After having successively attended the Guinean elementary primary school of Labé (Kourola), the Classical College of Conakry (high school), the Institute of Advanced Studies of Dakar (Senegal), the Faculties of Liberal Art s of the Universities of Toulouse and Grenoble, in France, Mamadou Bowoi ( whose nickname is ” Petit Barry”) finished his studies in 1964 at the University of Geneva (Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences), and at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) in Geneva.
During his student career in France, he became an active member of the “Federation of Students from Black Africa” in France (FEANF) which he represented at “the International Union of Students (IUS) “in Prague, as Vice-President (1958-1960). He was also a member of the Editorial Board of the “Student of Black Africa”, an organ of the FEANF published in Toulouse.
After completing his studies, Mamadou returned to Guinea where he successively held the following positions from 1965 to 1971:
• Head of Division at the General Directorate of International Cooperation (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
• Director of the international channel of the “Voice of the Revolution”, National Broadcasting of the Republic of Guinea
• Director of the Press Bureau of the President of the Republic
• Member of Parliament (MP)- the National Assembly-
• Professor (pro bono) at the Gamal Abdel Nasser Polytechnic Institute of Conakry (IPGAN).
Following the Portuguese aggression against the Republic of Guinea on November 22, 1970, , and like thousands of other Guineans, Petit Barry was unjustly and arbitrarily arrested and detained for nearly 7 and a half years (from June 14, 1971 to November 22, 1978) in the sinister” Camp Boiro “and in its annex of the Kindia camp, 135 kms from the capital Conakry. As a Camp Boiro survivor, Mr. Barry is a member of the “Camp Boiro Victims Association (AVCB)”.
Mr. Barry is the author of a book on his experience as a political prisoner:” Seven years facing Mount Gangan”
Recipient of a medical scholarship from the Socialist Republic of Hungary in 1979 after his liberation, Mamadou who as accompanied by his wife Adama Doukouré, was hospitalized and treated in Budapest during six months. He then decided not to return to Guinea. From 1980 to 1995 , he obtained a position as an international civil servant in two duty stations: the United Nations Office at Vienna , Austria ( UNOV) and the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where he served from 1980 to 1995.
From 1996 to 2010, Mamadou Barry served as Chief Technical Adviser in the field of democratic governance in fifteen African countries.on behalf of several international organizations.
From 2011 to the present, Mamadou Bowoi (Barry Consulting) is an independent international consultant, a political analyst, expert in democracy and governance and author of several articles and studies on the challenges of democratic transition in Africa.
Mamadou Barry is married and father of seven (7) children, four (4) of whom are alive
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