A Portuguese born in Senegal, Mamadou Ba has lived in Portugal for more than 24 years, and dedicated himself to anti-racist activism. Founding member of several organizations defending the human rights of migrants and racialized people of national and European scope. Mamadou Ba holds a degree in “Portuguese Language and Culture” from the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (1997) and holds a Certificate in ‘Translation’ from the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon (1998). He has integrated scientific boards from several academic research projects as a consultant. He participates as a teacher in many summer schools of the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, related to the theme of (anti)racism.
Mamadou was a member of the National Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination’s Permanent Council (2015-2019), the Working Group for the 2021 Census, and the International Decade for Afrodescendants’ Permanent Forum. He has belonged to the SOS Racismo Movement since 1999. In 2020, he joined the Jurí of the International Competition of the Indie Lisbon Festival. He is currently a part of the National Working Group on Preventing and Fighting Racial Discrimination and the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice’s Steering Committee.
Mamadou is the co-author of several public documents on racism and human rights and the author of several articles in newspapers, magazines, and books, as well as a speaker at various conferences on topics related to immigration, ethnic diversity, and racism. He is one of the most prominent voices of the anti-racist movement in Portugal and has denounced the proliferation of hate speech on social networks, in the public and political spheres. So, he is also one of the people the far right and neo-Nazi groups in Portugal like to attack the most.
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Already the backsliding begins. ITV news is reporting that the Government has changed one point in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. They have accepted that academies will retain their ‘freedom’ to set their own pay scales for teachers. So the criteria in the School Teachers Pay and Conditions document will only apply to teachers in Local Authority schools. Why have the Government climbed down on this issue? It’s not as if this is a major financial problem for academies. But what will be the next change/climb down by the Government? Will academies be exempt from the National Curriculum? Will Local Authorities be able to build schools according to the needs of their communities or will all new schools, as at present, have to be academies?