Fily-Dabo Sissoko

Sissoko, Fily-Dabo (1900-64). Malian writer. A schoolteacher and later chef de canton, he made his first trip to France when he was elected Socialist député for the French Sudan to the French National Assembly in 1945. His main contributions to literature are a collection of Malinké proverbs translated into French, Sagesse noire (1953); a collection of brief portraits of local people, Crayons et portraits (1953), inspired by La Bruyère; and his memoirs, La Savane rouge (1962), awarded a prize at the Black Arts Festival in 1965. Imprisoned and condemned to hard labour by the Malian president Modibo Keita, Sissoko died in jail in 1964.

[Firinne Ni Chréach´in]