Mukthar Ould Daddah
| Moktar Ould Daddah مختار ولد داداه |
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|---|---|
 |
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| 1st President of Mauritania | |
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In office 28 November 1960 – 10 July 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Mustafa Ould Salek |
| 1st Prime Minister of Mauritania | |
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In office 28 November 1960 – 20 August 1961 |
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| President | Himself |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by |
Office abolished (eventually Ahmed Ould Bouceif as Prime Minister in 1979) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 December 1924 Boutilimit, Mauritania, French West Africa |
| Died | 14 October 2003 (aged 78) Paris, France |
| Nationality | Mauritanian |
| Political party | Mauritanian People's Party |
| Relations |
Ahmed Ould Daddah (half-brother) |
Moktar Ould Daddah (Arabic: مختار ولد داداه Mukhtār Walad Dāddāh; December 25, 1924 – October 14, 2003) was the President of Mauritania from 1960, when his country gained its independence from France, to 1978, when he was deposed in a military coup d'etat.
Ould Daddah was born to an important marabout family of the Ouled Birri tribe in Boutilimit, Mauritania, French West Africa. After attending elite Islamic academies, he worked for the French colonial administrators as a translator. As a law student in Paris, he graduated as the first Mauritanian to hold a university degree. He was later admitted to the bar at Dakar, Senegal in 1955. Upon his return to Mauritania in the late 1950s, Daddah joined the centre-left Mauritanian Progressive Union, and was elected President of its Executive Council. In 1959, however, he established a new political party, the Mauritanian Regroupment Party. In the last pre-independence legislative elections held later that year, his party won every seat in the National Assembly, and he was appointed Prime Minister.
He was known for his ability to establish a consensus among different political parties, as well as between the White Moors, Black Moors and Black Africans, Mauritania's three main ethnic groups. The balanced representation of different ethnic and political groups in his government won the confidence of the French authorities, who granted independence to Mauritania under his leadership in 1960. Daddah was named Acting President of the new republic, and was confirmed in office in the first post-independence election in August 1961.
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