AHMADOU KOUROUMA (IVORY COAST)

Blunt truth is - when we think about best-selling writers, African writers rarely ever come to mind, especially those writing about Africa, its pet themes, problems, convolutions and the like. Yet the late Ivorian writer, Ahmadou Kourouma during his heyday had his works gobbled up in large amounts, in metropolitan France so to speak.

Kourouma of course wrote and published his major works in French, though over the years translations of the same have appeared in English and other languages. He was very much an African writing in a "foreign" language, and some pundits were uneasy about his famed neologisms and grassroots allusions which seemed to bemuse them. But Kourouma was such a fine, talented and committed writer.

 

He was the son of a distinguished Malinké family, who went on to study in Bamako, Mali. Evidently a strong imposing man, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France to further his
studies in Lyon.

Kourouma returned to his native Côte d'Ivoire after it won its independence in 1960, but antagonised the powers that be, including President  Félix Houphouët-Boigny. This led to incarceration, and afterwards a life in  exile, first in Algeria (1964–69), then in Cameroon (1974–84) and Togo (1984–94), before finally returning to live in Côte d'Ivoire.

His fiction would reflect his disillusionment and somewhat disgust: "His first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970) contains a critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa. Twenty years later, his second book Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, was published. In 1998, he published En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), a satire of postcolonial Africa in the style of Voltaire in which a griot recounts the story of a tribal hunter's transformation into a dictator, inspired by president Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo. In 2000, he published Allah n'est pas obligé (translated as Allah is Not Obliged), a tale of an orphan who becomes a child soldier when traveling to visit his aunt in Liberia."

In France, each of Ahmadou Kourouma's novels was celebrated, sold exceptionally well, and was showered with prizes including the Prix Renaudot,  and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for Allah n'est pas obligé.

Kourouma not only wrote novels, he was also a playwright and general essayist. He was worldly enough to have also pursued an insurance and banking career in France and Cameroon. Perhaps his most famous play was Tougnantigui; ou, le diseur de vérité (“Tougnantigui; or, The Truth Teller”)

 

"He (Kourouma) was probably the best-known Francophone African writer in France and was sometimes referred to as the 'African Voltaire' " pundits have avowed.

Bibliography

Les Soleils des indépendances
ie The Suns of Independence, Translator Adrian Adams

Le diseur de vérité — drama, 1972

Monnew: a novel, Translator Nidra Poller, Mercury House, 1999

En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, Éditions du Seuil, 1998.

ie Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals.

Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote. Translator Frank Wynne.Yacouba, chasseur africain. 1998.

Allah n'est pas obligé, Seuil, 2000

ie  Allah is Not Obliged. Translator Frank Wynne.

Quand on refuse on dit non, Editor Gilles Carpentier