Samba Gaïné Sangaré was a Malian author and politician who participated in a 1969 coup plot to overthrow Moussa Traoré.

[2] 18 year-old Sangare became an assistant clerk in the Native Society of Providence in Nara, an organization compulsory for peasants in French colonies.

He completed basic training at a base in Ségou alongside future compatriots Mamadou Sanogo and Kissima Doukara.

[1] When Mali gained independence in 1960, Sangare was deployed as part of the Malian contingent of ONUC during the six-month time period while Patrice Lumumba was in power.

He stated[1] that "It cost us nothing to go to the ends of the earth to defend our territorial integrity, the peace of our people and contribute to the development of the country.

The Sudanese Union was dissolved, and while the putschists promised to hold free and fair elections, it became clear the coup produced a second dictatorship.

[1] Dibi Silas Diarra began forming an army opposition movement to Traore in the summer of 1969, and prepared a plan for a coup to return power back to civilians.

[5] When they arrived, the commander at Taoudenni Lt. Almamy Nyentao explained to Sangare and the other convicts that he had received orders to regard them as former comrades and not to pity them.

Their diet was limited to crushed finger millet boiled in saltwater and decomposing animal corpses, causing widespread malnutrition and beriberi.

[5] Sangare and his comrades took turns sleeping on mats in a cramped room, waking up at 4 a.m. under threat of whipping to build a fort later called Nyentao.

[5] The first of Sangare's original nine comrades to die was Tiekoro Sagadogo on February 16, 1972, followed by Jean-Bolon Samake on March 27 and Bakary Camara on May 1.

Sangare witnessed the death of former Prime Minister Yoro Diakité in 1973 and the son of famous opposition leader Fili Dabo Sissoko.

Prominent Malian politician and presidential candidate Thiébile Dramée called the book "the first and true anthology of crimes and horrors committed by the state.

Moussa Traore was the only one Sangare stated he wanted to send to Taoudenni to live in the climate, although without the forced labor and insults.