François Tombalbaye (1918-1975), prime minister of French-governed Chad (1959-1960) and first president of independent Chad (1960-1975). Raised in southern Chad, he was educated in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo, and was one of the few Chadians to have obtained a secondary education by the end of World War II (1939-1945). While working as a teacher in 1947, Tombalbaye helped organize the Parti Progressiste Tchadien (PPT or Chadian Progressive Party), the Chadian branch of the African Democratic Rally, an interterritorial political party across French West Africa. Tombalbaye's political career prospered after 1952. He was elected to the regional legislature and also began to climb the ranks of the PPT leadership. Tombalbaye represented Chad in the 1957 General Council for French Equatorial Africa and in 1959 he became leader of the PPT and Chad's prime minister. Tombalbaye led Chad to independence in 1960 and became its first president. In his first years in power he worked to isolate and eliminate all political rivals, and in 1962 banned all opposition parties. Tombalbaye ruled in authoritarian fashion, surviving uprisings in southern and eastern Chad, a full-scale rebellion in northern Chad in 1965, border conflicts with Libya, and coup attempts in 1971 and 1972. Tombalbaye's presidency was associated with turning opposition groups against each other, an attempt to promote African cultural practices, and overambitious development projects that achieved less than promised. As part of his program of 'Africanization,' Tombalbaye changed his first name from François to Ngarta in the early 1970s. In a 1975 military coup he was killed in the cross fire between rebels and palace guards.