Ali Soilih

Ali Soilih M'Tsashiwa was born on January 7, 1937, in Majunga, Madagascar. Educated in agronomy in France, he returned to the Comoros to work in rural development and agricultural cooperatives.

Seizing power in January 1976 following Comorian independence, Soilih launched a radical secular socialist revolution. He abolished the extravagant customary grand marriage (anda) system that bankrupted poor families, burned colonial administrative archives, enfranchised teenagers at age sixteen, and instituted universal literacy campaigns in Shikomori. On May 13, 1978, his government was overthrown in an amphibious assault by French mercenary Bob Denard; Soilih was executed sixteen days later while under house arrest.