Africa: Passing of Amadou Mahtar M’Bow: First African to Lead an International Organisation (Unesco)

Paris — The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, expressed her deep sorrow at the news of the death of Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, former Director-General of UNESCO (1974-1987) and the first African to lead an international organisation.

“A profound humanist and all-round intellectual, Amadou Mahtar M’Bow left a lasting impression on our institution by forcefully defending the need for solidarity and equal dignity between peoples and cultures”, said Audrey Azoulay. “Throughout the independence movements, he also strove to ensure that every State found its rightful place at UNESCO, giving substance and reality to the ambition of multilateralism. In particular, we owe to him the monumental scientific work that is the General History of Africa, which gave the world, and more specifically Africans, a means of appropriating their own history and facing the future with confidence”, she added, extending her condolences to “his family, his friends and the many, at UNESCO and elsewhere, who saw in him a model for both thought and action.”

Born in Dakar in 1921, Amadou Mahtar M’Bow was the Minister for Education, Culture and Youth of Senegal, participating actively in his country’s political life, and was the Director-General of UNESCO for 13 years. “The path that led the small farmer from the African Sahel to the head of one of the United Nations’ most prestigious organisations is representative of the emergence of a world that had long been subjugated, despised or even ignored: that of the dispossessed”, wrote the journalist and future diplomat Pierre Kalfon when Mr M’Bow was elected to the post of Director-General.

The young Amadou was admitted to the French Colonial School, after first attending classes in a Koranic school, then enrolled in the ‘commerce course’ at the Dakar Chamber of Commerce before passing the competitive examination to become a clerk in the colonial administration. In 1940 he volunteered for service in France, but returned to Senegal after the French defeat. Four years later, he took part in the Provence landings and participated in the liberation of France.

After studying history at the Sorbonne, young professor M’Bow returned to Senegal in 1951 and taught for two years before being tasked with creating and leading primary education in Senegal and Mauritania. After being appointed Minister for Education and Culture during the period of internal autonomy (1957- 1958), he resigned from his position to join the fight for independence. Once Senegal gained independence, he became Minister of National Education (1966-1968), then of Culture and Youth (1968- 1970) and a member of the National Assembly.

Appointed Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO in 1970, he was elected Director- General in 1974, a post he held until 1987 after being re-elected in 1980. His work at the head of UNESCO centred around two main priorities: promoting consensus as a means of collective decision-making within UNESCO, and defending the independence of international civil servants.

Amadou Mahtar M’Bow expressed his “deep held belief that the world is one, and that the struggle for human rights is the same in all places”. He believed that “humanity has an obligation to live in the age of solidarity, if it does not want to experience the age of barbarism”.

Amadou Mahtar M’Bow also argued forcefully in favour of a ‘New World Order of Information and Communication’ – since at the time international news was provided exclusively by five major press agencies, all based in Europe and North America, with the resulting news flowing essentially from North to South.

The M’Bow era was marked by long-lasting initiatives such as the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) created in 1981; the World Heritage Committee, set up by the 1972 World Heritage Convention and established in 1976, which played a major role in elevating UNESCO’s reputation; and two years later, the Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin or its Restitution in Case of Illicit Appropriation.

It was also under Amadou Mahtar M’Bow’s mandate that the first biosphere reserves were designated: protected areas recognised by UNESCO as model regions that reconciled biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

Read more :

• UNESCO Courrier: Amadou Mahtar M’Bow, sixth Director-General of UNESCO : from a village in the African Sahel to the head of a major international organisation
• Amadou M. M’Bow – Election of the Director-General of UNESCO, 1974
• Oral Archives of the World Heritage Convention : Interview with Amadou Mahtar M’Bow

About UNESCO
With 194 Member States, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization contributes to peace and security by leading multilateral cooperation on education, science, culture, communication and information. Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO has offices in 54 countries and employs over 2300 people. UNESCO oversees more than 2000 World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks; networks of Creative, Learning, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities; and over 13 000 associated schools, university chairs, training and research institutions. Its Director-General is Audrey Azoulay.

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed” – UNESCO Constitution, 1945.