Bernard Dadié

Who is Bernard Dadié?

Bernard Binlin Dadié was a foundational figure of Ivorian and Francophone African literature, working across the novel, poetry, theatre, and essay across a career that spanned nearly the entire twentieth century. Born in Assinie, he studied and later worked at the Institut Français d'Afrique Noire in Dakar, where he began writing seriously in the 1930s and 1940s. As a young man he was imprisoned for his role in anti-colonial political activism ahead of independence, an experience that shaped his later writing on freedom and dignity. His autobiographical novel "Climbié" (1956) and the satirical travel narrative "Un Nègre à Paris" (1959), which used a visiting African narrator to comment wryly on French society, established him as a major literary voice, alongside several volumes of poetry and plays. After Côte d'Ivoire's independence he served the new state directly, holding the post of Minister of Culture under President Félix Houphouët-Boigny for many years while continuing to publish. He lived to the age of 103, dying in 2019, and is remembered as an elder statesman of African letters whose work bridged the colonial and independence eras.

Sources: Bernard Dadié, Climbié (Éditions Seghers, 1956) · Bernard Dadié, Un Nègre à Paris (Présence Africaine, 1959)