Kayibanda, Grégoire

views updated

Grégoire Kayibanda (grāgwär´ kīēbän´dā), 1924–76, political leader in Rwanda. A Hutu, he worked as a journalist and later founded the Ruanda (now Rwanda) Cooperative Movement (1952), the Hutu Social Movement (1957), and the Democratic Republican Movement (1959). In 1961 he became president of Rwanda. He was overthrown in an army coup just before the 1973 elections.

More From encyclopedia.com