Ahmadou Kourouma (24 November 1927 – 11 December 2003) was an Ivorian novelist.

Life

The eldest son of a distinguished

Malinké The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, the Gambia and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic g ...

family, Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Boundiali, Côte d'Ivoire. Raised by his uncle, he initially pursued studies in

Bamako Bamako ( bm, ߓߡߊ߬ߞߐ߬ ''Bàmakɔ̌'', ff, 𞤄𞤢𞤥𞤢𞤳𞤮 ''Bamako'') is the capital and largest city of Mali, with a 2009 population of 1,810,366 and an estimated 2022 population of 2.81 million. It is located on the Niger Rive ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

. From 1950 to 1954, when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

, after which he journeyed to France to study mathematics in Lyon. Kourouma returned to his native Côte d'Ivoire after it won its independence in 1960, yet he quickly found himself questioning the government of

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he wo ...

. After brief imprisonment, Kourouma spent several years 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. Determined to speak out against the betrayal of legitimate African aspirations at the dawn of independence, Kourouma was drawn into an experiment in fiction. 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 François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

, with elements of the

Epic of Sundiata ''Sunjata'' [] (also referred to as ''Sundiata'' or ''Son-Jara'') is an epic poem of the Malinke people that tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita (died 1255), the founder of the Mali Empire. The epic is an instance of oral tradition, goin ...

, in which a

griot A griot (; ; Manding: jali or jeli (in N'Ko: , ''djeli'' or ''djéli'' in French spelling); Serer: kevel or kewel / okawul; Wolof: gewel) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. The griot is a repos ...

recounts the story of a tribal hunter's transformation into a

dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...

, inspired by president

Gnassingbé Eyadéma Gnassingbé Eyadéma (; born Étienne Gnassingbé, 26 December 1935 – 5 February 2005) was the president of Togo from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was immediately succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé. Eyadéma participated i ...

Togo Togo (), officially the Togolese Republic (french: République togolaise), is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its c ...

. 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. At the outbreak of civil war in Côte d'Ivoire in 2002, Kourouma stood against the war as well as against the concept of Ivorian nationalism, calling it "an absurdity which has led us to chaos." President

Laurent Gbagbo Koudou Laurent Gbagbo
, FPI website . ( Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...

in the year 2000 and the

Prix Goncourt des Lycéens The Prix Goncourt des Lycéens is a French literary award created in 1987 as a sort of younger sibling of Prix Goncourt, a prestigious prize for French language literature. The ten members of the Académie Goncourt select twelve literary works as ...

for '' Allah n'est pas obligé''. In the English-speaking world, Kourouma has yet to make much of an impression: despite some positive reviews, his work remains largely unknown outside university classes in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n fiction. ''Allah Is Not Obliged'' received its first English translation in 2006. At the time of his death, in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

, he was working on a sequel to ''Allah n'est pas obligé,'' entitled ''Quand on refuse on dit non'' (translated roughly as "When One Disagrees, One Says No"), in which the protagonist of the first novel, a child soldier, is demobilized and returns to his home in Côte d'Ivoire, where a new regional conflict has arisen.

Bibliography

*'' Les Soleils des indépendances'', Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1968 **''The Suns of Independence'', Translator Adrian Adams, Holmes & Meier, 1981, *''Le diseur de vérité'' — drama, 1972; Acoria, 1998, *''Monnè'',

Éditions du Seuil Éditions du Seuil (), also known as ''Le Seuil'', is a French publishing house established in 1935 by Catholic intellectual Jean Plaquevent (1901–1965), and currently owned by La Martinière Groupe. It owes its name to this goal "The ''seuil' ...

, 1990, **''Monnew: a novel'', Translator Nidra Poller, Mercury House, 1993, *'' En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages'', Éditions du Seuil, 1998, ** ** *; Illustrators Claude Millet, Denise Millet; Editions Gallimard, 2011, *''Allah n'est pas obligé'', Seuil, 2000, **; Random House Digital, Inc., 2007, *''Quand on refuse on dit non'', Editor Gilles Carpentier, Éditions du Seuil, 2005,

Awards and honors

* Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire (1969), for ''Les Soleils des indépendances'' * Prix Maillé-Latour-Landry (1970), for ''Les Soleils des indépendances'' * Prix Tropiques (1998), for ''En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages'' * Grand prix Poncetton (1998), for ''En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages'' * Prix du Livre Inter (1999), for ''En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages'' * Grand prix Jean-Giono (2000), for ''Allah n'est pas obligé'' *

Prix Renaudot The Prix Théophraste-Renaudot or Prix Renaudot () is a French literary award. History The prize was created in 1926 by ten art critics awaiting the results of deliberation of the jury of the Prix Goncourt. While not officially related to the ...

(2000), for ''Allah n'est pas obligé'' *

(2000), for ''Allah n'est pas obligé''

References

External links

The official ''Allah is Not Obliged'' website
*Christopher Cox
"Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is not Obliged"
''Words without Borders'', 2007.

''Cinquième zone'' n° 102, 2 December 2000

at The Complete Review

at webAfriqa {{DEFAULTSORT:Kourouma, Ahmadou 1927 births 2003 deaths Ivorian novelists People of French West Africa Ivorian expatriates in Algeria Ivorian exiles Ivorian expatriates in Mali Prix Renaudot winners Prix du Livre Inter winners Grand prix Jean Giono recipients Prix Goncourt des lycéens winners Ivorian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century novelists 20th-century dramatists and playwrights People from Savanes District Male novelists Male dramatists and playwrights Ivorian male writers Mandinka 20th-century male writers 21st-century novelists 21st-century male writers