Novel
D'un Fouta-Djalloo à l'autre
Not translated into English
Sirah Baldé de Labé · 1985
Synopsis
In the Fouta Djallon of the eighteenth century, day breaks over a compound where the young servant Dimba runs to draw water for the ablutions while the talibés are already reciting the suras. The village where Gnalé lives is invaded by a foreign army, and Mody Tandé, a fearless soldier from Missidé, carries off the young woman to make her his wife. Through a family attached to custom, the novel takes in war between countries, chieftaincy, polygamy, adolescent love affairs and the fate of captive women seeking deliverance.
Context
Published in Paris by La Pensée universelle, the volume runs to about a hundred and fifty pages. Mohamed Salifou Keita, a Guinean critic close to the author, sees in it a family saga in four volumes that mixes realism and imagination and makes use of interior discourse; he also notes that the title writes the name of the country in its own way, without following the Fula alphabet. The author said she meant it as a tribute to the almamys who had refused to sell their compatriots to slave traders.
Who it is for
For those interested in the first female voices of the Guinean novel and in the history of the Fouta Djallon in the time of the almamys.
Prizes and reception
Hailed as the first novel published by a Guinean woman, it was already almost impossible to find in 2008, according to Jean-Marie Volet.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.