Ahidjo, Ahmadou
Ahidjo, Ahmadou (Ahmadou Ahidjo) (Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo) (August 24, 1924 - November 30, 1989). First president of Cameroon (1960 -1982).
Ahidjo was born in Garoua, a major river port along the Benue River in northern Cameroun, which was at the time a French mandate territory. His father was a Fulani village chief, while his mother was a Fulani of slave descent. Ahidjo's mother raised him as a Muslim and sent him to Quranic school as a child. In 1932, he began attending local government primary school. After failing his first school certification examination in 1938, Ahidjo worked for a few months in the veterinary service. He returned to school and obtained his school certification a year later. Ahidjo spent the next three years attending secondary school at the Ecole Priamaire Superieure in Yaoundé, the capital of the mandate, studying for a career in the civil service. At school, Ahidjo also played soccer and competed as a cyclist. In 1942, Ahidjo joined the civil service as a radio operator for a postal service. As part of his job, he worked on assignments in several major cities throughout the country, such as Douala, Ngaoundéré, Bertoua, and Mokolo. According to his official biographer, Ahidjo was the first civil servant from northern Cameroun to work in the southern areas of the territory. His experiences throughout the country were influential in helping Ahidjo to foster his sense of national identity and in providing him the tools to handle the problems of governing a multiethnic state.
In 1947, Ahmadou Ahidjo was elected to the advisory territorial assembly and was re-elected in 1952 and 1956, when he was made its president. During this time, the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) was founded to agitate for re-unification of the territory, a former German colony administered partly by the British and partly by the French as a United Nations Trust Territory. Led by Reuben Um Nyobe, the UPC brought its case to the United Nations, but met with French repression and was forced to go underground. The UPC began guerrilla operations, which continued after Reuben Um Nyobe was killed in 1958.
Ahidjo chose to work within a political party which eschewed militancy and when, in 1957, France permitted the formation of Cameroon’s first African government, he was made vice-premier. The premier, Andre-Marie Mbida, called in French troops to suppress the rebels, but was accused of using excessive violence and refusal to negotiate, and was forced to resign in 1958.
Ahidjo formed the new government and continued to use French troops, but at the same time offered amnesty to the terrorists, many of whom accepted. At the end of the year, Cameroon was granted autonomy within the French community, although it remained a United Nations trust territory.
In 1960, full independence was granted to Cameroon, and after a referendum, Ahidjo became president. In that year, guerrilla activity decreased sharply after the death of Felix Roland Moumie, the major rebel leader.
In 1960, Ahidjo discussed unification with John Foncha, prime minister of British Southern Cameroon. The next year, Southern Cameroon voted to unite with Ahidjo’s nation and the Federal Republic of Cameroon was created. Ahidjo ended the federal system in 1972.
Ahidjo broadened Cameroon’s diplomatic base to lessen reliance on the West, and he worked to reduce ethnic tensions between the largely Muslim north and non-Muslim south. Though his abolition of the federal system and his tight control of the government were unpopular, he was easily re-elected in 1975 and 1980.
In 1982, after twenty-two years in office, Ahidjo retired in favor of his prime minister, Paul Biya. Ahidjo remained head of his party, hoping to continue to influence events, but soon clashed with Biya. After an abortive coup attempt, the government convicted Ahidjo, in absentia, for his suspected role and sentenced him to death, but Biya commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, while Ahidjo remained in France.
Ahidjo resigned, ostensibly for health reasons, on 4 November 1982 (there are many theories surrounding the resignation; it is generally believed that his French doctor "tricked" Ahidjo about his health) and was succeeded by Prime Minister Paul Biya two days later. That he stepped down in favor of Biya, a Christian from the south and not a Muslim from the north like himself, was considered surprising. Ahidjo's ultimate intentions are unclear. It is possible that he intended to return to the presidency at a later point when his health improved, and another possibility is that he intended for Maigari Bello Bouba, a fellow Muslim from the north who succeeded Biya as Prime Minister, to be his eventual successor as President, with Biya in effectively a caretaker role. Although the Central Committee of the ruling Cameroon National Union (CNU) urged Ahidjo to remain president, he declined to do so, but he did agree to remain as the leader of the CNU. However, he also arranged for Biya to become the CNU vice-president and handle party affairs in his absence. Additionally, in January 1983, Ahidjo travelled across the country in a tour in support of Biya.
Later in 1983, a major feud developed between Ahidjo and Biya. On July 19, 1983, Ahidjo went into exile in France, and Biya began removing Ahidjo's supporters from positions of power and eliminating symbols of his authority, replacing Ahidjo's portraits with his own and removing Ahidjo's name from the anthem of the CNU. On August 22, Biya announced that a plot allegedly involving Ahidjo had been uncovered. For his part, Ahidjo severely criticized Biya, alleging that Biya was abusing his power, that he lived in fear of plots against him, and that he was a threat to national unity. The two were unable to reconcile despite the efforts of several foreign leaders, and Ahidjo announced on August 27 that he was resigning as head of the CNU. In exile, Ahidjo was sentenced to death in absentia in February 1984, along with two others, for participation in the June 1983 coup plot, although Biya commuted the sentence to life in prison. Ahidjo denied involvement in the plot. A violent but unsuccessful coup attempt in April 1984 was also widely believed to have been orchestrated by Ahidjo. Few images remain of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, and it is often said that the Biya regime made an active effort to erase any visual or audio references to Cameroon's first head of state.
In his remaining years, Ahidjo divided his time between France and Senegal. He died in Dakar. Senegal.
There is a stadium named for him in Yaounde.
Ahmadou Ahidjo see Ahidjo, Ahmadou
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo see Ahidjo, Ahmadou
Ahidjo, Ahmadou (Ahmadou Ahidjo) (Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo) (August 24, 1924 - November 30, 1989). First president of Cameroon (1960 -1982).
Ahidjo was born in Garoua, a major river port along the Benue River in northern Cameroun, which was at the time a French mandate territory. His father was a Fulani village chief, while his mother was a Fulani of slave descent. Ahidjo's mother raised him as a Muslim and sent him to Quranic school as a child. In 1932, he began attending local government primary school. After failing his first school certification examination in 1938, Ahidjo worked for a few months in the veterinary service. He returned to school and obtained his school certification a year later. Ahidjo spent the next three years attending secondary school at the Ecole Priamaire Superieure in Yaoundé, the capital of the mandate, studying for a career in the civil service. At school, Ahidjo also played soccer and competed as a cyclist. In 1942, Ahidjo joined the civil service as a radio operator for a postal service. As part of his job, he worked on assignments in several major cities throughout the country, such as Douala, Ngaoundéré, Bertoua, and Mokolo. According to his official biographer, Ahidjo was the first civil servant from northern Cameroun to work in the southern areas of the territory. His experiences throughout the country were influential in helping Ahidjo to foster his sense of national identity and in providing him the tools to handle the problems of governing a multiethnic state.
In 1947, Ahmadou Ahidjo was elected to the advisory territorial assembly and was re-elected in 1952 and 1956, when he was made its president. During this time, the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC) was founded to agitate for re-unification of the territory, a former German colony administered partly by the British and partly by the French as a United Nations Trust Territory. Led by Reuben Um Nyobe, the UPC brought its case to the United Nations, but met with French repression and was forced to go underground. The UPC began guerrilla operations, which continued after Reuben Um Nyobe was killed in 1958.
Ahidjo chose to work within a political party which eschewed militancy and when, in 1957, France permitted the formation of Cameroon’s first African government, he was made vice-premier. The premier, Andre-Marie Mbida, called in French troops to suppress the rebels, but was accused of using excessive violence and refusal to negotiate, and was forced to resign in 1958.
Ahidjo formed the new government and continued to use French troops, but at the same time offered amnesty to the terrorists, many of whom accepted. At the end of the year, Cameroon was granted autonomy within the French community, although it remained a United Nations trust territory.
In 1960, full independence was granted to Cameroon, and after a referendum, Ahidjo became president. In that year, guerrilla activity decreased sharply after the death of Felix Roland Moumie, the major rebel leader.
In 1960, Ahidjo discussed unification with John Foncha, prime minister of British Southern Cameroon. The next year, Southern Cameroon voted to unite with Ahidjo’s nation and the Federal Republic of Cameroon was created. Ahidjo ended the federal system in 1972.
Ahidjo broadened Cameroon’s diplomatic base to lessen reliance on the West, and he worked to reduce ethnic tensions between the largely Muslim north and non-Muslim south. Though his abolition of the federal system and his tight control of the government were unpopular, he was easily re-elected in 1975 and 1980.
In 1982, after twenty-two years in office, Ahidjo retired in favor of his prime minister, Paul Biya. Ahidjo remained head of his party, hoping to continue to influence events, but soon clashed with Biya. After an abortive coup attempt, the government convicted Ahidjo, in absentia, for his suspected role and sentenced him to death, but Biya commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, while Ahidjo remained in France.
Ahidjo resigned, ostensibly for health reasons, on 4 November 1982 (there are many theories surrounding the resignation; it is generally believed that his French doctor "tricked" Ahidjo about his health) and was succeeded by Prime Minister Paul Biya two days later. That he stepped down in favor of Biya, a Christian from the south and not a Muslim from the north like himself, was considered surprising. Ahidjo's ultimate intentions are unclear. It is possible that he intended to return to the presidency at a later point when his health improved, and another possibility is that he intended for Maigari Bello Bouba, a fellow Muslim from the north who succeeded Biya as Prime Minister, to be his eventual successor as President, with Biya in effectively a caretaker role. Although the Central Committee of the ruling Cameroon National Union (CNU) urged Ahidjo to remain president, he declined to do so, but he did agree to remain as the leader of the CNU. However, he also arranged for Biya to become the CNU vice-president and handle party affairs in his absence. Additionally, in January 1983, Ahidjo travelled across the country in a tour in support of Biya.
Later in 1983, a major feud developed between Ahidjo and Biya. On July 19, 1983, Ahidjo went into exile in France, and Biya began removing Ahidjo's supporters from positions of power and eliminating symbols of his authority, replacing Ahidjo's portraits with his own and removing Ahidjo's name from the anthem of the CNU. On August 22, Biya announced that a plot allegedly involving Ahidjo had been uncovered. For his part, Ahidjo severely criticized Biya, alleging that Biya was abusing his power, that he lived in fear of plots against him, and that he was a threat to national unity. The two were unable to reconcile despite the efforts of several foreign leaders, and Ahidjo announced on August 27 that he was resigning as head of the CNU. In exile, Ahidjo was sentenced to death in absentia in February 1984, along with two others, for participation in the June 1983 coup plot, although Biya commuted the sentence to life in prison. Ahidjo denied involvement in the plot. A violent but unsuccessful coup attempt in April 1984 was also widely believed to have been orchestrated by Ahidjo. Few images remain of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, and it is often said that the Biya regime made an active effort to erase any visual or audio references to Cameroon's first head of state.
In his remaining years, Ahidjo divided his time between France and Senegal. He died in Dakar. Senegal.
There is a stadium named for him in Yaounde.
Ahmadou Ahidjo see Ahidjo, Ahmadou
Ahmadou Babatoura Ahidjo see Ahidjo, Ahmadou
Ahikar
Ahikar (Ahiqar). Ahikar was one of the wise men of antiquity, in whose name proverbs were handed down from generation to generation. As counsellor to Kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon of Assyria, he chose his nephew Nadan to succeed him in his old age. After Nadan took his uncle’s place, he accused Ahikar of betraying Assyria. Ahikar was saved from death by a faithful friend, and restored to the King’s grace when Assyria was in dire need of his advice. Nadan was chastised and put to death. The proverbs are presented in the tale as lessons and admonitions to Nadan, whose failure to heed them and base ingratitude brought him to a bad end.
“Ahikar the counsellor” is referred to in a late neo-Babylonian tablet from Erech. The tale and proverbs are preserved first in Aramaic among the Elephantine papyri. Ahikar is mentioned in the book of Tobit, as is also Nadan, and some of the proverbs are repeated there. Democritus (c. 460 B.C.T.) is said to have used the works of an Akikaros in his writings and Theophrastus (c. 370 B.C.T.) is said to have written a book called Akicharos. Material from Ahikar also entered the Aesopian corpus. Versions of Ahikar, preserved in Syriac, Armenian, Slavonic, Turkic, and neo-Aramaic, attest to the great popularity of the tale, which was also known to the writers of the Qur’an.
Ahiqar or Ahikar was also an Assyrian sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.
The Story of Ahikar, also known as the Words of Ahikar, has been found in an Aramaic papyrus of 500 B.C. among the ruins of Elephantine. The narrative of the initial part of the story is expanded greatly by the presence of a large number of wise sayings and proverbs that Ahikar is portrayed as speaking to his nephew. It is suspected by most scholars that these sayings and proverbs were originately a separate document, as they do not mention Ahikar. Some of the sayings are similar to parts of the Biblical Book of Proverbs, others to the deuterocanonical Ecclesiasticus, and others still to Babylonian and Persian proverbs. The collection of sayings is in essence a selection from those common in the Middle East at the time, noticeably preferring those in favor of corporal punishment.
Achiacharus is the name occurring in the Book of Tobit as that of a nephew of Tobit (Tobias) and an official at the court of Esarhaddon at Nineveh. There are references in Romanian, Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic and Syriac literature to a legend, of which the hero is Ahikar for Armenian, Arabic and Syriac. It was pointed out by scholar George Hoffmann in 1880 that this Ahikar and the Achiacharus of Tobit are identical. It has been contended that there are traces of the legend even in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the Life of Aesop by Maximus Planudes (ch. xxiii-xxxii). An eastern sage Achaiicarus is mentioned by Strabo. It would seem, therefore, that the legend was undoubtedly oriental in origin, though the relationship of the various versions can scarcely be recovered.
In the story, Ahikar was chancellor to the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Having no child of his own, he adopted his nephew Nadan/Nadab/Nadin, and raised him to be his successor. Nadan/Nadab/Nadin ungratefully plotted to have his elderly uncle murdered, and persuades Esarhaddon that Ahikar has committed treason. Esarhaddon orders Ahikar be executed in response, and so Ahikar is arrested and imprisoned to await punishment. However, Ahikar reminds the executioner that the executioner had been saved by Ahikar from a similar fate under Sennacherib, and so the executioner kills one of his (innocent) eunuchs instead, and pretends to Esarhaddon that it is the body of Ahikar.
The remainder of the early texts do not survive beyond this point, but it is thought probably that the original ending had Nadan/Nadab/Nadin being executed while Ahikar is rehabilitated. Later texts portray Ahikar coming out of hiding to counsel the Egyptian king on behalf of Esarhaddon, and then returning in triumph to Esarhaddon. In the later texts, after Ahikar's return, he meets Nadan/Nadab/Nadin and is very angry with him, and Nadan/Nadab/Nadin then dies.
The Story of Ahikar see Ahikar
“Ahikar the counsellor” see Ahikar
Ahiqar see Ahikar
Ahikar (Ahiqar). Ahikar was one of the wise men of antiquity, in whose name proverbs were handed down from generation to generation. As counsellor to Kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon of Assyria, he chose his nephew Nadan to succeed him in his old age. After Nadan took his uncle’s place, he accused Ahikar of betraying Assyria. Ahikar was saved from death by a faithful friend, and restored to the King’s grace when Assyria was in dire need of his advice. Nadan was chastised and put to death. The proverbs are presented in the tale as lessons and admonitions to Nadan, whose failure to heed them and base ingratitude brought him to a bad end.
“Ahikar the counsellor” is referred to in a late neo-Babylonian tablet from Erech. The tale and proverbs are preserved first in Aramaic among the Elephantine papyri. Ahikar is mentioned in the book of Tobit, as is also Nadan, and some of the proverbs are repeated there. Democritus (c. 460 B.C.T.) is said to have used the works of an Akikaros in his writings and Theophrastus (c. 370 B.C.T.) is said to have written a book called Akicharos. Material from Ahikar also entered the Aesopian corpus. Versions of Ahikar, preserved in Syriac, Armenian, Slavonic, Turkic, and neo-Aramaic, attest to the great popularity of the tale, which was also known to the writers of the Qur’an.
Ahiqar or Ahikar was also an Assyrian sage known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.
The Story of Ahikar, also known as the Words of Ahikar, has been found in an Aramaic papyrus of 500 B.C. among the ruins of Elephantine. The narrative of the initial part of the story is expanded greatly by the presence of a large number of wise sayings and proverbs that Ahikar is portrayed as speaking to his nephew. It is suspected by most scholars that these sayings and proverbs were originately a separate document, as they do not mention Ahikar. Some of the sayings are similar to parts of the Biblical Book of Proverbs, others to the deuterocanonical Ecclesiasticus, and others still to Babylonian and Persian proverbs. The collection of sayings is in essence a selection from those common in the Middle East at the time, noticeably preferring those in favor of corporal punishment.
Achiacharus is the name occurring in the Book of Tobit as that of a nephew of Tobit (Tobias) and an official at the court of Esarhaddon at Nineveh. There are references in Romanian, Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic and Syriac literature to a legend, of which the hero is Ahikar for Armenian, Arabic and Syriac. It was pointed out by scholar George Hoffmann in 1880 that this Ahikar and the Achiacharus of Tobit are identical. It has been contended that there are traces of the legend even in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the Life of Aesop by Maximus Planudes (ch. xxiii-xxxii). An eastern sage Achaiicarus is mentioned by Strabo. It would seem, therefore, that the legend was undoubtedly oriental in origin, though the relationship of the various versions can scarcely be recovered.
In the story, Ahikar was chancellor to the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Having no child of his own, he adopted his nephew Nadan/Nadab/Nadin, and raised him to be his successor. Nadan/Nadab/Nadin ungratefully plotted to have his elderly uncle murdered, and persuades Esarhaddon that Ahikar has committed treason. Esarhaddon orders Ahikar be executed in response, and so Ahikar is arrested and imprisoned to await punishment. However, Ahikar reminds the executioner that the executioner had been saved by Ahikar from a similar fate under Sennacherib, and so the executioner kills one of his (innocent) eunuchs instead, and pretends to Esarhaddon that it is the body of Ahikar.
The remainder of the early texts do not survive beyond this point, but it is thought probably that the original ending had Nadan/Nadab/Nadin being executed while Ahikar is rehabilitated. Later texts portray Ahikar coming out of hiding to counsel the Egyptian king on behalf of Esarhaddon, and then returning in triumph to Esarhaddon. In the later texts, after Ahikar's return, he meets Nadan/Nadab/Nadin and is very angry with him, and Nadan/Nadab/Nadin then dies.
The Story of Ahikar see Ahikar
“Ahikar the counsellor” see Ahikar
Ahiqar see Ahikar
No comments:
Post a Comment