Falaba Issa Traoré (1930 – August 8, 2003) was a

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

an writer,

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

, and

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

and

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. Born in

Bougouni Bougouni is a commune and city in Mali, the administrative center of Bougouni Cercle, which is in turn found in the administrative region of Sikasso. Bougouni is located 170 km south of Bamako and 210 km west of the city of Sikass ...

, Traoré directed an amateur theater troupe before taking over direction of the regional troupe of

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

between 1962 and 1968. From 1969 to 1973, he created and directed the Yankadi troupe for

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

and the dramatic arts. In 1973, he traveled to Germany to study

cinema Cinema may refer to: Film * Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of moving image ** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking ** Filmmaking, the process of making a film * Movie theate ...

direction. On returning to Mali in 1976, he directed the cinema division of the Ministry of Sports, Arts, and Culture. As a comedian, Traoré played notable roles in the films of Kalifa Dienta (''A Banna''), of

Cheick Oumar Sissoko Cheick Oumar Sissoko (born 1945 in San, Mali) is a Malian film director and politician. Biography As a student in Paris, Cheick Oumar Sissoko obtained a DEA in African History and Sociology and a diploma in History and Cinema from the Ecole des ...

(''Nidiougou Guimba''), and of Boubacar Sidibé (''le pacte social'', ''Sanoudié'', and ''N'Tronkélé''). He worked also as a director, making his first film, ''Juguifolo'' (''First Gleam of Hope''), in 1979, and his last, Bamunan (''The Sacred Pagne'') in 1990. Falaba Issa Traoré is the author of the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s ''Soundiata ou l'épopée mandingue'' and ''Dah Monzon ou l'épopée Bambara''. In 1972, Traoré won the prix Afrique de Poésie de la Francophonie. He died in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, on August 8, 2003.

Filmography

* 1979 ''Juguifolo'' (''First Gleam of Hope'') * 1980 ''Anbé no don'' (''We Are All Guilty'') * 1980 ''Kiri Kara Watita'' (''Duel on the Cliffs'') * 1990 ''Bamunan'' (''The Sacred Pagne'').

Bibliography

* 1970 ''Contes et récits du terroir''

External links

1930 births 2003 deaths Malian dramatists and playwrights Malian male writers Male dramatists and playwrights Malian film directors People from Sikasso Region 20th-century dramatists and playwrights Malian male film actors 20th-century Malian male actors 20th-century male writers 21st-century Malian people Malian male actors {{Africa-film-director-stub