Katoucha Niane
Encyclopedia
Conakry
Conakry is the capital and largest city of Guinea. Conakry is a port city on the Atlantic Ocean and serves as the economic, financial and cultural centre of Guinea with a 2009 population of 1,548,500...
– February 2, 2008 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
. Nicknamed "The Peul Princess" (in reference to her ethnic Fula
Fula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
background), she worked, and later wrote, under the single name "Katoucha". She was the daughter of author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Djibril Tamsir Niane
Djibril Tamsir Niane
Djibril Tamsir Niane is a historian, playwright, and short story writer, born in Conakry, Guinea. His secondary education was in Senegal and his degree from the University of Bordeaux. He is an honorary professor of Howard University and the University of Tokyo...
.
Early life and career
As a child, Katoucha's family was forced into exile after her father came into conflict with Guinean President, Sekou Toure. Living with an uncle in MaliMali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, she rejoined her family in Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
at age twelve. There she lived with the family of her paternal uncle, whose wife was private secretary to the President of Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor was a Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist who for two decades served as the first president of Senegal . Senghor was the first African elected as a member of the Académie française. Before independence, he founded the political party called the Senegalese...
. After marrying her husband at age seventeen and giving birth to her first child, they emigrated to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
It was there in the 1980s that she began modeling; first for Thierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler is a French fashion designer and creator of several perfumes.-Childhood:Mugler was born in Strasbourg, France on 21 December 1948. His passion led him to focus more on drawing than on school and at the age of 9, he began to study classical dance...
, then for Paco Rabanne
Paco Rabanne
Francisco "Paco" Rabaneda Cuervo, more commonly known as Paco Rabanne is a Franco-Spanish fashion designer. He fled Spain for France with his mother when the Spanish Civil War broke out...
and Christian Lacroix
Christian Lacroix
Christian Marie Marc Lacroix is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded.-Early life:Lacroix was born in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône in southern France. At a young age he began sketching historical costumes and fashions. Lacroix graduated from high school in 1969...
, and became known as Yves Saint Laurent's "muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
." She remained one of the best-known models in France, and an icon in Guinea. In 2005, she worked as host of the French language television program France's Next Top Model
France's Next Top Model
France's Next Top Model is a reality television programmebased upon America's Next Top Model.The first cycle ended with Alizée Sorel as the winner of the competition, while the second cycle saw victory for seventeen year old Karen Pillet from Maintenon, France.-The challenge:The challenge usually...
.
Activist
Niane stopped modeling in 1994 to focus on activism. She had been an outspoken activist against female circumcisionFemale genital cutting
Female genital mutilation , also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is defined by the World Health Organization as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."FGM...
, a rite performed in some African nations. Following her success as a model, she started the organization KPLCE - Katoucha pour la lutte contre l’excision (English: Katoucha for the battle against female circumcision). Niane herself was circumcised at age 9. In 2007, she published a book about her personal circumcision experience, "Dans ma chair" (Eng: In My Flesh), in France.
Death
Katoucha lived in a houseboatHouseboat
A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a human dwelling. Some houseboats are not motorized, because they are usually moored, kept stationary at a fixed point and often tethered to land to provide utilities...
on the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...
, near the Alexander III bridge
Pont Alexandre III
The Pont Alexandre III is an arch bridge that spans the Seine, connecting the Champs-Élysées quarter and the Invalides and Eiffel Tower quarter, widely regarded as the most ornate, extravagant bridge in Paris...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. On February 1, 2008, she returned to her houseboat from a party. This was the last time she was reportedly seen alive. On February 4, 2008, police opened a missing persons case for her. Her purse was found untouched outside the door to her boat. Police believed that no foul play
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
was involved, and that she was likely intoxicated and fell into the Seine.
Her body was found in the Seine River on February 28, 2008. The 47-year-old model is believed to have died from an accidental drowning. Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
reported the family suspected Niane may have been the victim of foul play.
External links
Official website KPLCE blog Review of "Dans ma chair" Interview sur cyberpresse.ca Annonce disparition Le Figaro L'Observateur : Katoucha retrouvée morte dans la Seine (cette annonce de découverte est démentie par la police http://fr.news.yahoo.com/purepeople/20080207/ten-katoucha-la-police-nationale-lance-u-0111c6b_1.html) Mémorial Katoucha Naine Confirmation du décès de Katoucha Niane : le corps du mannequin guinéen a été identifié. Alpha Issa Thiam, Guineenews.org, 29 February 2008.- Katoucha Niane: obituary. The Times (London): 1 March 2008
- Top model's body found in river, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Friday, 29 February 2008 - Dans ma chair