The MDD was established in northern Dahomey by Hubert Maga in 1951 as the Ethnic Group of the North (Groupement Ethnique du Nord, GEN). Maga had previously been a member of the ruling Dahomeyan Progressive Union, but was encouraged to split from the party by the local French administrator Roger Péperty.[1] Maga gained support from his Bariba people, and won one of the two Dahomey seats in the French National Assembly in the June 1951 elections.[2]