page_title: Fulbert Youlou
section_title: Youth and ordination
hierarchical_section_title: Fulbert Youlou / Youth and ordination
caption_attribution_description: Map of the Republic of the Congo showing Pool region.
context_page_description: Abbé Fulbert Youlou was a laicized Brazzaville-Congolese Roman Catholic priest, nationalist leader and politician, who became the first President of the Republic of the Congo on its independence.
  In August 1960, he led his country into independence. In December 1960 he organised an intercontinental conference in Brazzaville, in the course of which he praised the advantages of economic liberalism and condemned communism. Three years later, he left power. Youlou disappointed many from the North when he imposed a single party system and imprisoned union leaders in August 1963; this led to the revolution of the "Trois Glorieuses." Charles de Gaulle despised him and France refused to assist him. He resigned in the face of overwhelming opposition to his governance.
context_section_description: Youlou, whose last name means "Grape" in Lari, was born on 9 June 1917 in Madibou in Pool. A younger child in a family of three boys, he was a Lari of the Kongo. At nine years old, he was baptised and received the Christian name Fulbert. In 1929 he entered the Petit Séminaire of Brazzaville. A bright student, he was sent to Akono in Cameroon to complete his secondary studies. After this, he entered the Grand Séminaire of Yaoundé where he did very well in philosophy. Here he met Barthélemy Boganda, the future nationalist leader of Oubangui-Chari and the first prime minister of the Central African Republic autonomous territory, but also Andre-Marie Mbida, Cameroon's first head of state.
  Returning to the country, he taught at the Seminary in Mbamou before travelling to Libreville to complete his theological studies. He completed his final cycle of studies in Brazzaville. Fulbert Youlou was ordained as a priest on 9 June 1946 or in 1949. He was assigned to the parish of Saint-François de Brazzaville where he directed several youth organisations, sporting activities, and Catholic groups. He also covered the general hospital and the prison.
caption: Youlou's home region of Pool.
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