Senegalese scientist develops Islamic inheritance software
Regional, Business, 12/16/2000

Cheikh Bamba Dioum, a computer scientist at the Senegalese Oil Seed
Marketing Company (SONACOS), has developed "Defi Heritage," a software for
the management of inheritance according to the rules of Islam, reports
panafrican news agency PANA.

The invention, the fruit of four years of work, is not yet well known, as
Dioum does not have the means to multiply the transmission supports for his
program.

The principle of this inheritance system is also synthesized in a book
published in 100,000 copies used as support to the software.

The computer programe makes it possible to solve the thorny inheritance
problems in Muslim societies, although inheritance is explained detail by
the Koran.

Dioum explained that his software, aimed at Islamic institutions, mosques,
lawyers and notaries, is easy to use.

Defi Heritage only requires a certain number of information to be fed into
the forms, notably the various types of relations, close or remote
relatives, and the amount inherited. Once the data are processed, each heir
is given a share of the inheritance, to the last penny.

The software simplifies rather complex computations which, in Muslim
families, are usually made by scholars, sometimes with disagreements and
errors.

Dioum, who registered his invention at the Senegalese Copyrights Board,
plans to contact the national chapter of the African Intellectual Property
Organization for a grant in order to make Defi Heritage more accessible.

"Up to now, I have been a lone researcher, very isolated from the scientific
world. This is not helping my efforts just as of now," he told PANA.

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