Taming the Beast: Writing, Orality and Cultural Duplicity in Ahmadou Kourouma’s En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages

Abstract

Through the analysis of En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages by Ahmadou Kourouma, this article seeks to demonstrate how (Francophone) African writers’ literary output is far more reaching than the traditions from which these authors supposedly originate. Even while claiming a strong link between the novel and oral performances of the donsomana, the article surmises, Kourouma’s work transcends the mere transcription of oral speech. Instead, he bases his novel on a composite and heterogeneous narrative that contradicts, distorts, and camouflages his original sources—a concept defined in this article as la désécriture or the rhetoric of controlled instability—in an attempt to reconcile the complexities of postcolonial identities.

Keywords:

• Ahmadou Kourouma
• désécriture
• postcolonial identities
• oral literatures
• oral traditions
• Francophone writers
• African narratives
• African writers

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Cortés-Vélez, Dr. Daly, and Dr. Sekyi for their diligent proofreading of this paper.

Notes

Notes

1 Please see Kourouma, “Vachon, l’ami qui m’a fait” for further insight.

2 The terms “Malinké” and “Dioula” are interchangeable in Côte d’Ivoire. They designate an ethnic majority group in the north of the country. By amalgamation, the term also designates all of the ethnic groups originating in the north of the country or in the countries along its northern border.

3 Laurent Gbagbo was the President of Côte d’Ivoire from 2000 until his arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for alleged crimes against Humanity in 2011. On January 15, 2019, he was acquitted and cleared of all allegations.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Boubakary Diakité

Boubakary Diakité teaches Francophone literatures and cultures at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has published on oral literatures in Francophone West African novels and Fatou Diome.