Sirah Baldé de Labé (1929–2018) was a

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

n novelist and teacher. Baldé was born in

Labé Labé ( Pular: 𞤂𞤢𞤦𞤫) is the main city and administrative capital of the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea. It has a population of about 200,000. It is the second largest city in the country after the capital Conakry in terms of economic i ...

in 1929. She studied to be a teacher in

Rufisque Rufisque (; Wolof: Tëngeéj) is a city in the Dakar region of western Senegal, at the base of the Cap-Vert Peninsula east of Dakar, the capital. It has a population of 295,459 (2023 census).

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

and has said that she was the first woman to teach French in the former kingdom of

Fula Fula may refer to: *Fula people (or Fulani, Fulɓe) *Fula language (or Pulaar, Fulfulde, Fulani) **The Fula variety known as the Pulaar language **The Fula variety known as the Pular language **The Fula variety known as Maasina Fulfulde *Fula alpha ...

Imamate of Futa Jallon The Imamate of Futa Jallon or Jalon (; or ' , ), sometimes referred to as the Emirate of Timbo, was a West African Islamic state based in the Fouta Djallon highlands of modern Guinea. The state was founded in 1725 by a Fulani jihad and became ...

, during the French occupation. 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. The work was a four-volume family saga set in the 18th century and featuring themes of tribal war. She appeared on the Guinean television programme ''Papier plume Parole'' in 1986 to speak about the work. Like other novels authored by French-speaking African women writers (such as

Awa Thiam Awa Thiam (born 1950) is a Senegalese politician, academic, writer, and activist. She serves as Senegal's Director of the National Center for Assistance and Training of Women under the Ministry of Women and Children. She is an advocate against ...

and Henriette Diabaté) from the same period, it is written in the first person in the style of an autobiography. 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". She died in 2018 at

Conakry Conakry ( , ; ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guinea. A port city, it serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea. Its population as of the 2014 Guinea census was 1,660,973. The current population of C ...

, and was buried at Labé.

References

External links

Profile (in French)
on the ''Lire les femmes écrivains et les littératures africaines'' website Guinean women writers 1929 births 2018 deaths People from Labé Guinean novelists Guinean women novelists 20th-century novelists 20th-century women writers Guinean schoolteachers Guinean writers in French {{Guinea-writer-stub