Danièle Obono

Obono was born on 12 July 1980 in Libreville, Gabon[1] to a prominent Gabonese family.[3] She is the daughter of Hortense Simbou Mbadinga, a secretary at Air Gabon; and Martin Edzodzomo-Ela, an economist who was a senior executive at the Paribas-Gabon bank from 1975 to 1979 before he was dismissed for his opposition to the regime of Omar Bongo,[4] who was also a candidate in the Gabonese presidential election of 1998.[5][6] She lived in Gabon until she was about ten years old, before she attended university in Montpellier.[3] She became a naturalised French citizen in 2011.[7]

After graduating from university, Obono became a librarian in Paris.[8] In 2002, she obtained a master's degree in history at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, studying the economic relationship between France and Gabon during the second half of the 20th century under the supervision of Jacques Marseille.[9] In 2003, she started a doctoral programme in political science at the Institut des mondes africains, focusing on social and democratic movements in Nigeria, though she began her political career before completing that degree.[3]

Following the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, Obono was at the centre of a controversy after she stated she would "not cry", deeming the weekly newspaper's cartoons "racist".[10]

A member of La France Insoumise, Obono was elected to the National Assembly for the 17th constituency of Paris in the legislative election of 2017.[11][12] She was a spokesperson for La France Insoumise under the leadership Jean-Luc Mélenchon, together with Alexis Corbière.[13]

In the legislature, Obono has served on the Committee on Legal Affairs, the Committee on European Affairs and the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[14][15][16]

In November 2017, she was involved in another controversy after she defended union meetings in Seine-Saint-Denis that were closed to white people. After the government announced it would sue the organisers, Obono had an altercation with Mélenchon in the National Assembly, following his support of the government on this matter.[17]

In August 2020, the right-wing French magazine Valeurs actuelles published a seven-page fantasy story and illustrations of Obono as a slave in chains facing the sunset, shackled beside a fire, under the title "summer fantasy story", prompting an outcry from politicians of various parties.[18]

Questioned about Hamas following the terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023, Danielle Obono, told French radio Sud Radio on 17 october that "yes, Hamas is a resistance movement. It's an Islamist political group that has an armed wing, and is resisting Israel », refusing to qualify it a terrorist organization.