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Guinean entertainer and politician (1921–1969) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fodéba Keïta (January 19, 1921 in Siguiri – May 27, 1969 at Camp Boiro) was a Guinean dancer, musician, writer, playwright, composer and politician. Founder of the first professional African theatrical troupe, Theatre Africain,[1] he also arranged Liberté, the national anthem of Guinea.
Keïta was the son of a male nurse.[2] He received his early education at the École normale supérieure William Ponty.[3]
During his law studies in Paris in 1948, he founded the band Sud Jazz. Beginning in the late 1940s, he founded Théâtre Africain (later Les Ballets Africains),[4] a successful ballet group which toured Africa for six years and later became the national dance company of Guinea; then president of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor held it in high esteem.[5] With Kanté Facély and Les Ballets Africains, he became instrumental in showcasing previously unknown Mandé performance traditions to other continents as well.[6]
After returning to Guinea, he published the poetry collection Poèmes africains (1950),[3] the novel Le Maître d'école (1952), and in 1957, Keïta wrote and staged the narrative poem Aube africaine ("African Dawn")[7] as a theatre-ballet based on the Thiaroye massacre.[8] In African Dawn, a young man called Naman complies with the French colonial rulers by fighting in the French Army only to be killed in Thiaroye in Senegal, in a dispute between West-African soldiers and white officers.[9][10] However, his works were banned in French Africa as he was considered radical and anticolonial.[3]
Politically active in the African Democratic Rally, Keïta worked closely with Guinea's first president Sékou Touré from 1956, and in 1957 was elected to the Territorial Assembly.[11] In 1961, Keïta was appointed minister for defense and security. He uncovered alleged plots against Sékou Touré, but was imprisoned in the infamous Camp Boiro, a prison he himself helped construct,[12] for alleged complicity in the February 1969 Labé Plot,[3] and was subjected to torture ("diète noire" – complete food and fluid withdrawal).
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