Sirah Baldé

Sirah Baldé
Born	Sirah Baldé de Labé 1929 (1929) Labé, Guinea
Died	2018 (aged 88–89) Conakry, Guinea
Occupation	Novelist teacher

Sirah Baldé de Labé (1929–2018) was a Guinean novelist and teacher.

Baldé was born in Labé in 1929.[1][2] She studied to be a teacher in Rufisque, Senegal and has said that she was the first woman to teach French in the former kingdom of Fula, Imamate of Futa Jallon, during the French occupation.[1]

Baldé is best known for her 1985 novel D'un Fouta-Djalloo à l'autre (From One Futa Jalon to the Other), published by La Pensée Universelle.[3] The work was a four-volume family saga set in the 18th century and featuring themes of tribal war.[4] She appeared on the Guinean television programme Papier plume Parole in 1986 to speak about the work.[4] Like other novels authored by French-speaking African women writers (such as Awa Thiam and Henriette Diabaté) from the same period, it is written in the first person in the style of an autobiography.[5] The scholar Jean-Marie Volet noted in 2008 that the book is "almost impossible to find", but that Baldé's writing as a pioneer of French education "is most important".[6]

She died in 2018 at Conakry, and was buried at Labé.[4]

References

1. "Sirah BALDE DE LABE". Lire les femmes écrivains et les littératures africaines (in French). University of Western Australia. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
2. "Sirah Baldé de Labé (1929-2018)". BnF data. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
3. O'Toole, Thomas; Baker, Janice E. (2005). Historical Dictionary of Guinea. Volume 94 of African historical dictionaries, Scarecrow Press. p. 17. ISBN 0-8108-4634-9.
4. Keita, Mohamed Salifou (18 July 2018). "Décès d'Aissatou Sirah Baldé, pionnière de la plume guinéenne au féminin". Guineenews (in French). Retrieved 22 March 2024.
5. Yigbe, Dotsé; Assemboni, Amatso O.; Akakpo, Kuassi A. (2018). L'Afrique post/coloniale. Das post/koloniale Afrika (in French). LIT Verlag Münster. p. 56. ISBN 9783643138095. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
6. Volet, Jean-Marie (2008). "Keeping track of women writing: African penwomen of the colonial era". Lire les femmes écrivains et les littératures africaines. University of Western Australia. Retrieved 22 March 2024.

External links

• Profile (in French) on the Lire les femmes écrivains et les littératures africaines website