The Ivorian Crisis & Ahmadou Kourouma's Posthumous Political Novel Quand on Refuse on dit non

Summary

Ahmadou Kourouma is best known for his first novel Les soleils des indépendances (1968; trans. The Suns of Independence). After initial difficulties with the publication in France, the novel was subsequently much acclaimed for its original use of the French language that made it sound like the author's native Malinké. It also criticized African leadership and one-party systems that prevailed all over Africa. This critical trend continued in his later works that denounced foreign forces of domination; African dictators and African regression or ‘bastardisation,’ to borrow the author's own expression were also not spared.

Certainly for the artistic value of his works and surely because it seemed that his criticism was primarily directed toward Africans, Kourouma was much celebrated in Europe. The first novel won three prizes namely, ‘Prix de la Francité,’ ‘Prix de la Tour-Landry,’ ‘Prix de l'Académie Française,’ and ‘Prix de l'Académie Royale’ of Belgium. His second novel, Monné, outrages et défis (1990; trans. Monnew), received three prizes including the ‘Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique Noire’ for outstanding francophone African works. The author's third novel, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (1998; trans. Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), also captured three distinctions, while the fourth one, Allah n'est pas obligé (2000; trans. Allah is not Obliged), crowned them all with the prestigious ‘Prix Renaudot.’