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Chérif Keïta was born in Bamako, the capital city of the territory formerly known as the French Soudan, a country now called Mali. He started his education in a village public school but later his Muslim parents sent him to a Catholic school in Bamako, an experience he credits for widening the scope of his spirituality and and for enriching his intellectual journey from a young age. Although he had wanted to study Archaeology at the university level, the Malian government decided to send him to Brussels, Belgium, to become a translator in English and Russian at the State School for Translators and Interpreters. He obtained that degree after completing a senior thesis, which was the translation into French of a book titled, Race, Class and Party: A History of Negro Suffrage and White Politics in the South, the US South that is, a well-known book by Paul Lewinson.

In 1978, he came to the United States to start his graduate studies in Romance Languages at the University of Georgia-Athens. This experience allowed him not only to have a personal experience of the South and its culture but also to discover the burgeoning literature written in French by Africans and West Indians, people who had been subjected to the French colonial domination. He completed his Ph.D in Romance Languages and Literatures, with a minor in African History and Politics, and a Certificate in Global Policy Studies.

Since September 1985, Chérif Keïta has been teaching Francophone literature of Africa and the Caribbean, as well as advanced language courses at Carleton College. He has published books and articles on both social and literary problems in contemporary Africa. His special interests include the novel and social change in Mali, oral tradition, and the relationship between music (traditional and modern), literature and culture in Africa. He has published three books and dozens of articles on Malian and African literature, music and film.

Professor Keïta is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, with a trilogy of films about some of the founding figures of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, those who preceded Nelson Mandela and his generation of Anti-Apartheid activists. Those films have been shown on television and at festivals on several continents. His latest documentary film titled "Namballa Keita: A Soldier and His Village" tells the story of his late father, a nurse and a veteran of the French colonial army, who never had formal education but whose commitment to public education gave him national prominence in independent Mali. Keita attributes his past 26 years of research and filmmaking in South Africa to his being found and chosen by a Northfield story, a strange phenomenon you are going to discover in his talk this morning: "Northfield and/in South Africa in the 19th century."

This convocation was also presented as a virtual webinar. Please register in advance if you would like to attend via Zoom. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

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