Fodéba Keïta

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Fodéba Keïta
Minister of Defense
In office
1961–?
Personal details
BornJanuary 19, 1921
Siguiri, Guinea
DiedMay 27, 1969(1969-05-27) (aged 48)
Guinea
OccupationDancer, musician, writer, playwright, composer and politician

Fodéba Keïta (January 19, 1921 in Siguiri – May 27, 1969 at Camp Boiro) was a Guinean dancer, musician, writer, playwright, composer and politician. Founder of the first professional African theatrical troupe, Theatre Africain,[1] he also arranged Liberté, the national anthem of Guinea.

Early years

Keïta was the son of a male nurse.[2] He received his early education at the École normale supérieure William Ponty.[3]

Career

During his law studies in Paris in 1948, he founded the band Sud Jazz. Beginning in the late 1940s, he founded Théâtre Africain (later Les Ballets Africains),[4] a successful ballet group which toured Africa for six years and later became the national dance company of Guinea; then president of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor held it in high esteem.[5] With Kanté Facély and Les Ballets Africains, he became instrumental in showcasing previously unknown Mandé performance traditions to other continents as well.[6]

After returning to Guinea, he published the poetry collection Poèmes africains (1950),[3] the novel Le Maître d'école (1952), and in 1957, Keïta wrote and staged the narrative poem Aube africaine ("African Dawn")[7] as a theatre-ballet based on the Thiaroye massacre.[8] In African Dawn, a young man called Naman complies with the French colonial rulers by fighting in the French Army only to be killed in Thiaroye in Senegal, in a dispute between West-African soldiers and white officers.[9][10] However, his works were banned in French Africa as he was considered radical and anticolonial.[3]

Politically active in the

Sékou Touré from 1956, and in 1957 was elected to the Territorial Assembly.[11] In 1961, Keïta was appointed minister for defense and security. He uncovered alleged plots against Sékou Touré, but was imprisoned in the infamous Camp Boiro, a prison he himself helped construct,[12] for alleged complicity in the February 1969 Labé Plot,[3]
and was subjected to torture ("diète noire" – complete food and fluid withdrawal).

On May 27, 1969, he was shot dead without trial.[13][14]

Gallery

  • An ensemble directed by Fodéba Keïta performing in Germany (1951)
    An ensemble directed by Fodéba Keïta performing in Germany (1951)

References

  1. ISBN 0-521-43453-X
    .
  2. ^ Taylor, Sidney (1967). Reuters ltd (ed.). The New Africans: a guide to the contemporary history of emergent Africa and its leaders (Snippet view ed.). Putnam. p. 1967. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-8108-4634-9
    .
  4. ISBN 0-521-80813-8.[permanent dead link
    ]
  5. ISBN 0-275-97586-X
    .
  6. ISBN 0-226-10161-4
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-58046-330-0
    .
  8. ISBN 0-521-41139-4
    .
  9. ^ Esonwanne, Uzo (1993). "The Nation as Contested Referent". Research in African Literatures. 24 (4): 49–62.
  10. ISBN 9780226528021
    .
  11. ^ Legum, Colin (1961). Africa: a handbook to the continent. A. Blond.
  12. ISBN 1-84353-118-6
    .
  13. ^ African and Afro-American Studies and Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, 2001 "Research in African literatures, Volume 32"
  14. ISBN 3-7711-0153-0
    ,

Works cited

  • Iffono, Aly Gilbert: Lexique historique de la Guinée-Conakry, l'Harmattan, Paris, 1992.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fodéba_Keïta&oldid=1219849021"