Portal:Senegal/Selected biography/16

Blaise Diagne (13 October 1872 – 11 May 1934) was a Senegalese-French political leader and mayor of Dakar. He was the first black African elected to the French Chamber of Deputies, and the first to hold a position in the French government.

Born in Gorée to a Senegalese Lebu father — Niokhor Diagne — a cook and sailor, and a Manjack mother of Guinea-Bissau origin — Gnagna Anthony Preira. Diagne was adopted as a child by the Crespin family who were of mixed race origin from Gorée and St. Louis, and Christians. They baptised him as "Blaise". He studied in France before joining the French customs service in 1892. He served in Dahomey (modern day Benin), French Congo (now Republic of the Congo), Réunion, Madagascar, and French Guiana. In September 1899, while in Réunion, Diagne became a freemason, joining a lodge affiliated with the Grand Orient de France.