It is with profound regret and extreme sadness that I write, on behalf of the President of CODESRIA Dzodzi Tsikata and on my own behalf, to inform the CODESRIA community that professor Aminata Diaw, immediate past head of the CODESRIA Training, Grants and Fellowships Programme has passed away. This sad event occurred last night, at the Fann University Hospital in Dakar, where she was hospitalized yesterday afternoon.
Professor Diaw has been an active member of CODESRIA for decades, before becoming a member of the Senior Management Team of the CODESRIA Secretariat as the Head of Training, Grants and Fellowships. She was one of the laureates of the first edition of the CODESRIA Governance Institute in 1992, coordinator of CODESRIA working groups and networks, resource person in CODESRIA conferences and workshops, and an active participant in many CODESRIA General Assemblies.—she was the co-chair of the Programme Committee of the 14th General assembly held in Dakar in June 2015. As Head of Training, she organized and led many summer institutes and schools ; methodology and scholarly writing workshops ; the CODSRIA Small Grants for Thesis Writing Programme ; Faculty Seminars ; and many other activities of what has become one of the fastest growing departments of CODESRIA. She was also in charge of the CODESRIA Gender Research Programme and organised several editions of the Annual Gender Symposium in Cairo, and the annual Gender Institute.
Professor Diaw was also Professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar for several decades, and co-founded and led one of the doctoral academies (écoles doctorales) of UCAD. She will also be remembered for being a great philosopher, a committed pan Africanist, and a dedicated and very able leader in the CODESRIA Community.
It is with a broken heart that, on behalf of the Executive and Scientific Committees, the staff and all the members and friends of CODESRIA, I convey sincere condolences to Aminata’s husband and lifelong partner Professor Mame Thierno Cisse and their daughters Awa and Zeynabou ; to the entire Cheikh Anta Diop University and CODESRIA communities ; to Senegal, and to all Africans and friends of Africa. We have lost a friend, colleague, and a great resource to Africa and the world.
May her soul ret in perfect peace ! Amen !
Signed :
Ebrima Sall
Executive Secretary