Joseph Cimpaye dating history

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Joseph Cimpaye (1929 – c.May 1972) was a Burundian politician and writer. Born into an educated family from the Hutu ethnic group, Cimpaye acquired the reputation as a leading intellectual and became involved in politics in Burundi which was then under Belgian rule. His position in the minor conservative Christian Democratic Party (Parti démocratique chrétien, PDC) opposed to the more popular anti-colonial Union for National Progress (Union pour le Progres national, UPRONA) led to his rise to the role of prime minister in 1961 before UPRONA was decisively returned in the country's first elections ahead of Burundi's independence in July 1962. He left politics but was arrested under the regime of Michel Micombero in 1969. While imprisoned, he wrote L'Homme de ma colline which has been acclaimed as the first Burundian novel but which remained unpublished in his lifetime. He was among a number of influential Hutus killed in the genocidal violence of 1972 instigated by the Micombero regime.