The Guardian of the Word

by Camara Laye, James Kirkup (Translator)

English, French (translation)

Genres: Africa, Fiction, Guinea, African Literature, Historical Fiction, The World

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

During his time at college he wrote The African Child (L'Enfant noir), a novel based loosely on his own childhood. He would later become a writer of many essays and was a foe of the government of Guinea. His novel The Radiance of the King (Le Regard du roi) is considered to be one of his most important works.

He was born Malinke (a Mandé speaking ethnicity) into a caste that traditionally worked as blacksmiths and goldsmiths. His family name is Camara, and following the tradition of his community, it precedes his given name—Laye. His mother was from the village of Tindican, and his immediate childhood surroundings were not predominantly influenced by French culture. He attended both the Koranic and French elementary schools in Kouroussa. At age fifteen he went to Conakry, capital of Guinea, to continue his education. He attended vocational studies in motor mechanics. In 1947, he travelled to Paris to continue studies in mechanics. There he worked and took further courses in engineering and worked towards the baccalauréat.

In 1953, he published his first novel, L'Enfant noir (The African Child, 1954, also published under the title The Dark Child), an autobiographical story, which narrates in the first person a journey from childhood in Kouroussa, through challenges in Conakry, to France. The book won the Prix Charles Veillon in 1954. L'Enfant noir was followed by Le Regard du roi (1954; The Radiance of the King, 1956). These two novels are among the very earliest major works in francophone African literature.The Radiance of the King was described by Kwame Anthony Appiah as "One of the greatest of the African novels of the colonial period."
In 1956, Camara returned to Africa, first to Dahomey (now Benin), then Gold Coast (now Ghana) and then to newly independent Guinea, where he held government posts. In 1965, he left Guinea for Dakar, Senegal because of political issues, never to return. In 1966 his third novel, Dramouss (A Dream of Africa, 1968), was published. In 1978 his fourth and final work was published, Le Maître de la parole - Kouma Lafôlô Kouma (The Guardian of the Word, 1980), based on a Malian epic, as told by the griot Babou Condé, about the famous Sundiata Keita (also spelled Sunjata), the thirteenth-century founder of the Mali Empire.

Camara died in 1980 in Dakar, Senegal of a kidney infection.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a version of the malian epic of sundiata as told to camara laye by the griot babu conde. not having read any other versions of the epic i don't know how this compares to them or whether laye might have added details or changed anything around in the process of transcribing and translating it. it certainly feels like a premodern epic with genealogies and sections of verse and traditional morality and so forth. some sections of it feel much more fleshed out than others(e.g. there's a period of about 6 years that sundiatia spends in exile that is covered by maybe 10 pages at a stretch), and i'm not sure if this is because laye has emphasised and de-emphasised certain sections for his own reasons or if that's just what the epic is like to start with. because of that i didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i might, although there are some really great individual scenes, including a battle between sundiata and the sorcerer king sumaro that reads like a jojo's bizarre adventure fight.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Combine Lord of the Rings with The Black Panther and you still wouldn’t have all the amazing things that are in The Guardian of the Word by Camera Laye. (Spoilers ahead.) It's a family saga of how a great empire was created with people shapeshifting into their animal totems, prophecies, proverbs, intrigues, and not only gender diversity, but also (this is the part that other works don't have) inclusion of disabilities. The most powerful woman has a misshaped spine and the most powerful man couldn't walk until he was ten years old. Unlike some of the reviews I read, I found it easy to follow (yes, they throw in a few genealogies, but what oral tradition doesn't?) If you are looking for a way to experience African literature, this is one of the best.

[Kevin Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly, this "history" of the rise of an empire-forming king is really a fairy tale, with enchanted birds and sorcerers and people growing really long arms to pick fruit out of a tree and then never doing that again or even talking about it. All of that is interesting, but it doesn't build a ton of momentum along the way. Some scenes stand out, though. There's one part where a hunter is running from a bull that is pretty much the same way the girl gets away from Baba Yaga in the old Russian tale. I wonder if the stories are linked somehow.

[Dylan Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal story. There is not much to say about the story other then that I learned a truly tremendous amount about African culture. It gave me a glimpse into the rich history of a whole people's and continent that unfortunately my American education and experience has kept hidden from me. There was such depth of characters and of culture. The actual tale was so interestingly laid out as it didn't feel structured like a simple story but more a folk tale/myth. Such an amazing story.

My only criticisms are few and not that impactful. The intro to the story was super dense and very difficult t get through and made me worry the rest of the book would be similar, but it wasn't. Unfortunately for me, it was difficult to follow the names of places and people; mainly because so many names were mentioned the actually had no real agency or impact on the story (but more mentioned in terms of lineage) , and many of the names got lost. Also, the story would have benefited much from a more detailed and specific map, as locations and geography were so important but hard to visualize.

[Michele Benson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guinea. Guinea is a country in Africa next to Mali. Two brothers go on a quest to kill a magic buffalo. On the way they meet a witch who tells the younger brother the secret to killing the fierce creature. After the beast is dead he is to choose the ugliest young woman offered to him as his bride. No one lives happily ever after.

[Daniel Polansky]

The Malian foundational epic, ostensibly (?) the recitation of a surviving West African griot. Oddly its closet parallels for me would be like, cheap paperback fantasy novels of the 70's, which isn't really a knock. Interesting as a few hundred pages but I'm not sure I could comment on it further.

[HABEEB IBRAHIM]

it a good work that portrait the real culture of africans

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This a recording of what I've heard is an amazing oral history of one the ancient kingdoms near modern day Ghana, but I could only find an English translation of the original french and it is CRAP. I'm not making much progress.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has so much going on. I highly recommend a patient, slow read. See International Reads' blog about Mali for more.