Lamine Diakhaté

Lamine Diakhaté (born September 16, 1928 in Saint-Louis , † January 25, 1987 in Paris ) was a Senegalese politician and diplomat as well as a writer , poet and literary critic of the Négritude school.

Life

Lamine Diakhaté, who came from a very respected and nationally known family in Senegal, was born on September 16, 1928 in Saint-Louis. After his death on January 25, 1987 in Paris, he was buried on February 2, 1987 in the Islamic cemetery of Yoff in Dakar .

The poet-president of Senegal Léopold Sédar Senghor became aware of the young Lamine very early on. He had attended schools in Louga and Saint-Louis before universities in Katigoubou in Sudan and Dakar as well as Paris accepted him as a student. During his studies he obtained diplomas in oriental languages, phonetics , literature and general linguistics. He then completed training as a journalist and editor.

Positions and offices

He later held important positions in France and Senegal. He was like that at times

• Head of the Division d'Information de la Société de Radiodiffusion de la France d'Outre-Mer (SORAFOM) in Paris,
• Director of Radiodiffusion of Senegal (SORAFOM and Government of Senegal) as well
• Director of the information department of Radio de la Fédération du Mali.

The tasks entrusted to him meant that Lamine Diakhaté wrote numerous articles in magazines such as Afrique en Marche (Paris), Condition Humaine (Dakar), Dakar Matin and Le Soleil (Dakar). As a close associate of President Senghor, he held the office of one

• Chef du Cabinet de la Présidence du Sénégal. Later he became
• Minister for Information, Telecommunications and Tourism as well
• Ambassador of Senegal to Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco , as well
• Conseiller ou Délégué Permanent Adjoint du Sénégal at UNESCO in Paris.

At the same time, Lamine Diakhaté was also a black African author and poet 'd'expression francaise' and an important representative of the above-mentioned Négritude school. By this literary movement he understood the effort to give a voice to the traditions and values ​​of black African culture. It was connected with the intention of participating in the development of a universal humanism in cooperation with other civil societies. As a literary critic, Lamine Diakhaté endeavored to enforce the ideas originally formulated or expressed by Aimé Césaire , Léon-Gontran Damas and Léopold Sédar Senghor. He introduced his readers to the works of authors from the Négritude School and analyzed and criticized the works of others who did not admit to her. In addition to Aimé Césaire and Alioune Diop , Lamine Diakhaté was also one of five members of the management committee of the Editions Présences Africaines in Paris. Some of his poetic works were later published in this publishing house. Several of his scientific articles have appeared in the journal Présence Africaine . For several years he was also secretary for cultural affairs (Secrétaire Culturel) of the Societé Africaine de Culture (SAC).

Meetings and festivals

As part of all of his functions, Lamine Diakhaté took part in numerous festivals and conferences in Africa, Europe and Asia. For example, he visited the

• Biennales Internationales de Poésie , including the V. and XII. Knokke-le-Zoute Biennial in Belgium (September 1961, 1975), the
• Première and Troisième Biennale de la Langue Francaise in Namur and Liège , Belgium.
• In 1965 and 1969, the Colloques des Ecrivains Afro-Scandinaves in Stockholm, Sweden, den
• Congrès des Ecrivains Afro-Asiatiques in Beirut, Lebanon, in March 1967. He also attended
• Festival Poétique de Struga , Ex-Yugoslavia, in August 1976, the
• Fourth World Congress of Poets in Seoul, Korea, July 2-7, 1976 and on
• 15è Congrès de l'Union Internationale des Journalistes et de la Presse de Langue Francaise in Paris from September 29 to October 6, 1976.

He was also one of the co-organizers several times, for example the Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres from 1. – 24. April 1966 in Dakar, the Féstival Culturel Panafricain d'Alger in 1969, the Journées Culturelles Africaines de Turin , Italy, in April 1967, the Colloque sur la Négritude in Dakar, Senegal, in April 1971, and the Introduction à la Poésie de LS Senghor in Casablanca , Morocco, April 1974.

Prizes and awards

• Lamine Diakhaté's services as auteur et poète noire africain d'expression francaise have been formally recognized several times. For example, the 'Societé des Gens de Lettres de France' elected him to its member in November 1976.

In addition, he was awarded two literary prizes, the:

• Prix ​​Edgar Poe for 1971, awarded by the 'Maison de la Poésie' in Paris, as well as the
• Grand Prix littéraire de l'Afrique noire 1979 for his novel Chalys d'Harlem .

Works

• La joie d'un continent . Editions PAB, Alès 1954.
• Sarzan . 'Liaisons', numéro spécial, 'L'Afrique nouvelle'. Dakar 1955.
• Pour la jeune fille de soie noire . In: Présence Africaine . 2ème série no.3, 1955, p. 48.
• Primordiale du sixième jour . Editions Présence Africaine, Paris 1963.
• Temps de mémoire . Editions Présence Africaine, Paris 1967.
• Prisonnier du regard .
  • 'Présence Africaine', nouvelle série bilingue no. 65, 1968, pp. 144-155;
  • Nouvelles Editions Africaines, Dakar 1975.
• Nigerianes . Nouvelles Editions Africaines, Dakar / Abidjan 1974.
• Lecture Libre de 'Lettres d'hivernage' et d'Hosties noires' de Léopold Sédar Senghor . Nouvelles Editions Africaines, Dakar 1976.
• Chalys d'Harlem . Nouvelles Editions Africaines, Dakar 1978.
• Terres médianes . Edition Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris 1984.
• Le Sahelien de Lagos . Nouvelles Editions Africaines, Dakar 1984.