 The institute, born from an idea formulated by Senegalese president Abdou Diouf, was founded June 25, 1992.It was established in the wake of a historic June 1987 meeting in Dakar, between the exiled leadership of the African National Congress and a group of liberal South Africans, mostly Afrikaners, from the business world, civil society, politics, religion and academia.Subsequently known as "the Dakar meeting," the gathering was one of many that opened the way for a negotiated end to apartheid in South Africa.