The Divine Song

by Abdourahman A. Waberi, David Ball (Translation), Nicole Ball (Translation)

“Everything starts with a song and everything ends with another song,” says the narrator of The Divine Song . Paris is an old Sufi cat who keeps watch over his brilliant yet pathetic master, Sammy Kamau-Williams, the Enchanter. In Sammy, we recognize the African American singer-composer, poet, and novelist Gil Scott-Heron who is best known for his song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”  
​ The Divine Song takes us from the shores of Africa to Sammy’s ancestors’ arrival in the Americas in the hold of the slave ships. From there, Abdourahman A. Waberi takes the characters from Tennessee—under the tutelage of Lili Williams, Sammy’s beloved African-born grandmother—to New York and the concert halls of Paris and Berlin, wherever blues and jazz find an enchanted audience. African tales, religious practices, segregation, the civil rights movement, addiction, and jail—Sammy’s life comes to encompass the whole of the African American experience. At a time when social and racial divisions have yet again come into sharp relief, this lyrical novel by one of African literature’s rising stars is necessary reading for anyone who celebrates the resilience of art. 

Genres: Fiction, African Literature, Race

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 2015

About the author

Abdourahman Waberi nació en la ciudad de Yibuti en la costa somalí francesa, actual República de Yibuti. Se fue a Francia en 1985 para estudiar literatura inglesa. Trabajó como consultor literario para Editions Le Serpent à plumes, París, y como crítico literario para Le Monde Diplomatique. Ha sido miembro del jurado internacional del Premio Lettre Ulysses para el Art of Reportage (Arte del Reportaje) en Berlín, Alemania (2003 y 2004).

Reviews

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect read for Black History Month, or any time. The unusual pairing of an old Sufi cat as narrator and a troubled musician based in part on Gil Scott-Heron makes for a rich and moving homage to Black American history and the redemptive power of music.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2021/03/14/ri...

[John Benson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember my younger brothers introducing me to the music of Gil Scott-Herron back in the early 1980s. This book is a fictional version of his life (though his name is not used in the text), and is narrated by a cat, and written by a Djiboutian-French author. The book style varies from at times very lyrical to very factual at other times. While I tend to shy away from experimental writing, I quite enjoyed his writing style as at times, I felt that I was involved in one of his musical numbers when he was writing lyrically; while at other times, I could follow his life story, when it was written more factually. While the book felt very American to me with its exploration of his life and American musical styles, it often felt strange thinking that the book was translated from French and written by an African author. An interesting book.

[La Viduite]

À travers le point de vue, décalé et souvent insituable, de son chat Paris, Waberi trace le destin douloureux et magnifique de Gill Scott-Heron, ses engagements pour les droits civiques, la magie de sa musique, ses fantômes et surtout de toutes les histoires collectives dont, tous, nous sommes hantés.

https://viduite.wordpress.com/2017/02...