1. Blaise Diagne was a French Senegalese politician who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1914 to 1934, representing the Four Communes of French Senegal.
18 Facts About Blaise Diagne
1. 2.
Blaise Diagne was the first person of full West African to be elected to the Chamber of Deputies and the first to hold a position in the French government.
3.
Blaise Diagne was adopted as a child by the Crespin family who were of mixed race origin from Goree and Saint-Louis, and Christians.
4.
Blaise Diagne studied in France before joining the French customs service in 1892.
5.
Blaise Diagne served in Dahomey, French Congo, Reunion, Madagascar, and French Guiana.
6.
In September 1899, while in Reunion, Blaise Diagne became a freemason, joining a lodge affiliated with the Grand Orient de France.
7.
Blaise Diagne was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of France on 10 May 1914 as the representative for the Four Communes.
8.
When he took office, he was the first person of full African descent to be elected, though he had been preceded by two mixed-race deputies During World War I, Blaise Diagne helped the French to conscript Senegalese citizens into the regular French Army.
9.
Blaise Diagne was reelected several times, serving until his death in 1934.
10.
In 1916 Blaise Diagne convinced the French parliament to approve a law granting full citizenship to all residents of the so-called Four Communes in Senegal: Dakar, Goree, Saint-Louis, and Rufisque.
11.
Blaise Diagne was a leading recruiter for the French army during World War I, when thousands of black West Africans fought on the Western Front for France.
12.
Blaise Diagne represented France in the International Labor Office, the secretariat of the International Labour Organization, in 1930.
13.
Blaise Diagne was a pioneer of African electoral politics and an advocate of equal rights for all, regardless of race.
14.
Blaise Diagne encouraged African accommodation of French rule and the adoption of French cultural and social norms.
15.
Blaise Diagne continued 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.
16.
Blaise Diagne's like-named grandson was born in Paris in 1954 to his son Adolphe.
17.
The younger Blaise Diagne became mayor of the French village of Lourmarin in the Luberon mountains of Provence in 2001 and was reelected in 2008.
18.
When interviewed in 2005, the younger Blaise Diagne said he had not traveled to Senegal since 1960 and thought he "has nothing to bring there".