Katoucha Niane

Katoucha Niane ( born December 30, 1960 in Conakry, Guinea, † probably on February 2, 2008 in Paris ) was a French model.

Life

Katoucha Niane, daughter of playwright and historian Djibril Prof. Tamsir Niane had to leave with her family in Guinea, after her father was killed in President Ahmed Sékou Touré in disgrace. They lived first in Mali, then in Dakar, Senegal. At the age of seventeen she married and came to Europe with her husband. There she was discovered by Jules -Francois Crahay of Lanvin and started her modeling career. End of the 1980s it was the first time for Thierry Mugler on the catwalk, and later for Christian Lacroix and Paco Rabanne. She was one of the first black African top models and known as Katoucha internationally and among other things, Muse of French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. In 1994 she finished her modeling career.

The mother of three children living in Senegal, committed against the African countries widespread female circumcision. Your experience with female genital mutilation at the age of nine years she documented in 2007 in its French-language autobiography Dans ma chair (literally: "In my flesh ").

Niane disappeared on 1 February 2008 on the way to her house boat at the Paris banks of the Seine near the Pont Alexandre III and is presumed drowned in the Seine. On 28 February 2008 she was found dead at the Pont du Garigliano. She died at the age of 47 years.

Writings

• Katoucha: Dans ma chair. Michel Lafon: Neuilly -sur -Seine Cedex, 2007 ISBN 978-2-7499-0666-9.