African Independence Leaders & Post-Colonial Figures Codexery

Gnassingbé Eyadéma

Longest-serving ruler in Africa who led Togo for 38 years.

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Gnassingbé Eyadéma

via Wikipedia: Togo · see source

The third president of Togo, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, was a military officer and politician who held office from 1967 until his death in 2005.[1] When he died, Eyadéma held the record as Africa's longest-ruling head of state.[2]

Life and work

Eyadéma is usually said to have been born on 26 December 1935 in the village of Pya in northern Togo, to a peasant family of the Kabye ethnic group.[3] He returned to Togo in 1962 after nearly 10 years in the French army.[4] He created the Rally of the Togolese People as the country's sole legal party.[5] A national conference in August 1991 elected a prime minister and left Eyadéma as merely a ceremonial president, but he remained in power with army backing.[6]

Eyadéma won multiparty presidential elections in 1993, 1998 and 2003, though the opposition boycotted the first and denounced the later results as fraudulent.[2] Comi M. Toulabor has stated that the officially recorded birth date for Eyadéma is "based on a fertile imagination" and that a birth year around 1930 is more plausible.[7] After finishing primary school in 1953, Eyadéma enlisted in the French Army and saw service in the Indochina and Algerian wars.[8] During the 1963 coup, Eyadéma was one of the leaders of the attack that resulted in the assassination of President Sylvanus Olympio.[4]

On 5 February 2005, while aboard an aircraft 250 km south of Tunis, Tunisia, Eyadéma died; officials attributed the death to a heart attack.[9][2]

What the cited sources add

The Guardian account states that Eyadéma was born in the village of Pya in the heartland of the Kabye people and took the Christian name Etienne.[10] The Guardian also notes that after Togo's independence in 1960, Eyadéma was stationed in Niger and Dahomey before returning to Togo in 1962.[10] According to the BBC obituary, Eyadéma claimed that democracy in Africa "moves along at its own pace and in its own way"[11][2] Afrik.com states that Eyadéma died of a heart attack in his native town of Pya, and that two hours later the army chief pronounced his son Faure Gnassingbé as president.[12]

The BBC notes that in 1993 the European Union halted aid due to concerns over alleged electoral fraud and human rights abuses.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nabourema, "In Togo, There Is Nowhere to Hide", New York TImes, 6 October 2020 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Obituary: Gnassingbe Eyadema" . (5 February 2005). BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2007. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "An Ethnography of a Vodu Shrine in Southern Togo: Of Spirit, Slave and Sea", BRILL, 13 February 2017, p. 71 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Gnassingbe Eyadema" . (6 February 2005). The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2019.; "Togo: Death at the Gate", 25 January 1963; Boisbouvier, "Togo : qui a tué Sylvanus Olympio ? (1/6)", Jeune Afrique, 11 October 2021; Haski, "Togo: un fantôme entre les candidats à la présidentielle. Eyadéma affronte le fils de Sylvanus Olympio, qu'il a tué", Libération, 22 June 1998 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: John R. Heilbrunn, "Togo: The National Conference and Stalled Reform" in Political Reform in Francophone Africa (1997), ed. John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Togo's President Agrees to Yield Power to a Rival", The New York Times, 29 August 1991.; Boukari-Yabara, "Une histoire de la Françafrique: L'empire qui ne veut pas mourir", Seuil, 2023, p. 739–740 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Toulabor, Comi M, "EYADÉMA GNASSINGBÉ", Encyclopædia Universalis S.A, 19 January 1999 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dictionary of African Biography", OUP USA, 2 February 2012, p. 474–475 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Gnassingbé Eyadéma" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Publication de la liste des candidats à l'élection présidentielle du 1<sup>er</sup> juin 2003", Journal Officiel de la République Togolaise, 10 May 2003, p. 2; "Gnassingbé Eyadéma, 69, Togo Ruler, Dies", The New York Times, 7 February 2005; "Togolese president Eyadema dies", BBC, 6 February 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. "Gnassingbe Eyadema" . (6 February 2005). The Guardian. Retrieved 5 October 2019.. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  11. "Obituary: Gnassingbe Eyadema" . (5 February 2005). BBC News. Retrieved 22 May 2007.. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
  12. Elraz, ""Papa Eyadéma" est mort", Afrik.com, 5 February 2005. facts only, no text reused. afrik.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Gnassingbé Eyadéma (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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