Mongi Slim ( ar, منجي سليم, tr, Mengi Selim) (September 1, 1908October 23, 1969) was a

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

n diplomat who became the first African to become the President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1961. He received a degree from the faculty of law of the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. He was twice imprisoned by the French during the Tunisian struggle for independence.

Early years

Born on September 15, 1908, in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, Slim came from an aristocratic family of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and Turkish origin. His mother was a member of the Beyrum family, a noble Turkish family which had risen to prominence in Tunis, and was famous throughout the Arab world for its learnedness in Islamic law. One of Slim's great-grandfathers, a Greek named Kafkalas, was captured as a boy by pirates, and sold to the

Bey of Tunis Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

, who educated and freed him and then made him his minister of defense. His paternal grandfather was an aristocratic Caid who ruled the wealthy province of Cape Bon.

Political career

In 1936, Slim became involved in organizations advocating Tunisia's independence from France. In 1954, he became the chief Tunisian negotiator in discussions with France on independence. In this position, he helped draft protocols which secured Tunisia's independence in 1956. Slim served as an interior minister of Tunisia from 1955 to 1956. In 1956 he became Tunisia's ambassador to the United States, Canada and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. He became involved in a special United Nations Committee on the problem of Hungary and served as a delegate to the

United Nations Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

. He relinquished his posts as ambassador to the United States and Canada in 1961 when he was unanimously elected president of the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

after a plane crash that killed U.N. Secretary General

Dag Hammarskjöld Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld ( , ; 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 196 ...

. Slim made the cover of ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' magazine in September 1961. The United States came up with a plan to have Slim carry out the duties of Secretary-General while delegating his own duties to a Vice-President of the General Assembly. However, the Soviet Union favored

U Thant Thant (; ; January 22, 1909 – November 25, 1974), known honorifically as U Thant (), was a Burmese diplomat and the third secretary-general of the United Nations from 1961 to 1971, the first non-Scandinavian to hold the position. He held t ...

of Burma and secured U.S. agreement to appoint Thant acting Secretary-General for the remainder of Hammarskjöld's term. Slim left the United Nations in 1962 and became

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia ( ar, وزارة الشؤون الخارجية, french: Ministère des Affaires étrangères) is a cabinet-level governmental agency in Tunisia in charge of conducting and designing the foreign policy of ...

. He served in that position until 1964.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slim, Mongi Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly Tunisian diplomats 1908 births 1969 deaths Tunisian people of Greek descent Tunisian people of Turkish descent Permanent Representatives of Tunisia to the United Nations Ambassadors of Tunisia to the United States Ambassadors of Tunisia to Canada Foreign ministers of Tunisia 20th-century Tunisian people Interior ministers of Tunisia