Hawa Keita

Aoua KE?TA (http://www.abamako.com ())

"Aoua Keita was born in Bamako in 1912. Aged 11, she enrolled in the first school for girls opened in Mali by the French administration and, in 1928, she was admitted to the School of Medicine in Dakar where she graduated as a nurse in 1931. From that time, she worked as a midwife in various parts of the Colony. It is however as a political activist and later, as an elected member of Mali's first Parliament that she is better remembered. Her interest in political issues began in 1935, shortly after her marriage to Daouda Diawara, a young doctor very much interested in politics. Keen to share his ideas with his wife, he always considered Aoua as "an equal partner" (p.50). In 1945 the couple joined the newly formed Union Soudanaise - Rassemblement Democratique Africain (USRDA), a progressive political party fighting for Mali's independence from France."("La vie d'Aoua Keita raconta par elle-même", an autobiography. )

Wise activist-woman, she is dedicated body and soul to the service of others; it serves in several circles of the French Sudan Gao, Tougan, Kayes, Niono; Kokry, Markala, Nara. Aoua was an awakening of consciences, the only woman, or almost, to know how to read, in the middle of a crowd of illiterates, she played a special role in Gao where, returned after fifteen years of absence, she succeeds with the other women, to help an administration exceeded, to counter the repression which was trying to influence the legislative elections of 1951. Thanks to her knowledge of the Act. Awa obtains to unblock the electoral cartes and send them through the network of the women of the country.

Downgraded by the colonial administration and assigned in Casamance, nothing seems to stop the determination of this active militant. With Aissata Sow, she founded the Union of employed women of Bamako. Her political career completed by the change of political regime, she writes in 1975 Woman of Africa, a autobiographical book which is worth to him the Grand Prix litteraire of Black Africa. She died in 1979 of the suites of arterial high blood pressure.

Exceptional woman, Aoua Keita will influence several generations of African. A women training center called "Centre Aoua Keita" has been dedicated to her to make her a monument.