Sotigui Kouyaté

Sotigui Kouyaté (19 July 1936 – 17 April 2010) was one of the first Malian Burkinabé actors. He was the father of film director Dani Kouyaté, of the storyteller and of the actor The Kouyatés guard customs, and their knowledge is authoritative among Mandinkas. When he was a child, he enjoyed performances. When asked in an October 2001 interview whether he felt he was carrying a message from Africa, he replied:

Let’s be modest. Africa is vast, and it would be pretentious to speak in its name. I’m fighting the battle with words because I’m a storyteller, a griot. Rightly or wrongly, they call us masters of the spoken word. Our duty is to encourage the West to appreciate Africa more. It’s also true that many Africans don’t really know their own continent. And if you forget your culture, you lose sight of yourself. It is said that “the day you no longer know where you’re going, just remember where you came from.” Our strength lies in our culture. Everything I do as a storyteller, a griot, stems from this rooting and openness.

Sotigui Kouyate: A Modern Griot

Director: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun From: Chad/France Year: 1996 Minutes:58 Language: French with English subtitles Genre: Documentary Official selection, African Diaspora Film Festival 2007

When casting The Mahabharata, director Peter Brook's assistant selected actor Sotigui Kouyaté for the lead role of Bhishma. Born in 1936 in Bamako (Mali), Kouyaté was a member of a griot family, a lineage traditionally responsible for oral history, mediation, and musical performance. Throughout his career, he has worked as a composer, dancer, and actor, passing these professional practices down to his children and students across the world. He has appeared in approximately 60 films, including Sia The Dream of the Python directed by his son Dany Kouyate and Names Live Nowhere, a film documenting African immigrants in Belgium.

The 1995 documentary Sotigui Kouyate: a Modern Griot profiles the life and career of the Paris-based African actor and musician. Through interviews by Peter Brook, Jean-Claude Carriere, Jean-Pierre Guigane and Sotigui Kouyate himself, the film details his work across Africa and Europe as an actor, musician and modern griot. The documentary won an ACCT award at the Amiens Film Festival, 1996.

In an article for the UNESCO Courier, journalist Cynthia Guttman characterized his career as a cross-cultural effort to "break ignorance of Africa's living traditions and spark encounters across continents".

Selected filmography

2008: London River 2007: Faro, Goddess of the Waters 2005: The Ring Finger 2004: Genesis (2004 film) 2002: Dirty Pretty Things (film) 2001: Sia, The Dream of the Python 2001: Little Senegal (film) 1999: Genesis (1999 film) 1997: Keïta! l'Héritage du griot 1996: The Human Plant 1993: Lost in Transit 1992: Golem, the Spirit of the Exile 1992: IP5: L'île aux pachydermes 1989: The Mahabharata 1973: Toula ou Le génie des eaux 1972: Women Cars Villas Money