- Sotigui Kouyaté
Sotigui Kouyaté (born c. 1936) is one of the first
Burkinabé actors.citation|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1349_whoswho/page5.shtml|title=Who's Who at Fespaco: Dani Kouyaté|date=2005|newspaper=BBC News |accessdate=2008-08-24] He is the father of film directorDani Kouyaté and is a member of the Mandinka ethnic group.Kouyatés have served as
griots for the Keita clan since the 13th century.Harvnb|Gugler|2003|p=38] The Kouyatés guard customs, and their knowledge is authoritative amongst Mandinkas. Keitas have to provide amenities to Kouyatés, who in turn should not hesitate to ask for Keita help. The word Kouyaté translates as "there is a secret between you and me".Sotigui Kouyaté was born in
Mali toGambia n parents and is Burkinabé by adoption.citation|url=http://www.unesco.org/courier/2001_10/uk/dires.htm |title=Sotigui Kouyaté : The wise man of the stage |last=Guttman|first=Cynthia|newspaper=UNESCO Courier|date=October 2001|accessdate=2008-08-24] When he was a child, he enjoyedkoteba performances. He once played on theBurkina Faso national football team . Kouyaté began his theatre career in 1966, when he appeared as adviser to the king in a historical play produced by his friend Boubacar Dicko. That year, he founded a theatre company in 1966 with 25 people and soon wrote his first play, "The Crocodile’s Lament".Kouyaté worked with
Peter Brook in his theater and film projects since the became associated with one another in the Indian epic, "The Mahabharata ", in 1983. Kouyaté has appeared in over two dozen films, most recently as Jacob in "Genesis" and Alioune in "Little Senegal". Kouyaté played the central role of Djeliba Kouyaté in Dani Kouyaté's 1995 film "Keïta! l'Héritage du griot ", who was imagined as an old dying man by his son, though was portrayed as more forceful than that. The elder Kouyaté also plays instruments, simple melodies on thekora orflute .From 1990 to 1996 Kouyaté toured the United States and Europe as part of La Voix du Griot ("Voice of the Griot"), a storytelling theater show which he founded.citation|url=http://spot.pcc.edu/~mdembrow/sia.htm|title=SIA: THE MYTH OF THE PYTHON|last=Dembrow|first=Michael|journal=
Portland Community College |accessdate=2008-08-24] When asked in an October 2001 interview whether he felt he was carrying a message to Africa, he replied:Notes
References
*citation|last=Gugler|first=Josef|title=African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=
Bloomington, Indiana |date=2003|isbn=0253216435|oclc=52520253
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