Narrative
Les Trois Volontés de Malic
Not translated into English
Amadou Mapaté Diagne · 1920
Synopsis
In Diamaguène, a Senegalese village made peaceful by the peace, the administration opens a French school. Little Malic wants to enter it, and threatens to drown himself if he is refused: this is his first wish. His mother Sokhatile gives in, and old Manoté takes him to the school. The child learns quickly, disarms the jealousy of his cousin Mafal without a single insult, and in the evening repeats his lessons to three village elders who have become his pupils. Two further wishes follow: to continue at the town school, then to learn the blacksmith's trade, which the caste system reserves for others.
Context
The book was published by Larousse as number 274 of the Livres roses pour la jeunesse, an inexpensive illustrated series: twenty-eight pages, illustrations by A. Bonamy and a preface by Georges Hardy, its author's superior. The celebration of the colonial order extends even to place names: the village, the text says, has given up its old name of Khékhane for one that honours peace. This adherence long led it to be regarded as an accommodating commissioned work; academic reading also sees in it an attack on the hierarchy of birth, and a praise of peace rather than of France. A reprint appeared in 1973 in Nendeln, from Kraus.
Who it is for
Twenty-eight pages in simple language, with pictures: the text is aimed at children and can be read in one sitting. Out of print, it is mainly consulted in libraries.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first Senegalese novel written in French, it is held to be the birth certificate of the French-language African novel.
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