Momar Coumba Diop – the knowledge activist in Dakar

In a celebration of the work and life of Momar Coumba Diop, friend, neighbour and collaborator, Pascal Bianchini marks the life of a deeply principled Senegalese scholar who paved the way for an independent system of knowledge production in Senegal and beyond, that could include scholars from every continent. Generous, thoughtful, and deeply inquisitive, Momar told the story of Senegalese society, history, and culture subject to internal pressures from social movements and external constraints from structural adjustment and global forces.

By Pascal Bianchini

On 7 July, Momar Coumba Diop passed away in a hospital in Paris. Momar was born in 1950, in Ouarkhokh in the region of Louga. After attending a primary school in his home region, he became a secondary student at the Lycée Blaise Diagne in Dakar. In 1971, he went to the University of Dakar and was enrolled in the Philosophy department. Afterwards, in 1976, he went to Lyons in France to study for a Ph.D. which he obtained in 1980. The title of his dissertation was: The Mouride Brotherhood. Political Organization and Method of Implantation in Urban Areas. Back in Senegal, after working for a short period at the Social and Economic Council, he was recruited by the University of Dakar in 1981 as a lecturer. In 1987, after difficult surgery, he was no longer able to give lectures and found a position as a researcher at IFAN (Institut fondamental d’Afrique noire). He officially retired from IFAN in December 2015.

Regarding his own contribution to social sciences in Senegal, everyone agrees that Momar was a prolific scholar. He has been able to pinpoint new and important issues, he gathered data from serious fieldwork while having a good knowledge of the existing literature. For instance, in his PhD, he showed that the dynamic process of the extension of Muridism (one of the two main Muslim groupings in Senegal along with the Tidianes)  was not only effective in the groundnut basin around Touba (as shown by Jean Copans or Donal Cruise O’Brien) but also reached Dakar and other large cities, especially through associations called dahiras, attracting people with prayers sessions and religious conferences.

Then during the 1980’s, Momar carried out an inquiry among the workers at the CSS (Compagnie sucrière sénégalaise), one of the larger factories in Senegal. This fieldwork was a part of a project launched by Copans on the working classes in Africa. Momar’s work was also relevant and innovative when he studied and publish on the student movement in Senegal. Then, with his friend, Mamadou Diouf, the Senegalese historian who is now at Columbia in the United States, he published the groundbreaking volume, The Senegal under Abdou Diouf (1990). The volume was a detailed analysis of the succession in power from Senghor to Diouf, taking into account concepts already in use (clientelism, passive revolution, etc). It was an accurate description of the political process in Senegal, subject to internal pressures from social movements and to external constraints from structural adjustment. The publication of the volume was a landmark event for the social sciences in Senegal, proving that – from now on – Senegalese scholars were able to assume a leading role in knowledge production.

A confirmation of this step forward was to be found in the next volume edited by Momar, Senegal: Trajectories of a state (1994). Then, for about two decades, Momar, as an editor (or co-editor) was able to publish about a dozen or so books. This great contribution to Senegalese social sciences would be too long to mention in detail but I can just give an idea of the various subjects dealt with: Senegalese politics, economic policies, cultural policies, international relations, trade unions, associations, information, education, transports, social movements etc.

Momar will be remembered as a rigorous and patient conductor of a collective symphony gathering sociologists, historians, economists, jurists, philosophers or even journalists. At the end of his life, he was still working on a new version of a volume published in 1995, Senegal and its neighbours. He was also working on another important work on the history of the University of Dakar. Unfortunately, one may fear that these two projects will remain unfinished works.

Momar can be defined as a knowledge activist, a kind of Senegalese Diderot – the Enlightenment philosopher, critic, and writer – as he has been described in the press where various tributes were paid to him in recent days. He gave his life for the sake of Senegalese and African social sciences. Momar was not a vocal ideological activist. He was wary of politicians and reluctant to add his name to a petition. His commitment was different. It was mostly intellectual: his major concern was to pave the way for an independent system of knowledge production in Senegal and beyond in Africa but that could include scholars from every continent.

However, in particular circumstances, Momar took on political responsibilities, as was the case in 2008, when he played a key role during the Assises nationales (National Conference) that intended to recast Senegalese institutions to enhance democratization and accountability, as a reaction to the authoritarian drift of President Wade’s regime. He had also close friends among the Marxist intelligentsia, for instance, Amady Aly Dieng (1932-2015) or Abdoulaye Bathily.

I met Momar in 1994 after having read a chapter he had written about the student movement published in Senegal: Trajectoires d’un Etat. He provided me with documentation on this topic for my own research. Later on, he asked me to write a chapter on the student movement for one of his edited volumes, Senegal between the local and the global (2002). This personal anecdote epitomizes Momar’s approach. Despite his fame, he remained a modest person.

Thanks to his extended networks, he was able to set-up research programs, in particular Senegal 2000, or scientific institutions such as CREPOS (Research Center for Social policies) yet his personal career was the last thing in his agenda. Fleeing society events, he was nevertheless always elegantly dressed in local style. During the last years, as we were neighbours in the district of Mamelles, in the north of Dakar, where we often had the opportunity to get together. However, even though I knew he had health problems, his death surprised me because he rarely raised these issues in our conversations. I will always remember Momar as a kind man, punctual when giving you an appointment, greeting you with a large smile that was both benevolent and mischievous.

Pascal Bianchini is an independent scholar, researcher and activist based in Senegal. He has written extensively on social movements, protest, class and schooling in Africa. He is co-editor of the volume, Revolutionary movements in Africa: an untold story (Pluto Press, London: 2024). 

Featured Photograph: The photographs in this blog come from a book that paid tribute to Momar-Coumba Diop (Barry Boubacar, Thioub Ibrahima, Ndiaye Alfred et al., Comprendre le Sénégal et l’Afrique aujourd’hui. Mélanges offerts à Momar-Coumba Diop. Karthala, 2023).