Massa Makan Diabaté

Massa Makan Diabaté was born on 12 June 1938 in Kita, into a line of griots, and his uncle Kélé Monson Diabaté began to train him in the spoken word. The apprenticeship was interrupted for school, in Guinea and then in Paris, where he studied history and sociology. Back in Mali, he held a post in the administration in Bamako and published French versions of Malinke epics, then novels. A prize from the Dakar foundation that bears the name of the Senegalese poet-president crowned his novel trilogy in 1987. He died in Bamako on 27 January 1988.

In the catalogue 1

• EpicJanjon et autres chants populaires du MaliMassa Makan Diabaté · 1970not translated into EnglishLiterature