Gabriel Lozès

Gabriel Lozès (18 August 1917 – ?)^[1] was a Beninese doctor in medicine, politician and diplomat.

Minister of health in 1963-1964, he replaced Chabi Mama on 25 January 1964 as foreign minister, lasting until 1 December 1965, while being in the same time general secretary of the unique party Parti démocratique dahoméen (PDD) and Ahomadegbe's right-hand man. After the dissolution of the PDD, he created the Alliance démocratique dahoméenne (ADD) and became its first general secretary. On 28 January 1966 he was briefly detained for interrogation on suspicion of publishing tracts inciting revolt against the new government of Nicéphore Soglo. He was again imprisoned in May 1969, being accused of plotting to return Ahomadegbe to power and to overthrow the regime of Emile Zinsou. In 1971 he was minister of public works, transports and mines, then again briefly arrested in 1973.^[2][3][4]

The Lozès family migrated to the French suburban city Creil in 1979, then in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis).^[5]

He is the father of Patrick Lozès (fr), former president of the Representative Council of France's Black Associations and candidate to the 2012 French presidential election.

References

1. (French) Les Élites africaines, Édiafric, 1972
2. (French) Les Anciens Ministres, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, de l'Intégration Africaine, de la Francophonie et des Béninois de l'Extérieur
3. (French) Philippe Decraene, "Le projet d’« Union du Bénin » a des chances limitées", Le Monde diplomatique, August 1964
4. He was however never a senator in France, either under the Fourth or the Fifth Republic, in contradiction to the pretences of his son on his website, although he may have been a member of the short-lived (1959-1961) Senate of the French Community (fr)
5. (French) Patrick Lozès, Nous, les Noirs de France, Paris, Ed. Danger public, 2007, p.14