Novel
Ambiguous Adventure
L'Aventure ambiguë
Cheikh Hamidou Kane · 1961
Synopsis
Samba Diallo, a child of a noble family of the Diallobé country, learns the Quran at the Foyer ardent (the Fiery Hearth), under a demanding master, Thierno, who singles him out among all. The Grande Royale, the chief's sister, decides that the country's children will go to the foreign school: there, she says, one learns the art of winning without being right. The boy goes, joins his father in the city, then studies philosophy in Paris. He renounces nothing there and no longer quite believes, surrounded yet alone; when his father calls him back, he no longer knows what he is bringing back or what he has left behind.
Context
The novel appeared in 1961, the year after independence, but its author had begun it in 1952, as a student in Paris. It follows a Fulani child taken from the Koranic school to the French school, on the decision of a family that sees in it both a weapon and a danger. Its title has passed into the language to express the split between two cultures. It was translated into English as early as 1963 by Katherine Woods; a stage adaptation premiered at the Daniel-Sorano theatre in Dakar in March 2025.
Who it is for
A short novel, built in two parts and meditative in tone. The context of the colonial school in the Sahel sheds light on what is at stake in the book.
Prizes and reception
Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 1962. Translated into some forty languages, it is studied in schools and universities across Africa.
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