Djibril Tamsir Niane

Djibril Tamsir Niane studied at University of Bordeaux. The recorded working language is French and English. The field of work recorded is history of Africa, Mali Empire and history. Employment is recorded with Howard University, University of Tokyo and University of Conakry. Works named in the authority record are General History of Africa - Volume IV - Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century.

Born in Conakry, Guinea, his secondary education was in Senegal and his degree from the University of Bordeaux. He was an honorary professor of Howard University and the University of Tokyo. He is noted for introducing the Epic of Sundiata, about Sundiata Keita (ca. 1217–1255), founder of the Mali Empire, to the Western world in 1960 by translating the story told to him by Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate, a griot or traditional oral historian. He also edited Volume IV —Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century— of the UNESCO General History of Africa and participated in other UNESCO projects. He was the father of the late model Katoucha Niane (1960–2008). Niane died in Dakar, Senegal on 8 March 2021, at age 89, from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Senegal.