The great historian Iba Der Thiam is gone

In Senegal, “a baobab collapsed”. University professor, politician and trade unionist Iba Der Thiam died on Saturday, October 31, at the age of 83, from illness at the main hospital in Dakar. “Professor Iba Der Thiam has recently been in hospital several times. That of yesterday (Saturday evening) was fatal to him ”, later confirmed a member of his entourage. He was buried in Dakar on Sunday afternoon.

Tributes to a committed man

The Senegalese world of letters and culture, and well beyond, is therefore in mourning, the orphan of a historian and politician committed to his country. Throughout his life, he made his own the fight for an Africa in search of real political, social and cultural independence. Iba Der Thiam has trained generations of historians.

In a tweet, President Macky Sall refers to a “historian of world renown”. “Emeritus professor and radical humanist, Iba Der Thiam is a capital figure of contemporary Senegal. A lucid patriot, he directed with passion the current drafting of the General History of Senegal, wrote President Sall. His Burkinabé counterpart paid tribute on Twitter to the trade unionist, politician and parliamentarian “who made” a significant contribution to the building of democracy in Senegal.

“The disappearance of Professor Iba Der Thiam leaves a great void. In Senegal and Africa, it will have marked a generation of students and historians. He will leave the most precious of gifts: the reappropriation of national history. A big thank you for that, ”wrote a user on Twitter.

Speaking on Twitter, the king of mbalakh, Youssou N’Dour writes: “Senegal has just lost the Father of the New School, one of the biggest reforms of the Senegalese education system. ”

An exceptional career for a committed man

Born in 1937 in Kaffrine, in the center of Senegal, agrégé in Modern and Contemporary History, Doctor of Letters from Paris-1-Sorbonne University, Iba Der Thiam taught at Cheikh-Anta-Diop-de-Dakar University from the beginning of the 1980s until his retirement in 2006. At the same time, he was part of the Unesco committee for the drafting of the General History of Africa. His CV is rich in other titles such as the Senegalese and French Academic Palms, Officer of the National Order of the Lion, Commander of the French Order of Merit, Commander of the Order of La Francophonie and Doctor Honoris causa from the University. Besançon in Paris.

Otherwise, Iba Der Thiam has also played an important role in Senegal’s political life. Minister of National Education (1983-1988), Iba Der Thiam was an unsuccessful candidate for the 1993 presidential election and several times a member of the National Assembly. Many personalities expressed their emotion and paid tribute to Professor Iba Der Thiam, for his patriotism and his rich academic, political and trade union career.

The profession at work to the end

Since 2013, Iba Der Thiam headed the committee for the still ongoing drafting of the General History of Senegal, a project aimed at “decolonizing” the vision of the past of this former French colony in West Africa. But after the publication at the end of 2019 of a volume relating in particular to the XIX^e century, the committee, which has received public subsidies, has been the target of much criticism. Muslim brotherhoods as well as certain communities in the country felt that this work did not correctly reflect their role and their action in the history of the country. The deceased had undertaken to integrate these criticisms in a future edition. A work of capital memory for the future of Senegal that he will let young historians complete.