Obituary: Jean Collin

Jean Baptiste Collin, politician: born Paris 19 September 1924; Senegalese Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs 1963-71; Minister of State, Interior 1971-81; Secretary-General to the Government and Minister of State 1981-90; died Bayeux, France 18 October 1993.

IT IS surprising that more has not been made in France of the death of Jean Collin. He was a remarkable success story of 'staying on': having worked in what used to be called 'Overseas France' (France Outre-mer) he continued his career in Senegal in the independence era, holding three of the highest offices of state over a period of over 25 years. Having adopted Senegal as his country after independence in 1960, however, he seemed to minimise his contacts with France deliberately.

Born in Paris in 1924, he was educated at the Lycee Louis-le-Grand and the Sorbonne. He entered the French colonial service in 1947, having remained a student through the Second World War. His first posting was in Diourbel in rural Senegal, and then he moved to Dakar before spending some years service in Cameroon. He returned to the administration in Senegal in the late Fifties, where he caused some surprise by advocating 'non' in De Gaulle's 1958 referendum on the establishment of a French Community in Africa. Although Leopold Senghor (the head of government who was to become President on independence) was obliged to support the 'yes' vote, the gesture of solidarity was not forgiven.

It was the beginning of a remarkably close relationship with the poet-president, who appreciated Collin's competence and hard work, and he rose rapidly to become Secretary-General to the Government. Collin's reputed Marxism presented no problems to Senghor, who dabbled in a certain cosy intellectual socialism himself. In 1963 Collin replaced another Frenchman as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, a position he held for the next eight years. Meanwhile he married one of Senghor's nieces, and joined the ruling party, holding various positions therein.

Senghor found economics tedious, so Collin was given a free hand, in so far as Senegal's precarious economy would allow. He was preoccupied with what he saw as a constant drain on the economy from smuggling to and from the Gambia. I recall meeting him in 1970, when he asked if I could send him a series of articles I had written investigating the cross-border traffic. He was always reputed to have been among the hawks (who existed in both the civil service and the army) who favoured a Sene-Gambian anschluss unless the smuggling stopped.

In 1971 Collin moved to the Ministry of the Interior, with the rank of Minister of State, and he stayed there for 10 years, acquiring a mastery that made him, in effect, the second most powerful person in the country. At the ministry he acquired a knowledge of the political files that was the beginning of the legend of Jean Collin the great eminence grise watching over affairs 'like Richelieu over France'. Senghor found it useful to have a neutral personality (and a European to boot) to take the heat of criticism from students and opposition, as in the sinister affair of the death in 1972 of the student leader Blondin Diop. And Collin, an administrator rather than a natural politician, was indifferent to criticism.

The fear and suspicion of Collin in Senegal continued into the 1980s, when Senghor's successor as President, Abdou Diouf, who came to power in 1981, kept Collin as Secretary-General to the Government, with the rank of Minister of State. This was a key position, as Collin not only knew where all the bodies were buried, but presented no challenge to the new, still inexperienced President. He could be guaranteed to give disinterested advice. The position also gave Collin a hold over government business. If Senegalese complained that no one could see Diouf without going through Collin, and occasionally complained bitterly about him, even the opposition respected his integrity and his capacity to be infinitely discreet. No one ever suggested he was a French agent.

If Diouf eventually felt strong enough in 1990 to respond to pressure from both opposition and his own party and dispense with Collin's services, it did not make the tributes to him any less heartfelt. As a study of an exercise in power in an African state, the story of Jean Collin is an extraordinary one. Much of it, however, may never be told.

Collin was given a large funeral in Dakar and buried in his wife's village, Jall-Fadiouth.

(Photograph omitted)