Fily Dabo Sissoko

Fily Dabo Sissoko was a Malian author and political leader, born 15 May 1900 at Horokoto (French Soudan, now in Mali's Bafoulabé Cercle). He died 30 June 1964, imprisoned at Kidal. Fily Dabo Sissoko is chiefly remembered as one of the most influential political leaders of pre-independence Mali, primary conservative rival to Mali's first President Modibo Keita, and an influential writer of the Negritude movement.

Sissoko was of Khassonké ethnicity and he was the son of a local traditional ruler, Dabo Sissoko received his primary education at nearby Bafoulabé, before winning a place at the elite École normale supérieure William Ponty in Gorée (Senegal).

He was a teacher at the Bafoulabé Regional school until he succeeded his father and became "chef de canton" of Niambia in 1933. Sissoko took part in French politics, supporting the Front populaire government on the 1930s and the Resistance during the Second World War. He received the Médaille de la Résistance after the war.

In October 1945 he was elected deputy to the French Constitutional Assembly representing the Soudan-Niger non-citizen constituency. He was a member of the Republican and Resistance Union (URR). Sissoko was elected in a run-off, with 45.8% (1,277) of the vote. In the Constituent Assembly he joined the communist group and he was re-elected in the June and November elections of 1946. After the November 1946 election, he joined the SFIO group.

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