Abdoulaye Mamani was a Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

ien poet, novelist and trade unionist.

Biography

Mamani was born in 1932 in Zinder

Zinder

Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...

, Niger. He was a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

ist. In 1980 he published his novel Sarraounia, based on the real-life Battle of Lougou

Battle of Lougou

The French Voulet-Chanoine Mission, led by the captains Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine, had been dispatched in 1898 to Africa by the French government with the mission to conquer the territories between the Niger River and Lake Chad and join in uniting French territories in West Africa...

 between Azna queen Sarraounia

Sarraounia

Sarraounia was a Queen of the African Azna people, who ruled in a region of Western Africa during the late 19th century.She was ruler of an animist group of Eastern Hausa. Queen Sarraounia of the Aznas fought the French colonial troops in 1899...

 and French Colonial Forces

French Colonial Forces

The French Colonial Forces , commonly called La Coloniale, was a general designation for the military forces that garrisoned in the French colonial empire from the late 17th century until 1960. They were recruited from mainland France or from the French settler and indigenous populations of the...

. To write the book, he used written archives as well as oral histories

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

. The novel was adapted into a 1986 film (also called Sarraounia

Sarraounia (film)

Sarraounia is a 1986 historical drama film written and directed by Med Hondo. It is based on a novel of the same name by Nigerien author Abdoulaye Mamani, who co-wrote the screenplay. The novel and film concern the real-life Battle of Lougou between Azna queen Sarraounia and the advancing French...

) by director Med Hondo

Med Hondo

Med Hondo is a Mauritanian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and voice actor. He emigrated to France in 1959 and began to work in film during the 1960s. He received critical acclaim for his 1967 directorial début Soleil O.-Biography:Hondo was born in 1936 in Ain Oul Beri Mathar in the...

. Mamani died in a car accident in 1993 between Zinder and Niamey

Niamey

-Population:While Niamey's population has grown steadily since independence, the droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s, along with the economic crisis of the early 1980s, have propelled an exodus of rural inhabitants to Niger's largest city...

.