In Senegal, from the reformist left to the liberal movement, the political class was formed in the Maoist school

It is an unwritten rule of Senegalese political life. For two decades, there has always been a former Maoist in the highest echelons of power. Macky Sall, president from 2012 to 2024, was involved in this movement as a high school student in Kaolack. His brother Aliou Sall, also a prominent politician, was a staunch activist. Today, Madièye Mbodj, a historical “Mao”, is an advisor to the new president Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is making his first trip to China on the occasion of the China-Africa cooperation forum organised from 4 to 6 September. An entire generation of Senegalese politicians, artists and intellectuals passed through Maoism.

At a time when China is reasserting its African ambitions, the presence of former readers of the Little Red Book in various management positions does not explain the good relations between Dakar and Beijing. But a former activist speaks on condition of anonymity: “ There were many former revolutionaries in the government when Sino-Senegal relations were restored in 2005. The then Foreign Minister, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, was a former Mao. When you meet a Chinese communist, you quickly understand them, you know this culture. »

The sociologist Mamadou “Mao” Wane, a septuagenarian, a joker and a cultured man, has both good and bad memories of his years of activism. The bad: three prison terms punishing his activism. Among the good: this clandestine congress in 1972, held in a casuarina forest on a beach not far from Dakar. Mr. “Mao” Wane keeps his nickname during his regular appearances in the Senegalese media to comment on current events. He owes this nickname to his reading aloud of Mao Zedong’s Little Red Book.

Issa Samb alias “Joe Ouakam”, one of the most famous Senegalese contemporary artists who died in 2017, says: “He secretly brought copies of the book from Mauritania as he crossed the river between the two countries.” In Senegal, under Léopold Sédar Senghor from 1960 to 1980, the mere possession of the Chinese leader’s set of thoughts could cause problems with the police. Yet hundreds of young people are embracing the Marxist ideas popular around the world.

In Senegal, it is Mao who speaks most to young people: the Chinese leader has the merit of writing about agrarian economies and neocolonialism. Following the demonstrations and riots of May 1968 in Dakar, the first Maoist organisation, the Marxist-Leninist Youth Movement (MJML), was born in the early 1970s.

A school of intellectual and political training

The movement quickly attracted hundreds of young people thanks to its cultural activities: theatre, reading clubs, etc. The activism of a red “cultural front” allowed it to take root in universities. Famous artists, such as the musician Baaba Maal, subsequently interacted with this radical universe.
The Mao tendency is a school of intellectual and political training. El Hadj Kassé, a former Maoist, writer and former advisor to outgoing President Macky Sall, explains: “Every activist had to be “red and technical.” We read treatises on economics, hard sciences, engineering… We translated specialized texts into Wolof to read them in work groups…”

Brilliant minds are not rare in the so-called “quasi-Chinese” galaxy. This is the case of Senegal’s most famous subversive figure, Omar Blondin Diop, who died in 1973 in circumstances that are still unclear while imprisoned on the island of Gorée. This young man who passed through the MJML, tempted by armed struggle, was a former student of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, an intellectual noticed by Jean-Luc Godard who made him play his own role in his film. The Chinese.

The movement demands a lot from its followers. Repression is harsh. “The simple distribution of the newspaper Xare Bi [“La lutte” en wolof] I could send you to detention”Mr. Kassé recalls. High school students and students following the precepts of “the siege of cities by the countryside” and of “the mass line” leave the cities for “establish”according to the popular term, in peasant villages. “Some stayed there all their lives”Mr. “Mao” Wane laughs.

“Important actors in the democratic transition”

Whatever path they chose, Former supporters of the movement emphasise the way it marked modern Senegal. In its time, it fuelled intellectual debate. The young revolutionaries argued with Cheikh Anta Diop, undoubtedly the most famous intellectual in West Africa. Senghor was not content with violently repressing them; he tried to respond by signing texts on Karl Marx and socialism.

On many issues, the pro-Chinese are pioneers. The pioneering feminist organisation Yewwu Yewi (“Become aware and free yourself” in Wolof) was born in their ranks in the 1980s. With their radical anti-imperialist upbringing, it is always former Maoists who lead the debates on economic orientations and development. From Senegal, such as the economist Demba Moussa Dembele, assassin of the CFA franc, or Alioune Sall, known as “Paloma”, who moved from the Palestinian training camps to the profession of international consultant.

“The Maoists were important actors in the democratic transitionrecalls, on condition of anonymity, a former minister who worked on the far left. In the late 1970s, some joined the pan-Africanist organization led by Cheikh Anta Diop, the National Democratic Rally, which helped pressure President Senghor to move Senegal to a multiparty system.

In the 1980s, parties were legalised. This is the case of the Maoist group And Jëf (Act Together in Wolof). Its leader, Landing Savané, brought together several left-wing groups through his organisation. “Convinced that the time had come to participate in the alternation, he supported the liberal candidate Abdoulaye Wade in the 2000 presidential elections”The same source continues. Within a heterogeneous coalition, Savané is helping Wade to beat Abdou Diouf, Senghor’s successor, at the polls and to turn the page on decades of omnipotence by the Socialist Party.

Savané will become a minister under Wade’s government, as will other former Maoists. The era of radical agitation is over. Some join the reformist left, others the liberal parties. Some continue to make more critical speeches. Sometimes there is criticism among them. But many maintain good relations. “There is esteem and respect between us despite our differences, because of this time we shared.”Kassé stresses. The latter, despite his divergent choices, is now happily rereading the texts of his former colleague Alioune Sall “Paloma”, who has remained much further to the left.