Novel
Doguicimi
Paul Hazoumé · 1938
Synopsis
In the first half of the nineteenth century, to avenge murdered white friends, King Guézo launches against the land of Houndjroto a campaign that the court and the ancestors disapprove of. He is defeated, and Prince Toffa, Doguicimi's husband, is taken prisoner. Doguicimi defies the king, whom she holds responsible, and remains faithful to the absent man despite the intrigues and the passion she inspires in the crown prince Vidaho, which she resists. Around her the court of Abomey comes back to life, with its ceremonies and festivals governed by tradition and by oracles.
Context
Published in Paris by Larose with a preface by Georges Hardy, the book was presented by its author as an ethnological and historical document as much as a novel. Africanists received it in this way: Déborah Lifchitz judged it indispensable to anyone studying Dahomey, and the Revue d'histoire des colonies read in it true history in a fictionalised form. The Académie française awarded it its prix de la langue française in 1939, and it was reissued in 1978 with a preface by Robert Cornevin, then translated into English in 1990 by Richard Bjornson.
Who it is for
For readers who want to enter the palace of the kings of Dahomey in the nineteenth century, at the cost of a long novel rich in descriptions.
Prizes and reception
Crowned by the Académie française, it is regarded as a classic of African literature in French.
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