Amadou Makhtar Mbow, who celebrated his 103rd birthday on March 20, has had several hectic lives. Minister, Director General of UNESCO, President of the CNRI, of the National Conference, politician, this living legend has never visited the Tarpeian Rock, because he has always put his energy into noble causes.

Amadou Makhtar Mbow is a mortal: he died yesterday at the age of 103, after having crossed eras and generations. Yet, he will remain eternal as shown by his longevity in the service of his country. He is the last greatest witness of the modern political history of Senegal. The last of the 10 ministers of the first government of the country established on May 20, 1957. The last founding father of Senegal alive after the deaths of Senghor, Dia, Abdoulaye Ly, who, amongst others, were the beams of a Senegalese Nation under construction. He accompanied the nation to adulthood by putting his expertise, experience and love at its service.

On March 20, 2021, he celebrated his 100th birthday. A century filled with battles, celebrated victories, and some losses. The essential thing is elsewhere: he is a man who never failed to focus the course of his commitment on the issues essential to human development. At the twilight of his life (87 years old), he was the driving force of his country. Coordinator of the National Conferences of which he was the moral guarantor, president of the National Commission for Institutional Reform (CNRI), Mr. Mbow offered his experience and professional skills to his country.

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On the other hand, he may have a taste of ashes in his mouth when he glances at these documents that were supposed to propel his country into another era. Obviously, his responsibility will not be engaged. The national elite who pulled him out of his peaceful retirement to entrust him with this colossal work decided to abandon its results in the drawers of their offices.  Revolutionary! But the ruling class decided to maintain the current status quo to further polish its power, crushing a population. 60 years after independence, it is subject to the diktat of a political regime whose functioning is outdated and oppressive. What a disappointment! During the celebration of his 90th birthday, Mbow recalled that « solitary management must be banned ». He insisted on the promotion of « good governance, which involves everyone to achieve emergence ». That day, spoke on issues that are still current: « We must no longer accept that our lands are given to foreigners from elsewhere, while the beneficiaries remain here to watch them do it.

“We must no longer accept that others come and take our wealth, use it to the detriment of our People. The new authorities must think about providing the populations with the means so that they can cultivate these lands for sustainable development.” His life is a message of optimism. “You should never think that some people have reached heights that you will never be able to reach. Only work pays off, » he said, in reference to his journey whilst encouraging young people to push their limits.  “Nothing is a foregone conclusion in life and young people should always give their best to become great personalities and better serve their country. With willpower, consistency and patience, one can achieve anything, and young people must know that if they strive to always work to reach the highest level of knowledge, they will succeed. Westerners never believed that one day a black person or even a Senegalese would supplant them. They thought they would continue to dominate, but today it is the opposite,” advised the patriarch.

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Throughout his existence, Amadou Makhtar Mbow was fuelled by an overflowing energy of reform initiatives. At UNESCO, he had to be resilient to withstand the pressures of the great powers. He knew the house where he was appointed Deputy Director-General for Education in 1970. Then, elected in 1974 and re-elected in 1980, he was Director-General of the institution from 1974 to 1987.  A reformer at UNESCO, Mbow oversaw the work of the secretariat for the World Heritage Convention as director and received the first ratifications that brought the convention into force and saw the first sites inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978. In a bipolar world, he must have been guided by the common interest to dare to cause such upheaval.

A Living Treasure 

This situation did not please the United States, irritated by the functioning of the UN institution. The reproaches were structural, personal and political. The confrontation between Washington and the governing bodies of UNESCO, supported by Third World countries and the USSR, was tough. Considering UNESCO as « a nest of communists », the USA denounced clientelism rather than competence and merit in the choice of men, honorary expenses, maintaining that 80% of the budget was absorbed by the Paris Headquarters. These fears increased due to the establishment of the New World Information and Communication Order (Nomic). Under Mbow’s leadership, the commission headed by Seán MacBride delivered a report entitled Many Voices, One World, which presented recommendations for establishing a new, more equitable world order of information and communication after having « identified problems in international communication structures, including an imbalance in information flows, access to them and their control ». While the instrument suggested an alternative to « Western domination of information », its detractors, particularly the Americans and the English, denounced a way of controlling the press and freedom of expression.

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Obviously, positions remain fixed: The Director-General of UNESCO, Amadou Makhtar Mbow, was considered « as the incarnation of all these defects of form and substance. » He defended himself energetically: in the response he made to the American Secretary of State on January 18, 1984, he said: « Despite the current difficulties of the world, and one could say because of these difficulties, the role of UNESCO and the tasks it accomplishes are essential for the entire international community. In this period of great change, where profound changes are affecting and will increasingly affect the lives of all societies, it seems vital for humanity to have a forum for consultation and action where all those who think and act in UNESCO’s fields of competence can engage in dialogue, establish joint programmes and implement them. »

He added: « The organization has tried to fulfil this mission in the interest of the educational, scientific and cultural communities with which it cooperates, and in that of the vast majority of its member states, despite the weakness of the means at its disposal. » Washington left UNESCO, freezing its funding to force a pretentious and ambitious « third-worldist » capitulation.

Mbow fought his battle by throwing all his strength into the success of the reforms undertaken. At the same time, he lost many feathers. Under pressure, Amadou Makhtar Mbow left the head of UNESCO a few years later, after most of the major powers had to give in to American blackmail. More than 30 years later, Lawyer Abdoulaye Wade engaged in a fight that did not have the same resonance, but had the same objective: reducing the digital divide. So many fights that obtuse minds or those attracted by their personal glory would never have engaged in.

Military and academic background

At the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Nomic had the same echo as the General History of Africa project to remedy the widespread ignorance about the continent’s past. It is an 8-volume project carried out by more than 230 historians and other specialists for more than 35 years. It is coordinated by Burkinabe Joseph Ki-Zerbo, who fights for the same values. Through this scientific production, Africa had to rewrite its own history. Which has nothing to do with the truth of the colonizers who plundered the continent and wrote its history according to their own reading grids.

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Born on March 20, 1921 in Dakar, Amadou Makhtar Mbow was just a kid destined to join the William Ponty school. Like most young executives in training during the colonial era, he was predestined to become a teacher. Mr. Mbow did not follow this path that he would later take. At 18, he was enlisted into the French Army to take part in the Second World War. He was recruited by the Air Force as a volunteer in March 1940. After 8 months, he was demobilized, before resuming his military uniform in January 1943.

At the end of this conflict, he decided to pursue studies in aeronautical engineering in France. Ambitious and a « hard » worker, he obtained his literary Baccalaureate. He enrolled at the Sorbonne where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in teaching literature. Mr. Mbow returned to Africa where he taught history and geography at the Rosso College in Mauritania, at the legendary Lycée Faidherbe in Saint-Louis, then at the Ecole Normal Superior in Dakar. An activist for the independence of Senegal, a founding member of Pra-Senegal, he became Minister of National Education (1966-1968), then of Culture and Youth (1968-1970). He was then elected deputy to the Executive Council in 1966 and to the Municipal Council of Saint-Louis.

Today, this country is losing a compass that indicates the path to take in a country caught in a political whirlwind. He left without a hitch.

By Bocar SAKHO / bsakho@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH