Allah is Not Obliged

A powerful and affecting novel of Africa’s child-soldiers, by French Africa’s pre-eminent novelist. Birahima is ten years old. He lives in the Ivory Coast. He is a soldier. In Ahmadou Kourouma’s extraordinary novel, Birahima tells his story. At the age of ten his mother dies and Birahima leaves his native village, accompanied by the sorcerer/crook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other boys, some no older than himself, Birahima sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Ahmadou Kourouma’s masterpiece is powerful, terrible and frequently bitterly funny. From the Hardcover edition.

Literature & Fiction

Kourouma, Ahmadou

Contemporary

Vintage Books

ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED TO BE FAIR ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HE DOES HERE ON EARTH.These are the words of the boy soldier Birahima in the final masterpiece by one of Africa’s most celebrated writers, Ahmadou Kourouma. When ten-year-old Birahima's mother dies, he leaves his native village in the Ivory Coast, accompanied by the sorcerer and cook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by rebels and forced into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a chaotic civil war alongside many other boys, Birahima sees death, torture, dismemberment and madness but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Raw and unforgettable, despairing yet filled with laughter, Allah Is Not Obliged reveals the ways in which children's innocence and youth are compromised by war.

Dramas & Plays

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote

Ahmadou Kourouma's remarkable novel is narrated by Bingo, a West African sora - storyteller and king's fool. Over the course of five nights he tells the life story of Koyaga, President and Dictator of the Gulf Coast. Orphaned at the age of seven, Koyaga grows up to be a terrible hunter; he fights mythical beasts, and is a shape-shifter, capable of changing himself into beasts and birds. He fights in the French colonial armies, in Vietnam and Algeria, but on his return he mounts a coup and becomes ruler and dictator of the Gulf Coast. For thirty years he runs a corrupt but 'clean' state, surviving repeated assassination attempts and gaining support and investment from abroad. But when the 'First World' decides it no longer want to support dictatorships and call for democracy, he needs another ruse to maintain himself in power... Part magic, part history, part savage satire, Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote is nothing less than a history of post-colonial Africa itself.

Waiting For The Wild Beasts To Vote

Frank Wynne

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

William Heinemann, Ltd.

A powerful and affecting novel of Africa’s child-soldiers, by French Africa’s pre-eminent novelist. Birahima is ten years old. He lives in the Ivory Coast. He is a soldier. In Ahmadou Kourouma’s extraordinary novel, Birahima tells his story.At the age of ten his mother dies and Birahima leaves his native village, accompanied by the sorcerer/crook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other boys, some no older than himself, Birahima sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity.Ahmadou Kourouma’s masterpiece is powerful, terrible and frequently bitterly funny.

William Heinemann

Characterized as "the African Voltaire," Ahmadou Kourouma garnered enormous critical and popular praise upon the 1998 release of his third novel, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages. Kourouma received the Prix des Tropiques, among other prestigious prizes, for that book, and the French edition went on to sell 100,000 copies.
Carrol F. Coates's translation, Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals, introduces English-language audiences to Kourouma's irreverent view of the machinations of the African dictators who played the West against the East during the thirty years of the cold war. Profiting from western financial support, the dictators built palaces, shrines, and hunting preserves for their personal gratification as they paraded about with numerous mistresses, marabouts, and advisers. In the style of a sèrè who sings the praises of the thirty-year career of the master hunter and president Koyaga (a fictionalized Gnassingbé Eyadema of Togo) readers are treated to a brief overview of the French colonization of the "Naked people," hunters in West African mountain country, followed by the account of Koyaga's assumption of power through treachery, assassination, and sorcery. In an interview Kourouma noted the Togolese assumption that if the people did not turn out to vote for Eyadema in the democratic elections following the cold war, the wild animals would come out of the forest to vote for him. The novel ends with an apocalyptic stampede, although the animals are probably fleeing a bush conflagration rather than running to the polls.

Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)

Literary

University of Virginia Press

The Suns of Independence

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Africana Pub

The "Suns of Independence" considered a masterpiece of modern African literature, enables the reader to gain unique insight into African culture and conflicts. Through Fama and Salimata, the husband and wife at the heart of the story, Kourouma conveys the confusion that torments many Africans when a traditional and a later, more materialistic culture collide. The last of the Dumbuya princes who had reigned over the Malinke tribe before the European conquest, Fama seeks a place for himself within the new hierarchy of bureaucrats and border guards. Salimata, haunted by memories of a ritualistic excision and a brutal rape, searches for the means to have a child who will pass on the Dumbuya legacy to future generations. Interwoven with tales and proverbs from the ancient Malinke traditions, this modern novel brilliantly captures the struggles, desires, and dreams of a people in a West African country living through the tumultuous days of Independence.

Suns of Independence: A Novel

Adams, Adrian

Holmes and Meier Publishers

Monnew

Ahmadou Kourouma's long-awaited novel - hailed by critics as "a major event in the history of French-language African literature" and "a masterpiece of literary creation" - tells the story of Djigui Keita, king of fictional Soba. Relying on ancestral magic, faith in Allah, and baked-mud fortifications, Djigui finds himself powerless in the face of oncoming French colonial troops and falls into the fateful politics of conciliation, compromise, and betrayal that still pervades postcolonial Africa. Tyrannical chief and authentic victim of historical forces, opportunist and pious humanitarian, Djigui Keita, the "AgeOldMan" of his people, is brutally awakened from the tranquillity of traditional certitudes and dragged into a colonial tragedy "made in Europe." Enduring the monnew - the insults, outrages, trials, contempts, and humiliations - of colonialism, Djigui acquires the dimensions of a tragic hero. Ultimately, deep meditation, inspired by the infinite sufferings of his subjects during the more than 125 years of his reign, reveals to Djigui the true nature of people and their acts. A novel as rich in natural resources as the African continent, Monnew shines with the gold of poetic comedy and plunges into the quagmire of the African tragedy. Kourouma writes with the accent of his native Malinke language and culture, conveying and analyzing the intricate mechanisms and linguistic complications of postcolonial Africa. In a tender, virile, rigorously intelligent voice, Kourouma uses his prodigious powers of poetry, humor, and stylistic invention to hasten the end of "the seasons of bitterness," the centuries of African sacrifice.

United States

Mercury House

In a fictional African country, Djigui Keita, the king of Soba, finds that ancestral magic, faith in Allah, and baked-mud fortifications are insufficient defenses against French troops and the humiliation of colonialism

Used. Very Good conditions. May have soft reading marks and name of the previous owner.

Monnè, outrages et défis (French Edition)

SEUIL

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Books by Kourouma, Ahmadou

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kourouma, Ahmadou. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Allah is Not Obliged

Allah is Not Obliged

Waiting For The Wild Beasts To Vote

Allah is Not Obliged

Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)

The Suns of Independence

Suns of Independence: A Novel

Monnew

Monnew

Monnè, outrages et défis (French Edition)