Omar Blondin Diop
Omar Blondin Diop | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1946 |
| Died | 1973 |
Omar Blondin Diop was a revolutionary and artist from Senegal. Born in Niger, he moved between several countries because of his activism. After going to France for university, he joined the Marxist movement in Paris and acted in movies, including two by Jean-Luc Godard.[1] France deported him back to Senegal in 1969 because of his politics.[2]
Diop kept doing activism back in Senegal. He, his brothers, and his friends wanted to have a revolution there, because they felt Leopold Senghor's government helped the French more than it helped Senegalese people and it was neocolonial.[3] Diop started doing theatre in public to promote revolutionary ideas.[4] They got ready to start a guerrilla war against Senegal's government, but they were arrested and sent to prison on an island called Gorée.[5] Diop died in prison in 1973. Many people who knew him, including his family,[6] think he was secretly killed by the government.[5]
Sources
[change | change source]- ↑ Blondin Diop, Omar (1969). "Chelsea Girls". Rouge. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
Omar Diop's encounter with cinema was brief but striking; apart from La Chinoise, he travelled to London where he appeared in Godard's One Plus One (1968) alongside Frankie Y (Frankie Dymon) and other Black Panthers, and also in Simon Hartog's experimental film Soul in a White Room (UK, 1968, 16mm, 3 mins).
- ↑ "Il y a 40 ans, l'activiste de gauche Omar Blondin Diop mourait en détention à Gorée". Agence de Presse Sénégalaise.
- ↑ Bianchini, Pascal (2019). "The 1968 years: revolutionary politics in Senegal". Review of African Political Economy. 46 (160): 184–203. doi:10.1080/03056244.2019.1631150. S2CID 198694215.
- ↑ Meessen, Vincent, ed. (2018). The Other Country / L'autre pays. Sternberg Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN 978-3-95679-402-5.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bobin, Florian (2020-03-18). "Omar Blondin Diop: Seeking Revolution in Senegal". Review of African Political Economy. Archived from the original on 2020-10-02.
- ↑ Ba, Mehdi (2013-05-21). "Sénégal : retour sur la mort d'Omar Blondin Diop, le Normalien subversif qui défiait Senghor". Jeune Afrique (in French). Retrieved 2020-10-31.