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The Blind Kingdom
This multi-layered narrative comprises a series of interwoven short stories and poetic texts which can be read within continental Africa, the African Diaspora and beyond. Veronique Tadjo imagines an African society on the brink of total collapse, yet there is no doubt that the story resonates in unsettling ways with recent political and social unrest in Cote d'Ivoire.
- GenresAfrica
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1990
3 people are currently reading
169 people want to read
About the author
Véronique Tadjo
77 books59 followersVéronique Tadjo (born 1955) is a writer, poet, novelist, and artist from Côte d'Ivoire. Having lived and worked in many countries within the African continent and diaspora, she feels herself to be pan-African, in a way that is reflected in the subject matter, imagery and allusions of her work.
Born in Paris, Véronique Tadjo was the daughter of an Ivorian civil servant and a French painter and sculptor. Brought up in Abidjan, she travelled widely with her family.
Tadjo completed her BA degree at the University of Abidjan and her doctorate at the Sorbonne in African-American Literature and Civilization. In 1983, she went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., on a Fulbright research scholarship.
In 1979, Tadjo chose to teach English at the Lycée Moderne de Korhogo (secondary school) in the North of Côte d'Ivoire. She subsequently became a lecturer at the English department of the University of Abidjan until 1993.
In the past few years, she has facilitated workshops in writing and illustrating children's books in Mali, Benin, Chad, Haiti, Mauritius, French Guyana, Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa.
She has lived in Paris, Lagos, Mexico City, Nairobi and London. Tadjo is currently based in Johannesburg, where since 2007 she has been head of French Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Tadjo received the Literary Prize of L'Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique in 1983 and the UNICEF Prize in 1993 for Mamy Wata and the Monster, which was also chosen as one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, one of only four children's books selected. In 2005, Tadjo won the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire.
(from Wikipedia)
Born in Paris, Véronique Tadjo was the daughter of an Ivorian civil servant and a French painter and sculptor. Brought up in Abidjan, she travelled widely with her family.
Tadjo completed her BA degree at the University of Abidjan and her doctorate at the Sorbonne in African-American Literature and Civilization. In 1983, she went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., on a Fulbright research scholarship.
In 1979, Tadjo chose to teach English at the Lycée Moderne de Korhogo (secondary school) in the North of Côte d'Ivoire. She subsequently became a lecturer at the English department of the University of Abidjan until 1993.
In the past few years, she has facilitated workshops in writing and illustrating children's books in Mali, Benin, Chad, Haiti, Mauritius, French Guyana, Burundi, Rwanda and South Africa.
She has lived in Paris, Lagos, Mexico City, Nairobi and London. Tadjo is currently based in Johannesburg, where since 2007 she has been head of French Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Tadjo received the Literary Prize of L'Agence de Cooperation Culturelle et Technique in 1983 and the UNICEF Prize in 1993 for Mamy Wata and the Monster, which was also chosen as one of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, one of only four children's books selected. In 2005, Tadjo won the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 3, 2019
En réalité, je n'ai pas fini ce livre ... j'ai lu la moitié. D'après ce que j'ai lu, c'était le livre le plus intéressant que j'ai lu pour le terme, mais j'étais fatigué de la littérature africaine subsaharienne à cette époque. C'était de la science fiction satirique qui reflétait les troubles politiques et sociaux en Côte d'Ivoire. Tadjo a créé une société africaine proche de l'effondrement total à cause de la tyrannie et de la destruction de l'environnement. Si j'avais lu ce livre au début du terme, j'aurais peut-être mieux aimé ça ... et j'aurais peut-être fini le livre. Mais je n'avais pas le temps à cause des essais et des examens finaux.
Traduit en anglais:
In reality, I did not finish this book...I read half of it. From what I read, this was the most interesting book I read for the term, but I was fatigued of sub-Saharan African literature by that time. This was satirical science fiction which reflected the political and social troubles in Cote d'Ivoire. Tadjo created an African society close to total collapse due to tyranny and environmental destruction. If I read this book at the beginning of the term, I might liked it better...and I might have finished the book. But I didn't have the time due to final essays and exams.
Traduit en anglais:
In reality, I did not finish this book...I read half of it. From what I read, this was the most interesting book I read for the term, but I was fatigued of sub-Saharan African literature by that time. This was satirical science fiction which reflected the political and social troubles in Cote d'Ivoire. Tadjo created an African society close to total collapse due to tyranny and environmental destruction. If I read this book at the beginning of the term, I might liked it better...and I might have finished the book. But I didn't have the time due to final essays and exams.
February 24, 2023
Although written three decades ago the central message of this book remains relevant and the format of a kind of fable or allegory ensures that it does not feel dated. An earthquake destroys a city and while the survivors start rebuilding a new group of invaders, the Blind ones, arrive and suppress the local population. But some of those who can see and who are living in the margins in poverty want to overthrow the suppressors.
If you are South African then you can recognise the outlines of a story with apartheid represented by the earthquake, the Mandela days for the start of the rebuilding and the ANC government as the Blind ones. The author wrote it in the context of the devastation of colonialism, post-independence optimism and then the corruption and dictatorships which followed, still recognisable in many contexts. It's a short book and well worth the read.
If you are South African then you can recognise the outlines of a story with apartheid represented by the earthquake, the Mandela days for the start of the rebuilding and the ANC government as the Blind ones. The author wrote it in the context of the devastation of colonialism, post-independence optimism and then the corruption and dictatorships which followed, still recognisable in many contexts. It's a short book and well worth the read.
January 22, 2023
Catastrophe, reversal of nature, dying bats, circling crows, and the king's daughter abandoning the reign and joining the revolutionary forces. A people Blind and a people on the Other side of the palatial compound. This work is multilayered and connects a series of small sections of either poetry or prose. It conveys the desperation of people living in a corrupt country, with a dictator and their cronies. Karim and Akissi represent the Romeo and Juliet of Shakespearean times, but in this case with a message of hope at the end that from so much ruin and despair, life can blossom.
It is a spiritual geography that is depicted here, rather than political. One that sees the human race suffer under the yolk of fascism, postcolonial void and corruption. Beyond borders and flags.
It is a spiritual geography that is depicted here, rather than political. One that sees the human race suffer under the yolk of fascism, postcolonial void and corruption. Beyond borders and flags.
February 23, 2023
J'ai hésité un peu avant d'entamer la lecture de ce livre, dont j'ai cherché la version originale pendant des années sans succès, avant de télécharger le pdf du site de la maison d'édition et de l'imprimer moi-même. Cette version imprimée sur papier ne se prêtant pas à une lecture en route, elle était bien agréable pendant cette journée passée à la maison, où j'ai dévoré le livre en deux traits.
Dévoré, car j'ai vraiment adoré: le langage poétique, l'imagination et les aspirations des protagonistes Akissi et Karim résonnaient fortement. Bizarrement, le livre me rappelle le dernier que je viens de lire, Le Parachutage, également sur une dictature cruelle, imposée et régie par des forces trop écrasantes pour les petites personnes cherchant un peu plus de justice et d'équité.
Le Royaume Aveugle nous enseigne beaucoup de choses : ne vivons-nous pas tous dans un royaume aveugle ? Ne sommes-nous pas volontairement ou inconsciemment aveugles de l'injustice structurelle et les forces de destruction sur lequel le monde s'est construit ?
Dévoré, car j'ai vraiment adoré: le langage poétique, l'imagination et les aspirations des protagonistes Akissi et Karim résonnaient fortement. Bizarrement, le livre me rappelle le dernier que je viens de lire, Le Parachutage, également sur une dictature cruelle, imposée et régie par des forces trop écrasantes pour les petites personnes cherchant un peu plus de justice et d'équité.
Le Royaume Aveugle nous enseigne beaucoup de choses : ne vivons-nous pas tous dans un royaume aveugle ? Ne sommes-nous pas volontairement ou inconsciemment aveugles de l'injustice structurelle et les forces de destruction sur lequel le monde s'est construit ?
March 7, 2020
This is a tough book to get into - composed of prose pieces that are related but often not connected. There is an allegory in the Kingdom of the Blind - the blind obviously being privileged over the slum-dwellers (in a style that reminds me of European kings and their courts back in their 'glory' days).
Then there is the kings's daughter, and the king's new secretary Karim - who smells nice.
Maybe it's me trying to grasp meaning from this (and not knowing anything about the "recent unrest" in Côte D'Ivoire - from the back cover (in 1990 when the book came out in French / or in 2008 when the Engligs version came out) ...Probably the first 1. civil war as the second wasn't until 2011: 2. civil war.
No one on the internet seem to have commented about the content - is this one of those books everyone mentions as important, and puts on the curriculum but no one reads?
The author is interviewed at the end by the translator, who has some of the questions above - so I guess I was not alone in finding this puzzling. I would have preferred to be able to just read the book itself. But maybe it was meant to be read more as poetry?
I've read Tadjo before and liked it both her Rwanda book The Shadow of Imana as well as As the Crow Flies.
Then there is the kings's daughter, and the king's new secretary Karim - who smells nice.
Maybe it's me trying to grasp meaning from this (and not knowing anything about the "recent unrest" in Côte D'Ivoire - from the back cover (in 1990 when the book came out in French / or in 2008 when the Engligs version came out) ...Probably the first 1. civil war as the second wasn't until 2011: 2. civil war.
No one on the internet seem to have commented about the content - is this one of those books everyone mentions as important, and puts on the curriculum but no one reads?
The author is interviewed at the end by the translator, who has some of the questions above - so I guess I was not alone in finding this puzzling. I would have preferred to be able to just read the book itself. But maybe it was meant to be read more as poetry?
I've read Tadjo before and liked it both her Rwanda book The Shadow of Imana as well as As the Crow Flies.
February 1, 2024
Kraftvolle Geschichte! Wunderschöne Worte und starke Bildkraft. Fand die Interviews am Ende sehr interessant. Spannen ein Bogen zwischen der Geschichte und den politischen Unruhen in Côte d' Ivoire .
July 30, 2024
Having loved In The Company of Men, I did not really care for this story of the Blind Kingdom.
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March 28, 2014Fiction T1212b 2008
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews