Katoucha Niane

Katoucha Niane (23 October 1960 – 2 February 2008) was a French model. Nicknamed "The Peul Princess" (in reference to her ethnic Fula background), she worked, and later wrote, under the single name "Katoucha". She was the daughter of author, playwright and historian Djibril Tamsir Niane.

When she was a child, Katoucha and her family was forced into exile after her father came into conflict with Guinean President, Sekou Toure. Living with an uncle in Mali, she rejoined her family in Dakar at the age of 12. There she lived with the family of her paternal uncle, whose wife was private secretary to the President of Senegal, Léopold Sédar Senghor. After marrying her husband at the age of 17 and giving birth to her first child, they emigrated to France.

It was there in the 1980s that she began modeling; first for Thierry Mugler, then for Paco Rabanne and Christian Lacroix, and became known as Yves Saint Laurent's "muse". She remained one of the best-known models in France, and an icon in Guinea. In 2005, she worked as host of the French-language television program France's Next Top Model. She was the star of the film Ramata (2007), directed by Léandre-Alain Baker, in which she played the title role. It tells of a Senegalese woman who, aged 50, discovers the pleasures of the flesh in the arms of a man 25 years younger. Ramata was released in France in 2011.

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