Narrative
Femme d'Afrique
Not translated into English
Aoua Kéita · 1975
Synopsis
A midwife from French Sudan tells her life, from childhood in Bamako to the early sixties: the girls' school, the diploma obtained in Dakar, the bush postings where she delivers women's babies and the ever more distant ones to which the colonial administration transfers her. Having joined the Rassemblement démocratique africain in 1946, she monitors elections, confronts the harassment of the authorities, and political action gradually takes precedence over her profession.
Context
The book was published by Présence africaine in 1975, in 397 pages, under the title Femme d'Afrique. La vie d'Aoua Kéita racontée par elle-même. Its eight chapters run from the twenties to the last years of the fifties. The publisher reissued it in 1994, then in 2014 with a preface by Sophie Bessis; Jean-Marie Volet, of the University of Western Australia, sees in it a testimony on the years 1930 to 1960 and on women's political struggle.
Who it is for
A life story in French, of nearly four hundred pages, which follows the order of the years step by step.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 1976, the year after its publication by the Paris publisher.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.