Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Engvar Template:Infobox President Mathieu Kérékou ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 2 September 1933 – 14 October 2015) was a Beninese politician who served as president of the People's Republic of Benin from 1972 to 1991 and the Republic of Benin from 1996 to 2006.
After seizing power in a military coup, he ruled the country for 18 years under an officially Marxist–Leninist ideology, before he was stripped of his powers by the National Conference of 1990. He was defeated in the 1991 presidential election but was returned to the presidency in the 1996 election and controversially re-elected in 2001.
Military backgroundEdit
Kérékou was born in 1933 in Kouarfa village,<ref name="Pouvoir">"Après 29 ans de pouvoir, le Président Kérékou tire sa révérence", IRIN, 6 April 2006 Template:In lang.</ref> in north-west French Dahomey. After having studied at military schools in modern-day Mali and Senegal,<ref name="Pouvoir"/> Kérékou served in the military by joining the French Army in 1960.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Following independence, from 1961 to 1963 he was an aide-de-camp to Dahomeyan President Hubert Maga.<ref name=Profiles>Template:Cite book</ref> Following Maurice Kouandété's coup d'état in December 1967, Kérékou, who was his cousin,<ref name=Profiles/><ref name=Amuwo>'Kunle Amuwo, "The State and the Politics of Democratic Consolidation in Benin, 1990–1999", in Political Liberalization and Democratization in Africa (2003), ed. Ihonvbere and Mbaku. Template:ISBN.</ref> was made chairman of the Military Revolutionary Council.<ref name=Profiles/> After Kérékou attended French military schools from 1968 to 1970,<ref name=Profiles/> Maga made him a major, deputy chief of staff, and commander of the Ouidah paratroop unit.<ref name=Profiles/><ref name=Amuwo/>
1972 coup and Marxist ruleEdit
Kérékou seized power in Dahomey in a military coup on 26 October 1972,<ref name="Pouvoir"/> ending a system of government in which three members of a presidential council were to rotate power (earlier in the year Maga had handed over power to Justin Ahomadegbé).<ref name="Decalo">Samuel Decalo, "Benin: First of the New Democracies", in Political Reform in Francophone Africa (1997), ed. Clark and Gardinier. Template:ISBN.</ref>
During his first two years in power, Kérékou expressed only nationalism and said that the country's revolution would not "burden itself by copying foreign ideology ... We do not want communism or capitalism or socialism. We have our own Dahomean social and cultural system." On 30 November 1974, however, he announced the adoption of Marxism-Leninism by the state.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The country was renamed from the Republic of Dahomey to the People's Republic of Benin a year later; the banks and petroleum industry were nationalized. The People's Revolutionary Party of Benin (Parti de la révolution populaire du Bénin, PRPB) was established as the sole ruling party. In 1980, Kérékou was elected president by the Revolutionary National Assembly; he retired from the army in 1987.<ref name="Onadipe">Abiodun Onadipe, "The return of Africa's old guard – former African leaders, mostly dictators, bid for a return to power", Contemporary Review, August 1996.</ref>
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It has been suggested that Kérékou's move to Marxism-Leninism was motivated mainly by pragmatic considerations, and that Kérékou himself was not actually a leftist radical; the new ideology offered a means of legitimization, a way of distinguishing the new regime from those that had preceded it, and was based on broader unifying principles than the politics of ethnicity. Kérékou's regime initially included officers from both the north and south of the country, but as the years passed, the northerners (like Kérékou himself) became clearly dominant, undermining the idea that the regime was not based on ethnicity.<ref name="Decalo"/> By officially adopting Marxism-Leninism, Kérékou may also have wanted to win the support of the country's leftists.<ref name="Allen">Template:Cite book</ref>
Kérékou's regime was rigid and vigorous in pursuing its newly adopted ideological goals from the mid-1970s to the late 1970s. In 1974, under the influence of young revolutionaries - the "Ligueurs" - the government embarked on a socialist program: nationalization of strategic sectors of the economy, reform of the education system, establishment of agricultural cooperatives and new local government structures, and a campaign to eradicate "feudal forces" including tribalism. Beginning in the late 1970s, the regime jettisoned much of its radicalism and settled onto a more moderately socialist course as Kérékou consolidated his personal control.<ref name="Myth">Template:Cite book</ref>
Its relations with France and other African governments in the region deteriorated because of the Marxism claimed by the Beninese regime and the support offered to the Polisario Front for the liberation of Western Sahara. The French government of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing feared the spread of Marxism in West Africa and decided to react. He was joined by Félix Houphouet-Boigny (Ivory Coast), Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo), Joseph-Désiré Mobutu (Zaire) and Hassan II (Morocco), who, in addition to the diplomatic isolation and attempts to destabilize Benin economically, decided to organize an attempted coup d'état. This was Operation Shrimp, entrusted to the French mercenary Bob Denard, on 17 January 1977, but it failed completely.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
It was hoped that the nationalizations of the 1970s would help develop the economy, but it remained in a very poor condition. Kérékou began reversing course in the early 1980s, closing down numerous state-run companies and attempting to attract foreign investment.<ref name="Decalo"/> He also accepted an IMF structural readjustment program in 1989, agreeing to austerity measures that severely cut state expenditure.<ref name="Decalo"/><ref name="Allen"/> The economic situation continued to worsen during the 1980s, provoking widespread unrest in 1989. A student strike began in January of that year; subsequently, strikes among various elements of society increased in frequency, and the nature of their demands grew broader: whereas initially they had focused on economic issues such as salary arrears, this progressed to include demands for political reform.<ref name="Allen"/>
Transition to multi-partyEdit
In the period of reforms towards multiparty democracy in Africa at the beginning of the 1990s, Benin moved onto this path early, with Kérékou being forced to make concessions to popular discontent. Benin's early and relatively smooth transition may be attributed to the particularly dismal economic situation in the country, which seemed to preclude any alternative.<ref name="Decalo"/> Amid increasing unrest, Kérékou was re-elected as president by the National Assembly in August 1989,<ref name="Onadipe"/> but in December 1989 Marxism-Leninism was dropped as the state ideology,<ref>"Upheaval in the east; Benin, too, gives up Marxism for reforms", Reuters, 9 December 1989.</ref> and a national conference was held in February 1990. The conference turned out to be hostile to Kérékou and declared its own sovereignty; despite the objections of some of his officers to this turn of events, Kérékou did not act against the conference,<ref name="Decalo"/> although he labelled the conference's declaration of sovereignty a "civilian coup". During the transition that followed, Kérékou remained president but lost most of his power.<ref name="Allen"/><ref>Lisa Beyer, "Africa Continental Shift", Time, 21 May 1990.</ref>
During the 1990 National Conference, which was nationally televised, Kérékou spoke to the Archbishop of Cotonou, Isidore de Souza, confessing guilt and begging forgiveness for the flaws of his regime. An observer described it as a "remarkable piece of political theater", full of cultural symbolism and significance; in effect, Kérékou was seeking forgiveness from his people. Such a gesture, so unusual for the African leaders of the time, could have fatally weakened Kérékou's political standing, but he performed the gesture in such a way that, far from ending his political career, it instead served to symbolically redeem him and facilitate his political rehabilitation, while also "securing him immunity from prosecution". Kérékou shrewdly utilized the timing and setting: "Culturally as well as theologically it was impossible to refuse forgiveness on these terms."<ref name=Myth/>
World Bank economist Nicéphore Soglo, chosen as prime minister by the conference, took office in March, and a new constitution was approved in a December 1990 referendum. Multi-party elections were held in March 1991, which Kérékou lost, obtaining only about 32% of the vote in the second round against Prime Minister Soglo;<ref name="Elections">Elections in Benin, African Elections Database.</ref> while he won very large vote percentages in the north, in the rest of the country he found little support.<ref name="Decalo"/> Kérékou was thus the first mainland African president to lose power through a popular election.<ref name="Decalo"/><ref>"Official result in Benin vote shows big loss for Kerekou", Associated Press, 26 March 1991.</ref> He apologized for "deplorable and regrettable incidents" that occurred during his rule.<ref name=Onadipe/>
After losing the election in March 1991, Kérékou left the political scene and "withdrew to total silence", another move that was interpreted as penitential.<ref name=Myth/>
1996 presidential electionEdit
Kérékou reclaimed the presidency in the March 1996 election. Soglo's economic reforms and his alleged dictatorial tendencies had caused his popularity to suffer.<ref name="Onadipe"/> Although Kérékou received fewer votes than Soglo in the first round, he then defeated Soglo in the second round, taking 52.5% of the vote.<ref name=Amuwo/><ref name="Elections"/> Kérékou was backed in the second round by third place candidate Adrien Houngbédji and fourth place candidate Bruno Amoussou;<ref name=Amuwo/> as in 1991, Kérékou received very strong support from northern voters,<ref>"World News Briefs; Benin Presidential Vote Heads for a Runoff", The New York Times, 6 March 1996.</ref> but he also improved his performance in the south.<ref name=Amuwo/> Soglo alleged fraud, but this was rejected by the Constitutional Court, which confirmed Kérékou's victory.<ref>Benin, Year in Review: 1996, Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> When taking the oath of office, Kérékou left out a portion that referred to the "spirits of the ancestors" because he had become a born-again Christian after his defeat by Soglo. He was subsequently forced to retake the oath including the reference to spirits.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Disputed re-election, 2001Edit
Kérékou was re-elected for a second five-year term in the March 2001 presidential election under controversial circumstances. In the first round he took 45.4% of the vote; Soglo, who took second place, and parliament speaker Houngbédji, who took third, both refused to participate in the second round, alleging fraud and saying that they did not want to legitimize the vote by participating in it. This left the fourth-place finisher, Amoussou, to face Kérékou in the run-off, and Kérékou easily won with 83.6% of the vote.<ref name="Elections"/><ref>"Benin 'day of mourning'", BBC News, 6 April 2001.</ref> It was subsequently discovered that the American corporation Titan gave more than two million dollars to Kérékou's re-election campaign as a bribe.<ref>"US company admits Benin bribery", BBC News, 2 March 2005.</ref>
During Kérékou's second period in office his government followed a liberal economic path. The period also saw Benin take part in international peacekeeping missions in other African states.<ref name="irin">Template:Cite news</ref>
Kérékou was barred from running again in 2006 on two counts. The constitution not only stipulated an absolute two-term limit, but also required that presidential candidates be younger than 70; he turned 70 in 2003, during his second term. Kérékou said in July 2005 that he would not attempt to amend the constitution to allow him to run for a third term. "If you don't leave power," he said, "power will leave you."<ref>"Kerekou says will retire next year, will not change constitution to stay in power", IRIN, 12 July 2005.</ref> There was, however, speculation that he had wanted it to be changed, but faced too much opposition.<ref>Ali Idrissou-Toure, "Africa's big men cling to power" Template:Webarchive, Spero News, 18 July 2005.</ref>
On 5 March 2006, voters went to the polls to decide who would succeed Kérékou as President of Benin. Yayi Boni defeated Adrien Houngbédji in a run-off vote on 19 March,<ref name="Elections"/> and Kérékou left office at the end of his term, at midnight on 6 April 2006.<ref name="irin"/>
Religion and symbolismEdit
Born and baptized in the Roman Catholic faith, although he was a lapsed adherent, Kérékou allegedly converted to Islam in 1980 while on a visit to Libya, and changed his first name to Ahmed,<ref>Rulers.org biographical entry for Kérékou.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> but he later returned to the use of the name Mathieu. This alleged conversion may have been designed to please the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and obtain financial and military support.<ref>Africa's First Peacekeeping Operation: The OAU in Chad, 1981–1982 (2002) by Terry M. Mays, p. 61. Template:ISBN.</ref> Alternatively, the conversion story may have been a rumor planted by some of his opponents in order to destabilize his regime. He subsequently became a born-again Christian.<ref name="magical">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Some Vodun believers in Benin regarded him as having magical powers, explaining his ability to survive repeated coup attempts during his military rule.<ref name="magical"/>
Nicknamed "the chameleon" from an early point in his career,<ref name=Business>Template:Cite news</ref> Kérékou's motto was "the branch will not break in the arms of the chameleon".<ref name="Pouvoir"/><ref name=Myth/> The nickname and motto he adopted were full of cultural symbolism, articulating and projecting his power and ability. Unlike some past rulers who had adopted animal symbolism intending to project a violent, warlike sense of power, Kérékou's symbolic animal suggested skill and cleverness; his motto suggested that he would keep the branch from breaking, but implicitly warned of what could happen to "the branch" if it was not "in the arms of the chameleon"—political chaos.<ref name=Myth/> To some, his nickname seemed particularly apt as he successfully adapted himself to a new political climate and neoliberal economic policies in the 1990s.<ref name=Business/>
He used the campaign slogan, "Experience in the service of youth."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Retirement and deathEdit
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.<ref name=RFI>Tirthankar Chanda, "Les «Caméléons» meurent aussi: Mathieu Kérékou s’en est allé", Radio France Internationale, 14 October 2015 Template:In lang.</ref> His death was announced in a statement by President Thomas Boni Yayi. No cause of death was stated.<ref>"Benin's former president Mathieu Kerekou dies at 82", Agence France-Presse, 14 October 2015.</ref> A week of national mourning was declared.<ref name=RFI/>
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Allen, D., Allen, C., Radu, M., Somerville, K., Allan, G., & Baxter, J. Benin (Burns & Oates, 1989).
- Fredriksen, John C. ed. Biographical Dictionary of Modern World Leaders (2003) pp 252–253.
- Strandsbjerg, Camilla. "Continuity and Rupture in Conceptions of Political Power in Benin, 1972-2001." Cahiers detudes africaines 1 (2005): 71-94.
- Strandsbjerg, Camilla. "Kerekou, God and the ancestors: religion and the conception of political power in Benin." African Affairs 99.396 (2000): 395-414.