Ahmed Koulamallah

Who was Ahmed Koulamallah?

Ahmed Koulamallah was a prominent politician in Colonial Chad. He was the estranged son of the sultan of Baguirmi and the charismatic leader of the Tijaniyyah Islamic brotherhood in Chad.

He entered in politics founding in 1950 the Independent Socialist Party of Chad, connected to the French Section of the Workers' International, reconstructed as Chadian section of the African Socialist Movement. Koulamallah campaigned in different times and places as a member of the Baguirmi nobility, a radical socialist leader, or a militant Muslim fundamentalist. He picked most of his adherents from the Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem prefectures.

In regards to the main political partes, the conservative Chadian Democratic Union and Chadian Social Action and the progressive Chadian Progressive Party, Koulamallah played a generally disruptive role in the middle.

Defeated in the 1957 elections for the Territorial Assembly, he remained in the opposition until he allied himself in 1959 with Gontchomé Sahoulba forming the Chadian Popular Movement, which following a motion of no confidence presented on February 11, 1959, was instrumental in causing the downfall of Gabriel Lisette and the PPT government.