Event Details

Chérif Keita, Professor of French at Carleton College will screen his film "Namballa Keita: A soldier and his Village." Chérif Keita pays tribute to his late father Namballa Keita (1915-1999), a farm laborer, who, after learning to read and write as a soldier in the French colonial army (the Tirailleurs sénégalais) during WW II, returned from the Italian Front to enter the colonial service in his country, known then as the French Soudan. Determined to bring modernity to his small remote village, he built, with his own small savings, a public school that opened its doors in October 1960, a few days after his country’s independence, to bring the light of education to generations thereafter in the Republic of Mali. Throughout his long career as a nurse and as the head of a village infirmary, Namballa Keita gained national prominence as an advocate for modern education and healthcare.

"Namballa Keita: A Soldier and his Village" (85 minutes, narrated in English, dialogues in French and Bambara), directed by Chérif Keita and edited by Dominic Fucci, is a Medialabafrica production.   Following the film, we will have a Q and A session with the filmmaker.