James Mancham

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President of Seychelles

title: "James Mancham" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1939-births", "2017-deaths", "people-from-victoria,-seychelles", "seychellois-people-of-french-descent", "seychellois-people-of-chinese-descent", "seychellois-roman-catholics", "seychelles-democratic-party-politicians", "presidents-of-seychelles", "prime-ministers-of-seychelles", "ministers-for-foreign-affairs-of-seychelles", "leaders-ousted-by-a-coup", "seychellois-exiles", "seychellois-democracy-activists", "knights-commander-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire"] description: "President of Seychelles" topic_path: "politics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mancham" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary President of Seychelles ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

FieldValue
honorific_prefixSir
nameJames Mancham
honorific_suffixKBE
imageJames Mancham - Official Portrait (cropped) 2.png
captionOfficial portrait, 1976
order1st
officePresident of Seychelles
term_start29 June 1976
term_end5 June 1977
primeministerFrance-Albert René
predecessorOffice established
successorFrance-Albert René
order11st
office1Prime Minister of Seychelles
term_start11 October 1975
term_end128 June 1976
predecessor1Office established
successor1France-Albert René
office2[Chief Minister
of the Crown Colony of Seychelles](prime-minister-of-seychelles)
term_start212 November 1970
term_end21 October 1975
predecessor2Office established
successor2Office abolished
birth_name
birth_date
birth_placeVictoria, British Seychelles
death_date
death_placeGlacis, Seychelles
partySeychelles Democratic Party
spouse{{plainlist
* {{marriageHeather Jean Evans
children3
profession
::

| honorific_prefix = Sir | name = James Mancham | honorific_suffix = KBE | image = James Mancham - Official Portrait (cropped) 2.png | image_size = | alt = | caption = Official portrait, 1976 | order = 1st | office = President of Seychelles | term_start = 29 June 1976 | term_end = 5 June 1977 | primeminister = France-Albert René | predecessor = Office established | successor = France-Albert René | order1 = 1st | office1 = Prime Minister of Seychelles | term_start1 = 1 October 1975 | term_end1 = 28 June 1976 | president1 = | predecessor1 = Office established | successor1 = France-Albert René | office2 = Chief Minister of the Crown Colony of Seychelles | term_start2 = 12 November 1970 | term_end2 = 1 October 1975 | predecessor2 = Office established | successor2 = Office abolished | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Victoria, British Seychelles | death_date = | death_place = Glacis, Seychelles | party = Seychelles Democratic Party | spouse = {{plainlist|

| children = 3 | profession = | alma_mater = | signature = | footnotes =

Sir James Richard Marie Mancham KBE (11 August 1939 – 8 January 2017) was a Seychellois politician who founded the Seychelles Democratic Party and was the first President of Seychelles from 1976 to 1977.

Political career

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/James_Mancham_1961.png" caption="James Mancham in 1961"] ::

James's father, Richard Mancham, a successful businessman, sent James to law school in England. When Britain announced its intention to give independence to the colony, Mancham founded the Democratic Party (S.D.P.), and served as its leader until February 2005. France-Albert René founded an opposition party, the Seychelles People's United Party (S.P.U.P) with the support of the Soviet Union. As Chief Minister of the colony, Mancham promoted tourism to the Seychelles and arranged for the building of the airport that was to make the Seychelles accessible to the rest of the world. Tourism increased and the economy developed. In 1976, he won the popular vote when the British gave the Seychelles independence. Less than a year later, in June 1977, he was deposed in a coup by Prime Minister France-Albert René, who had the support of Tanzanian-trained revolutionaries and Tanzanian-supplied weapons, while Mancham was attending the 1977 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London.

Mancham lived in exile in London until April 1992. During this period, he was financially successful in several international business ventures and married Catherine Olsen, an Australian journalist working in London. When he returned to the Seychelles following the lifting of the ban on opposition, he resumed the promotion of tourism to the tropical islands.

He ran for president in July 1993 and finished second behind René with 36.72% of the vote. In March 1998, he ran again, receiving third place and 13.8% of the vote, behind René and Wavel Ramkalawan.

Personal life and death

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/James_Mancham_1992_mitin.png" caption="James Mancham in 1992"] ::

Mancham was born into a wealthy family, the eldest son of Richard and Evelyn (née Tirant) Mancham. He had Chinese ancestry through his father and French ancestry through his mother.

He married Heather Jean Evans in 1963 and the marriage was dissolved in 1974. One daughter named Caroline and one son named Richard were born from the union. In 1985, he married Australian journalist Catherine Olsen and had one son named Alexander.

Mancham died suddenly on 8 January 2017 of a possible stroke at age 77. He was buried in the State House cemetery next to Seychelles' last French Administrator, Jean-Baptiste Quéau de Quincy.

Other activity

Mancham was the author of a number of books, including Paradise Raped about the June 1977 coup d'état in the Seychelles, War on America: Seen from the Indian Ocean, written after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, his autobiography; Seychelles Global Citizen: The Autobiography of the Founding President, in 2009,; and Seychelles: The Saga of a Small Nation Navigating the Cross-Currents of a Big World, in 2015. Mancham also served on the advisory board of International Journal on World Peace and was a member of the World Future Council.

Awards and honours

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/James_Mancham_2014.jpg" caption="Mancham in 2014"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/James_Mancham_Memorial_Service_Immaculate_Conception_Cathedral.jpg" caption="Memorial service in Immaculate Conception Cathedral, Victoria"] ::

Mancham received the 2010 International Jurist Award at the inauguration of the International Conference of Jurists at the Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, India. Under the theme International Terrorism, the event was jointly organised by the International Council of Jurists, the National Human Rights Commission of India, the All India Bar Association and Indian Council of Jurists. In a welcoming speech, Dr. Adish Aggarwala, President of the International Council of Jurists and Chairman of All India Bar Association, said the award for Mancham was to recognise his role in promoting world peace and the pivotal part he played in helping to settle international disputes.

Mancham was also one of the recipients of the Gusi Peace Prize in 2011.

References

References

  1. (2006-08-16). "The Democratic Party - Peace, Progress, Prosperity".
  2. "Sir James Richard Marie Mancham".
  3. "The life of Seychelles' founding president, James Mancham".
  4. "History of the National Assembly".
  5. (2004-04-14). "Elections in Seychelles".
  6. [https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/opinion-and-analysis/2017-01-15-obituary-sir-james-mancham-deposed-playboy-president-of-indian-ocean-islands-of-love/ Obituary: Sir James Mancham, deposed playboy president of Indian Ocean 'islands of love']
  7. "Passing away of former President Sir James Mancham (KBE) - Archive - Seychelles Nation". [[Seychelles Nation]].
  8. (8 January 2017). "Former Seychelles' president James Mancham dies at residence". Seychelles News Agency.
  9. (8 January 2017). "Seychelles Founding President passed away". ETN Global Travel Industry News.
  10. "Nation Home".
  11. [http://www.paragonhouse.com/Seychelles-Global-Citizen-The-Autobiography-of-the-Founding-President.html] {{Webarchive. link. (5 April 2017 , Paragon House, 2009.)
  12. [http://www.paragonhouse.com/Seychelles-Global-Citizen-The-Autobiography-of-the-Founding-President.html] {{Webarchive. link. (5 April 2017 , Paragon House, 2015.)
  13. (20 June 2011). "Former Seychelles president to receive peace award". ETN Global Travel Industry News.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1939-births2017-deathspeople-from-victoria,-seychellesseychellois-people-of-french-descentseychellois-people-of-chinese-descentseychellois-roman-catholicsseychelles-democratic-party-politicianspresidents-of-seychellesprime-ministers-of-seychellesministers-for-foreign-affairs-of-seychellesleaders-ousted-by-a-coupseychellois-exilesseychellois-democracy-activistsknights-commander-of-the-order-of-the-british-empire