Aissatou Diallo

A symbol of resilience, determination and courage, Diallo asserted herself and demonstrated the breadth of her skills at a time when immigrants, and worse, women, were reduced to household chores. She has had a 38-year career in a city marked in 1993 by a racist event that took the life of a migrant family.

It was the best day of her life. After a two-year exchange between her father and mother, and after an initial refusal from the school principal because of her “advanced” age, she entered school. The first obstacles to her schooling did not prevent her from experiencing a successful education.

Ms. Aïssatou Diallo was born in Fouta Djallon, in a loving family surrounded by a breathtaking landscape. Her father, a religious and cultural authority, was gentle, calm and thoughtful. Her mother, more extroverted and proud, had an amazing wisdom.

She met her husband in Halle. They were both students at the time, coming to study in the former German Democratic Republic in the 1960s. They have three children of whom they are very proud and to whom they have not forgotten to instill the Guinean culture, the Fulani language and many other values.

Since November 2022, Ms. Aïssatou has been writing her autobiography to share her experience and call on Afrodescendants to get involved. In the lyricism of her style, which recalls her Peul origins, she shares her life experience, made of fights, resistance, strength… In short, a life for others.

Ms. Diallo’s good academic record allowed her to go to Germany to continue her studies. After her early years in East Germany, she migrated to Paris and then to Lille, France, where she arrived in 1973, at the height of the Cold War. Despite the many challenges she faced, she showed extraordinary resilience.

Ms. Diallo has had a successful career as a teacher of chemistry, German language and literature. She is one of those migrant women who asserted themselves at a time when women were reduced to housework. She taught for 38 years in Leichlingen until her retirement. Today, she is very happy to meet her former students: “Recently, a student who met me told me that I was one of her best teachers. That made me very happy.