Fodéba Keïta

Born in Siguiri, 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).

On May 27, 1969, he was shot dead without trial.^[13][14]