Paul Gondjout

Paul Marie Indjendjet Gondjout (4 June 1912 – 1 July 1990) was a Gabonese politician and civil servant, and the father of Laure Gondjout, another prominent Gabonese politician.

Gondjout was born on 4 June 1912, to a Mpongwe family.

He had a younger brother named Edouard.

Gondjout was a member of the Mpongwe ethnic group, and served in the French colonial administration from 1928, and founded the Cercle amical et mutualiste des évolués de Port-Gentil in 1943.

The elder Gondjout began his service in the French colonial administration in 1928.

In 1943 he founded the Cercle amical et mutualiste des évolués de Port-Gentil (roughly translated as Mutual Friends for the Evolution of Port-Gentil), an organization that encouraged and utilised the talents of educated Gabonese.

With the assistance of Mpongwe businesspeople, In 1945 he established the Gabonese Democratic Party alongside Emile Issembe.

He was a delegate to the French Senate from 1949 to 1958, and founded the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG).

Gondjout was elected to the Senate of France on 24 July 1949 and re-elected on 18 May 1952—both times as an independent candidate—serving until the end of his term on 7 June 1958.

On 18 December 1953, he became the father of Laure Gondjout.

She would later become a prominent politician as would his son, Vincent de Paul Gondjout, and nephew, Georges Rawiri.

In August 1953 Gondjout's PDG merged with the Gabonese Mixed Committee to form the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG).

Over the course of the following seven years, the party published a newspaper which caught the eye of the aspiring politician Léon M'ba, whom Gondjout had earlier helped to elect to the Gabonese council of government.

The two formed an alliance supported by the Mpongwe business community, the wealthy coastal Fangs (like M'ba), and the French, which managed to overpower Jean-Hilaire Aubame and fellow members of the Gabonese Democratic and Social Union.

Gondjout, the self-appointed secretary of the BDG, decreed M'ba to be the secretary-general.

He and M'ba both believed that Gabon should not have full political independence, stating shortly before it was obtained:

"I affirm my belief that it would be premature now for Gabon to achieve total independence, for this would precipitate it irreparably into anarchy or, what would be even worse, into a sort of neocolonialism."

M'ba overthrew Gondjout as head of the BDG and Goundjout aligned with Aubame on several issues, such as opposing M'ba's amount of power.

In 1954, Léon M'ba joined the party and eventually overthrew Gondjout as leader.

In 1960, then President M'ba reshuffled the government without consulting Parliament.

When Gondjout filed a motion of censure he was charged with attempting a coup d'état and sentenced to two years in prison.

Following his release, M'ba appointed him to the largely symbolic post of President of the Economic Council, in part to silence the threat he represented.

Nonetheless, when Gabon gained its independence on 17 August 1960 Gondjout was named President of the National Assembly by the new President of Gabon, Leon M'ba. In November 1960 or 1961, Gondjout called for a constitutional amendment to allow him more executive power.

When M'ba reshuffled his cabinet without consulting Parliament, Gondjout filed a motion of censure.

He supposedly hoped to benefit from a balance of power modified to his own advantage, and to model Gabon after the Western democracies.

M'ba, who did not share these ideas, reacted repressively.

On 16 November, under the pretext of a conspiracy, M'ba declared a state of emergency, ordering the internment of eight BDG opponents and the dissolution of the National Assembly the day after.

Electors were asked to vote again on 12 February 1961.

Gondjout himself was sentenced to two years in prison.

He was imprisoned in a remote village under house arrest, where he was supplied, according to U.S. ambassador to Gabon, Charles Darlington, "with all the whisky and beer he [could] drink and all the girls he want[ed]".

Unable to fulfill his position, it was given to Louis Bigmann.

Upon Gondjout's release, M'ba appointed him to the mostly symbolic post of President of the Economic Council, in part to silence any threat to M'ba's power.

Gondjout served as Minister of State during the abortive 1964 Gabon coup d'état but was acquitted of all charges during his subsequent trial.

During the night of 17 February and the early morning of 18 February 1964, 150 members of the Gabonese military, gendarmerie, and police, headed by Lieutenant Jacques Mombo and Valére Essone, seized the presidential palace.

They arrested President of the National Assembly Louis Bigmann, French commanders Claude Haulin and Major Royer, several ministers, and President M'ba, who was dragged from his bed at gunpoint.

On Radio Libreville, the military announced to the Gabonese people that a coup d'état had taken place, asked for technical assistance, and told the French not to interfere in this matter.

M'ba was forced to broadcast a speech acknowledging his defeat, in which he said, "The D-Day is here, the injustices are beyond measure, these people are patient, but their patience has limits. It came to a boil."

No blood was shed during the event, and when the Gabonese people did not respond violently the military interpreted this as a sign of approval.

Aubame was offered the presidency of the newly formed provisional government.

He lived outside public view from his 1966 acquittal to his death on 1 July 1990 and there is little record of his life during this period.