Boubou Hama

Who is Boubou Hama?

Boubou Hama was born in 1906 in Fonéko, in what was then French West Africa, and grew up to become one of independent Niger's most influential intellectuals and public servants. He served as President of Niger's National Assembly from 1958 to 1974 and as mayor of the capital, Niamey, from 1959 to 1966, working closely alongside President Hamani Diori as a trusted political adviser often described as the quiet strategist behind Diori's government. Beyond politics, Hama was a prolific writer and self-taught historian who devoted much of his life to recording and preserving the oral traditions, languages, and histories of Niger's peoples at a time when much of this knowledge existed only in spoken form. His autobiography, Kotia-Nima, won the Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 1971, the same year an essay of his on African education earned the Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize. He took part in the landmark 1956 First International Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris alongside figures such as Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon, and later served on UNESCO's Scientific Committee for the General History of Africa project from 1971 to 1978. He died in Niamey on 29 January 1982; the country's national museum and a literary prize bear his name in tribute to his lasting contribution to Nigerien letters and history.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Boubou Hama" · Musée National Boubou Hama, museum profile · Afrique Destinations, "Boubou Hama: one of the great figures of literature and African independence"