Claude-Ernest Ndalla

Claude-Ernest Ndalla (born 25 May 1937Rémy Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'' (1997), Karthala Editions, page 440 .''Les Élites africaines''
(1970), page 207 .) is a Congolese politician. First coming to prominence as a radical youth leader in 1960s Congo-Brazzaville, he was one of the leading members of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT) in the period immediately following its founding in 1969, but after a few years his career fell into a long decline due to factional struggles within the PCT. Later, he served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville as Minister of Youth Redeployment and Sports from 1997 to 1999, and he has been a Special Adviser to President Denis Sassou Nguesso since 2003.

Political career in the 1960s and 1970s

Ndalla was born in Brazzaville in 1937René Gauze, Virginia McLean Thompson, and Richard Adloff, ''The Politics of Congo-Brazzaville'' (1973), page 255. and studied mathematics at the University of Toulouse in France.''Africa'', issues 77–88
(1978), page 58. At Toulouse, he was known for his appetite and was nicknamed ''Graille'', or crow. Back in Congo-Brazzaville, he quickly attained a prominent place in the radicalized political scene of the period that followed the August 1963 ouster of Fulbert Youlou, and he started a magazine, ''Dipanda''.

In 1964, Ndalla was included on the executive committee of the Youth of the National Movement of the Revolution (JMNR), the radical youth wing of the ruling National Movement of the Revolution (MNR), and he acquired a reputation as a radical leftist and ideologue. On 6 April 1965, President Alphonse Massemba-Débat appointed Ndalla as Secretary of State at the Presidency in charge of Youth and Civic Education. However, Massemba-Débat dismissed Ndalla from that post in December 1965. In light of Ndalla's prominent identification with the JMNR, his dismissal indicated that the JMNR had lost some influence, but Ambroise Noumazalaye in 1969; in the latter post, he was also assigned responsibility for relations with North Vietnam and North Korea. He arrived in Beijing on 24 April 1969 and was received by the Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Lin Biao at Tiananmen Square on 1 May 1969. He held a reception in Beijing on 15 August 1969 to mark the sixth anniversary of the revolution; various high-ranking Chinese officials, including Premier Zhou Enlai, attended.

Along with various other prominent politicians, including Massemba-Débat and Pascal Lissouba, Ndalla was put on trial by President Marien Ngouabi in 1969 for involvement in the murder of government officials, but he was acquittedGauze, Thompson, and Adloff, ''The Politics of Congo-Brazzaville'', pages 175–176.Bazenguissa-Ganga, ''Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique'', page 153 . on 21 November 1969. He then spent a few weeks at his diplomatic post in Beijing before returning home.

In December 1969, a new ruling Marxist-Leninist ruling party was created under President Ngouabi: the Congolese Labour Party (PCT). Ndalla was one of the party's founding members; he was included in the PCT's original Political Bureau and was designated as First Secretary in charge of Organization, in which capacity he was responsible for managing internal organizational matters. Ndalla represented the far-left faction of the PCT, and his designation as First Secretary bolstered the far-left while positioning him as "Ngouabi's principal rival", as he was effectively the second-ranking figure in the PCT regime. Despite his clear affinity for China and Maoism, Ndalla led a Congolese delegation that visited the Soviet Union in June 1970.

Student protests and a strike led Ngouabi to sideline the PCT's radical leftist leaders, who were associated with Maoism, in November 1971. Ndalla and another high-ranking radical, Ange Diawara, were among those affected by Ngouabi's move. Diawara then led an unsuccessful left-wing coup attempt against Ngouabi on 22 February 1972. Ndalla and the others who supported a far-left, pro-Chinese political line were known as the 22 February Movement (M-22).''Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey and Documents''
volume 18 (1987), page B-213."President wins decisive victory over pro-Soviets", ''Africa Confidential'', 17 October 1984, pages 1–3. Implicated in the plot, Ndalla was tried along with 177 others"Jun 1972 - Presidential commution of death sentences imposed on alleged plotters"
''Keesing's Record of World Events'', volume 18, June 1972 Congo, page 25,308. and sentenced to life in prison on 25 March 1972. President Ngouabi later released him as part of an amnesty, along with others from the M-22, in September 1975. Following his release, Ndalla faced difficulties and it took him some time to find work.

President Ngouabi was assassinated under mysterious circumstances in March 1977. Various prominent political figures suspected of disloyalty were immediately brought before a military tribunal and tried for complicity in the assassination. Massemba-Débat was executed, while Ndalla and Lissouba were among those sentenced to life in prison.

Political career from the 1980s to the 1990s

Under Denis Sassou Nguesso, the M-22 was partially rehabilitated and regained influence beginning in 1980, to the point that some M-22 figures were considered part of "the backbone" of the PCT regime. By that time, the M-22 was considerably less radical, although still ideologically Marxist. Like the PCT in general, the M-22 was "clearly dominated by northerners", and it was the northern M-22 leaders, rather than southerners like Ndalla, who most clearly benefited from Sassou Nguesso's favor.

Ndalla was arrested prior to a PCT party congress in 1984. At the time, Sassou Nguesso was trying to assert his authority in the PCT leadership against a hard-line, pro-Soviet faction led by François-Xavier Katali, and it was believed that Sassou Nguesso wanted to prevent Ndalla from encouraging other M-22 southerners to support Katali's faction. The arrest of Ndalla was part of a series of successful moves by Sassou Nguesso in 1984, culminating in his victory over the Katali faction at the party congress.

While in detention, Ndalla was recorded on video saying that Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya

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