Novel
L'Archer bassari
Not translated into English
Modibo Sounkalo Keïta · 1984
Synopsis
In Kionda, the capital of a Sahelian country, rich and prominent men fall one after another beneath the arrows of an unknown archer: a debauched notable, a transport boss, the head of an aid agency, the director of the grain office, a minister's adviser. Commissioner Mbaye, threatened with a transfer to the bush if he makes no progress, investigates, while the journalist Simon traces the trail back to the Bassari village of Oniateh, where drought is starving the inhabitants and the promised aid never arrives.
Context
The novel appeared from Karthala in 1984. Its narrative, which does not follow the order of events, moves slowly in a first part and then speeds up; it links the criminal investigation to the diversion of food aid and the sale of the village's golden idol. Abdoulaye Berté, of the University of Dakar, reads in it the chronicle of an anomie foretold in the countries of the Sahel; another study places it on the side of the suspense novel rather than the riddle.
Who it is for
A short crime novel, in French, of about two hundred pages, with a non-chronological narrative.
Prizes and reception
Grand Literary Prize of Black Africa in 1985, after the prize of the Syndicat des journalistes et écrivains; one of the founding novels of the francophone African crime novel.
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