WRITERS from Mali

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Malian Writers of all time. This list of famous Malian Writers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900 - 1991)

With an HPI of 51.70, Amadou Hampâté Bâ is the most famous Malian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages on wikipedia.

Amadou Hampâté Bâ (Fula: 𞤀𞤸𞤥𞤢𞤣𞤵 𞤖𞤢𞤥𞤨𞤢𞥄𞤼𞤫 𞤄𞤢𞥄, romanized: Ahmadu Hampaate Baa, 1900/1901 – 15 May 1991) was a Malian writer, historian and ethnologist. He was an influential figure in twentieth-century African literature and cultural heritage. He was a champion of Africa's oral tradition and traditional knowledge and is remembered for the saying: "whenever an old man dies, it is as though a library were burning down" ("un vieillard qui meurt, c'est une bibliothèque qui brûle").

2. Yambo Ouologuem (1940 - 2017)

With an HPI of 46.41, Yambo Ouologuem is the 2nd most famous Malian Writer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Yambo Ouologuem (August 22, 1940 – October 14, 2017) was a Malian writer. His first novel, Le devoir de violence (English: Bound to Violence, 1968), won the Prix Renaudot. He later published Lettre à la France nègre (1969), and Les mille et une bibles du sexe (1969) under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph. Le devoir de violence was initially well-received, but critics later charged that Ouologuem had plagiarized passages from Graham Greene and other established authors such as André Schwartz-Bart. Ouologuem turned away from the Western press as a result of the matter, and remained reclusive for the rest of his life.