Seydou Badian Kouyaté

Seydou Badian Kouyaté (born in 1928) is a Malian writer and politician.^[1]

Life

Born in Bamako, Kouyaté studied medicine at the University of Montpellier in France before returning to Mali. Under president Modibo Keïta, he wrote the words for Mali's national anthem, Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali. In the Plan of September 17, 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 deported to Kidal before being exiled to Dakar, in Senegal. Associated from its beginning with the Sudanese Union-African Democratic Rally, he was removed from the party in 1998 for having opposed part of its plan to refuse recognition to certain institutions participating in contested elections.

Kouyaté is also internationally known as a writer; even before Mali's independence, in 1957, he had published his first novel, Sous l'orage. This was followed by two other novels, Le Sang des masques in 1976 and Noces sacrées in 1977. In 2007 his novel La Saison des pièges was published.

Works

• 1957 : Sous l’orage
• 1965 : Les Dirigeants africains face à leurs peuples, Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire
• 1976 : Le Sang des masques
• 1977 : Noces sacrées
• 2007 : La Saison des pièges, Nouvelles éditions ivoiriennes and Présence africaine

References