Sourou-Migan Apithy

Sourou Migan Apithy (April 8 1913 - December 3 1989) was a Beninese political figure.

Apithy studied at Brodeaux in a Lycée before being accepted at the public Political Science School in Paris where he took courses in commercial studies. He later worked at a French company in Western Africa as an expert accountant. Before his country acquired its independence, beginning 1945, he was part of Dahomey's Constitutive Assembly and was re-elected for a number of terms. When Hubert Maga nominated him to that function, he was also the prime minister of Dahomey (Benin) from 1957 to 1958. By 1960, he had become vice president of the Republic.

He served as the president of Benin between 25 January 1964 and 27 November 1965, when he was overthrown by Christophe Soglo after infighting among the members of the government. After this event he fled to Paris for the first time but he returned to Cotonou after the 1970 coup, when he became a member of the Presidential Triumvirate during the early 1970s. Following the 1972 coup, he was put under arrest alongside Ahomadegbe and Maga, and was not released until 1981.

He was sometimes referred to as being part of the 'three-headed monster' of the 1960s in Benin. He died in exile in his Paris house, in December 1989, shortly before the transition to democracy in his country.

References

* "BÉNIN Mort de l'ancien président Apithy", Le Monde. Mercredi 6 décembre 1989, p. 8. accessed on October 8, 2006.