Republic of the Congo / All works
Novel
The Fire of Origins
Le Feu des origines
Emmanuel Dongala · 1987
Synopsis
His mother gave birth to him alone, in a deserted banana grove, away from the village of Lubituku; for lack of witnesses, it is doubted that he was really born, and therefore that he must die. Mandala Mankunku becomes a great hunter, then a blacksmith, his father's trade, and a sculptor; with his uncle Bizenga, sorcerer and village chief, he learns the art of healing and discovers where this knowledge ends and where imposture begins. With the first European invaders, he takes the lead of the resistance, then goes to the city, where he works on the railway until he drives its trains.
Context
The novel appeared in 1987 from Albin Michel, fourteen years after its author's first novel, before being reissued in 2001 by Le Serpent à plumes, in the Motifs series, then in 2018 by Actes Sud, in the Babel series. The author regarded it as a more cosmic and more mystical reading of the world than his next novel, to which it was linked by the same search for knowledge, and in it he returned to the rigged trials that had marked him in the Congo. The book has been translated into Japanese, Danish, Spanish and Norwegian, then into English in 2001 by Lillian Corti.
Who it is for
A novel in a broad style, close to the voice of the storyteller. It is useful to know about the colonisation of the Congo and the forced labour that built the railway to the coast.
Prizes and reception
Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire and the Charles Oulmont prize of the Fondation de France in 1988. American critics hailed it in 2001 as a great African novel.
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