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Bernard Dadié

Biography

Bernard Dadié was born in 1916 in Assinie, near Abidjan. His father was a farmer. After studying in his home country, he went to Senegal for his higher education where he wrote plays and become involved in politics, fighting for the end of colonialism. He was imprisoned and he wrote an autobiography while in prison. After prison, he took an interest in African folklore and started writing novels and stories. He was Minister for Culture in his home country from 1977 to 1986. He described some of his novels as chronicles, as they focus on seeing other cultures from the point of view of his own and it is for these that he will be best remembered.

Other links

Bernard Dadié
Birago Diop and Bernard Dadié
Bernard Dadié (in French)
Bernard Dadié (in French)
Bernard Dadié (in French)
Bernard Dadié (in French)
Un siècle de négritude avec Bernard Binlin Dadié (in French)
Bernard Dadié, «patron» des lettres africaines (in French)
La crise ivoirienne (article by Dadié – in French)

Bibliography

1936 Assemien Dehyle, roi du Sanwi: Précédé de Mon pays et son théâtre (drama)
1950 Afrique debout (poetry)
1953 Climbié (Climbié) (novel)
1954 Légendes africaines (stories)
1955 Le Pagne noir (The Black Cloth: A Collection of African Folktales) (stories)
1956 La Ronde des jours (poetry)
1956 Patron de New York (One Way: Bernard Dadie Observes America) (novel)
1959 Un Nègre à Paris (An African in Paris) (novel)
1967 Hommes de tous les continents (poetry)
1968 La Ville où nul ne meurt (The City Where No One Dies) (chronicle)
1970 Monsieur Thôgô-Gnini (Monsieur Thôgô-gnini) (drama)
1973 Iles de Tempête: Pièce en sept tableaux (drama)
1975 Papassidi, maître-escroc (drama)
1979 Mhoi cheul (drama)
1979 Opinions d’un nègre: Aphorismes, 1934-1946 (essays)
1980 Commandant Taureault et ses nègres (stories)
1980 Les Jambes du fils de Dieu (stories)
1981 Carnet de prison (autobiography)
1982 Les Contes de Koutou-As-Samala (stories)
1984 Carnet de prison
1992 Hommages et études
1995 Béatrice du Congo (drama)
2004 Cailloux blancs: allocutions et articles 1993-2004 (essays)
2005 Naissance d’une nation: 1999-2005 (essay)