Modibo Keïta

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Modibo Keïta (4 June 1915 – 16 May 1977) was a Malian politician who served as the first

During the late 1960s, dissatisfaction with his regime grew due to progressive economic decline and his repressive responses to dissent. He was overthrown in the 1968 Malian coup d'état by Moussa Traoré, who succeeded him as president and sent him to prison, where he died in 1977.

Youth

Keïta was born in Bamako-Coura, a neighborhood of Bamako, which was at the time the capital of French Sudan. His family were Malian Muslims who claimed direct descent from the Keita dynasty, the founders of the medieval Mali Empire. His nickname after primary schooling was Modo. He was educated in Bamako and at the école normale William-Ponty in Dakar, where he was top of his class. Beginning in 1936, he worked as a teacher in Bamako, Sikasso and Tombouctou. He married Mariam Travélé, who was also a teacher, in September 1939.

Entering politics

Modibo Keïta was involved in various associations. In 1937, he was the coordinator of the art and theater group. Along with Ouezzin Coulibaly, he helped found the Union of French West African Teachers.

Keïta joined the Communist Study Groups (GEC) cell in Bamako.

In 1943, he founded the L'oeil de Kénédougou, a magazine critical of colonial rule. This led to his imprisonment for three weeks in 1946 at the Prison de la Santé in Paris.

In 1945 Keïta was a candidate for the Constituent Assembly of the

Political life

In October 1946, the

on 20 July 1960, which consisted of French Sudan and Senegal. Senegal would later leave the federation.

President of Mali

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After the collapse of the federation, the US-RDA proclaimed the Sudanese Republic's complete independence as the Republic of Mali. Keïta became its first president, and soon afterward declared the US-RDA to be the only legal party.

President Keïta, whose

As a socialist, he led his country towards the progressive socialization of the economy; at first starting with agriculture and trade, then in October 1960 creating the SOMIEX (Malian Import and Export Company), which had a monopoly over the exports of the products of Mali, as well as manufactured and food imports (e.g. sugar, tea, powdered milk) and their distribution inside the country. The establishment of the Malian franc in 1962, and the difficulties of provisioning, resulted in a severe inflation and dissatisfaction of the population, particularly the peasants and the businessmen. The authorities were also trying to introduce tough anti-slavery policies, which persisted in some parts of the country despite the official ban.

In June 1961, he paid a state visit to the United Kingdom, where Queen

He also resolved the Conflict between Morocco and Algeria and would also try to form a union between Ghana, and Guinea and worked tirelessly to improve relations with the countries of Senegal. He would also win the Lenin Peace Prize for his attempts on rebuilding the economy of Mali with socialism. However Mali was dealing with financial and economic problems, made worse by an especially poor harvest in 1968 which would later lead to a coup.^[4]

On the political level, Modibo Keïta quickly imprisoned opponents like Fily Dabo Sissoko. The first post-independence elections, in 1964, saw a single list of 80 US-RDA candidates returned to the National Assembly, and Keïta was duly reelected to another term as president by the legislature. From 22 August 1967,^[5] he started the "revolution active" and suspended the constitution by creating the National Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (Comité national de défense de la révolution, CNDR). The exactions of the "milice populaire" (the US-RDA militia) and the devaluation of the Malian franc in 1967 brought general unrest.

On 19 November 1968, General Moussa Traoré overthrew Modibo Keïta in a coup d'état, and sent him to prison in the northern Malian town of Kidal.

After being transferred back to the capital Bamako in February 1977 in what was claimed to be an action by the government towards national reconciliation in preparation for his release,^[6] Modibo Keïta died, still a prisoner, on May 16, 1977.^[7] His reputation was rehabilitated in 1992 following the overthrow of Moussa Traoré and subsequent elections of president Alpha Oumar Konaré. A monument to Modibo Keïta was dedicated in Bamako on June 6, 1999.

As a Pan-Africanist

Modibo Keïta devoted his entire life to African unity. He first played a part in the creation of the

In 1963, he invited the king of Morocco and the president of Algeria to Bamako, in the hope of ending the

From 1963 to 1966, he normalized relations with the countries of Senegal, Upper Volta and Côte d'Ivoire. An advocate of the Non-Aligned Movement, Modibo defended the nationalist movements like the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN).

In literature

Malian author

Further reading

• Portions of this article were translated from the French-language Wikipedia article fr:Modibo Keïta.
• memorialmodibokeita.org: Biographie.
• "Modibo Keita." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 6 October 2008.
• The Big Read : Modibo Keïta: A devoted pan-africanist, The Daily Observer (Gambia), Friday, 4 September 2008.
• Francis G. Snyder. "The Political Thought of Modibo Keita". The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (May 1967), pp. 79–106
• John N. Hazard. "Mali's Socialism and the Soviet Legal Model". The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 77, No. 1 (November 1967), pp. 28–69
• Modibo Keita (1915–1977), The Presidency of South Africa (2006).
• A N'fa Diallo, Mali, 48 ans après : Socialisme, dictature, révolte et révolution. Le National (Bamako), 16 September 2008.
• 22 septembre : Le souvenir d’un grand jour. Hady Barry, Nouvel Horizon (Bamako), 19 September 2008.
• Abdrahamane Dicko, "De l’Union française à l’indépendance : Que de chemins parcourus !".
  Les Echos
  (Bamako), 19 September 2008.

Modibo Kéita: MALI. Francis Kpatindé, Jeune Afrique, 25 April 2000.

• Rosa De Jorio, "Narratives of the Nation and Democracy in Mali. A View from Modibo Keita’s Memorial",
  Cahiers d'études africaines
  , 172, 2003.
• page on the French National Assembly website

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Modibo Keita.

• modibokeita.free.fr: Site devoted to Modibo Keita : portrait, discussion, photos, and videos.
• Article du journal Le Flambeau^{[permanent dead link]} Bamako, Mali.(Organe de la Jeunesse Union Africaine – Mali): Modibo Keita "Notre liberté serait un mot vide de sens si nous devions toujours dépendre financièrement de tel ou tel pays".