Novel
Quinze ans, ça suffit !
Not translated into English
Amadou Ousmane · 1977
Synopsis
It hardly rains any more in Bentota, an imaginary Sahelian republic where hunger kills. Sidi Balima, a deputy and the chairman and managing director of the transport company responsible for carrying food to the stricken regions, is accused of having embezzled fifteen thousand tonnes of grain and of having had villas built for himself while the population was fleeing the country. Arrested and imprisoned, he is defended by his own son, Ali, whom he had forbidden to marry Aïcha.
Context
The title refers to the fifteen years of civilian rule separating independence from the coup d'état of 1974. The author was then serving the general who had led it, which places the book on the side of the new power rather than of dissent. The material comes from his trade: a court reporter, he builds his narrative like a hearing, with its lawyers, its public prosecution and its minister of justice, against a background of embezzled sorghum and emergency relief. The national printing house of Niamey published it, and the Nouvelles Éditions africaines later reissued it.
Who it is for
One hundred and thirty-four pages. It helps to know that the drought of the 1970s caused thousands of deaths in the Sahel, and that the management of food aid was one of the grievances that brought down the civil regime.
Prizes and reception
The book that made its author known in Niger, and the title under which he appears in the histories of Nigerien literature.