Abdoulaye Wade

Wade was born at Kébémer into a Wolof family from Gandiol and Waalo. He studied and taught law in France, took two doctorates in law and economics, and became dean of the law and economics faculty at the University of Dakar.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en} At the 1974 Mogadishu summit of the Organization of African Unity he told President Léopold Sédar Senghor that he wanted to found a new party, and Senghor agreed: the PDS was founded on 31 July 1974, and Wade led it for the rest of his career.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en} He ran for president four times from 1978 onward, a quarter-century as the country's leading opposition figure, before finally winning in 2000 — taking office at 73, the oldest person to occupy the post.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en}

In the second round of the 2000 election, on 19 March, Wade defeated the incumbent Abdou Diouf by 58.5 per cent to 41.5 per cent, and he took office on 1 April 2000.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdou-diouf-en}{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en} He won re-election in 2007 with a majority in the first round. His bid for a third term in 2012, allowed by the Constitutional Council on the argument that his first term predated the 2001 constitution, was fiercely contested; he was defeated in the second round by his former prime minister Macky Sall.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en}

No Urdu article about Wade exists, so this page is written from the English, Arabic and French articles and from Wikidata.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-ar}{cite:source/wikidata-abdoulaye-wade}

His birth date is the official one. The English article records 29 May 1926 at Kébémer, and adds that some claim he was actually born several years earlier, the record-keeping of the time being unreliable; the official date is followed here, as the museum does for such cases.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en} His living status is likewise taken from the sources as fetched: the English article's revision of 26 October 2026 lists him among living people with no death recorded, and he turned one hundred on 29 May 2026.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en}

On faith, his is one of the clearer files in this group. The English text states that Wade, a pious Muslim, is a member of the Sufi Mouride brotherhood, citing Jeune Afrique; the French text, in its own voice, calls the Mourides his religious brotherhood when recounting the criticism that he favoured it in office, and notes his closeness to it and his gift of the land for Dakar's great Massalikul Jinaan Mouride mosque.{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-en}{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-fr} Two texts naming a personal affiliation in independent wording meet the museum's bar, so his faith is recorded as sufi, documented, for that Mouride membership. No Sunni segment is recorded: Sunni appears for him only as one of two values on the single Wikidata item and as English and Arabic category filings, which never count.{cite:source/wikidata-abdoulaye-wade}{cite:source/wikipedia-abdoulaye-wade-ar}

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