The Gabonese National Unity Party (, PUNGA; ''Punga'' being the Eshira word for 'tornado') was a small

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

based in

Nyanga Province Nyanga is the southernmost of Gabon's nine provinces. The provincial capital is Tchibanga, which had a total of 31294 inhabitants in 2013 (more than the half of the province population). Nyanga is the least populated province of the nine and th ...

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

. The party drew support from functionaries in the newly established public administration.

History

The party was founded on 20 August 1958, and was led by René-Paul Sousatte and Jean-Jacques Boucavel, who had broken away from the

Gabonese Democratic and Social Union The Gabonese Social and Democratic Union (, UDSG) was a political party in Gabon. History The UDSG was established on 9 September 1947 by Jean-Hilaire Aubame,Wilson-André Ndombet (2009) ''Partis politiques et Unité nationale au Gabon (1957-198 ...

two days earlier. The founders of PUNGA also included Louis M'Vey (of the CGAT trade union movement), Valentin Mihindou, Martin Longa (municipal councillor, BDG member), Henri Moundounga (in charge of the cabinet of the minister of Public Works) and Jean-Félix Lassy (in-charge of the cabinet of the minister of Public Functions). Sousatte served as the chairman of the party, Boucavel as vice chairman, Mihindou as secretary and Marcel Sandoungou as joint secretary. PUNGA advocated immediate independence from French colonial rule, and called for a 'no' vote in the September 1958 referendum, which would have resulted in independence. At the time PUNGA, which was itself born in the midst of the preparations of the referendum, was the sole political force in the country that advocated this position. As an alternative to French domination, the party was open to the creation of a confederation of free and equal states. PUNGA had the backing of the Gabonese Action Movement, a Gabonese student organization in

Metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

. Ultimately only 15,244 of the 190,334 voters voted 'No'. Following the referendum the influence of the party decreased. In spite of the radical positions of the party, Sousatte turned against the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (, , PCF) is a Communism, communist list of political parties in France, party in France. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its Member of the European Parliament, MEPs sit with The Left in the ...

. This development led to a split between him and M'Vey. In 1962 Sousatte was named Minister of Agriculture.

References

{{Gabonese political parties Defunct political parties in Gabon Political parties established in 1958 1958 establishments in Gabon Nyanga Province Socialism in Gabon Socialist parties in Africa