the CED.
He participated particularly in discussions regarding the problems of overseas France, notably proposing a sub-amendment meant to permit the addition of representatives for Dahomey (November 23, 1951). He deposed, on June 24, 1964, a demand for interpolation (?) into overseas politics and the composition of the French Mendès government. He voted for the approbation of the Geneva accords (December 23, 1954), against the ratification of the CED (August 30, 1954), and for confidence in Algeria ("confidence on Algeria", literally - I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean) (December 30, 1954). He abstained from votes regarding the entry of Germany into NATO (December 29, 1954); he voted against confirming "Mendès France" (presumably the Mendès government) (February 4, 1955 - confirmation rejected); for a state of emergency in Algeria (March 31, 1955), and for the confirmation of Edgar Faure (November 29, 1955 - confirmation refused).
Joseph Apithy was a delegate from France to the 8th session of the ONU (1953).
On January 2, 1956, he was reelected on the ballot for the Republican Party of Dahomey as a deputy for Dahomey to the Third Legislature, with 64,344 votes of 182,218 cast (354,643 written). He was named a member of the Commission on Overseas Territories and the Commission of Accountancy; he was elected vice-president of the first, and secretary of the second. He was finally named a supplicant judge to the High Court of Constitutional Justice. He deposed a preposition for a resolution to create a regimen for a customs union between Dahomey and Togo, and several reports in the name of the Commission on Overseas Territories. He abstained from a vote on special powers in Algeria (March 12, 1956), he agreed with the confirmation of Pierre Pflimlin (May 13, 1958), he voted to revise the Constitution (May 27, 1958), for confidence in General de Gaulle (June 1, 1958), for more powers and for the revision of the Constitution (June 2, 1958), in the discussion about which he had the satisfaction of seeing his proposed amendment (suggesting a new reduction to Article 90 of the Constitution) adopted.
President of the general council, then president of the Territorial Assembly of Dahomey (1957), Joseph Apithy was eventually president of the parliamentary group for friendship between France and Liberia, and member of the general council of the AOF>
In 1956, he was elected mayor of Porto-Novo, where he directed the weekly magazine Ouest-Afrique ("West Africa")