Baba Wagué Diakité
, b. 1961
Baba Wagué Diakité was born in 1961, in Bamako, Mali in West Africa. His mother named him “Wagué,” or “Man of Trust,” after his maternal grandfather. He spent his early childhood with his grandmother in the village of Kassaro where his earliest education started. He later joined his mother in Bamako, where he began his formal education in a French school. “He maintains that his best education came from stories that were told to him by his grandmother and mother about animals and the First People”*.
“Though Diakité was always artistically inclined, he did not begin the work for which he is known until after he moved to Portland, Oregon in the United States in 1985”** where he met artist Ronna Neuenschwander, whom he married; the couple have two daughters. His first children’s book The Hunterman and the Crocodile was published by Scholastic Press in 1997 and received a Coretta Scott King Honor Book Award. “He has illustrated numerous children’s books including The Pot of Wisdom and Jamari’s Drum for Groundwood Books of Canada”***.
“He is the founder and director of the Ko-Falen Cultural Centre in Bamako, Mali, which enables artists and travellers from other countries to live, meet, study, and collaborate with artists of Mali”****. Together with his wife and their two daughters, they divide their time between two homes: Portland, Oregon, and Bamako, Mali.
* “About Wagué”, Baba Wagué Diakité website, babawague.wordpress.com(accessed: July 30, 2021).
** "Baba Wague Diakite”, Art in Embassies. U.S. Department of State website, art.state.gov (accessed: July 30, 2021).
*** “About Wagué”, Baba Wagué Diakité website, babawague.wordpress.com(accessed: July 30, 2021).
**** “Radiozine on 02/22/13”, KBOO fm website, kboo.fm (accessed: July 30, 2021).
Sources:
Official website (accessed: July 30, 2021).
art.state.gov (accessed: July 30, 2021).
kboo.fm (accessed: July 30, 2021).
Bio prepared by Eleanor A. Dasi, University of Yaounde I, wandasi5@yahoo.com
Records in database:
