- Blaise Diagne
Blaise Diagne (
October 13 ,1872 -May 11 ,1934 ) was aSenegal ese political leader, the first blackAfrica n elected to theFrench National Assembly , and mayor ofDakar .Early life
From a
serer father and a manjaque mother originating in Guinea-Bissau, Diagne was born inGorée ,Senegal and studied inFrance before joining the French customs service in 1892. He served in Dahomey (modern dayBenin ),French Congo (nowRepublic of the Congo ),Réunion ,Madagascar , andFrench Guiana . In September 1899, while in Réunion, Diagne became a freemason, joining a lodge affiliated with theGrand Orient de France .Political career
Diagne was elected to the French national parliament in 1914 as Senegal's representative. He was reelected several times, serving until his death in 1934. From 1914 to 1917 he caucused with the Marxist-socialist
Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière , forerunner of the French Socialist Party, before affiliating with the Independents led byGeorges Mandel . In 1916 Diagne convinced the French parliament to approve a law (Loi "Blaise Diagne") granting full citizenship to all residents of the so-called Four Communes in Senegal:Dakar ,Gorée , Saint-Louis, andRufisque . This measure constituted a considerable element of the French colonial policy of a "civilizing mission " ("mission civilisatrice"). He was a leading recruiter for the French army duringWorld War I , when thousands of black West Africans fought on the Western Front for France.After the war, Diagne embarked on an administrative career in addition to his responsibilities as a parliamentary deputy. From October 1918 to January 1920 he served as Commissioner General of the Ministry of Colonies with supervision of military personnel from the colonies and workers from France's African possessions. He represented France in the International Labor Office, the secretariat of the
International Labor Organization , in 1930. From January 1931 to February 1932 he was Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, a junior level cabinet position. From 1920 to 1934 he served as mayor of Dakar.He died in
Cambo-les-Bains in 1934.Legacy
He was a pioneer of black African electoral politics and an advocate of equal rights for all, regardless of race. He encouraged African accommodation of French rule and the adoption of French cultural and social norms. Though he was ahead of his time in 1914, by the later years of his life, African colonial politics had passed him by. He continue to advocate an African role in France while most Western-educated African elites embraced African nationalism and worked for eventual independence from the colonial powers.
It is alleged that he was not buried in the Muslim cemetery of Soumbedioune in Dakar because of his freemasonry. However, a large boulevard (Avenue Blaise Diagne) and a high school (Lycée Blaise Diagne) in Dakar were named in his honor, as well as Senegal's new international airport, Blaise Diagne Airport in Ndiass, 52 kilometers outside of Dakar.
His son Raoul was the first black to play professional soccer in France and had great success playing for Racing Club de France in the late 1930s, winning the French title in 1936 and the French cup in 1936, 1939, and 1940.
References
*substantial portions of this article were translated from French language Wikipedia's .
*Johnson, G. Wesley (1971). "The Emergence of Black Politics in Senegal: The Struggle for Power in the Four Communes, 1900–1920". Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ASIN|B000JVYNSA.External links
* (French) [http://www.au-senegal.com/decouvrir/blaisediagne.htm Blaise Diagne, député… et maire de Lourmarin: A family history and interview with his grandson]
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