Omar Blondin Diop was a West African anti-colonial revolutionary and artist. Born in Niger, he lived in and was politically active in many countries, notably as a student and organizer in France and Senegal. He was active in the Marxist movement while living in Paris, playing his own role as a student radical in La Chinoise and taking part in the May 68 uprising before he was deported for his political work in 1969. Diop continued his activism back in Senegal, agitating to overthrow Leopold Senghor's French-backed government with other young radicals, including his two brothers, in the Movement of Young Marxist–Leninists (MJML) and the Committee for the Initiative for Permanent Revolutionary Action (CIARP). While preparing to initiate a guerrilla war against Senegal's neo-colonial governme