Having graduated from the Institut électrotechnique of Grenoble in 1930, the young engineer went to Egypt to participate in the construction of hydroelectric dams before redirecting his career towards sound-recording for the radio and the cinema.
Captured by the Germans he managed to flee to Switzerland before joining the Résistance with Robert Desnos, Léon-Gontran Damas and Marguerite Duras[1] and participating, as the technical assistant in Pierre Schaeffer's Studio d'Essai, in the "liberation of the waves" in Paris.
In this capacity Jean-Louis Baghio'o protested violently against the racism of some of his colleagues and against what he called "la coloniaiserie" (a pun combining the words "colonialism" and "stupidity").
Back in France, the sound-engineer was entrusted by the French Broadcasting Company (ORTF) with the construction and management of several radio stations in Africa, in the difficult context of decolonization.
As a member of the Prix des Caraïbes jury, he was delighted to read the production of the young generation of Caribbean writers, while also maintaining a passionate interest in literary theory and history.