"Blaise-Diagne (October 13,1872-May 11,1934)

Galaye M'baye Diagne,the first African elected at the French National Assembly and to obtain a post in the French government,born on Goree Island,Senegal.His daddy,Niokhor Diagne,was a cook,and his mama,
Gnagna Anthony Preira, a servant.While still very young,Blaise was 
placed in various Methis (mixed race) families, and finally adopted 
by a wealthy Christian Metis, Adolphe Crespin, who renamed him 
Blaise.Adolphe sent him to the Brother of Ploemel School for his primary 
 education.A brilliant pupil,Blaise pursued his secondary education in 
Aix-en-Provence,French.He passed the French Customs Service entrance 
examination in Senegal in 1891.

As a customs agent,Blaise was assigned throughout the French empire.His 
first post in 1892 was in Dahomey.Between 1896 & 1914 he served in Dakar,
the FrenchCongo,the island of  Reunion,Madagascar,and finally French 
Guyana.Blaise often criticized oppression and discrimination of the black 
population in the colonies during his career as a customs agent.

After returning to Senegal by 1914,Blaise immediately got involved in politics 
and ran for a seat in the French National Assembly in Paris.Campaigning for
African rights and improved work conditions,Blaise defeated the metis attroney Francois Carpot on May 10,1914.As a deputy during World War I, he 
sponsored a law which gave full French citizenship to the inhabitants of the 
Four Communes (four costal communities) of Senegal.The measure,which 
also included the thousands of African men then fighting in Northeastern 
France against the invading German army,passed in 1916.In the same year 
French Prime Minister Clemenceau nominated Blaise to be General Governor 
for recruitment of soldiers in French West Africa.Blaise accepted the post after negotiating guaranties concering soldiers' conditions.

In 1919,Blaise created the Republican Socialist Party,which won control of local governments in the Four Communes.He also founded a newspaper 
called La Democratie and later renamed L'Ouest African Francais.

By 1923,Blaise concluded a commercial agreement with French firms that held Sengalese business.Blaise also defended force labor and assimilation 
before the International Labor Organization in 1930 and was,later on in 1931,
appointed Deputy Minister of the Colonies in the French government.By this 
point he had become a stanch supporter of French rule in West Africa.

Constantly reelected Deputy at the French Assembly,Blaise died of  tuberculosis at Cambo-les Bains,in the French Pyrennees Mountains.