Born in this century in Bandiagara, at the foot of the cliffs of the Dogon country, died in 1991 in Abidjan, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, historian, writer, storyteller, poet, thinker, brother of men, is best known in France for the struggle he led at UNESCO, from 1962 to 1970, in favor of the rehabilitation of African oral traditions as an authentic source of knowledge and an integral part of the cultural heritage of humanity. Calling for urgent action for the harvest and rescue of these oral traditions before their last custodians disappear, he pronounced this phrase which has become so famous that it is sometimes quoted as an African proverb: "In Africa, when an old man dies, it's a burning library. "