Abdou Diouf

Second president of Senegal (born 1935)

Family : Place of birth : Louga ; Date of birth : 7 September 1935 ; Father : A postman

Education : Sent early to his grandmother in Saint-Louis, he attended Qur’anic school around the age of five, entered the Brière-de-l’Isle primary school at seven, then continued at the Lycée Faidherbe. He obtained a law degree in 1958, then graduated top of the École nationale de la France d’outre-mer in 1960.

Action : Prime Minister from February 1970, he succeeded Senghor on 1 January 1981 and held the presidency for nineteen years. In 1981 he allowed unrestricted multi-party politics. He was governor of Sine-Saloum from 1961 to 1962.

Trials : His term was marked by economic and agricultural crises (droughts) and by the conflict in Casamance.

Legacy : Defeated in 2000 by Abdoulaye Wade, he left power after the alternation. He was Secretary General of the International Organisation of La Francophonie from 2003 to 2014. Beaten with 41.51% of the vote in the 2000 run-off, he accepted the result.

Sources

• Persée — compte-rendu de Diop & Diouf, « Le Sénégal sous Abdou Diouf, État et Société » (Politique africaine, 1992)
• Cairn — « Le Sénégal, entre changement politique et révolution passive » (Politique africaine, 2004)
• Cairn — « Le baobab a été déraciné. L’alternance au Sénégal » (Politique africaine, 2000)
• OpenEdition — S. M. Sy, Les régimes politiques sénégalais de l’indépendance à l’alternance (compte rendu)
• Wikipédia — Abdou Diouf

Transition — Abdou Diouf and Senghor at the Académie française