Stéphane Maurice Bongho-Nouarra (June 6, 1937 – October 7, 2007) was a Congolese politician. He served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville during the late 1960s, and after a long period in exile, he returned and played an important role in the politics of the 1990s. Bongho-Nouarra was briefly Prime Minister of Congo-Brazzaville from September 1992 to December 1992."Décès à Bruxelles de l'ancien Premier ministre Maurice Bongho Nouara" Planetafrique.com, October 9, 2007 .
Sangha Region
Sangha is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the northern part of the country. It borders the departments of Cuvette, Cuvette-Ouest, and Likouala, and internationally, Cameroon, Gabon and the Central African Republic. The regional ...
Brazzaville
Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
and
Owando
Owando is a town and a commune located in the central Republic of the Congo lying on the Kouyou River. It is the capital of Cuvette Department and of Owando District. It is home to a market and has an airport
An airport is an aerodr ...
(then Fort Rousset) and received his certificate of elementary education on June 14, 1949. After attending high school, where he was sixth in his class, he entered military school in Brazzaville on October 1, 1951, remaining there until 1954. Subsequently, he studied in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
; after completing his education, he returned to Congo-Brazzaville in 1963.
Political career
Back in Congo, Bongho-Nouarra was head of the agricultural engineering subdivision in
Pointe-Noire
Pointe-Noire (; , with the letter d following French spelling standards) is the second largest city in the Republic of the Congo, following the capital of Brazzaville, and an autonomous department and a commune since the 2002 Constitution. B ...
, then regional director of the first agricultural region. He became President of the
Junior Chamber International
Junior Chamber International, commonly referred to as JCI, is a non-profit international non-governmental organization of young people between and years old. It has members in about 127 countries, and regional or national organizations in mo ...
in Congo and was elected as Vice-President of the Junior Chamber International at its congress in
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
. He was also President of the Congolese Olympic Committee. After serving as President of the Economic and Social Council from 1964 to 1965, he was appointed as Secretary of State at the Presidency of the Republic, in charge of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Water, and Forests, by President
Alphonse Massamba-Débat
Alphonse Massamba-Débat (February 11, 1921 – March 25, 1977) was a political figure of the Republic of the Congo who led the country from 1963 until 1968 in a one-party system.
Biography Early life
He was born in the small village of Nkolo, ...
in 1966.
Bongho-Nouarra became Minister of Agriculture in January 1968Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'' (1997), Karthala Editions, page 112. and was subsequently appointed as Minister of Public Works, Housing, and Transport in the government named on January 1, 1969. Soon afterwards, however, he was dismissed from the government by President
Marien Ngouabi
Marien Ngouabi (December 31, 1938 – March 18, 1977) was a Congolese politician and military officer who served as the fourth President of the People's Republic of the Congo from 1969 until his assassination in 1977.
Biography Origins
Marien ...
due to political differences of opinion. He instead took an administrative post at an agricultural school, but in August 1970 he was accused of complicity in an anti-government plot, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison.Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'', page 427. While in prison, he was tortured, and he was released in 1971 due to poor health. He went into exile in France, where he recovered his health and became a consultant to a number of French and Swiss companies. As a businessman, he returned to Congo-Brazzaville in 1977, but left under pressure and remained in exile in France until 1990.
Returning to Congo-Brazzaville with the introduction of multiparty politics in 1990, Bongho-Nouarra became Honorary President of the Party for the Reconstruction and Development of the Congo (PRDC). He was elected as the Second Vice-President of the 1991 National Conference, which marked the beginning of the transition to multiparty elections. In the 1992 parliamentary election, he was elected to the
National Assembly
In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
Cuvette-Ouest Region
Cuvette-Ouest (or Western Cuvette) is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the western part of the country. Cuvette-Ouest is the least populated department in the country. It borders the departments of Cuvette, Sangha, and Plateaux, and ...
. At that time, he was the National Coordinator of the National Alliance for Democracy (AND),Joachim Emmanuel Goma-Thethet, "Alliances in the political and electoral process in the Republic of Congo 1991–97", in ''Liberal Democracy and Its Critics in Africa: Political Dysfunction and the Struggle for Social Progress'' (2005), ed. Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Zed Books, page 110–113. a coalition of parties that backed Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) candidate Pascal Lissouba in the first round of the August 1992 presidential election. On August 11, 1992, Bongho-Nourra, acting as National Coordinator of the AND, and UPADS Secretary-General Christophe Moukouéké signed an agreement with
Congolese Labour Party
The Congolese Party of Labour (, PCT) is the ruling party of the Republic of the Congo. Founded in 1969 by Marien Ngouabi, it was originally a pro-Soviet, Marxist–Leninist vanguard party which founded the People's Republic of the Congo. It to ...
(PCT) Secretary-General
Ambroise Noumazalaye
Ambroise Édouard Noumazalaye (September 23, 1933Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'' (1997), Karthala Editions, page 442.November 17, 2007IPU-PARLINE page on the 1992 parliamentary election "Sep 1992 - New Prime Minister and Cabinet", ''Keesing's Record of World Events'', volume 38, September 1992, Congo, page 39,083. according to Bongho-Nouarra, his government was a "war cabinet", and he promised an "all-out assault" aimed at solving Congo's problems. He also said that the members of his government were selected for their expertise rather than their political experience.
The PCT was unhappy with the small number of portfolios it received in Bongho-Nouarra's government.John F. Clark, "Congo: Transition and the Struggle to Consolidate", in ''Political Reform in Francophone Africa'' (1997), ed. John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, pages 71–72. It joined with the opposition Union for Democratic Renewal (URD) seven-party alliance to form a parliamentary majority against UPADS, and consequently Bongho-Nouarra's government was defeated in a
no-confidence vote
A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...
on October 31, 1992; the AND deputies were not present for the vote, and it was conducted by a
show of hands
Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/ folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley (guitars, mandolin, mandocello, cuatro) and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (vocals, guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, mando ...
. As a result of the vote, Bongho-Nouarra resigned on November 11 and Lissouba, rather than appoint a new prime minister from the opposition alliance, dissolved the National Assembly on November 17."Dec 1992 - New government", ''Keesing's Record of World Events'', volume 38, December 1992, Congo, page 39,227. Although he wanted Bongho-Nouarra to remain in office until a new parliamentary election was held, the opposition demanded that the National Assembly be restored and that Bongho-Nouarra's government resign; in a protest on November 30, three people were killed by security forces.I. William Zartman and Katharina R. Vogeli, "Prevention Gained and Prevention Lost: Collapse, Competition, and Coup in Congo", in ''Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World'' (2000), ed. Bruce W. Jentleson, page 272. The army urged the appointment of a new government with a neutral prime minister and warned that it could stage a coup if the situation continued. An agreement was reached on December 3 to form a national unity government and Lissouba appointed Claude Antoine Dacosta to replace Bongho-Nouarra on December 6.
After leaving office as Prime Minister, Bongho-Nouarra again acted as coordinator of the pro-Lissouba parties in campaigning for the May–June 1993 parliamentary election. He also continued to hold high-level posts during Lissouba's presidency, serving as Special Adviser to the President of the Republic, with the rank of Minister of State, as President of the Sociocultural Committee, and then as Minister of National Defense. He left Congo-Brazzaville at the time of the 1997 Civil War, but temporarily returned for a national dialogue in 1998. While in exile, he backed an exile group, the Patriotic Front for Dialogue and National Reconciliation (FPDRN), which called for peace and reconciliation and did not challenge the legitimacy of President
Denis Sassou Nguesso
Denis Sassou Nguesso (born 23 November 1943) is a Congolese politician and former military officer who has served as president of the Republic of the Congo since 1997. He also previously served as president from 1979 to 1992.
Sassou Nguesso he ...
. This group was founded in Paris in October 2000.Ousmane Sow "Des exilés pressés de rentrer au pays" ''Jeune Afrique'', November 14, 2000 . Bongho-Nouarra lived in
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
in poor health for several years before he died there on October 7, 2007. On October 8, Sassou Nguesso called his death "a great loss". Bongho-Nouarra's body was returned to Congo-Brazzaville on October 22, and he was buried at a cemetery in Brazzaville on October 23.