Life

Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Boundiali, Côte d'Ivoire. He was the eldest son of a well-known Malinké family. He was raised by his uncle and studied in Bamako, Mali. From 1950 to 1954, while Côte d'Ivoire was still under French rule, he joined French military efforts in Indochina. After this, he traveled to France to study mathematics in Lyon.

Kourouma returned to Côte d'Ivoire after it gained independence in 1960. However, he soon questioned the government led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny. After a short time in prison, he lived in exile for many years. He first lived in Algeria from 1964 to 1969, then in Cameroon from 1974 to 1984, and later in Togo from 1984 to 1994. Eventually, he returned to Côte d'Ivoire.

Kourouma wanted to speak out about the failure of African nations to achieve true independence. He began writing fiction to express these ideas. His first novel, Les Soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970), criticized African governments after colonial rule. Twenty years later, he published Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism. In 1998, he released En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), a satirical story about postcolonial Africa inspired by the writings of Voltaire and the Epic of Sundiata. This book tells the story of a tribal hunter who becomes a dictator, modeled after Togo’s president Gnassingbé Eyadéma. In 2000, he published Allah n'est pas obligé (Allah Is Not Obliged), a story about an orphan who becomes a child soldier while visiting his aunt in Liberia.

When civil war broke out in Côte d'Ivoire in 2002, Kourouma opposed the war and the idea of Ivorian nationalism, calling it "nonsense that caused chaos." President Laurent Gbagbo accused him of supporting rebel groups from the north of the country.

In France, each of Kourouma’s novels was widely praised and sold well. He won many awards, including the Prix Renaudot in 2000 and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for Allah n'est pas obligé. In English-speaking countries, his work has not been widely read, though it is sometimes studied in classes about African literature. Allah Is Not Obliged was first translated into English in 2006.

At the time of his death in Lyon, Kourouma was working on a sequel to Allah n'est pas obligé, titled Quand on refuse on dit non (When One Disagrees, One Says No). This book follows the main character from the first novel, a child soldier who returns home to Côte d'Ivoire, where a new local conflict has begun.

Awards and honours

• Grand Prize of African Literature (1969), for Les Soleils des indépendances
• Maillé-Latour-Landry Award (1970), for Les Soleils des indépendances
• Tropiques Award (1998), for En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages
• Poncetton Grand Prize (1998), for En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages
• Le Livre Inter Book Award (1999), for En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages
• Jean-Giono Grand Prize (2000), for Allah n'est pas obligé
• Renaudot Prize (2000), for Allah n'est pas obligé
• Lycéens' Goncourt Prize (2000), for Allah n'est pas obligé
• Amerigo Vespucci Prize (2000), for Allah n'est pas obligé

Relevant literature

• Wuteh Vakunta, Peter. “Malinkelisation of French [Proverbs] in Ahmadou Kourouma’s Les soleils des indépendances.” Being and Becoming African as a Permanent Work in Progress: Inspiration from Chinua Achebe’s Proverbs. Edited by Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Patrick Nwosu, and Hassan M. Yosimbom. Published in Mankon, Bamenda (Cameroon) by Langaa Research & Publishing, 2021. Pages 281–296.
• Gassama, Makhily. 1995. La langue d'Ahmadou Kourouma, ou Le francais sous le soleil d'Afrique. Published by Karthala and ACCT.