He was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau on the banks of the Niger River, in the cercle of Gourma Rharous in the northwestern Malian region of Tombouctou, and his family moved to the nearby village of Niafunké when he was still an infant.
He was born in 1939 in the village of Kanau on the banks of the Niger River. This was in the cercle of Gourma Rharous in the northwestern Malian region of Tombouctou. His family moved to the nearby village of Niafunké. He was still an infant.