| 1972 Dahomeyan coup d'état | |||||||
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| Part of theCold War | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Hubert Maga Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin Sourou-Migan Apithy | Mathieu Kérékou Janvier Assogba Michel Aïkpé Michel Alladayè | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| No casualties reported. | |||||||
  Nexus of coup in Porto-Novo (marked green), Republic of Dahomey | |||||||
| History of Benin |
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| History of the Kingdom of Dahomey |
| Pre-colonial history |
| Colonial history |
| Post-colonial history |
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The1972 Dahomeyan coup d'état was amilitarycoup staged on 26 October 1972 by Major (later General)Mathieu Kérékou, who took control of theRepublic of Dahomey[1] and ended a system of government established following the annulled1970 presidential election, in which three members of thePresidential Council (Hubert Maga,Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin andSourou-Migan Apithy) were to rotate in power. Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin served as the Chairman at the time of the coup.[2]
The coup was launched by soldiers of theOuidah garrison[3] and occurred during a Presidential Council meeting between Maga and Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin.[note 1][4] According to reports at the scene, soldiers abruptly arrived in the Cabinet room of the Presidential Palace in the capitalPorto-Novo and started firing bullets,[3] but no one was injured.[5] Kérékou led the first armed company of soldiers to break into the meeting, where he declared the end of the Presidential Council.[6][7] Kérékou announced the coup on national radio (which later becomeORTB) by saying that the "three headed figure [was] truly a monster" beset by "congenital deficiency...notorious inefficiency and...unpardonable incompetence."[7] Similarly to the1963 coup d'état led byChristophe Soglo, the coup was viewed favorably by much of the population of the country.[8] Kerekou named himself the new head of state, appointing military officers to the various ministerial posts.[3]
The members of the Presidential Council and other prominent political figures were arrested and imprisoned or placed under house arrest until 1981.[9] After they were released from house arrest in 1981, Maga, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, and Apithy all moved to Paris.[10]
Kérékou proclaimed the formal accession of his government toMarxism–Leninism on 30 November 1974, in a speech before an assembly of stunned notables in the city ofAbomey.[11] He soon aligned Dahomey with theSoviet Union and theEastern Bloc.[12] Finally, Kérékou declared the end of the Republic of Dahomey and the establishment of thePeople's Republic of Benin on 30 November 1975, named after theKingdom of Benin that had once flourished in the south-central part of neighboringNigeria.[13] ThePeople's Revolutionary Party of Benin (PRPB), designed as avanguard party, was created on the same day as the country's only legal party.
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