Appointed on September 6th as head of the Ministry of Culture, Crafts and Tourism, Amadou Bâ has just been officially installed in his new role. The MP, who is taking his first steps in the Sonko 2 government, is a trained lawyer and an outstanding debater. A trusted man of the President of the Republic, Amadou Ba will now be responsible for leading the government's cultural and tourism policy.

 

 

"Culture is important. Many countries have developed thanks to their creative industries. Culture, as former President Léopold Sédar Senghor said, is at the beginning and end of all development. We believe it can go hand in hand with crafts and tourism since they are extremely complementary activities." The Head of Government, Ousmane Sonko, thus outlined the mission of the brand new Minister of Culture, Crafts and Tourism, Amadou Ba. The MP and active member of the Law, Decentralization, Labor and Human Rights Committee is leaving the Chamber to get his hands dirty in a department far from his preferred field, within a new government that "works 7 days a week and 20 hours a day."

 

A lawyer by training, Amadou Ba has been appointed to give new impetus to the cultural sector, now separated from the Ministry of Youth and Sports. His mission will be to synergize tourism policy with the creative industry based on individual skills and talent to generate wealth and employment through the creation of intellectual property. The challenge is certainly immense, but surmountable for this executive of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity (Pastef-Les Patriotes), whose profile combines political commitment and legal expertise.

 

Professional background

 

Affectionately nicknamed "the Pastef lawyer," the 48-year-old man with a salt-and-pepper beard first wandered the packed lecture halls of Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University with a postgraduate degree in law before continuing his studies at the University of Reims in France. There, Amadou Ba gave a new direction to his budding legal career by engaging in legal support for asylum seekers, the homeless, and young people in precarious situations, most of whom are African.

 

A noble cause to which he devoted himself for several years until 2011, when he decided to return to Senegal with the firm determination to reverse migratory trends through the endogenous development of Africa in general and Senegal in particular. A commitment that inevitably involves political activism. He, who had not previously been an activist in any faction, found it difficult to take the plunge for a very simple reason: "Creating something here was complicated. There were too many constraints, and no [political] party reflected our beliefs."

 

Mandataire DiomayePresident, deputy then minister

 

His political activism was born almost at the same time as Pastef's creation. The young, energetic lawyer found in the words and actions of the president of the "Patriots" (Ousmane Sonko) the embodiment of the perfect model of pan-African political leadership. He thus joined without reservation during a meeting with Sonko. "I told him I was going to set up Pastef in Thiès. He put me in touch with Birame Souleye Diop. We set up the first cells and traveled all the departments. It was hard at first, but we shared the same convictions," says the native of the railway capital, who eventually established himself in the party's ruling elite.

 

A formidable debater with a sharp grasp of legal issues, Amadou Ba practically built his political reputation on television sets during a troubled period when Pastef and its members had become outcasts in the Republic. Unyielding in the face of adversity, Amadou Ba became, through the strength of his commitment, the proxy of presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, before being elected MP in November 2024.

 

His time in the Soweto Avenue parliamentary chamber will be remembered for his contributions to the parliamentary initiative, including the famous Amnesty Interpretive Bill. This bill, along with his amendments to the draft regulations, was ultimately invalidated by the Constitutional Council, according to Tafsir Thioye, due to Ba's "stubbornness."

 

With these setbacks in mind, Amadou Ba begins this new mission within the government with "a feeling of humility in the face of the new responsibilities and burdens" that fall upon him.