Background
The son of a Muslim priest, a marabout, Sadji was educated in a Quranic school before attending French schools.
The son of a Muslim priest, a marabout, Sadji was educated in a Quranic school before attending French schools.
In 1932 he became only the second Senegalese person to earn a bachelor"s degree. In the 1950s, Sadji worked for a radio station in Dakar and in 1953, together with Léopold Sédar Senghor, he wrote a reading-book for the elementary school. This book, Louisiana Belle Histoire de Leuk-le-Lièvre, preserves traditional Senegalese oral tales and is regarded as a classic collection of traditional stories from Africa.
As one of the founders of Négritude, Senghor referred to Sadji as one of the pioneering practitioners of the values associated with Négritude.
Sadji published two novels, Maïmouna: petite fille noire (1953) and Nini, mulâtresse du Sénégal (1954), along with a number of short stories, of which "Tounka" (1952) and "Modou-Fatim" (1960) are the best-known.