Émile Derlin Zinsou (23 March 1918[1] – 28 July 2016) was a Beninese politician and physician who was the President of Dahomey (now Benin) from 17 July 1968 until 10 December 1969, supported by the military regime that took power in 1967. Zinsou was present at the signing of the treaty that formed the African Union on 12 July 2000 in Togo.
Biography
Early life and medical career
Zinsou was born in Ouidah on 23 March 1918. He was educated at Porto-Novo and the Ecole William Ponty in Senegal. He studied medicine at the Dakar Medical College and qualified as a doctor. Zinsou was a physician in the French army from 1939 to 1940. Afterwards he operated a private practice and began to become involved in colonial politics.[2]
He served in the French senate from 1955 to 1958, joining the Independents d'Outre-Mer. While a senator, Zinsou developed a close bond with future President of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor. Zinsou was a deputy to Dahomey's Territorial (later National) Assembly and was Minister of Commerce during the "loi-cadre" liberalization period of 1958 to 1959. He did not want to see the breakup of France's African colonies after independence and was the secretary of the Dakar-based Parti du Regroupement Africain (PRA). Zinsou broke with Apithy in 1959 after Apithy backed out of the idea of a Mali Federation, one of the PRA's chief proposals.[3]
After Dahomey achieved independence, Zinsou became the ambassador to France. Under Maga, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1962 to an abrupt dismissal in 1963. He was Francophone Africa's candidate for the role of the secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity in 1964. In early 1965 he was an advisor to the South African Anglo-American Corporation in Paris. Zinsou was again foreign minister from late December 1965 to 1967 in General Christophe Soglo's administration.[3]
Following the 1967 coup and the electoral boycott in 1968, Zinsou was the military's pick for president and was sworn in on 17 July 1968. This was quite unusual because he was a staunch anti-militarist. As President, Zinsou promoted anti-smuggling policies, countermeasures against strikes, and a more efficient tax collecting system. This upset some people and military officers were infuriated by his independent actions.[3] As a result, his chief of staff Maurice Kouandété deposed him on 10 December 1969. Although Zinsou was injured when machine guns fired on the presidential palace, two of his bodyguards were murdered.[4] Zinsou received a mere 3 percent of votes in the 1970 presidential election and rejected an offer to join the presidential council. Instead, he opted to move to Paris.[5]
Later life and death
He is said to have opposed the one-party Marxist policies of Mathieu Kérékou, who ruled Benin from 1972 to 1990. On 17 March 1975, following an attempted coup led by Janvier Assogba, Zinsou was accused of being complicit. He was sentenced to death in absentia.[5]
On 16 January 1977 an attempted coup d'état took place in Benin with a group of armed men led by renowned French mercenary "Colonel" Bob Denard. The operation, called Opération Crevette (or Operation Shrimp), was mounted in order to oust leftist President Mathieu Kérékou. In his autobiography, Bob Denard has mentioned that Emile Derlin Zinsou was to be reinstated in power in the aftermath of the coup, and that he was in fact waiting on board the mercenaries' plane that fled the country when the coup attempt failed. Zinsou has often denied being linked to the coup, but refused to comment on Denard's writings.
In 1990, Zinsou returned to Benin after his 17-year exile. He opposed the new constitution in the referendum of 2 December 1990 but was unsuccessful.[5] Zinsou was a mediator in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during that country's civil war in the late 1990s; he arrived in Kinshasa on 20 September 1999, along with fellow mediator Padre Matteo Zuppi, and met with President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.[6]
