Lambert Amon Tanoh

Lambert Amon Tanoh (14 November 1926 – 13 January 2022) was an Ivorian teacher, labor leader, and politician who served as the ambassador to Algeria.

Tanoh (center) at signing of the Yaoundé I Convention, 1963

Biography

Born in French Ivory Coast, French West Africa, France, Tanoh formed his first political party in 1944 with a group of young planters.^[1] He studied at a teacher's college in Katibougou Teacher's College in Mali.^[2] His teaching career began at a Bingerville school for boys.^[2] In 1959 he became Secretary General of the labor union Union des Travailleurs de Côte d'Ivoire.^[2] The Ivory Coast government wanted labor unions to be under local control, so Tanoh led the breakaway movement, the Union Nationale des Travailleurs de Côte d'Ivoire.^[2]

He subsequently became an executive member of the Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire.^[3] and was elected to the National Assembly.^[2] He became Minister of Education in Côte d'Ivoire in 1963^[3] under President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, a position held until 1970.^[2] In 1983 he was appointed the Ivory Coast ambassador to Algeria.^[2]

Tanoh died from COVID-19 on 13 January 2022, at the age of 95.^[4]