Happy black history Month.

January 1st 1969, Marien Ngouabi was sworn in as the President of Republic of Congo.

But who was he? And why was he assassinated 8 years later after refusing to grant the French the oil region of Cabinda

#Thread

1.French occupied Congo Brazzaville starting early 19th century. Every European colonial power wanted a piece of the Congo so the French commissioned Pierre de Brazza to explore Equatorial Africa in October 1875.

By 1891, French had already annexed Congo Brazza
2. Like any French Colony, Congolese endured ruthless exploitation of their land for 80 years

By 1958, Congo Brazaville was on a journey to decolonization under MSA ( movement socialist African) founded by anti-colonial leaders from Tchad, Senegal, Gabon, Cameroon, Mali,..
3. On August 5th 1960,French agreed on a peaceful transition to an independent state and give Fulbert Youlou to govern the new republic.

Youlou, a liberal nationalist was seen as less of a threat compared to other anti-colonial leaders
4. Youlou's presidency was a total failure full of corruption, incompetency and catering to French multinationals for validation

This ended very bad for Youlou because when the people started strikes all over the country, France did nothing when the military overthrew Youlou
5. Massamba- Debat replaced Youlou. He was an anti-colonial leader, founded " Le movement national de la révolution ( MNR) " to lead the country in total decolonization against the French.

However he failed when he tried to make MNR the sole party of the country
6. Marien was born Dec 31st 1938. From 1958, he served as sergeant in Cameroon and returned to Congo Brazabille in 1962 to serve as lieutenant.

Ngouabi was arrested on July 29th 1968 after criticizing Massamba's govt.

His arrest as he was loved by the military caused chaos
7. Ngouabi then became president on Jan 1st 1969. He toured the continent the first 4 years building solidarity in Morocco, Tchad, Ivory Coast, Gabon,...

He cut ties with France and built allyship with the soviet Union
8. Ngouabi was from the North. A region that was long marginalized by the ruling class that was from.the South . His regime tried decentralized the south's power and making the Congo a country that works for all.

Unfortunately he was assassination March 18th 1977
9. His assassination is a mystery. Some assume he was killed by the ruling class that was unhappy. Others relate it to his refusal to grant the Cabinda territory to France and that made the French very mad

In all matters. He was assassinated for being a menace to neo-colonialism
That's all for today.

Read extensively about Marien on my patreon. Your support to my writings, allow me to dig about our history

https://t.co/P3QGQqi8B0

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