Amadou Hampâté Bâ

Amadou Hampâté Bâ was a Malian writer, historian, and ethnologist. He was an influential figure in the twentieth-century African literature and cultural heritage. A champion of Africa's oral tradition and traditional knowledge, he is remembered for his 1960 address to the UNESCO General Conference in which he urged the preservation of Africa's oral traditions, declaring: "I consider the death of each of these traditionalists as the burning of an unexploited cultural fund". A later formulation using the word bibliothèque emerged during a 1962 UNESCO Executive Board exchange.