Marien Ngouabi

Marien Ngouabi (or N'Gouabi) (December 31, 1938 – March 18, 1977) was the military President of the Republic of the Congo from January 1, 1969 to March 18, 1977.

For political reasons, President Alphonse Massamba-Débat demoted Ngouabi, a captain with leftist views, to the rank of soldier second class on June 25, 1966 and later had him arrested on July 29, 1968. His arrest provoked discontent among the military, and on July 31 Ngouabi was freed by soldiers. The National Revolutional Council (CNR), headed by Ngouabi, was created on August 5, 1968. Massamba-Débat, whose powers had been curtailed by the CNR, resigned on September 4, and Prime Minister Alfred Raoul served as acting head of state until December 31, 1968, when the CNR formally became the country's supreme authority and Ngouabi, as head of the CNR, assumed the presidency.[1] President Ngouabi changed the country's name to the People's Republic of the Congo, declaring it to be Africa's first Marxist-Leninist state, and founded the Congolese Workers' Party (Parti Congolais du Travail, PCT) as the country's sole legal political party.

Ngouabi was from the north (he was a Kouyou, born in the village of Ombele) and his regime shifted control of the country away from the south. Such moves created opposition among the population in the highly politicized environment of Brazzaville. There was an attempted coup in 1972 that triggered a series of 'purges' of the opposition. It is claimed that Ngouabi was under French pressure to annex the oil-rich Cabinda enclave then under Angolan control and his refusal to act cost him French support. There is some speculation that the French financed some of the following attempts to remove Ngouabi. He visited the People's Republic of China in July 1973. He was 'reelected' in 1975 and in the same year, he signed an economic aid pact with the Soviet Union.

On March 18, 1977, President Ngouabi was assassinated by an alleged suicide commando. The persons accused of taking part in the plot were tried and some of them executed including Massamba-Débat. An Military Committee of the Party (CMP) was named to head an interim government with the conservative Colonel Joachim Yhombi-Opango to serve as President of the Republic.

March 18 is Marien Ngouabi Day in the Republic of Congo. The country's only university is the Université Marien Ngouabi in Brazzaville.