Maryse Condé et Ahmadou Kourouma: Griots de l'indicible (review)

Jean Ouédraogo's Maryse Condé et Ahmadou Kourouma: Griots de l'indicible is a comparative study of two writers: Ahmadou Kourouma (Ivory Coast) and Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe). Although only one of the authors is African, both of them explore West African history. They have been selected because they cover not only Mande culture in the precolonial and colonial past, but also the challenges and disappointments that have characterized the independence period. Ouédraogo analyzes the historical figures who have played an intermediary role between the colonizers and the colonized, specifically the griots and their oral legacy, but his aim is also to debunk the myths of West African history. He takes the position that the traditional West African storyteller tends to glorify the past and sometimes purposely avoids unflattering aspects of it. In contrast, Kourouma and Condé deliberately unveil the shortcomings, internal weaknesses, and vices of a less glorious African history.

Ouédraogo studies a broad and complex array of literary works. He analyzes three novels from Maryse Condé: Ségou (1984), Une Saison à Rihata (1981), and En attendant le bonheur (1988). In addition, he examines three novels and one play from Kourouma: Les Soleils des indépendances (1970), Le diseur de vérité (1972), Monnew, outrages et défis (1990), and En Attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (1998). These writers' works not only complement each other but also span a comparable period of their combined literary careers, from 1984 to 1998. A prior knowledge of these novels makes it easier for the general reader to appreciate the originality of Ouédraogo's study.

Maryse Condé has researched and written about Bambara history, offering an informed and realistic outsider's perspective. Kourouma's views of Malinke society throughout history, by contrast, are those of a very critical insider. Maryse Condé et Ahmadou Kourouma reveals how both authors, originating from different areas in the African world, arrive at remarkably similar conclusions about the African past. Both are modern griots (storytellers) who use their writings to reveal the unspoken truth ("indicible"). Ouédraogo cites a Burkinabe proverb to make his point: "Truth makes the eyes red but never ruins them" (121). The book's rationale is to find continuity as well as divergences between the traditional griots and the innovative approaches of these two writers of historical fiction. His focus is the broader Mande cultural area of West Africa: "Mande peoples (Malinke, Bambara, Dyula, Kuranko, Wangara, Kasonke, Soninke, etc....), all of whom speak mutually comprehensible dialects of Mandekan, are dispersed throughout the West African savanna from the Gambian coast to central Burkina Faso, and from the southern Mauritania to Abidjan, Ivory Coast" (6). The author explains how the Malinke word monnew captures the sufferings and humiliations that have been imposed on the Mande people. Though the word cannot be exactly translated into English, it suggests outrage, defiance, contempt, and insult. Both Kourouma and Condé denounce the lies, corruption, and greed that have pervaded the independence era.

Perhaps the only weak point in this book is that the substance of it could have been more evenly distributed. Specifically, the first four chapters are quite detailed but the fifth chapter is significantly shortened. Also, the interviews at the end seem to have been added on to the work and have the appearance of being disconnected from the rest of the analysis. However, Ouédraogo offers a very thoughtful and detailed analysis of the common themes in these historical novels, articulating clearly the complexity of African history and how its fictitious interpretations have sometimes contributed to confusing and confused perceptions in past and present times. As an African scholar with a great knowledge of Mande culture, he has been able to approach the subject matter with objectivity, demonstrating that the history of Africa is not at the periphery of human history but at its center. Molefi Kete Asante warns us, he notes, that "Africanists will continue to lose their credibility to the...