DIALLO, KADIATOU (born 1959), Guinean activist. Born in Conakry, Guinea, she grew up in a devout Muslim family. During her childhood, escalating violence between the Susu people and her own Fulani ethnic group forced her family to flee Conakry for the city of Labé. Kadiatou came from a relatively well-off family, unlike many of her peers, for whom it was common to learn sewing at the local women’s center to earn money. When she was thirteen, she was promised as a wife to an older Liberian man named Saikou Diallo. Saikou’s father had almost married Kadiatou’s grandmother, and her father viewed this as a propitious sign. Diallo became pregnant at the age of fifteen and gave birth to a son, Amadou, who would attend school in Togo, Singapore, and Thailand before eventually migrating to the United States.
Amadou’s murder on the night of February 4, 1999, at the age of twenty-three would ignite Kadiatou’s career in advocacy. He had been standing outside his apartment building and was spotted by police officers allegedly searching for a rapist. They ordered Amadou to show his hands; when he reached into his pocket to produce his wallet, they fired forty-one shots at him, nineteen of which found their target. According to Diallo, during their last conversation Amadou had excitedly shared that he had finally saved enough money to attend college. The four officers involved were acquitted of all charges, which further fanned the flames of public outrage that had smoldered since Amadou’s death. Demonstrations were held across the city and nation, with protesters calling for police reform and greater accountability for law enforcement. Following the acquittal Diallo and her ex-husband filed a $61 million lawsuit against the City of New York and the four officers, ultimately agreeing to a $3 million settlement. In 2003 Diallo published a memoir, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou, with author Craig Wolff. She also established the Amadou Diallo Foundation, a nonprofit that provides college scholarships to students who are immigrants of African descent. The foundation also runs an educational center in Guinea.