Mongi Slim

Mongi Slim
23rd President of the United Nations General Assembly
In office 1960–1961
Preceded by	Frederick Henry Boland
Succeeded by	Muhammad Zafrulla Khan
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia
In office 1962–1964
Preceded by	Sadok Mokadem
Succeeded by	Habib Bourguiba, Jr.
Personal details
Born	September 1, 1908(1908-09-01) Tunis, Tunisia
Died	October 23, 1969(1969-10-23) (aged 61) Tunis, Tunisia
Political party	Neo Destour
Religion	Sufism

Mongi Slim (Arabic: منجي سليم‎) (September 1, 1908 – October 23, 1969)^[1] was a twice jailed^[2] Tunisian 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.

Early years

Assembly President Mongi Slim Family. Born September 15, 1908, in Tunis, Mongi Slim (pronounced Monjee Sleem) is an improbable cross-breed of Mediterranean civilizations: Greek, Turkish and Arab. One great-grandfather, a Greek named Kafkalas, was captured as a boy by pirates, sold as a mameluke (white slave) to the Bey of Tunis, who educated him, freed him, made him his minister of defense. His paternal grandfather was an aristocratic Caid who ruled the wealthy province of Cape Bon. His mother was a member of the Beyrums, a noble Turkish family which had risen to prominence in Tunis, was famous throughout the Arab world for its learnedness in Moslem law.^[3]

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.^[4] 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. 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^[5] after a plane crash that killed U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Slim made the cover of Time magazine in late September of that year.^[6] He served in that position until 1962 when he left the UN and became Minister of Foreign Affairs of Tunisia. He served in that position until 1964.^[7]

References