text: jean - hilaire aubame jean - hilaire aubame ( 10 november 1912 – 16 august 1989 ) was a gabonese politician active during both the colonial and independence periods . the french journalist pierre péan said that aubame 's training " as a practicing catholic and a customs official helped to make him an integrated man , one of whom political power was not an end in itself . " born into a fang family , aubame was orphaned at a young age . he was raised by the stepbrother of léon m 'ba , who became aubame 's chief political rival . encouraged by his colleagues , aubame entered politics , serving as gabon 's first representative in the national assembly of france from 1946 to 1958 . aubame was also a leader in solving african problems , particularly developing the gabonese standard of living and planning urban sites . aubame 's quick rise in gabonese politics was spurred by the support of the missions and administration , whereas much of m 'ba 's strength came from the colonists . despite a rivalry , aubame and m 'ba , now the president of gabon , formed several political unions which were sufficiently politically balanced to appeal to the electorate . in appreciation for his help , m 'ba appointed aubame as foreign minister and later president of the supreme court . tensions soon rose between the two due to aubame 's refusal to merge his party with m 'ba 's and create a one - party state . aubame was installed as president of gabon during a 1964 coup d 'état against m 'ba . however , the coup was toppled three days later , and although he did not participate in the coup 's planning , aubame was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and 10 years of exile . he was beaten almost daily by his prison guards while serving out his sentence . m 'ba 's successor as president , omar bongo , allowed the return of aubame to gabon in 1972 . the elder politician died in 1989 in gabon 's capital of libreville . youth and early political career born into a fang family near libreville , aubame lost his father at eight years of age and his mother at eleven . abbé jean , stepbrother of léon m 'ba , looked after the orphaned aubame and arranged for schooling at several roman catholic missions . after he graduated , aubame became a schoolteacher . m 'ba helped get him a job in customs on 24 march 1931 . first appointed to libreville from 1931 to 1935 , he was transferred to bangui in 1935 and then to brazzaville in 1936 , where he co - founded a branch of the with a brother of politician louis bigmann . he was also a member of the association des , an organization which was dominated by two other soon - to - be politicians : rené - paul and jean rémy . following the speech given by charles de gaulle on the appeal of 18 june 1940 , aubame sided with the free french , and in november was sent by libreville authorities to rally fangs for the cause . in february 1942 , aubame met colonial administrator félix éboué and quickly became his protégé . he served as an informant for éboué on african affairs . aubame 's reward was to be one of several africans promoted on 23 february 1943 into the european section of the civil service , and on 1 january 1944 éboué appointed him president of the municipal commission for the - section of brazzaville . aubame participated in the 1944 brazzaville conference and served in this post until 10 november 1946 . after éboué 's sudden death in march 1944 , aubame worked as an adviser to governor - general andré and his secretary andré . they encouraged aubame to run for office , and he returned to gabon to campaign with the support of both the administration and the missionaries . deputy deputy to the french national assembly aubame lost in the 1945 elections , though on 10 november 1946 became gabon 's first representative to the french national assembly by winning 7 , 069 votes out of 12 , 528 possible . from 1946 to 1951 he was commissioner of shipping , the press , communication , labor and social security . he voted for algerian independence on 27 august 1947 and for the establishment of a council of europe on 9 july 1949 . on 17 june 1951 , aubame was reelected a deputy with 17 , 329 votes out of a total of 29 , 203 and on 2 january 1956 with 26 , 712 votes out of a total of 57 , 031 , with this term lasting until the end of the fourth french republic . around this time , m 'ba was establishing his political career after being exiled to oubangui - chari . with the french section of the workers ' international ( ) , aubame later worked most closely with the indépendants d - mer , an african parliamentary group whose leaders were senegalese léopold sédar senghor and cameroonian louis - paul . while a deputy he lived in paris and toured gabon regularly . he continued to develop local gabonese politics , in particular revitalizing the fang clans . in fact , m 'ba asserted that aubame was too involved with the fang to pay attention to the interests of the southern tribes , a charge aubame ridiculed . aubame was also a leader in solving african problems , particularly developing the gabonese standard of living and planning urban sites . on 29 september 1951 , he voted to increase the minimum wage in the overseas territories of france , and served as vice president of its commission from 1953 to 1955 . he organized the gabonese democratic and social union ( udsg ) in 1947 , whose leadership came mostly from the interior , particularly woleu - ntem province . the party in turn backed aubame 's reelection in 1951 and 1956 . it had few philosophical differences with the m 'ba - led bloc démocratique gabonais ( bdg ) , including advocating less economic dependence on france and faster " africanization " of french political jobs . fairly quickly , gabonese politics became dominated by aubame , supported by the missions and the administration , and m 'ba , supported by the settlers . deputy to the gabonese territorial assembly in 1952 he was elected as woleu - n 's representative for gabon 's territorial assembly . he was re - elected in the march 1957 elections , in which the udsg also placed first , winning 18 of the 40 contested seats , against 16 for bdg . m 'ba 's party won 21 seats against 19 for aubame 's party after a recount . however , in the absence of an absolute majority , on 21 may 1957 , both parties were obligated to submit a list of individuals that both agreed were suitable for inclusion in the government . that same day , m 'ba was appointed vice president of the government . soon , divisions within the government grew , and aubame resigned from his position and filed a motion of censure against the government . the motion was rejected by a 21 – 19 vote . with m 'ba 's victory , many elected udsg members joined the parliamentary majority , giving the ruling government 29 of the 40 legislative seats . well installed in the government , he slowly began to reinforce his power . independence and opposition opposition leader after voting in favor of the franco - african community constitutional referendum of 28 september 1958 , gabon became pseudo - politically independent . legislative elections were scheduled for 19 june 1960 through the de liste voting system , a form of bloc voting in which each party offers a list of candidates who the population vote for ; the list that obtains a majority of votes is declared the winner and wins all the contested seats . through the redistricting of district and constituency boundaries , the bdg arbitrarily received 244 seats , while the udsg received 77 . in the months that followed , the legislative majority was plagued by internal strife . m 'ba , now president of gabon , decided to dissolve the assembly and looked to the opposition to strengthen his position . with aubame , he formed a number of sufficiently balanced political unions to appeal to the electorate . on 12 february , they won 99 . 75 % of the vote , and later that day , m 'ba , running unopposed , was elected president of gabon . for his cooperation , m 'ba appointed aubame foreign minister , replacing andré gustave . in contrast to m 'ba who wanted a strong executive regime , aubame preferred a parliamentary republic . tensions rose when a new constitution was unanimously adopted , on 21 february 1961 , providing for a " " regime . under this system , m 'ba was able to appoint ministers whose functions and limitations were decided by him . on 19 february , he broke his ties with aubame ; all udsg representatives were dismissed , with the exception of m 'ba supporter francis . this was due to aubame 's refusal to merge the udsg with m 'ba 's and create a one - party state . in an attempt to oust aubame from his legislative seat , m 'ba appointed him president of the supreme court on 25 february . thereafter , m 'ba claimed that aubame had resigned from the national assembly , citing incompatibility with parliamentary functions . aubame resolved the accusation by resigning from his post as president of the supreme court , complicating matters for m 'ba . faced with reports of tension between the government and the national assembly , even though 70 % of its composition were bdg members , the gabonese president dissolved the legislature on 21 january 1964 as an " economy measure " . the electoral conditions were announced as such : the election 67 districts were reduced to 47 . m 'ba disqualified aubame by announcing no one who held a post recently was banned . any party would have to submit 47 candidates who had to pay us $ 160 or none at all . thus , over us $ 7 , 500 would be deposited without considering campaign expenses . m 'ba 's idea was that no party other than his would have the money to enter candidates . in response to this , the opposition announced its refusal to participate in elections that they did not consider fair . it is unlikely that aubame participated in the planning of the 1964 gabon coup d 'état . it appears that he joined the effort after being recruited by the new government . his nephew , pierre eyeguet , a former ambassador to the united kingdom , may have known of the plot beforehand and notified his uncle , although it is unknown whether or not aubame established contact with the plotters . 1964 gabon coup d 'état 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 , and that they required technical assistance and told the french not interfere in this matter . m 'ba was instructed to broadcast a speech acknowledging his defeat . " the d - day is here , the injustices are beyond measure , these people are patient , but their patience has limits " , he said . " it came to a boil . " during these events , no gunshots were fired . the people did not react strongly , which according to the military , was a sign of approval . a provisional government was formed , and the presidency was offered to aubame . the government was composed of civilian politicians from both the udsg and bdg , such as paul gondjout . as for the coup plotters , they were content to ensure security for civilians . the small gabonese army did not intervene in the coup ; composed mostly of french officers , they remained in their barracks . aubame was unaware of the coup until the french ambassador to gabon , paul cousseran , called him on the telephone roughly a half hour after sunrise . cousseran , meanwhile , was awoken by the noisy streets and checked to see what was happening . aubame replied that he was to find out why there was " no government " , as cousseran never directly mentioned a coup . however , about midway through the morning an automobile carrying the revolutionary committee arrived at aubame 's residence and drove him to the governmental offices , where he had been named president . second lieutenant ndo edou gave instructions to transfer m 'ba to ndjolé , aubame 's electoral stronghold . however , due to heavy rain , the deposed president and his captors took shelter in an unknown village . the next morning they decided to take him over the easier road to lambaréné . several hours later , they returned to libreville . the new head of government quickly contacted french ambassador paul cousseran , to assure him that the property of foreign nationals would be protected and to ask him to prevent any french military intervention . in paris , french president charles de gaulle decided otherwise . m 'ba was one of the most loyal allies to france in africa . while visiting france in 1961 , m 'ba said : " [ a ] ll gabonese have two fatherlands : france and gabon . " moreover , under his regime , europeans enjoyed particularly friendly treatment . therefore , president de gaulle , upon advice from his chief adviser on african policy , jacques foccart , decided that he would restore the legitimate government . this was in accordance with a 1960 treaty between gabon and the french , which was ironically signed by aubame in his stint as foreign minister . intervention could not commence without a formal request to the head of state of gabon . since m 'ba was otherwise occupied , the french contacted the vice president of gabon , paul - marie yembit , who had not been arrested . however , he remained unaccounted for ; therefore , they decided to compose a predated letter that yembit would later sign , confirming their intervention . less than 24 hours later , french troops stationed in dakar and brazzaville landed in libreville and restored m 'ba to power . over the course of the operation , one french soldier was killed , while 15 to 25 died on the gabonese side . trial at lambaréné aubame and gondjout fled libreville as fugitives , though were eventually discovered . in august , the trial of the military rebels and provisional government was opened in lambaréné . a " state of precations " was enacted , which decreed that the local government maintained surveillance over suspected troublemakers and , if necessary , order a curfew . special permits were required to travel through the town . the trial was held in a school building overlooking the ogooue river , near albert schweitzer 's hospital . space was limited , so there was no representative section of the public . one needed a permit to witness the trial , and family members were restricted to one each . press coverage was limited , and journalists were only allowed if they were representing a high - profile news agency . in addition , there were restrictions on the defence of the accused . the prosecution called 64 witnesses to the trial . essone , mbene , and aubame claimed that their involvement in the coup was due to a lack of development in the gabonese army . judge leon auge , the judge in the case , said that if " that is the only reason for your coup d 'état , you deserve a severe penalty . " aubame affirmed his position that he did not participate in its planning . according to him , he formed the provisional government in a constitutional manner , at the request of some " putschists " . he stated that the french intervention was an illegal act of interference , an assertion that gondjout and jean mare ekoh , a former education minister , shared . on 9 september , the judge came to a verdict without consulting m 'ba . aubame was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and 10 years of exile on a remote island off , 100 miles ( 161 km ) down the coast of gabon , as were most criminals of the case . he was not particularly popular during his political career , though according to time , his arrest " ballooned him to heroic proportions in the eyes of the aroused public " . while serving his 10 years of labor , he was beaten regularly by prison guards . besides aubame , m 'ba imprisoned more than 150 of his opponents , most of whom were sentenced to 20 years of hard labor . the actor and the doctor were given 10 years of imprisonment each . while appealing for peace on 18 february , he pledged " no pardon or pity " to his enemies , but rather " total punishment " . later life m 'ba 's successor as president , omar bongo , allowed the return of aubame to gabon in 1972 . afterward , aubame lived in paris and removed himself from the world of politics . he did visit libreville in 1981 , on which occasion bongo appointed him " special adviser " — a mostly honorary post . although not a supporter of the movement for national renewal ( ) , his home was bombed on 12 december 1984 by anti - extremists . aubame and his family barely escaped harm . aubame , whom journalist ronald matthews descried as having " a curiously harsh voice , a severe appearance , and ... a stern character " , died in 1989 in libreville . the french journalist pierre péan said that aubame 's training " as a practicing catholic and a customs official helped to make him an integrated man , one of whom political power was not an end in itself . " michael c. reed speculates that , had aubame become president instead of m 'ba , he might have made the country more democratic . after his death , a libreville high school was established in his name . awards and decorations médaille de la résistance commandeur de la légion d 'honneur l 'étoile ( gabon ) l 'étoile africaine ( ) l 'ordre de la africaine l 'ordre national du mérite du niger l 'ordre national du mérite l 'ordre national du mérite de côte - d 'ivoire l 'ordre national du tchad l 'étoile noire du