Bernard Binlin Dadié

Bernard Binlin Dadié (or sometimes Bernard Dadie) (born 1916 near Abidjan) is a prolific Ivorian novelist, playwright, poet, and ex-administrator. Among many other senior positions, starting in 1957, he held the post of Minister of Culture in the government of Côte d'Ivoire from 1977 to 1986.

He worked for the French government in Dakar, Senegal, but on returning to his homeland in 1947, became part of its movement for independence. Before Côte d'Ivoire's independence in 1960, he was detained for sixteen months for taking part in demonstrations which opposed the French colonial government.

In his writing, influenced by his experiences of colonialism as a child, Dadié attempts to connect the messages of traditional African folktales with the contemporary world. With Germain Coffi Gadeau and F. J. Amon d'Aby, he founded the Cercle Culturel et Folklorique de la Côte d'Ivoire (CCFCI) in 1953.^[1] His humanism and desire for the equality and independence of Africans and their culture is also prevalent.

Main Works

• Afrique debout (1950)
• Légendes africaines (1954)
• Le pagne noir (1955)
• La ronde des jours (1956)
• Climbié (1956)
• Un Nègre à Paris (1959)
• Patron de New York (1964)
• Hommes de tous les continents (1967)
• La ville où nul ne meurt (1969)
• Monsieur Thôgô-Gnini (1970)
• Les voix dans le vent (1970)
• Béatrice du Congo (1970)
• Îles de tempête (1973)
• Papassidi maître-escroc (1975)
• Mhoi cheul (1979)
• Opinions d'un nègre (1979)
• Les belles histoires de Kacou Ananzè
• Commandant Taureault et ses nègres (1980)
• Les jambes du fils de Dieu (1980)
• Carnets de prison (1981) - details his time in prison
• Les contes de Koutou-as-Samala (1982)

Famous for his work I Thank You, God

"I thank you God for creating me black, For having made me the total of all sorrows, and set upon my head The World. I wear the lively of the Centaur And I carry the world since the first morning.

White is a colour improvised for an occasion Black, the colour of all days And I carry the World since the first evening.

I am happy with the shape of my head fashioned to carry the World, satisfied With the shape of my nose, which should breathe all the air of the World, happy With the form of my legs prepared to run through all the stages of the World.

I thank you God for creating me black For making of me Porter of all sorrows..

Still I am Glad to carry the World, Glad of my short arms Of my long arms Of the thickness of my lips..

I thank you God for creating me black White is a colour for special occasions Black the colour for every day And i have carried the World since the dawn of time And my laugh over the World, through the night, creates the Day.

I thank you, God for creating me black

translated by:Ibe Nwoga

References

• Bernard Dadié: les couleurs du monde

External links

• Another bibliography (in French)
• Reviews of One Way: Bernard Dadie Observes America, and An African in Paris

Persondata
Name	Dadie, Bernard
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Date of birth	1916
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