politician Louis Bigmann. He was also a member of the Association des fonctionnaires, an organization which was dominated by two other soon-to-be politicians: René-Paul Sousatte and Jean Rémy Ayouné. Following the speech given by Charles de Gaulle on the Appeal of 18 June 1940, Aubame sided with the Free French, and in November was sent by Libreville authorities to rally Fangs for the cause. In February 1942, Aubame met colonial administrator Félix Éboué and quickly became his protégé. He served as an informant for Éboué on African affairs. Aubame's reward was to be one of several Africans promoted on 23 February 1943 into the European section of the civil service, and on 1 January 1944 Éboué appointed him president of the municipal commission for the Poto-Poto section of Brazzaville. Aubame participated in the 1944 Brazzaville Conference and served in this post until 10 November 1946. After Éboué's sudden death in March 1944, Aubame worked as an adviser to Governor-General André Bayardelle and his secretary André Soucadoux. They encouraged Aubame to run for office, and he returned to Gabon to campaign with the support of both the administration and the missionaries. Deputy Deputy to the French National Assembly Aubame lost in the 1945 elections, though on 10 November 1946 became Gabon's first representative to the French National Assembly by winning 7,069 votes out of 12,528 possible. From 1946 to 1951 he was Commissioner of shipping, the press, communication, labor and social security. He voted for Algerian independence on 27 August 1947 and for the establishment of a Council of Europe on 9 July 1949. On 17 June 1951, Aubame was reelected a deputy with 17,329 votes out of a total of 29,203 and on 2 January 1956 with 26,712 votes out of a total of 57,031, with this term lasting until the end of the Fourth French Republic. Around this time, M'ba was establishing his political career after being exiled to Oubangui-Chari. Affiliating with the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), Aubame later worked most closely with the Indépendants d'Outre-Mer, an African parliamentary group whose leaders were Senegalese Léopold Sédar Senghor and Cameroonian Louis-Paul Aujoulat. While a deputy he lived in Paris and toured Gabon regularly. He continued to develop local Gabonese politics, in particular revitalizing the Fang clans. In fact, M'ba asserted that Aubame was too involved with the Fang to pay attention to the interests of the southern