Novel
Le Cercle et la spirale
Not translated into English
Omar Osman Rabeh · 1986
Synopsis
An autobiographical novel by Omar Osman Rabeh. According to Hibo Moumin Assoweh, the book inaugurates a free style of writing that diagnoses the political and socio-economic situation of Djibouti; presented as his autobiography, it was published shortly after he lost Djiboutian nationality. Its content is not known in more detail.
Context
Published in Paris by Lettres libres, in 1984 (1986 according to Afrikan Sarvi), the book was, according to Hibo Moumin Assoweh, the only Djiboutian publication in French of the 1980s, between William Syad's collections and the surge of the following decade. Its author also left several works of reflection, among them L'État et le pansomalisme, in 1988, and La Mentalité nomade ou l'Antinomie État/clans, in 2010. The book's reception is not known.
Who it is for
An autobiographical novel written in a free language, to be read as a diagnosis of its country; no translation has been recorded.
Prizes and reception
The Finnish journal Afrikan Sarvi sees in this book the major work, in French, of an entire Djiboutian decade.