Keith Llewellyn De Carlo was a painter and illustrator, born either on Jamaica or in Panama (sources differ). At age 18 he joined the US Marines to fight in World War II. He became an American citizen after the war. He subsequently studied arts in New York, Paris and Barcelona. He worked as a muralist, painting murals in the US, Holland, France and Spain. He made lithographs and book illustrations and worked as a commercial artist, mostly in Paris. It was probably during this period that he drew a comic strip about the life of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. It was written by Ella Griffin and published in at least the Québec City newspaper Le Soleil for a couple of weeks at the end of 1962. It was possibly commissioned by Unesco. Keith De Carlo passed away in Paris, France, in 1981.