Through his erudition and his century-long life, Amadou Mahtar M’bow was one of the richest living libraries in West Africa. He died on Tuesday, September 24 in Dakar, where he was born one hundred and three years earlier. An ardent defender of freedoms, Amadou Mahtar M’bow lived a thousand lives that made him the first African Director-General of UNESCO.
Born in March 1921, Amadou Mahtar M’bow grew up in Louga, in northwestern Senegal. In the late 1920s, the region suffered from famine. The boy saw people dying and these images would mark him for life. “You have to have lived through this to understand the anguish”he said. World War II broke out, he was 18 years old.
Amadou Mahtar M’bow joined the air force as a volunteer and was assigned to the Radiotelegraphy School in Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine). In the besieged city, he managed to regularly cross the demarcation line. He was demobilized in 1940 and returned to Senegal, where he worked in the economic service of the Dakar district and dependencies. The war became global and, in January 1943, Amadou Mahtar M’bow was called up to the flag and then posted to the Thiès air base near Dakar. From there, he passed the entrance exam for the Higher School of Aerial Shooting in Agadir, which allowed him to serve, until October 1945, in Morocco and then in France.
Disagreements with Senghor
Thanks in particular to its riflemen, its goumiers and its spahis during the landing in Provence, in which Amadou Mahtar M’bow took part, France was liberated. The young man decided to stay in a bustling Paris where the desire for independence was growing among African students. “One day the gendarmerie came to tell me that I had to return to Senegal to demobilize, declared in Amadou Mahtar M’bow. A life, struggles (Vives Voix Editions, 2019). I told them: to go to war, I am French and to study, I am no longer French. Show off! He passed his baccalaureate and entered the Sorbonne, where he enrolled in History and Geography.
In the intellectual ferment of the Latin Quarter, Amadou Mahtar M’bow became involved in student unionism and campaigned for the immediate independence of the colonies. He returned to Senegal to lead the struggle, interested in education, an essential subject according to him for training the elites of tomorrow. He dedicated fifteen years of his life to teaching.
At the same time, he was involved in politics. On 20 August 1960, when Senegal declared its independence, Leopold Sédar Senghor assumed the presidency of the Republic. After a period in opposition, Amadou Mahtar M’bow was appointed Minister of National Education (1966-1968), then of Culture and Youth (1968-1970) and finally Member of Parliament.
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