African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (french: Solidarité Africaine pour la Démocratie et l'Indépendance) is a

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

. It was founded by

Cheick Oumar Sissoko Cheick Oumar Sissoko (born 1945 in San, Mali) is a Malian film director and politician. Biography As a student in Paris, Cheick Oumar Sissoko obtained a DEA in African History and Sociology and a diploma in History and Cinema from the Ecole ...

and

Oumar Mariko Oumar Mariko (born 4 February 1959) is a Malian politician, doctor and noted former student activist. He is the Secretary-General of African Solidarity for Democracy and Independence (SADI), a left-wing political party, and has three times run fo ...

in 1996;Benito Perez
"La faiblesse de l'État nous laisse une place pour imposer des alternatives"
''

Le Courrier ''Le Courrier'' (literally "The Mail") is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Geneva. Founded on 5 January 1868, it was originally supported by the Roman Catholic Church, but has been completely independent since 1996. Main ...

'', 19 December 2006 . Sissoko is the party's President and Mariko is its Secretary-General, the top post in the party.Présidentielle 2007 : Oumar Mariko, porte-étendard de SADI
, ''L'Essor'', 27 February 2007 . The party is

Pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement exte ...

in ideology, is affiliated internationally with the

International Communist Seminar The International Communist Seminar (ICS) was an annual communist conference held in May in Brussels, Belgium. It was organized by the Workers' Party of Belgium (WPB). In 1992, Ludo Martens, leader of the WPB initiated the conference, which gat ...

, a grouping organised by the

Workers Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (french: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB; nl, Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; ) is a Marxist and socialist political party in Belgium. It is one of the few Belgian parties that is a fully national party, r ...

, and is in part an outgrowth of the 1991 demonstrations against the military rule of President

Moussa Traoré Moussa Traoré (25 September 1936 – 15 September 2020) was a Malian soldier, politician, and dictator who was President of Mali from 1968 to 1991. As a Lieutenant, he led the military ousting of President Modibo Keïta in 1968. Thereafter he ...

. Mariko was head of the

Association of Students and Pupils of Mali Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

(AEEM) during the 1991 protest movement which overthrew the government.

History

The party held its first ordinary congress in March 2002, at which Mariko was chosen as its candidate for the April 2002 presidential election. In this election, Mariko took 12th place with 0.88% of the vote. In the July 2002 parliamentary election, the party won six out of 147 seats.Elections in Mali
''African Elections Database'' . After this, Sissoko joined the government as Minister of Culture, although Mariko opposed this move. The party's second ordinary congress was held in

Koutiala Koutiala ( Bambara: ߞߎߕߌߊߟߊ tr. Kutiala) is a city in Mali in the administrative region of Sikasso, and is located 140 km north of the city of Sikasso. Koutiala serves as the capital of its administrative Cercle, home to 575,253 peop ...

in December 2006, at which it was decided to nominate a candidate for the April 2007 presidential election at a national conference on 23–24 February 2007. Mariko was again chosen as the party's presidential candidate at this conference. In the April election, he took fourth place with 2.72% of the vote. The party's platform for the July 2007 parliamentary election focused on its opposition to the privatisation of state industries. The party won four of the 147 seats in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

,"Mali : Résultats définitifs des Législatives — l'Adéma/PASJ perd dans trois localités"
'' Les Echos'', 13 August 2007 . and was highly critical of the ruling coalition of

Malian President This is a list of heads of state of Mali since the country gained independence from France in 1960 to the present day. A total of seven people have served as head of state of Mali (excluding three acting presidents). Additionally, two people, ...

Amadou Toumani Touré Amadou Toumani Touré (4 November 19489 November 2020) was a Malian politician. He supervised Mali's first multiparty elections as chairman of the transitional government (1991–1992), and later became the second democratically-elected Presiden ...

. When parliamentary groups in the new National Assembly were created in September 2007, SADI formed a parliamentary group with the

Party for National Rebirth The Party for National Rebirth (French ''Parti pour la renaissance nationale'', PARENA) is a Malian political party, created in 1995 by activists from the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (CNID). The Party for National Rebirth is heade ...

(PARENA). Following the elections, a local secretary-general of SADI, Youssouf Dembélé, was found dead on 12 August, in what the party described as an assassination."Malian opposition party alleges leader was assassinated", African Press Agency, 13 August 2007 . In the 2013 parliamentary elections, SADI won five seats.

References

* "Présidentielle de 2007 Oumar Mariko dans la course", ''Le Malien'', 11 January 2007.
Décès de Youssouf Dembélé SG Sadi à Niono : Oumar Mariko dénonce une justice corrompue
''Les Echos'', 6 December 2007 * "Niono : Sadi charge", ''L'Essor'', number 16,073, 13 November 2007.

External links

* {{Malian political parties Political parties in Mali Communist parties in Mali Political parties established in 1996 Pan-Africanism in Mali Pan-Africanist political parties in Africa