Word: youlou
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Most of the French Congo's 15,000 Matswanists either abstain from voting in elections or vote for the dead Matswa. Particularly nettled by such tactics is the Abbe Fulbert Youlou, Premier of the new Congo Republic, because the Matswanists are of his own tribe-the Lari. Since the Congo recently became self-governing, there have been frequent-clashes between Matswanists and other Lari tribesmen. The Matswanists were stoned; their homes were burned. Driven out of their own countryside, 2,500 Matswanist refugees squatted in a suburb of the capital of Brazzaville and refused to be evacuated...
Last week, on Youlou's orders, 300 police moved in on the overcrowded squatter colony, tried for two hours to persuade the Matswanists to leave peacefully, then attacked them with clubs and tear gas. Gradually, as they fell back, about 200 of the Matswanists were pinned against a wall, and would not move. The cops grabbed them one by one and hauled them away in trucks. But when they reached the rear ranks of the crowd, police saw a melancholy sight: 36 Matswanists, including one woman and a child, had been pressed back, temporarily blinded by the tear...
After short, chubby Abbe Fulbert Youlou maneuvered his way into power as the new Congo Republic's first Premier last November, he felt in no position to test his strength in a popular vote. His archrival, Jacques Opangault, who barely missed getting the job himself, persistently demanded general elections, but Premier Youlou refused, using his meager majority of one vote in the Legislative Assembly to proclaim himself in control until 1962. The political squabble touched off bloody rioting that in February left more than 100 dead in Brazzaville's native quarters...
...Youlou, finally consenting to an election, then set out to win it. With a nice piece of gerrymandering, he increased the size of the Legislative Assembly from 45 to 61 seats, and saw to it that most of the new constituencies were located in the south, where Youlou supporters are concentrated. As further insurance, Opposition Leader Opangault was kept in jail, accused of provoking the February riots. Last week, to almost no one's surprise, Youlou won massively, gained a majority of 41 in the new Assembly...
...long as the French were in control, the rivalry between the territory's two leading politicians was kept in hand. The flamboyant Abbé Fulbert Youlou-a Roman Catholic priest who is forbidden to say Mass but still wears a soutane-has long favored keeping a firm tie with France, once blurted in a fit of candor that is rare in Africa these days: "We will need French aid until the year X." His longtime rival, Socialist Jacques Opangault, dreams of the day when the former territories of French Equatorial Africa will be united in a federation...