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Son of a volunteer soldier of the Great War and of a descendant of a famous sailor, Francis Sanford (1912-1996) put his mark on the country with his political ideas and actions.
Francis Sanford is the son of Paul Sanford, engaged in the First World War in 14-18, and Rose Guilloux whose ancester was the first European to settle in the Gambier archipelago. As a child he went to the Catholic school of the Frères Ploërmel in Papeete, then was a school teacher in Arue and Fakarava island, a deputy administrator of the state administrator Marcel Senac, a state administrator in the Gambier archipelago, before aiming at new horizons.
In 1941, he left the island of Rikitea to reach Papeete. Purpose: to join the allied forces engaged in the Second World War of 39-45. But he never went to the front. He decided to remain in Polynesia, for he was convinced that his fellow countrymen needed a man such as him in order to protect them from injustices. He truly embraced his political career in 1959 by serving as project manager in the Office of Governor Pierre Sicaud and then as his chief of staff, at a time where he ruled Polynesia on behalf of the French state.
First elected mayor of Faa'a in 1965, he created the E’a Api no Porinetia party (The new path for Polynesia). He was also elected as deputy at the French parliament for Polynesia in 1967. Assimilated to the parliamentary group of the independent Republicans, he proved himself a staunch opponent of CEP and nuclear testing in Polynesia. Just as Pouvana’a (for whom he obtained the right to return in Polynesia from his exil in France), he opposed the choice of the Territory as a ground for the french nuclear tests. During this historical fight, he matured the idea of an ever greater autonomy for Polynesia. It was he who had the first status of the Territory voted by the National Assembly in 1972 (applied by the 12th of July 1972).
In 1975, as part of discussions on a new status, he co-founded the Front uni pour l’Autonomie interne (United Front for internal Autonomy) along with John Teariki from Here Ai’a party and Frantz Vanizette from Te Autahoeraa party. Resigning from his parliamentary mandate in June 1976, he was triumphantly re-elected in September. The autonomists gained the first ever status of Autonomy, which granted Polynesia an "administrative and financial autonomy", on the 12th of July 1977. Francis Sanford retired from politics in 1985.
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| Unit price: 580 FCFP (4,86 €) |
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