Oumarou Ganda

Oumarou Ganda was a Nigerien director and actor who brought African cinema to international attention in the 1960s and 1970s.

Ganda was born in Niamey, the capital of Niger, in 1935 and was of Djerma ethnicity. He completed his primary studies in Niamey and at the age ofjoined the French Far East Expeditionary Corps as a soldier from 1951 to 1955. After spending two years in Asia during the First Indochina War he returned to Niger, where he was unable to find work. He emigrated to Cte dIvoire and became a longshoreman in the port of Abidjan. There he met French anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch. Rouch was interested in the Nigerien community in Cte dIvoire and hired Ganda as a statistician for his research on immigration.

Source: Wikipedia