Gnassingbé Eyadéma

Who is Gnassingbé Eyadéma?

Gnassingbé Eyadéma, born Étienne Eyadéma Gnassingbé on 26 December 1935 in the northern Togolese town of Pya, was a Togolese military officer and politician who ruled the country for thirty-eight years, longer than any other head of state in Africa's post-colonial history. Of Kabiye descent, he joined the French colonial army in 1953 and served in Indochina, Dahomey, Niger, and Algeria before returning to Togo in 1962. He was among the group of veterans involved in the January 1963 coup that killed President Sylvanus Olympio, and he became army chief of staff before taking power directly in a further coup in January 1967, becoming president and minister of national defense. He founded a single ruling party, the Rally of the Togolese People, in 1969, and in the 1970s promoted an "authenticity" campaign urging citizens to adopt African names, himself taking the name Gnassingbé. Facing growing domestic unrest, he legalized opposition parties and accepted a new constitution in the early 1990s, but retained power through repeatedly contested multiparty elections, including after a 2002 constitutional amendment removed presidential term limits. He died of a heart attack in February 2005 while travelling for medical treatment, and was succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé.

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