Bernard Binlin Dadié (January 10, 1916 – March 9, 2019) was an Ivorian novelist, playwright, poet, and politician, a prominent figure in Ivorian and African literature. He was born in Assinie, Ivory Coast, and attended the local Catholic school in Grand Bassam and then the Ecole William Ponty. After school, he worked for the French government in Dakar, Senegal, at the French Institute of Africa, and then returned to his homeland in 1947 and became a member of the independence movement. Before the independence of Ivory Coast in 1960, he was imprisoned for sixteen months for participating in protests against the French colonial government.
In 1956, Dadié published his first novel, "Climbié." The book was a great success and established him as one of the leading writers of his generation. He went on to write many other novels, including "Un nègre à Paris" (A Negro in Paris), which won the Charles Veillon Prize in 1959. He also wrote plays, poetry, and essays. Influenced by his experiences, Dadié explored themes of African identity, colonialism, and social injustice, while also attempting to connect the messages of traditional African folktales with the contemporary world."
Apart from his literary career, he was actively involved in politics and was a member of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain, a pan-African political party, and served in the Ivory Coast government as Minister of Culture from 1977 to 1986. During his lifetime, he received many awards and distinctions such as the Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique Noire in 1962 and the UNESCO Literature Prize in 1970. Dadié turned 100 in January 2016 and passed away in Abidjan in March 2019.
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