Aminata Zaaria

Aminata Sophie Dièye (1973 – February 17, 2016) was a Senegalese journalist, novelist, and playwright.

She is best known for her weekly newspaper column under the pen name Ndèye Takhawalou and her Prix Emmanuel Roblès-winning 2004 novel La nuit est tombée sur Dakar, published under the pseudonym Aminata Zaaria.

Early life Aminata Sophie Dièye was born in 1973 in Thiès, Senegal, into a Sufi Muslim family. Her father was a traveling tax inspector and was not present during her childhood.

At age 21, she left home, moving to the island of Ngor in Dakar. There, she began writing for the newspaper Sud Quotidien.

Career Dièye's pursuit of writing was inspired by her mother, who also loved to write.

Journalism After working for Sud Quotidien, Dièye began writing a weekly column in , Senegal's most-read daily newspaper, under the pen name Ndèye Takhawalou. She would continue to write the column until her death, and it was a popular feature of the publication's Saturday issue. Some literary critics have described it as semi-autobiographical, with the narrator representing Dièye in her early years in the capital.

Theater In 2000, Dièye wrote the play Consulat Zénéral. A satire of African society, it takes place in a French consulate, where the characters wait anxiously for visa approval. The play was performed on a tour across five African countries. Mad died of cancer the following year, leaving her a widow at only 32 years old.

After her husband's death, Dièye returned to Senegal. His death and other traumas left her in a fragile state, and she spent time in a psychiatric hospital in Thiès, which she openly chronicled in L'Obs.

Aminata Dièye died overnight of untreated diabetes on February 17, 2016, at age 42.

She left two unpublished novels on her premature death. While there were plans to posthumously publish one of these drafts, tentatively titled L’épitaphe signée Vénus, both works remain unpublished.