Amadou hampate ba biography

Malian writer, historian and ethnologist

Amadou Hampâté Bâ (Fula: 𞤀𞤸𞤥𞤢𞤣𞤵 𞤖𞤢𞤥𞤨𞤢𞥄𞤼𞤫 𞤄𞤢𞥄, romanized: Ahmadu Hampaate Baa, 1900/1901 – 15 May 1991) was a Malian writer, historian, and ethnologist.

Amadou hampate ba biography

He was an influential figure in the twentieth-century African literature and cultural heritage. A champion of Africa's oral tradition and traditional knowledge, he is remembered for the saying: "whenever an old man dies, it is as though a library were burning down" ("un vieillard qui meurt, c'est une bibliothèque qui brûle").^[1]

Biography

Amadou Hampâté Bâ was born to an aristocratic Fula family in Bandiagara, the largest city in Dogon territory, and the capital of the precolonial Masina Empire.

At the time of his birth, the area was known as French Sudan as part of the colonial French West Africa, which was formally established a few years before his birth. After his father's death, he was adopted by his mother's second h