Reportedly the wealthiest man in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Gilbert Bigio was sanctioned for ties to criminal gangs. He was 91.

The Senegalese writer was lauded as one of the founding fathers of African literature who subtly captured the shock of colonization from the perspective of the continent’s people.

© Sophie Bassouls/Bridgeman

He and a small troop of French Jews worked with the Allies to distribute supplies and fight the Nazis, ambushing a German train and liberating a city in the south.