33 Facts About Cyrille Adoula

Cyrille Adoula was a Congolese trade unionist and politician.

Cyrille Adoula was the prime minister of the Republic of the Congo, from 2 August 1961 until 30 June 1964.

Cyrille Adoula was born to middle-class Bangala parents on 13 September 1921 in Leopoldville, Belgian Congo.

Cyrille Adoula attended a Catholic primary school in his youth and received secondary education at St Joseph's Institute, graduating after five years of studies in 1941.

Cyrille Adoula did this until 1952 when he accepted a senior position at the Belgian Congo Central Bank, becoming the first African to hold a significant post there.

In 1954, Adoula joined the Belgian Socialist Party and subsequently became the representative for Action Socialiste in Leopoldville.

Cyrille Adoula enrolled in the Federation Generale du Travail de Belgique.

Cyrille Adoula requested that his membership of the International Congress of Federated Trade Unions be suspended so that he could devote his time to his new position.

Cyrille Adoula expressed his dissatisfaction with the ultimate composition of the government and told Lumumba that he had erred in choosing to be Prime Minister of a cabinet, which faced heavy criticism from different circles.

Cyrille Adoula increasingly distanced himself from Lumumba, but continuously lobbied that the United Nations Operation in the Congo use force to put down the rebellion in the proclaimed State of Katanga.

Cyrille Adoula began attracting interest from the United States Central Intelligence Agency as a liberal, anti-communist alternative to Lumumba.

Cyrille Adoula managed to balance his cabinet with many former Lumumba supporters.

Still, as his tenure progressed, Cyrille Adoula faced a growing amount of opposition from the nationalist elements of MNC-Lumumba and Gizenga's faction of the Parti Solidaire Africain.

Cyrille Adoula never garnered much popular support across the country.

In January 1962, Cyrille Adoula was able to successfully arrest Gizenga.

Cyrille Adoula subsequently removed the remaining Lumumba supporters from his government, thereby excluding the largest political force in the country from power.

Cyrille Adoula denounced Portuguese rule in neighboring Angola, which won him favour from the Afro-Asian bloc of non-aligned states.

Cyrille Adoula actively supported the Frente Nacional de Libertacao de Angola resistance group throughout his tenure and allowed it to maintain a base in the Congo near the southern border.

Cyrille Adoula had an interest in winning the support of Angolan refugees in Leopoldville, which grew in number after 1961.

Cyrille Adoula agreed to supply funds to various liberation movements in southern Africa and arranged for an office building dubbed the "House of African Nationalists" to be opened in Leopoldville for their use.

From Gizenga's arrest in early 1962 until Parliament's adjournment in September 1963, most of the dissent Cyrille Adoula faced from the left came in the form of obstructionist activities in the legislative process.

Still unable to contain the leftist insurrections, Cyrille Adoula was forced by Kasa-Vubu to resign.

Cyrille Adoula dissented and put forth his own "African Plan" for the Congo in the weekly Jeune Afrique.

Cyrille Adoula insisted that any long term solution for peace and stability required input from rebel leaders, emphasizing that since their defeat would require the use of European mercenaries, acting to suppress them would only increase the Congo's reliance on external forces.

Cyrille Adoula accused Tshombe of antagonizing opposition and called for the creation of a transitional government to oversee a settlement without him.

Tshombe responded by blaming the conflict on Cyrille Adoula, accusing him of weakening the central government and Balkanising the country by dividing the six original provinces into 22 new ones.

In November 1965, Cyrille Adoula returned to the Congo after Mobutu had seized power.

Cyrille Adoula was accommodating of Mobutu's new regime and served as the Congolese Ambassador to the United States and Ambassador to Belgium.

Mobutu took charge of the portfolio and Cyrille Adoula retired from politics.

In 1978 Cyrille Adoula suffered a heart attack and went to Lausanne, Switzerland for treatment.

Cyrille Adoula succumbed to an illness and died there on 24 May 1978.

Cyrille Adoula was well known publicly for his belief in socialism, but it was non-Marxist in nature; he was an anti-communist.

In most written histories Cyrille Adoula is portrayed as a weak, ineffective prime minister and a lackey of the United States government.