Background
Camara, Ousmane was born in 1933 in Kaolack, Senegal. Son of Fara and Thioro (Sow) Camara.
Camara, Ousmane was born in 1933 in Kaolack, Senegal. Son of Fara and Thioro (Sow) Camara.
Educated at the Lycee Faidherbe at St Louis, then at Dakar University, where he obtained a law degree in 1957. He went on to study at Paris and made a reputation as an executive of the left-wing Federation of Black Africa Students in France (FEANF).
On his return to Senegal in 1961 he became Government Prosecutor at Thies, 40 miles east of Dakar. He made his name as Prosecutor at the High Court in the trial of Mamadou Dia, the former Prime Minister, in 1963. After a series of appointments as Chef de Cabinet in several ministries he was made Director of National Security at the age of 31. He held this difficult, delicate responsibility for four years.
In 1968 he was promoted to the cabinet as Minister of Labour with the mandate to bring the trade unions into line after they had thrown down a challenge to the government in the strike of June 1968. He also clamped down on the trade unions in 1969 when the central body was split and the larger part of the movement brought under the wing of the ruling party. This marked him as a tough political operator.
From February 1970 to April 1973 he was Minister of Information and official government spokesman. In the reshuffle of April 1973 he was given the specialised post of Minister of Higher Education, a new post hived off from the Ministry of Education. At a time of student ferment it was thought that he had the right qualities to handle the situation in view of his success in imposing firm government controls on the trade unions in 1969.
Having the unusual background of a militant student transformed after a few years into the nation’s security chief, he is well equipped to listen to and sometimes head off the demands of a new generation of students. A long-limbed, gangling person who peered through thick-lensed spectacles, he had high ambitions.
Married Aminata Camara. Children: Thiaba, Kine, Ndetefary, Aida.