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Aline Sitoé Diatta

Day 26 of the 28 Days of Black Liberation 2024 series

Aline Sitoé Diatta was known for her super powers. Her powers… the ability to make it rain when the land needed it the most. It was also said that she was a healer and she would have visions frequently.

Aline Sitoé was borned in 1920 in the country of Senegal. A land that colonizers have stepped over for several decades due to the resources the land provides and slavery. She  worked as a servant for a French family when she started having visions of anti-colonial campaigns against the French. She tried to ignore them and when she did she suffered from paralysis for several days which made her have a permanent limp.

When Aline arrived in Casamance, Aline Sitoé Diatta witnessed farmers forced to give up their land to work in the rice fields to export the goods. The French took over half of the region’s rice harvest for the war effort (World War 1). The community organized a boycott against the French and they arrested all the leaders involved in the boycott. This did not discourage Aline Sitoé from campaigning against the French; instead she picked up the torch and continued to boycott against the French, she even escalated the fight against colonialism. Aline Sitoé and the community organized civil disobedience, stopped paying taxes, and disobeyed growing monoculture. Aline Sitoé Diatta not only called for France to leave her country but also called for working conditions to improve as well as the human right to practice religion.

The French made several attempts to assassinate her but were not successful. She was arrested on 8 May 1943 and deported to Gambia and then Mali. She died a year later in prison, out of harsh treatments and malnourishment (she was murdered). 


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