Ferdinand Essandja (sometimes Fernand Essendja or Ferdinand Esandja) was a Congolese politician and businessman, he participated in negotiations for the independence of which Belgian colony in Central Africa between 1908 and 1960 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)?
Ferdinand Essandja Ferdinand Essandja (sometimes Fernand Essendja or Ferdinand Esandja) was a Congolese politician and businessman. He was the chairman of the "Parti de l’Unité Congolaise" in 1959. He attended the Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference in early 1960 as a delegate of the "Parti National du Progrès" (PNP) to participate in negotiations for the Belgian Congo's independence. At one point he served as the mayor of the Barumbu commune of Léopoldville. In June 1961 Essendja became the managing director of Air Congo, the flag carrier of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By 1967 he was the vice president of company.
French Algeria French Algeria (French: "Alger" to 1839, then "Algérie " afterward; unofficially "Algérie française ", Arabic: الجزائر الفرنسية‎ ‎ , "Al-Jaza'ir al-Fransiyah ") began in 1827 with the blockade of Algiers by the French navy and lasted from 1830 to 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. From 1848 until independence, the whole Mediterranean region of Algeria was administered as an integral part of France. The vast arid interior of Algeria, like the rest of French North Africa, was never considered part of France. One of France's longest-held overseas territories, Algeria became a destination for hundreds of thousands of European immigrants, known as "colons " and later, as "pieds-noirs ". However, indigenous Muslims remained a majority of the territory's population throughout its history. Gradually, dissatisfaction among the Muslim population with its lack of political and economic status fueled calls for greater political autonomy, and eventually independence, from France. Tensions between the two population groups came to a head in 1954, when the first violent events of what was later called the Algerian War began. The war concluded in 1962, when Algeria gained complete independence following the March 1962 Evian agreements and the July 1962 self-determination referendum.