Keïta Fodéba
Born in Siguiri, in Guinea, on 19 January 1921, Keïta Fodéba was a politician, a playwright, a composer, a choreographer, a poet and a writer committed to condemning colonial arbitrary behaviour, like the massacre of African soldiers, known as the “Senegalese riflemen” in Thiaroye-sur-mer (Senegal). He introduced a pedagogical and narrative style to serving his cause, in quite innocent forms, and had the ability to let others experience the dramas of colonial Africa, which he had lived through, by exposing these dramas to them from their most mundanely human perspective. In 1948, in Paris (France), hand-in-hand with the Cameroonian singer Albert Mouangué and the Guinean guitarist Kanté Facelli, Keïta Fodéba founded the Fodéba-Facelli-Mouangué Ensemble, which would go on to become known as the Théâtre Africain de Keïta Fodéba in 1949, then Les Ballets Africains de Keïta Fodéba in 1950, and Les Ballets Africains de la République de Guinée when the country gained its independence on 2 October 1958. Charged with conspiracy in 1969, along with his younger brother Bakary Keïta and many other well-known figures, Keita Fodeba was arrested and imprisoned in the Camp Boiro in Conakry, which he, himself, had actually helped create. Subjected to the “diète noire” (black diet, deprived of food and water), Keïta Fodéba, who co-wrote the Guinean national anthem with Jacques Cellier was shot dead on 27 May 1969.
Source : Afrisson.com