Paul Gondjout

Gondjout served as Minister of State during the abortive 1964 Gabon coup d'état but was acquitted of all charges during his subsequent trial. He lived outside public view from his 1966 acquittal to his death on 1 July 1990 and there is little record of his life during this period.

Little is known of Goundjout's life between his 1966 acquittal and death on 1 July 1990, in Libreville. He is buried in Libreville near his wife Odette (d. 2006), a former fashion model. A secondary school has been established in his name.

During the night of 17 February and the early morning of 18 February 1964, 150 members of the Gabonese military, gendarmerie, and police, headed by Lieutenant Jacques Mombo and Valére Essone, seized the presidential palace. They arrested President of the National Assembly Louis Bigmann, French commanders Claude Haulin and Major Royer, several ministers, and President M'ba, who was dragged from his bed at gunpoint. On Radio Libreville, the military announced to the Gabonese people that a coup d'état had taken place, asked for technical assistance, and told the French not to interfere in this matter. M'ba was forced to broadcast a speech acknowledging his defeat, in which he said, "The D-Day is here, the injustices are beyond measure, these people are patient, but their patience has limits. It came to a boil."

On 16 November, under the pretext of a conspiracy, M'ba declared a state of emergency, ordering the internment of eight BDG opponents and the dissolution of the National Assembly the day after. Electors were asked to vote again on 12 February 1961. Gondjout himself was sentenced to two years in prison. He was imprisoned in a remote village under house arrest, where he was supplied, according to U.S. ambassador to Gabon, Charles Darlington, "with all the whisky and beer he [could] drink and all the girls he want[ed]". Unable to fulfill his position, it was given to Louis Bigmann. Upon Gondjout's release, M'ba appointed him to the mostly symbolic post of President of the Economic Council, in part to silence any threat to M'ba's power.

M'ba was one of France's most loyal African allies, and during a visit to France in 1961, declared, "all Gabonese have two fatherlands: France and Gabon." Moreover, under his regime, Europeans were particularly well treated. The French authorities therefore decided, in accordance with signed Franco-Gabon agreements, to restore the legitimate government. Intervention could not commence without a formal request to the Head of State of Gabon. Since M'ba was imprisoned, the French contacted the Vice President of Gabon, Paul-Marie Yembit, who had not been arrested. However, he remained unaccounted for; therefore, they decided to compose a predated letter confirming their intervention, that Yembit would later sign. Less than 24 hours later, French troops stationed in Dakar and Brazzaville landed in Libreville and restored M'ba to power. During the operation, a French soldier and 15 to 25 Gabonese died.

In 1960, then President M'ba reshuffled the government without consulting Parliament. When Gondjout filed a motion of censure he was charged with attempting a coup d'état and sentenced to two years in prison. Following his release, M'ba appointed him to the largely symbolic post of President of the Economic Council, in part to silence the threat he represented.

M'ba overthrew Gondjout as head of the BDG and Goundjout aligned with Aubame on several issues, such as opposing M'ba's amount of power. Nonetheless, when Gabon gained its independence on 17 August 1960 Gondjout was named President of the National Assembly by the new President of Gabon, Leon M'ba. In November 1960 or 1961, Gondjout called for a constitutional amendment to allow him more executive power. When M'ba reshuffled his cabinet without consulting Parliament, Gondjout filed a motion of censure. He supposedly hoped to benefit from a balance of power modified to his own advantage, and to model Gabon after the Western democracies. M'ba, who did not share these ideas, reacted repressively.

In August 1953 Gondjout's PDG merged with the Gabonese Mixed Committee to form the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG). Over the course of the following seven years, the party published a newspaper which caught the eye of the aspiring politician Léon M'ba, whom Gondjout had earlier helped to elect to the Gabonese council of government. The two formed an alliance supported by the Mpongwe business community, the wealthy coastal Fangs (like M'ba), and the French, which managed to overpower Jean-Hilaire Aubame and fellow members of the Gabonese Democratic and Social Union. Gondjout, the self-appointed secretary of the BDG, decreed M'ba to be the secretary-general. He and M'ba both believed that Gabon should not have full political independence, stating shortly before it was obtained:

Gondjout was elected to the Senate of France on 24 July 1949 and re-elected on 18 May 1952—both times as an independent candidate—serving until the end of his term on 7 June 1958. On 18 December 1953, he became the father of Laure Gondjout. She would later become a prominent politician as would his son, Vincent de Paul Gondjout, and nephew, Georges Rawiri.

Paul Marie Indjendjet Gondjout (4 June 1912 – 1 July 1990) was a Gabonese politician and civil servant, and the father of Laure Gondjout, another prominent Gabonese politician. Gondjout was a member of the Mpongwe ethnic group, and served in the French colonial administration from 1928, and founded the Cercle amical et mutualiste des évolués de Port-Gentil in 1943. He was a delegate to the French Senate from 1949 to 1958, and founded the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG). In 1954, Léon M'ba joined the party and eventually overthrew Gondjout as leader.

Gondjout was born on 4 June 1912, to a Mpongwe family. He had a younger brother named Edouard. The elder Gondjout began his service in the French colonial administration in 1928. In 1943 he founded the Cercle amical et mutualiste des évolués de Port-Gentil (roughly translated as Mutual Friends for the Evolution of Port-Gentil), an organization that encouraged and utilised the talents of educated Gabonese. With the assistance of Mpongwe businesspeople, In 1945 he established the Gabonese Democratic Party alongside Emile Issembe.