''The African'' is the 1964

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

an novelist and educator William Farquhar Conton. It was the 12th work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series. The novel's plot revolves around the romance between a black African student and a white South African woman in England.

Themes and style

The novel turns autobiographical elements into a call for Africa to move as a continent beyond

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. Wole Soyinka criticised its utopian "love optimism", calling the novel's main character, Kamara, an "unbelievable prig".Wole Soyinka, ''Myth, Literature, and the African World'', Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 1976.

Reception

Contemporary reviewer Mercedes Mackay describe the novel as a "promising first novel" which excels in highlighting the author's "rich sense of humor" and his role as "a fine philosopher". Mackay compared the novel to the debuts of Cyprian Ekwensi ('' People of the City''), Chinua Achebe ('' Things Fall Apart'') and Kamara Laye ('' The African Child'').

References

African Writers Series Sierra Leonean romance novels Sierra Leonean books 1964 debut novels {{1960s-romance-novel-stub