2023-10-29 10:44:06
Is the truth regarding the death of Omar Blondin Diop still possible? Fifty years following his death, on May 11, 1973, on the island of Gorée, in Senegal, the official theory of suicide seems more fragile than ever.
Young philosopher, first Senegalese admitted to Normale-Sup in Paris, co-founder alongside Daniel Cohn-Bendit of the March 22 Movement, which launched May 1968, and activist trained in armed struggle, Omar Blondin Diop left his mark on the 1960s. The conditions of his death, in detention, have never been clarified. The government claimed at the time that it had “committed suicide by hanging”which was confirmed by the autopsy published by the daily The sun. But those close to Omar Blondin Diop, doctors and a judge never believed it.
In September 2023, Radio France Internationale (RFI) broadcasts a podcast in five episodes devoted to the intellectual “Omar Blondin Diop – Rather death than slavery”. Former audiovisual advisor to Léopold Sedar Senghor, Jean-Pierre Biondi breaks a half-century of silence: “The version I always heard is that Omar fell following a fight with his guards. This is the version that was circulating in the presidency, remembers the former journalist and left-wing activist. (…) Yes, it was a state lie”.
What happened on May 11, 1973? Documents, testimonies and previously unpublished 3D modeling now highlight the flaws in the official thesis. An investigation of “World Africa”.
Among the sources and images used in this video:
– Autopsy reports
– Press articles and photographs from the period
– Gorée prison handrail register
– Interviews with witnesses
– Omar Blondin Diop, a Senegalese rebeldocumentary by Djeydi Djigo
– See ourselves from the outside. Political reflections of Omar Blondin Diop (1967-1970)by Florian Bobin
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