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Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland, right, and Salim Ahmed Salim, former Prime Minister of Tanzania at a press conference in London, Monday, Oct. 19, 2009. It was announced that there is no winner for the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership...
This profile includes information from A Profile by Matthew Rugamba on the Contemporary Africa Databasehttp://people.africadatabase.org
Salim Ahmed Salim is a man of vast international experience and one of Africa’s most renowned diplomats. He started his diplomatic career at the early age of 22, when serving as Ambassador of Zanzibar to Egypt, which made him the youngest African ambassador at the time.
Salim Ahmed Salim was born on 23rd January 1942 on the island of Zanzibar, which is now part of the United Republic of Tanzania. He was educated at Lumumba College in Zanzibar and later pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of New Delhi and obtained his Masters degree in International Affairs at Columbia University, New York. He also holds six doctorates honoris causa.
He combined his working life with studying, which he said kept him abreast with international political trends that he reckoned to be continually changing over the years.He became a student activist in the early 1960s and was founder and first Vice President of the All-Zanzibar Student union, later serving as Deputy Chief Representative of the Zanzibar Office based in Havana, Cuba, between 1961 and 1962. In 1963, Salim was the Chief Editor of a Zanzibar daily paper and was the Secretary General of the All-Zanzibar Journalists Organisation.
Mr Salim has held a number of key positions. Mr. Salim served as President of the U.N. Security Council (1976), as President of the 34th session of the U.N. General Assembly (1979), of the 6th and 7th Emergency Special Sessions of the General Assembly (1980), and 11th Special Session of the General Assembly (1980). Salim Ahmed Salim held key positions while representing his country at the United Nations. In June/July 1972: Chairman of the United Nations Special Mission to Niue. August 1972: Drafting Committee of the Political Committee of the Ministerial Conference of non-Aligned States, Georgetown, Guyana. In April 1973: Chairman of the Political Committee of International Conference of Experts in Support of the Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa, Oslo.
He served as the Chairman of the U.N. Special Committee on Decolonization (Committee of 24) (1972-1980), during which time the Committee played a key role in steering many colonies and non-self governing territories to full sovereignty and independence. He was the Chairman of the U.N. Security Council Committee on Sanctions against Rhodesia (1975). In January 1976: President of the Security Council. In April/May 1976: Chairman of the high-level Ad-hoc Group of the Special Committee of 24 visiting a number of countries. In August 1976: Chairman of the Drafting Committee of the Fifth Conference of Heads of States of Government of the non-Aligned States, Colombo. In May 1977: Vice-President of the International Conference in support of the people of Zimbabwe and Namibia and Chairman of the Committee of the whole of that conference, held in Maputo, Mozambique. He was also President of the International Conference on Sanctions against Apartheid South Africa (1981) and President of the Paris International Conference against Apartheid (1984). Mr. Salim served on the Palme Independent Commission on International Security Issues, as well as on the Independent Commission on International Humanitarian Issues. While at the UN, he presented his candidature for the post of Secretary General and despite having narrowly failed, he today feels proud to have paved the way for fellow Africans who have since held that position, notably Dr. Bhutros Ghali of Egypt and the incumbent Secretary General Kofi Annan of Ghana.
Salim Ahmed Salim served for many years in the Tanzanian diplomatic service. He was an Ambassador of his country to Egypt (1964-1965). Barely four months after being posted to Egypt as Zanzibar’s Ambassador, Salim Ahmed Salim became the first Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania and Zanzibar to that country. He later served as the High Commissioner of Tanzania to India from (1965-1968), before briefly returning to Tanzania to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the Director of the African and Middle East Affairs Division. In 1969, Dr. Salim was posted to the People’s Republic of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as ambassador and was later posted to New York as Tanzania’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. While serving at the UN he was also accredited as Tanzania’s Ambassador to Cuba, Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago ( 1970-1980).
In October 1980, Dr. Salim was appointed the Tanzanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and later Prime Minister in 1984, to succeed the late Edward Moringe Sokoine, a position he held until October 1985. He was thereafter appointed Prime Minister (1984-1985), and then served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and National Service (1986-1989), when he was elected the Secretary General of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) in 1989. He was re-elected to this post for two additional terms, ending his third term in office in 2001, when he returned to Tanzania. Dr. Salim’s tenure at the OAU was for a record three terms as Secretary General from 1989 to 2001, during which time as Africa’s top diplomat he displayed a high degree of skill and diplomacy in addressing Africa’s pressing problems. To encourage the nomination of more women for leadership positions, the Secretary General of the OAU, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, suggested that FAS (Femmes Africa Solidarite) compile a database of prominent African women which could be referred to by institutions and decision-making bodies when filling vacancies.
Mr. Salim is currently President of the Julius K. Nyerere Foundation, and a Member of the Board of the South Centre, which is based in Geneva. He remains an active player in the political affairs of Tanzania where he is member of the National Executive Committee of the governing political party of Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). Mr. Salim has attended and/or chaired numerous summit meetings, international conferences, seminars, workshops, and colloquia including those held under the auspices of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Mr. Salim holds a number of decorations and honours. As an ardent admirer and student of the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, some political analysts see Salim Ahmed Salim as the natural choice to be the next President of Tanzania after President Benjamin Mkapa’s term of office expires.
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