Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo (24 August 1924 – 30 November 1989) was the first President of Cameroon from 1960 until 1982.
Ahidjo was born in
GarouaGaroua is the capital of the North Province of Cameroon, lying on the Benue River. The city has an estimated 490,000 inhabitants and is an important river port.- Overview :...
, a major river port along the
Benue RiverThe Benue River is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately 1,400 km long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months...
in northern
CamerounCameroun was a French mandate territory in central Africa, now constituting the majority of the territory of the Republic of Cameroon.The area of present-day Cameroon was integrated to French Equatorial Africa during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century...
, which was at the time a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
mandate territory. His father was a
FulaniFula or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group of people spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
village chief, while his mother was a Fulani of slave descent. Ahidjo's mother raised him as a
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
and sent him to
QuranicThe Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam...
school as a child.
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo (24 August 1924 – 30 November 1989) was the first President of Cameroon from 1960 until 1982.
Early life
Ahidjo was born in
GarouaGaroua is the capital of the North Province of Cameroon, lying on the Benue River. The city has an estimated 490,000 inhabitants and is an important river port.- Overview :...
, a major river port along the
Benue RiverThe Benue River is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately 1,400 km long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months...
in northern
CamerounCameroun was a French mandate territory in central Africa, now constituting the majority of the territory of the Republic of Cameroon.The area of present-day Cameroon was integrated to French Equatorial Africa during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century...
, which was at the time a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
mandate territory. His father was a
FulaniFula or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group of people spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
village chief, while his mother was a Fulani of slave descent. Ahidjo's mother raised him as a
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
and sent him to
QuranicThe Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam...
school as a child. In 1932, he began attending local government primary school. After failing his first school certification examination in 1938, Ahidjo worked for a few months in the veterinary service. He returned to school and obtained his school certification a year later. Ahidjo spent the next three years attending secondary school at the Ecole Priamaire Superieure in
YaoundéYaoundé is the capital city of Cameroon and second largest city in the country after Douala. It lies in the centre of the nation at about 750 metres above sea level.-History:...
, the capital of the mandate, studying for a career in the civil service. At school, Ahidjo also played soccer and competed as a cyclist. In 1942, Ahidjo joined the
civil serviceThe term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
as a radio operator for a postal service. As part of his job, he worked on assignments in several major cities throughout the country, such as
DoualaDouala is the largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Province. Home to Cameroon's largest port and its major international airport, Douala Airport, it is the commercial capital of the country. Consequently, it handles most of the country's major exports, such as oil,...
,
NgaoundéréNgaoundéré or N'Gaoundéré is the capital of the Adamawa Province of Cameroon. It has a population of 189,800 . It lies at the northern end of the railway to Yaoundé and is also home to an airport. The current city was founded in approximately 1835 by the Fulani leader Ardo Njobdi, although the...
,
BertouaBertoua is the capital of the East Province of Cameroon and has a population of 173,000 . It is home to an airport....
, and
MokoloMokolo is the sixth-largest city in the Far North Province of Cameroon. It has a population of 29,100 . The town is situated in hilly country near the Mandara mountains....
. According to his official biographer, Ahidjo was the first civil servant from northern Cameroun to work in the southern areas of the territory. His experiences throughout the country were, according to Harvey Glickman,
professor emeritusA Professor Emeritus is a full professor who retires in good standing. While technically this is the term for a male and women are known as Professor Emerita, women such as Germaine Greer are known by the masculine title. This title is also given to retired professors who continue to teach and to...
of
political sciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
at
Haverford CollegeHaverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.The college was founded in 1833 by area members of the Orthodox Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends to ensure an education grounded in Quaker...
and scholar of African politics, responsible for fostering his sense of national identity and provided him the sagacity to handle the problems of governing a multiethnic state.
Political career
In 1946, Ahidjo entered territorial politics. From January 28, 1957 to May 10, 1957, Ahidjo served as President of the Legislative Assembly of Cameroon. In the same year he became Deputy Prime Minister in
de facto head of state
André-Marie MbidaAndre-Marie Mbida was the first Prime Minister of pre-independent Cameroon, from May 1957 to January 1958. Andre Marie Mbida was born in edinding...
's government. Upon independence in 1960, Ahidjo, as leader of the Cameroon Union, was elected as President, and he persuaded part of British Cameroon to join his country. He was reelected in 1965, 1970, 1975 and 1980, gradually establishing the complete dominance of his own party and outlawing all others in 1976.
He experienced a rebellion in the 1960s from a group known as the
Union of the Peoples of CameroonThe Union of the Peoples of Cameroon is a political party in Cameroon.UPC was founded on April 10 1948, at a meeting in the bar Chez Sierra in Bassa. 12 men assisted the founding meeting, out of them Charles Assalé, Léonard Bouli, Guillaume Bagal. The majoirity of the participants were trade...
, but defeated it by 1970. In the early 1970s he created an unpopular constitution which ended the autonomy of British Cameroon and established unitary rule. Though many of his actions were dictatorial, his country became one of the most stable in Africa. He was considered to be more conservative and less charismatic than most post-colonial African leaders, but his policies allowed Cameroon to attain comparative prosperity.
Ahidjo resigned, ostensibly for health reasons, on 4 November 1982 (there are many theories surrounding the resignation; it is generally believed that his French doctor "tricked" Ahidjo about his health) and was succeeded by Prime Minister
Paul BiyaPaul Biya has been the President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982.-Personal life:Biya was born in the village of Mvomeka'a in the Centre-South Province of what was then French Cameroon. He is a member of the Beti-Pahuin ethnic group...
two days later. That he stepped down in favor of Biya, a Christian from the south and not a Muslim from the north like himself, was considered surprising. Ahidjo's ultimate intentions are unclear; it is possible that he intended to return to the presidency at a later point when his health improved, and another possibility is that he intended for Maigari Bello Bouba, a fellow Muslim from the north who succeeded Biya as Prime Minister, to be his eventual successor as President, with Biya in effectively a caretaker role. Although the Central Committee of the ruling
Cameroon National UnionThe Cameroon National Union was Cameroon's sole legal political party until 1990...
(CNU) urged Ahidjo to remain President, he declined to do so, but he did agree to remain as the President of the CNU. However, he also arranged for Biya to become the CNU Vice-President and handle party affairs in his absence. Additionally, in January 1983, Ahidjo travelled across the country in a tour in support of Biya.
Later in 1983, a major feud developed between Ahidjo and Biya. On July 19, 1983, Ahidjo went into exile in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
, and Biya began removing Ahidjo's supporters from positions of power and eliminating symbols of his authority, replacing Ahidjo's portraits with his own and removing Ahidjo's name from the anthem of the CNU. On August 22, Biya announced that a plot allegedly involving Ahidjo had been uncovered. For his part, Ahidjo severely criticized Biya, alleging that Biya was abusing his power, that he lived in fear of plots against him, and that he was a threat to national unity. The two were unable to reconcile despite the efforts of several foreign leaders, and Ahidjo announced on August 27 that he was resigning as head of the CNU. In exile, Ahidjo was sentenced to death
in absentiaIn absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use it usually pertains to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.-In absentia in common law legal systems:...
in February 1984, along with two others, for participation in the June 1983 coup plot, although Biya commuted the sentence to life in prison. Ahidjo denied involvement in the plot. A violent but unsuccessful coup attempt in April 1984 was also widely believed to have been orchestrated by Ahidjo.
In his remaining years, Ahidjo divided his time between France and
SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and it also encircles The Gambia on its three sides,...
. He died in
DakarDakar is the capital city of Senegal, located on the Cape Verde Peninsula, on the country's Atlantic coast. It is Senegal's largest city. Its position, on the western edge of Africa , is an advantageous departure point for trans-Atlantic and European trade; this fact aided its growth into a major...
on 30 November 1989 and was buried there. He was officially rehabilitated by a law in December 1991. Biya said on 30 October 2007 that the matter of returning Ahidjo's remains to Cameroon was "a family affair". An agreement on returning Ahidjo's remains was reached in June 2009, and it was expected that they would be returned in 2010.
There is a stadium named for Ahidjo in Yaounde.
Few images remain of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, and it is often said that the Biya regime made an active effort to erase any visual or audio references to Cameroon's first head of state. The few surviving archival footage of Cameroon in the period following independence will likely come to light after Biya's departure.
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