Maurice Nawalagmba Yaméogo (31 December 1921 – 15 September 1993) was the first President of the Republic of Upper Volta, now called Burkina Faso. He proclaimed the independence of the country on 5 August 1960, and also tried (but failed) to create a union between Ivory Coast and Upper Volta. On 3 January 1966, he left the presidency due to a nationwide strike.
Early life
According to his official biography, Maurice Yaméogo was born on 31 December 1921 in Koudougou, a town 98 km west of Ouagadougou, along with his twin sister Wamanegdo.États africains d'expression française et République malgache, Paris, Éditions Julliard, 1964, He was the son of Mossi peasants,Alfred Yambangba Sawadogo, Afrique: la démocratie n'a pas eu lieu, Paris, Éditions L'Harmattan, 2008, whom he described as a "heathen family, completely given to a whole mob of superstitions." They gave him the name Naoua LaguembaJean-Pierre Bejot, " Quand la Côte d'Ivoire et la Haute-Volta (devenue Burkina Faso) rêvaient de la double nationalité ", La Dépêche Diplomatique 16 October 2002, Online on lefaso.net (also spelt Nawalagma) which means "he comes to unite them.".
From a very young age, Naoua Laguemba was very interested in Christianity.Frédéric Guirma, Comment perdre le pouvoir ? Le cas de Maurice Yameogo, Paris, Éditions Chaka, coll. « Afrique contemporaine », p.23 This inclination resulted in a great deal of bullying from his family. It is reported that the young Yaméogo received an emergency baptism on 28 July 1929, a year before schedule, after being struck by lightning.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., The priest Van der Shaegue who performed the baptism gave him Maurice as a patron saint. His mother died three days later, supposedly from the shock. After these events, he adopted the name Maurice Yaméogo, intending to become a priest.
After spending a few years at school in his village, Maurice Yaméogo was admitted to the Minor Seminary of Pabré.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., On 5 September 1934, he left his family to pursue his studies. Pabré was one of the most prestigious institutions in the country; aside from the fact that it produced most of the country's priests, the Minor Seminary's students also filled the very highest ranks of public and private administration.Alfred Yambangba Sawadogo, op. cit., As a result, he met many of the rising stars of Upper Volta, such as Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Joseph Ouédraogo, and Pierre Tapsoba, with whom he formed a close friendship.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., But his relationships strayed far from the ecclesiastical standard. Yaméogo wanted to be a priest, but he was very keen on women and parties. In 1939, he left the Minor Seminary of Pabré, without graduating.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., LA PETITE ACADEMIE. (2004). Detail sur la personalite selectionnee. LA PETITEACADEMIE. Retrieved 19 March 2006 from http://www.petiteacademie.gov.bf/Personnalite.asp?CodePersonnalite=216
Professional career Despite failing to graduate, Yaméogo's education allowed him to gain a public role as a shipping clerk for the French Colonial Administration.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., This extremely prestigious post meant success, security and prestige. In this period he increased his involvement with women. He became enamoured of a mixed-race woman, Thérèse Larbat, whose father refused to allow him to marry her because he was an African and was not "civilised enough" to maintain her well-being.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., Yaméogo was offended by this, but eventually, he resigned himself to marrying an educated woman from Koudougou, Félicité Zagré.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., Together they presented themselves as the "evolved" couple of Koudougou; Félicité was the only African in the town who dressed like a European.
In 1940,Alain Foka, " Maurice Yaméogo " In Archives d'Afrique (émission radiophonique de RFI), 2e partie, 18 May 2007 as part of the World War II war effort, Yaméogo was sent to Abidjan in lower Côte d'Ivoire, a paradise for "evolved" Africans.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., Regular parties were held there in which Yaméogo sought to increase his social standing. He sought among other things to make many friends among the "evolved" non-Voltaic people.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., In Abidjan Yaméogo was shocked by the fact that some Voltaic businessmen were illegally trafficking workers in order to supply huge plantations with workers. In Upper Volta, Maurice also worked as a clerk for the Administrative, Accounting and Finance Services (SAFC) of the French Colonial Administration. For this purpose, he was appointed in towns like Dedougou and Koudougou. Yaméogo was later appointed the head of the CFTC syndicate (French Confederation of Christian Workers) of his corporation, and vice-president of CFTC Upper-Volta.
Early political career On his return to his native town after the war, he was elected to the first territorial assembly of Côte d'Ivoire as the general councillor for Koudougou on 15 December 1946.La petite Académie, Liste des conseillers généraux de la première assemblée territoriale de Haute-Volta de 1946 à 1952 Online on petiteacademie.gov.bf Upper Volta had ceased to exist after 1932, being divided up between Côte d'Ivoire, French Sudan and Niger. This did not please the people of Upper Volta, who elected Philippe Zinda Kaboré to the French National Assembly in November 1946 with a mandate to restore Upper Volta. Yaméogo joined Kaboré's entourage in the hope of thereby accelerating his own rise.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., When Kaboré died on 24 May 1947, Yaméogo positioned himself as his spiritual heir.
On 4 September 1947, Upper Volta was restored with its 1932 borders. Subsequently, a French law of 31 March 1948 instituted the Territorial Assembly of Upper Volta.Yénouyaba Georges Madiéga and Oumarou Nao (ed.), Burkina Faso cent ans d'histoire, 1895-1995, t.2, Paris, Éditions Karthala, 2003, This assembly contained fifty seats, thirty-four of which were to be held by the general counsellors elected while Upper Volta was partitioned.Roger Bila Kaboré, Histoire politique du Burkina Faso: 1919-2000, Paris, Éditions L’Harmattan, 2002, Yaméogo was part of this group and planned to sit as part of Kaboré's Voltaic Democratic Party (PDV), the local branch of the African Democratic Assembly (RDA).Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., However, the PDV-RDA suffered an electoral set-back. In the partial elections between 30 May and 20 June, it secured only three of the sixteen seats up for election, losing the other thirteen to the Voltaic Union (UV).Roger Bila Kaboré, op. cit., Then, on 27 June 1948, the PDV-RDA suffered a defection to the UV, led by Henri Guissou. Yaméogo too joined the UV, swearing that he would never again be a member of the RDA.
Grand counsellor of the AOF (1948–1952)
When the assembly finally met, the general counsellors elected senators to the Council of the Republic, the counsellors of the French Union and the Grand Counsellors who would sit on the Grand Council of French West Africa (AOF) in Dakar.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., In the discussions, Yaméogo had been left to one side.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., Outraged, he attempted to make his voice heard within the party, but he was judged too ambitious and his requests were not heeded.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., Thus he decided to appeal directly to Father Goarnisson, a European who had been chosen by the college of natives for one of the grand counsellor posts. The priest was persuaded by him to withdraw his candidacy and support Yaméogo. Thus, on 28 July 1948,Gabriel Massa, et Y. Georges Madiéga (dir.), La Haute-Volta coloniale: témoignages, recherches, regards, Paris, Éditions Karthala, 1995, Yaméogo was elected grand counsellor of French West Africa for Upper Volta.
This was a great achievement; Yaméogo was barely twenty-six years old. Portraits of him as Grand Counsellor decorated the houses of his parents and friends.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., At Dakar, his wife Félicité enjoyed the role of mistress of the house, hosting the governor-general Paul Béchard with pomp, organising receptions for the "evolved" and Yaméogo's colleagues, who included deputy mayor Lamine Gueye, president of the Grand Council.
At Dakar, Yaméogo once more slid towards the RDA.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., At the legislative elections of 17 June 1951, the PDV-RDA presented a single list with the doctor Ali Barraud, while the UV was caught up in internal dissension.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., Joseph Conombo organised the main party list, Union for the Defense of the Interests of Upper Volta, which received 146,861 votes out of 249,940 and thus obtained three of the four seats up for election. The left wing of the UV, led by the outgoing deputy Nazi Boni,Roger Bila Kaboré, op. cit., also presented a list, The Economic and Social Action of the Interests of Upper Volta, which secured the fourth seat with 66,986 votes. Meanwhile, the two grand counsellors, Bougouraoua Ouédraogo and Maurice Yaméogo, issued an independent list, which did not meet with any success.
Setback (1952–1957) The electoral setbacks continued in the territorial elections of 30 March 1952. Yaméogo returned to his private role as a shipping clerk on the orders of governor Albert Mouragues. The governor of Upper Volta was known for his repressive policy towards the RDA, which, despite its rupture with the French Communist Party (PCF) in October 1950, was still suspected of communist sympathies. The uncertain relationship between Yaméogo and the RDA was surely responsible for his reassignment to Djibo in the Sahel.
Less than a year later, he returned to Ouagadougou to oversee the health service.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., He participated in the establishment of a club of officials. Then, hoping to relaunch his political career, Yaméogo re-entered the UV thanks to the support of his old school friend from Pabré, who had become president of the General Council, Joseph Ouédraogo. On stage with the latter, he was named joint-secretary during the first congress of the territorial union of the French Confederation of Christian Workers (CFTC) in 1954, in spite of He.René Otayek, F. Michel Sawadogo, et Jean-Pierre Guingané, Le Burkina entre révolution et démocratie (1983-1993), Paris, Éditions Karthala, 1996,
In the same year, the two wings of the UV clashed. On one side, deputy Nazi Boni founded the Popular Movement for African Development (MPEA) on 27 October 1954.Joseph-Roger de Benoist, L'Afrique occidentale française de la Conférence de Brazzaville (1944) à l'indépendance (1960), Dakar, Nouvelles éditions africaines, 1982, On the other side, the leaders of the party terminated the UV in order to create the Social Party for the Education of the African Masses (PSEMA) in December 1954.Joseph Issoufou Conombo, et Monique Chajmowiez, Acteur de mon temps: un voltaïque dans le XXe siècle, Paris, Éditions L'Harmattan, 2003, Yaméogo once again tried t set up a separate group centred around himself, but without success. His list at the legislative elections of 2 January 1956, which included his friend Pierre Tapsoba, suffered a defeat.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit., So too did his request to the newly elected mayor of Ouagadougou, Joseph Ouédraogo, for the post of general secretary of the mayor.Frédéric Guirma, op. cit.,
Minister of Upper Volta under the Loi Cadre Defferre (1957–1958)