Seydou Badian Kouyaté
On 28 December 2018, Malian writer and politician, Seydou Badian Kouyaté died in Bamako at the age of 90. He wrote the lyrics to the Malian national anthem, "Le Mali".
Kouyaté was born on 10 April 1928 in Bamako. He was schooled in Mali before pursuing his secondary and tertiary education in France. After having obtained a doctorate in medicine from the University of Montpellier, he returned to his home country.
Between 1960 and 1968 Kouyaté took on political functions. In 1962 he was named Minister of Economic and Financial Coordination; however, with the coup d'état of 1968, and the rise to the presidency of Moussa Traoré, he was jailed for seven years before being exiled to Dakar in 1975.
Kouyaté is best known for his first novel, Sous l'orage (1957), the story of an arranged marriage, told from the point of view of the reluctant bride. His literary work further consist of an epic drama about Zulu warrior Chaka and two more novels.
In March 2018, Kouyaté was awarded the Grand Prix des Mécènes of the GPLA 2017, as a tribute to all his bibliographic career.
(Source: Wikipedia, accessed on 6 December 2023, and the Dictionary of African biography)
Selected publications
Dynamiques socio-historiques dans les romans de Seydou Badian / Modibo Diarra. - Paris : L'Harmattan, [2023]
La saison des pièges / Seydou Badian. - Abidjan : NEI-CEDA ; Paris : Présence Africaine, cop. 2008
Le sang des masques : roman / Seydou Badian. - Paris : Laffont, 1976
Sous l'orage (Kany) : roman : suivi de: La mort de Chaka : pièce en cinq tableaux / Seydou Badian. - Paris : Présence africaine, 1973
Seydou Badian : écrivain malien / Seydou Badian and others. - Paris : Fernand Nathan, 1968
Les dirigeants d'Afrique noire face à leur peuple / Seydou Badian. - Paris : Maspero. 1965
Sous l'orage (Kany) : [roman] / Seydou Badian. - Paris : Présence africaine, 1963
Listen also: Seydou Badian Kouyaté: "Le Mali tangue, mais il ne tombera pas" / l'interview de la semaine, BBC Afrique, 29-12-2018.
Timeline of Malian novelists via DBpedia and Wikidata
Posted on 4 December 2023, last modified on 11 December 2023