Novel · A way to begin
Crépuscule des temps anciens
Not translated into English
Nazi Boni · 1962
Synopsis
In Bwa country, the narrative opens on a golden age of nearly three centuries. At Bwan, Térhé, a young man of strength and beauty, gradually eclipses the glory of Kya, a warrior who kills out of vanity. He loves Hakanni, whom he cannot marry, custom invoking a distant cousinhood, and the one who could lift the prohibition is the old Lowan, the young woman's uncle and the father of his rival. Around them, festivals, rites, hunts and labours set the rhythm of village life.
Context
The novel appeared in 1962 from Présence africaine, with the subtitle of a chronicle of the Bwamu. It alternates the plot with long tableaux of collective life, and slips Bwamu words, which it explains, into the French. Its author spoke of the urgency of gathering what remained in the memory of the elders before it disappeared; critics read in it an interweaving of genres, between novel, chronicle and fireside tale.
Who it is for
Dense, with many names and Bwamu terms, with a glossary as support. Reads better as a village chronicle than as a novel.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first novel of Upper Volta, it also remains a source for ethnologists of the Bwa country.