7 iconic African leaders who died a sad and lonely death

Ben Barka

Ben Barka, like Amical Cabral, was a charismatic Moroccan opposition leader, born in January 1920 in Rabat. He was privileged to attend the French school in Morocco and was the first Moroccan to receive a degree in Mathematics in an official French School in 1950. He later got involved in politics and became an MP for the working class suburbs of the Moroccan capital, Rabat. He was part of the people that worked for the independence of Morocco and was a strong member of the National Istiqlal Party. From 1956 to 1959, he was the president of the consultative assembly of Morocco and later founded National Union of Popular Forces (UNPF). He fled Morocco after several attempts on his life. Even in his absence, he was sentenced to death. Ben Barka travelled the world to Cuba, Rome, Geneva, Algeria, etc. to propagate his revolutionary ideas and put pressure on the French colonial rule as well as the indigenous allies aiding and abetting the colonial rule. He was part of the organisers of the first Tricontinental Conference scheduled to take place in Cuba when he suddenly disappeared in the middle of Paris, never to be seen again.