Bilal Dia James Thiam

BILAL DIA JAMES THIAM
1994-2020

Bilal Dia James Thiam died peacefully on 9 May 2020, with the blessing of his family by his side in California at City of Hope Cancer Care following a courageous battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Born 24 July 1994 in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, Bilal is the first of Tidjane and Annette (nee Anthony) Thiam's two sons. Bilal reveled in his rich family heritage and embraced being a global citizen. American on his mother's side, West African on his father's, Bilal grew up in Cote d'Ivoire, France, and England.

A young man who was a deep thinker and a reserved boy, Bilal's early learning difficulties revealed a quiet determination in his character. He possessed a strength to overcome and work through challenges.

A thoughtful and voracious reader from an early age, with a love and exceptional knowledge of history, his interests also extended to politics. As a small boy on a visit to Independence Mall in Philadelphia, Bilal relayed detailed historical accounts to an appreciative guide, other tourists, and his auntie as they visited landmarks – he already knew them all. He also enjoyed fencing, basketball, summers with his grandparents and cousins in the U.S., family holidays, and many cultural trips to historical sites across Europe. He was a fervent Arsenal supporter and he loved to dance. Academically, he enjoyed debating society, geography, classics, and his beloved world history. His adolescent summers were marked by his trips to the Great Books Summer Program at Amherst College where he indulged his love of literature, the arts and "showed real intuition for the poet's sensibility." Insightful, elegant, nuanced, were a few choice words to describe Bilal's work and participation by his program assistants.

Sensitive to the beauty of the moment, Bilal also reveled in nature's gifts -from a sunrise to the wind on the open sea.

Bilal was always a man of his time. While a secondary school student he coached youth basketball and spent part of his gap year as a volunteer with Global Vision International at an orphanage school in India. His understanding of human rights led him at a very young age to ask why the Ku Klux Klan was not classified as a terrorist organization in the history books he was reading on the United States. Years later, when applying to U.S. universities, he insisted on visiting Morehouse College, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. studied. Bilal's sense of justice and activism never waned.

A sensational friend to many, one of his closest friends sought to amplify the values and beliefs Bilal so profoundly held by organising a fundraiser on his passing to benefit the Equal Justice Initiative.
Bilal shared an exceptional bond with Antar, his brother. Antar's heroic devotion during Bilal's illness, in the words of the oncologist, redefined the meaning of siblings.

Bilal graduated from Brown University in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. He thrived as a student there and enjoyed four years punctuated by great friendships, career experiences and collegiate engagement. His freshman year he qualified for the rowing team, was sophomore co-president of Brown's Annual Fund Student Board, and junior/senior year president of Brown International Scholarship Committee. He described his graduation to his grandmother as the best day of his life.

Following graduation, he worked in New York and Zurich before his devastating diagnosis in late 2018.

Bilal's parents, Tidjane Thiam and Annette Anthony, his brother Antar Boigny Walter Thiam, maternal grandmother Rosetta Anthony, and adoring aunts, uncles, and cousins in the United States, Africa, and Europe survive him. Bilal leaves countless beloved friends around the world.

Bilal's light was dimmed at an early age but not extinguished. The meaning of Bilal's life will continue to unfold through loving friends and family. And so, he remains with us.