Mariam Travélé (1920 – 14 April 2014) was a teacher, politician and the first

First Lady of Mali First Lady of Mali (French: ''Première dame du Mali'') is the title held by the wife of the president of Mali, concurrent with the president's term of office. The present first lady is Lala Diallo, wife of interim President Assimi Goïta, who ha ...

during the reign of the founding father of Mali, President Modibo Keita after independence. She was noted for her own involvement in the struggle for the independence.

Background

Mariam was born in

Bamako Bamako is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2022 population of 4,227,569. It is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamak ...

to Moussa Bleni Travélé, first class principal interpreter and author of a French- Bambara dictionary, and his wife Ajibiyé Mintieni. She had her primary education at the Bamako Girls' School from 1931 to 1935. She trained as a teaching instructor at the Foyer de Métisses in Bamako from 1935 to 1939 and earned teachers grade. Travélé and a fellow teacher at a rural school on the river Modibo Keita got married in September 1939. Travélé and her husband Keita worked in cities of French Sudan;

Sikasso Sikasso ( Bambara: ߛߌߞߊߛߏ tr. Sikaso) is a city in the south of Mali and the capital of the Sikasso Cercle and the Sikasso Region. It is Mali's second largest city with 225,753 residents in the 2009 census. History Sikasso was a small ...

, Kabara,

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; ; Koyra Chiini: ; ) is an ancient city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. It is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali, having a population of 32,460 in the 2018 census. ...

and Bamako. During the French colonial rule in the country, Travélé and Keita led the political struggle against the colonial masters. After the dismantling of the RDA sub-section located in Sikasso and the arrest of Modibo Keita by the French colonial administration, Travélé took over the section. In 1962, she chaired the Social Commission for Women, created in the same year with the support of the RDA. After the military coup of November 19, 1968, which resulted in the imprisonment of Modibo Keita, First Lady Mariam Travélé also spent ten years in detention, including eight and a half years at the Sikasso gendarmerie. She was released on 1 January 1978, one year after the death of her husband, poisoned in 1977 during his detention in Bamako. She was not allowed to attend his funeral. In 1991, when democracy returned, she was elected vice-president of the Sudanese Union – African Democratic Rally (US-RDA) party, which is now known as the Malian Union for the African Democratic Rally (UM-RDA) since 2010.

Honours

* Honorary President of the Malian Red Cross * Independence Gold Medal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Travele, Mariam 1920 births 2014 deaths First ladies of Mali 20th-century Malian women politicians 20th-century Malian politicians Malian educators Grand Officers of the National Order of Mali Sudanese Union – African Democratic Rally politicians Malian prisoners and detainees People from Bamako 21st-century Malian women