Novel
Tropical Circle
Le Cercle des tropiques
Alioum Fantouré · 1972
Synopsis
In the Marigots du Sud, an imaginary country that has just become independent, the narrator, Bohi Di, sees the departing colonisers install in power Baré Koulé, who has himself called the Messie-Koï. The regime makes disappear all those who think differently, executes opponents, arrests those who do not have the party card. Standing against him are the idealist Mellé Houré, Doctor Maleké, thrown into prison, and Salimatou, of the workers' club.
Context
Published by Présence africaine in 1972, the novel received the grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire the following year. It attacks the dictatorial presidencies installed in almost all the states that emerged from French colonisation, and the violence that keeps them in place, at a time when most novels were still going back over colonisation. The Marigots du Sud stand for Sékou Touré's Guinea, according to the study published in the International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research. Longman translated it into English in 1981.
Who it is for
For those interested in novels of African dictatorships, written in the wake of independence.
Prizes and reception
It is counted among the first African novels to denounce the dictatorial regimes that emerged after independence.
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