Aïda Mady Diallo

Aïda Mady Diallo is a French-born Malian novelist and director. After passing her childhood in France and receiving a college degree in Uzbekistan, Diallo moved to Mali. She is the author of the 2002 novel Kouty, mémoire de sang (Kouty, Memories of Blood), published by Gallimard, which tells the story of a young girl in 1980s Gao seeking the death of her family at the hands of Tuareg killers. In an interview with the magazine Bamako Culture, Diallo described the novel as "a call for tolerance and forgiveness." Critic Pim Higginson described it as adapting the tropes of the crime novel and romance novel to critique the fascination of Western readers with African violence.
Diallo's television film Karim et Doussou, the story of a contemporary Malian marriage, was nominated for a 2011 FESPACO award.

• Kouty, mémoire de sang. Paris: Gallimard, 2002. ISBN 2-07-042251-8.