Portraits of African Leaders

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MAURITIUS.



Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (1900 - 1985) was the first Chief Minister, Prime Minister and sixth Governor General of Mauritius. He served as Chief Minister from 1961 to 1968, prime minister from 1968 until 1982 and lastly as Governor General from 1983 to 1985. He is known as the "Father of the Nation". As decolonisation swept the third world, he led Mauritius to independence from the United Kingdom in 1968.

Ramgoolam was defeated in the 1982 general elections by the MMM-PSM coalition. He died in 1985, aged 85.

See Wikipedia: Seewoosagur Ramgoolam

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MAURITIUS.



Sir Anerood Jugnauth (born 1930) is the President of Mauritius and all its dependencies. He is the Commander in Chief and Head of state incumbent since 2003 following his election in 2003 and 2008. He served as prime minister from 1982 to 1995 in four consecutive terms and then was voted out of office from 1995 to 2000. He was the prime minister who held the office for the longest run, one of 16 years, overtaking Seewoosagur Ramgoolam, who held the office for 14 years. As leader of the Militant Socialist Movement, he became prime minister again, after the 2000 elections, for his fifth term. His alliance partner, Paul Bérenger of the Mauritian Militant Movement, succeeded him in 2003 after serving as Jugnauth's deputy for three years. Jugnauth was then elected president in 2003.

See Wikipedia: Anerood Jugnauth

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MOZAMBIQUE.



Samora Moisés Machel (1933 – 1986) was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique. Machel led the country from independence in 1975 until his death in 1986, when his presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain where the borders of Mozambique, Swaziland and South Africa converge.

See Wikipedia: Samora Machel

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NAMIBIA.



Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma (born 1929) is a Namibian politician who was the first President of Namibia from 1990 to 2005. He led the South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) in its long struggle against South African rule and took office as President when Namibia obtained independence on 21 March 1990. He was subsequently re-elected in 1994 and 1999, remaining in office until March 2005. He was President of SWAPO from its founding in 1960 until 2007.

See Wikipedia: Sam Nujoma

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NIGER.



Hamani Diori (1916 – 1989) became the first President of the Republic of Niger in 1960, when Niger gained independence from France. On 15 April 1974, Lieutenant Colonel Seyni Kountché led a military coup that ended Diori's rule. Diori was imprisoned for six years. After his release in 1980, he remained under house arrest until 1987. After being released from house arrest, he moved to Morocco, where he died on 23 April 1989 at the age of 72.

See Wikipedia: Hamani Diori

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RWANDA.



Grégoire Kayibanda (1924 – 1976) was the first elected and second President of the Republic of Rwanda. He led Rwanda's struggle for independence from Belgium, and replaced the Tutsi monarchy with a republican form of government. He asserted Hutu majority power. Kayibanda served as President of Rwanda from 1962 until July 5, 1973, when he was overthrown by his defense minister Major General Juvénal Habyarimana in a military coup. The new government held Kayibanda and his wife in a secret location, where they were reportedly starved to death.

See Wikipedia: Grégoire Kayibanda

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RWANDA.



Juvénal Habyarimana (1937 – 1994) was the third President of the Republic of Rwanda from 1973 until 1994. During his rule he favored his own ethnic group, the Hutus, and supported the Hutu majority in neighboring Burundi against the Tutsi government. On April 6 1994, he was killed when his airplane, also carrying the President of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira, was shot down close to Kigali International Airport. His assassination ignited ethnic tensions in the region and helped spark the Rwandan Genocide.

See Wikipedia: Juvénal Habyarimana

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SENEGAL.



Léopold Sédar Senghor (1906 – 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal (1960–1980). Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese Democratic Bloc. He is regarded by many as one of the most important African intellectuals of the 20th century.

See Wikipedia: Léopold Sédar Senghor

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SEYCHELLES.



Sir James Richard Marie Mancham KBE (born 1939) was the first President of the Seychelles from 1976 to 1977. When Britain announced its intention to give independence to the colony, Mancham founded the Democratic Party (S.D.P.), and served as its leader until February 2005. France-Albert René founded an opposition party, the Seychelles People's United Party (S.P.U.P) with the support of the Soviet Union. As Chief Minister of the colony, Mancham promoted tourism to the Seychelles and arranged for the building of the airport that was to make the Seychelles accessible to the rest of the world. Tourism increased and the economy developed. In 1976, Mancham won the popular vote when the British gave the Seychelles independence. Less than a year later, in June 1977, he was deposed in a coup by Prime Minister France-Albert René, who had the support of Tanzanian-trained revolutionaries and Tanzanian-supplied weapons, whilst Mancham was attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference in London.

Mancham lived in exile in London until April 1992. When he returned to the Seychelles following the lifting of the ban on opposition, he resumed the promotion of tourism to the tropical islands. He ran for president in July 1993 and finished second behind René. In March 1998 he ran again, receiving third place, behind René and Wavel Ramkalawan.

See Wikipedia: James Mancham

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SIERRA LEONE.



Sir Milton Augustus Strieby Margai (1895 - 1964) was a Sierra Leonean politician.

He was the first prime minister of Sierra Leone.

He was the main architect of the post-colonial constitution of Sierra Leone.

He guided his nation to independence in 1961.

Margai died in office in Freetown in 1964.

He was succeeded as prime minister by his brother Albert Margai.

See Wikipedia: Milton Margai

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SIERRA LEONE.



Siaka Probyn Stevens (1905 – 1988) was the 3rd prime minister of Sierra Leone from 1967–1971 and the 1st president of Sierra Leone from 1971–1985. Stevens is generally criticised for dictatorial methods of government in which many of his political opponents were executed, as well as for mismanaging the economy. On a positive note, he reduced the ethnic polarisation in the government of Sierra Leone by incorporating members of various ethnic groups into the government.

In April 1971, Stevens made Sierra Leone a republic and he became the first President of Sierra Leone a day after the constitution had been ratified by the Parliament of Sierra Leone. Stevens retired from office at the end of his term on 28 November 1985. After pressuring all other potential successors to step aside, he chose Major-General Joseph Saidu Momoh, the commander of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces as his successor. Stevens died on 29 May 1988 in Freetown.

See Wikipedia: Siaka Stevens

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SIERRA LEONE.



Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh (1937 – 2003) was the President of Sierra Leone from November 1985 to April 1992.

He was overthrown in a military coup staged by Valentine Strasser, a 25-year-old army captain, in April 1992.

Strasser's cabinet members were young lieutenants and captains in their 20s.

Momoh spent the last years of his life as a guest of the military government in neighboring Guinea.

He died there in exile in 2003.

See Wikipedia: Joseph Saidu Momoh




 

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SOMALIA.



Aden Abdulle Osman Daar (1908 – 2007), popularly known as Aadan Cadde, was a Somali politician and the country's first President from July 1, 1960 to June 10, 1967. In the 1967 presidential election, Daar was defeated by Abdirashid Ali Shermarke, his former Prime Minister. His term as president ended on June 10, 1967. Daar accepted the loss graciously, making history as the first leader in Africa to peacefully hand over power to a democratically elected successor. He died in hospital on June 8, 2007, at the age of 99.

See Wikipedia: Aden Abdullah Osman Daar

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SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.



Thomas François Burgers (born 1834, died 1881) was the 4th president of the South African Republic, informally known as the Transvaal Republic, from 1871 to 1877. He was born in Graaff Reinet, Cape Colony. After studying theology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, Burgers became the parson of Hanover, South Africa, in 1859. A charmingly eloquent, but fiercely individualistic man, he had been influenced by Professor C. W. Opzoomer in the Netherlands and embraced his rationalist, liberal ideas.

Burgers quickly became involved in a stormy controversy with the Dutch Reformed Synod over his alleged liberalism and disbelief in the literal truth of the Bible. He was critical of traditional culture and strongly emphasised knowledge and rationalism. In 1862, his unorthodox doctrine brought on him an accusation of heresy, and in 1864 he was found guilty by the Synod and suspended. The Supreme Court overturned the decision, and in 1865, he was readmitted to the ministry.

The burghers of the South African Republic urged Burgers to stand for the presidency, and he was elected by the considerable majority of 2,964 to 388 in 1871. The South African Republic's first coins—the famous Burgerspond—was introduced in 1874. These were struck at Heaton's Mint in Birmingham, England when he was there on a visit.

By 1877 Burgers was very unpopular and his government was insolvent. Britain, keen on expanding their empire, stepped in and annexed the Transvaal. Burgers retired from political life, settled in the Cape Colony again, and died in 1881, only forty-seven years old, and leaving his family destitute.

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SOUTH AFRICAN REPUBLIC.



Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904), better known as Paul Kruger and affectionately known as Uncle Paul (Afrikaans: "Oom Paul") was State President of the South African Republic (Transvaal). He gained international renown as the face of Boer resistance against the British during the South African or Second Boer War (1899–1902).

What is interesting is that Kruger was of mixed race. When I mentioned this to a South African friend in the 1980s, he became furious and denied it. Apparently the Apartheid regime had "Aryanised" Kruger. He appears on South Africa's bullion coins, the Krugerrand, to this day.

See Wikipedia: Paul Kruger