Narrative
Kotia-Nima
Not translated into English
Boubou Hama · 1968
Synopsis
The account of his life by a child of Fonéko, a Songhay village in western Niger, son of the chief, who grows up with his two sisters before being sent to the school at Téra, where he learns to read, to write and French. At Dori, through his teacher Kola Coulibaly, he comes to know the young Amadou Hampâté Bâ; having become a schoolteacher, he teaches classes of ninety children reading, writing and the language he has himself learned.
Context
The three volumes appeared from Présence africaine in 1968 and 1969, under the general title Rencontre avec l'Europe, the last also being presented as a dialogue with the West. They belong to the considerable series of works that the author published in a few years, while presiding over the Assembly: history, tales, essays on African education. Critics have compared the first volume, for its child's view of the colonial school, to the account of a child soldier by Ahmadou Kourouma.
Who it is for
Three volumes in French, of one hundred and sixty-seven to two hundred and seventy-nine pages, which read as an autobiography unfolding through memories.
Prizes and reception
Grand Prix littéraire d'Afrique noire, awarded in 1970 according to some, in April 1971 according to the publisher.