Cyrille Adoula

Cyrille Adoula (13 September 1921 – 24 May 1978) was a Congolese trade unionist and politician.

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

He 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.

That year he began working as a clerk for various commercial firms.

In 1948 he became a member of the Conseil pour le Travail et la Prevoyance Sociale Indigene.

He 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 Léopoldville.

He also enrolled in the Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique.

Once he became one of the top Congolese delegates in the association he resigned from his bank post and devoted his time to politics.

In 1957 he attended the International Labour Conference in Geneva as an adviser to the Belgian delegation.

In October 1958 a group of Léopoldville évolués including Adoula, Patrice Lumumba, Gaston Diomi Ndongala and Joseph Iléo established the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC).

Diverse in membership, the party sought to peacefully achieve Congolese independence, promote the political education of the populace, and eliminate regionalism.

Adoula became party vice president.

While Lumumba became increasingly strident and nationalistic, Adoula remained relatively moderate.

At a Fédération Générale conference in 1959 he successfully lobbied for the Congolese branch of the association to become independent, subsequently becoming secretary-general of the new federation's western chapter.

In this capacity he traveled to West Germany and Israel to meet with other trade unionists and became a deputy committee member of the International Congress of Federated Trade Unions.

He also cultivated a relationship with AFL–CIO unionist Irving Brown.

In 1959, he and Albert Kalonji made an unsuccessful attempt to oust Lumumba from the party and formed their own faction, MNC-Kalonji.

With the independence of the Republic of the Congo the following summer, Adoula became a senator in Parliament, representing the city of Coquilhatville.

Though elected by the Équateur provincial assembly with the support of Parti de l'Unité Nationale, he identified himself as an independent.

He 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.

Nevertheless he remained well connected with trade unions and labour organisations.

In the Senate's first session on 17 June Adoula proposed a resolution which was unanimously adopted, calling for representatives of the Union of South Africa to be barred from attending the Congo's independence celebrations due to the country's Apartheid policy.

Patrice Lumumba became Prime Minister and offered Adoula a ministerial position in his government but the latter refused to accept it.

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 that faced heavy criticism from different circles.

The Congo fell into disorder shortly after independence, as the army's mutiny and the secession of the Katanga Province under Moïse Tshombe created the Congo Crisis.

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.

President Joseph Kasa-Vubu dismissed Lumumba in September and appointed Iléo to be his replacement, though Parliament refused to confirm him.

Adoula briefly served as Iléo's minister of interior.

Lumumba was definitively removed from power and eventually killed in a coup by Colonel Joseph Mobutu, who forced a new government upon Kasa-Vubu.

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

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

In early 1961, the United States began to push for an Adoula-led government.

United States Secretary of State Dean Rusk directed CIA agents to ensure that Adoula would become the next Congolese prime minister.

The CIA acted in concert with other Western intelligence agencies in bribing Congolese parliamentarians to support Adoula.

On 1 August Adoula was appointed formateur of a new government by Kasa-Vubu.

The following day he presented his government to Parliament with himself as Prime Minister.

Like Lumumba had before him, Adoula also gave himself responsibility over the national defence portfolio.

The government was delivered a vote of confidence in the Chamber, 121 votes to none with one abstention, and the Senate voiced its support via acclamation.

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