Moustapha Thiam released his first book “Adversity, My Ally” in early 2021, a biography but also a book of personal development. He traces his history from his small village in Senegal to Paris, where he built his career and entrepreneurial success. Learning to understand, to work hard, to aim for an objective and to stick to it in order to develop: this is what he shares in this book «Adversity, My Ally». Ze-africanews meet for an exclusive interview.

Hello, I am Moustapha Thiam, Founding President of the Solidarity Movement for the Development of Africa, CEO of the recruitment firm “Exigence IT” and currently author of the book “l’Adversité mon alliée”.

Entrepreneurship has always been a passion. From the village, from Senegal, to school, I liked to sell bananas at recess time. It was always something I was passionate about because I saw my life going on and doing something. It was a childhood passion and that’s what inspired me to create my firm “Exigence IT”.

“Adversity my Ally” is a book, it is an autobiography and at the same time a book of personal development that retraces the path of a small villager who lived in the countryside in Senegal precisely in Jobato where I walked seven kilometers for seven years to go to school in difficult conditions because there was no drinking water, there was no electricity. To learn, you have to go everywhere to fetch dead wood, to light and to learn, it was a long way but we faced adversity we fought from our village through also a good education that we were inculcated that makes us today our strength. It is a book that retraces the whole path of a young person who was thirsty to learn thirst to succeed.

I define myself as a self-made man because simply every person has to build his own life. The moment you are born, tell yourself that God has given you everything, everything you must acquire in this world. You must fight to have it. Your father can lavish you, can teach you values, principles, give you a good education, but all these educations and values are for you, because the path that must lead you to the realization of your dreams, Only you have to fight for because we’re the only one who can control our destiny. We have to fight to keep this torch and go beyond our limits Self-made man, why, because my life doesn’t make sense if I can’t impact on other people’s lives. 

I have always defined life as a battlefield which admit only momentary champions and it is necessary to prepare with weapons. The first weapon a person must have is to obtain a good quality education that will allow you to face the realities of this world because this world is not a gift. You have to deal with it, whatever the difficulties, there will always be obstacles.

Every person who wants to succeed and wants to build himself, it’s tough but you have to face and stop whining  

African youth must take flight. African youth must take a little responsibility, but how can they take responsibility if they lack education, lack of vocational training, lack of jobs, lack of projects, lack of resources to undertake

If I have a message to send to all these governments, whether they be Western or African, it is first of all to focus on youth. Because today it is these young people who are going to do the immigration, it is these young people unfortunately who risk their lives crossing the Sahara by crossing the oceans risking their lives and that we must put an end to this phenomenon of illegal immigration or immigration at all. We live in this interconnected world of interdependence, but we must focus first on education. Because imagine a youth without education, what can we do people have no hope in their own country and it is up to the governments to rely on this quality education and to support that youth, that is what is missing. And I think that every young person today deserves this support, but every young person must think that success must be a personal success before it can be collective. That is to say I must fight to take my destiny in hand and do everything to change my daily life and of course change Africa. If we want to curb immigration, we need to educate young people, and we need to focus on educating young people, because until we focus on educating young people, there will always be this dependency between occident and Africa. 

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