Monnè, oltraggi e provocazioni

by Ahmadou Kourouma

Protagonista della storia è il re di Soba, un centro dell’impero mandingo: Gighi Keita, il cui regno dura centovent’anni e la cui terra viene conquistata e sottomessa dai “Nazareni” (ossia i bianchi) francesi a inizio 900. I cantori delle imprese reali, i griot, celebrano la gloria di Gighi che ha impedito la conversione del suo popolo dalla religione musulmana al cristianesimo, anche se in realtà il re nulla può contro una dominazione che porta morte e distruzione tra gli africani. I francesi promettono a Gighi un treno che collegherà il suo regno al resto del mondo, ma per farlo lo obbligano a procurar loro manovalanza. Il popolo di Gighi muore così di stenti nella costruzione della ferrovia, e i francesi in più fanno giurare fedeltà alla loro bandiera e pretendono che gli africani si arruolino e combattano al loro fianco nella prima e poi nella seconda guerra mondiale contro gli Allamà, i tedeschi. Quando poi Pétain prenderà il potere e a Soba arriverà il nuovo governatore francese, Bernier, Gighi verrà deposto e sostituito dal figlio Bema, avuto dalla giovane Mussokorò (la favorita di cui in un flashback viene raccontata la storia). La ricca vicenda del romanzo, che narra di un’intera civiltà (con tanto di regni, cantori, tradizioni, miti, indovini) spazzata via dalla storia a opera del colonialismo, costituisce un autentico epos, scandito da metafore, termini africani, più voci narranti. Senza manicheismo nella rappresentazione di negri buoni e bianchi cattivi, mostra come gli africani abbiano contribuito alla propria sottomissione con peccati loro (interesse, ingenuità, ambizione ecc.), non ultima la cecità di Gighi che sino alla fine non capisce l’errore commesso, ossia di aver creduto che la ferrovia fosse un omaggio francese alla sua regalità anziché l’ennesimo strumento di sfruttamento da parte dei bianchi.

Genres: Africa, Fiction, France

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Ahmadou Kourouma, (November 24, 1927 – December 11, 2003) was an Ivorian novelist.
The eldest son of a distinguished Malinké family, Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Côte d'Ivoire. Raised by his uncle, he initially pursued studies in Bamako, Mali. From 1950 to 1954, when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France to study mathematics in Lyon.
Kourouma returned to his native Côte d'Ivoire after it won its independence in 1960, yet he quickly found himself questioning the government of Félix Houphouët-Boigny. After brief imprisonment, Kourouma spent several years in exile, first in Algeria (1964-1969), then in Cameroon (1974-1984) and Togo (1984-1994), before finally returning to live in Côte d'Ivoire.
Determined to speak out against the betrayal of legitimate African aspirations at the dawn of independence, Kourouma was drawn into an experiment in fiction, his first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970). Les soleils des indépendances contains a critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa. Twenty years later, his second book Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, was published. In 1998, he published En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), a satire of post colonial Africa in the style of Voltaire in which a griot recounts the story of a tribal hunter's transformation into a dictator, inspired by president Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo. In 2000, he published Allah n'est pas obligé (translated as Allah is Not Obliged), a tale of an orphan who becomes a child soldier when traveling to visit his aunt in Liberia.
At the outbreak of civil war in Côte d'Ivoire in 2002, Kourouma stood against the war as well as against the concept of Ivorian nationalism, calling it "an absurdity which has led us to chaos." President Laurent Gbagbo accused him of supporting rebel groups from the north of the country.
In France, each of Ahmadou Kourouma's novels has been greeted with great acclaim, sold exceptionally well, and been showered with prizes including Prix Renaudot in year 2000 and The Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for Allah n'est pas obligé . In the English-speaking world, Kourouma has yet to make much of an impression: despite some positive reviews, his work remains largely unknown outside college classes in African fiction.
At the time of his death, he was working on a sequel to Allah n'est pas obligé, entitled Quand on refuse on dit non (translated roughly as When One Disagrees, One Says No), in which the protagonist of the first novel, a child soldier, is demobilized and returns to his home in Côte d'Ivoire, in which a new regional conflict has arisen.

Reviews

[Angie Reisetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to read, but it's one of those things that is probably good for me. It's told as an allegorical story, a mighty myth to be learned. It centers on a fictional king who rules Soba, a fictional land that resembles the Ivory Coast (really resembles it). When the conquering French come, Soba surrenders without a fight due to a trickster translator, and then the book covers the evils of colonialism. The forced labor (but no slavery here!), the taxes and starvation, the imposed desire for modernization, the infighting spurred on by the French.

Kourouma often insults the people of Soba and black Africans in general, and I believe this is to be taken as ironic. There is such bitterness, though, that it's one of those things that make me wonder if some part of him believes some of it. And the ubiquitous use of what I can only call the n-word made the reading all the more difficult and uncomfortable. I don't think Kourouma would apologize for this -- I think he wants us to be uncomfortable reading it. But there are additional difficulties -- the narration keeps switching between 3rd person and 1st person, but different 1st persons, so it's difficult to tell who's speaking. And certainly the kind of Soba is no angel -- it is not a happy, productive, united kingdom before the French come, so there is that element of (realistic) complication as well.

So yes, I believe this book was good for me in an intellectual way. It gave me a lot to think about. But it was a rough read.

[Africa BookChallenge]

The latest entry for The Africa Book Challenge, Monnew by Ahmadou Kourouma, has arrived!

Click on the URL in the profile to learn more about this fascinating critique of the role of language in colonialism in West Africa.

[aly ☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°]

dnf @ 45%

[Kribsoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

استخدم الراوي أجواءالطقوس لإبراز أبشع صور العذاب التي تدمر حياه إنسان غرب أفريقيا باسم السياسة والدين والشعوذة و هي الأنهر التي تتغذى بها الصراعات وتتدفق منها بحور الدماء هناك وايضا صاغ المؤلف من خلال ما أسماها مواخير غرب أفريقيا السياسية مشهدا بائسا لحياة تعيسة تتحكم فيهادمى الاستعمار تصنع السياسات القذرة

[Guillaume Masse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sujet intéressant, mais l'écriture est trop lourde pour moi.