Amadou Mahtar M'Bow, the first African to head UNESCO, has died aged 103.
He died in Senegalese capital, Dakar, on Tuesday.
UNESCO described him as the first African to lead an international organisation. He served as the body's sixth director-general for 13 years from 1974 to1987.
"A profound humanist and all-round intellectual, Amadou Mahtar M'Bow left a lasting impression on our institution by forcefully defending the need for solidarity and equal dignity between peoples and cultures," UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay said.
"In particular, we owe to him the monumental scientific work that is the General History of Africa, which gave the world, and more specifically Africans, a means of appropriating their own history and facing the future with confidence," she added.
Cabinet roles
Born in Dakar in 1921, M'Bow served in Senegal's cabinet in separate times as minister for education and minister for culture and youth.
He was appointed as the assistant director-general for education at UNESCO in 1970, he was elected director-general in 1974.
M'Bow is remembered for championing the New World Order of Information and Communication, which challenged the domination of western media in global news coverage.
➤Click here to follow our WhatsApp channel for more stories.
