The Lieutenant of Kouta

African Humanities and the Arts (AHA)

by Massa Makan Diabaté, Shane Auerbach (Translator), David Yost (Translator)

The Lieutenant of Kouta is the first novel in Massa Makan Diabaté’s award-winning trilogy. Featuring an introduction by leading Diabaté scholar Cheick M. Chérif Keïta and Shane Auerbach, it tells the story, part tragicomic and part hagiographic, of an African lieutenant in the French Army who returns as a decorated hero from the battlefields of Europe to Kouta, a fictionalized version of the author’s own birthplace, the Malian town of Kita. Upon his return, Siriman Keita finds it difficult to adjust to village life as he navigates traditional customs in his attempts to create his place in the predominantly Muslim Kouta. The novel offers a rich and nuanced representation of Mali on the brink of independence; it is a tapestry of traditional Mandinka society and the French colonial apparatus, illustrating the dynamic interplay between the two. This text is, ultimately, a story of one man’s transformation coinciding with that of his country.

 

Genres: Africa, Fiction, Mali, Historical Fiction

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Massa Makan Diabaté et né à Kita, Mali, lieu traditionnel de formation des griots malinké. Se famille était connue comme "ceux qui parlent si bien qu'on ne peut rien leur refuser." Il a fait ses études à Paris et a occupé différents postes au ministère de l'Éduction Nationale du Mali.

Reviews

[Rosamund · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a funny book but not exactly my sort of humour. On the other hand I enjoyed getting a burst of insight into Mandinka culture and the period running up to Malian independence.

[Marcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is quite short at just over 100 pages, and I read it in two sittings. Going in, I felt like the description gave me a good sense of what the story would be about, but while reading, I often found myself a little lost.

A lot of events happen abruptly, and I wasn’t always sure why they mattered. There are also several group discussions, but I didn’t quite understand their purpose or what they were adding to the story. The timeline also threw me off; sometimes whole months would pass between chapters without much explanation, and other times it was clear that time had gone by, but not how much.

Because of that, I didn’t feel like I really connected with the Lieutenant’s struggles. The story isn’t told in first person, which maybe added to that distance. I know this is the first in a trilogy, and the next two books focus on different characters we meet here (the barber and the butcher), but as a standalone I felt like it was missing some depth and clarity. I would have appreciated more continuity and detail to really understand the bigger picture the author was trying to show.

That said, it was a quick read, and the premise itself was interesting enough that I wanted to see it through. I just wished I had a better grasp of the characters and what was happening from scene to scene.

[Ada · Rating 2 out of 5]

J’ai vraiment eu du mal avec ce livre. L’idée de départ m’intéressait le retour d’un homme dans son village après avoir servi dans l’armée, les tensions entre modernité et traditions… mais au final, j’ai trouvé le récit confus et pas très prenant. La fin m’a laissée perplexe : trop de choses s’enchaînent .Honnêtement, j’ai fini le livre plus par devoir que par envie.

[Youssouf · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book! What a knowledge of the Mandinka society...I felt ashamed for not reading this earlier...Every page has a wisdom that the reader that learn from, while maintaining a great story line...I loved this classic!

[Africa BookChallenge]

The latest entry for The Africa Book Challenge The Lieutenant of Kouta by Massa Makan Diabate` has been posted.

Click on the URL at the top of the profile page to learn more about this comical literary endeavor from Mali!

[K's Bognoter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nyklassisk malinesisk roman fra 1979 – langt om længe oversat til engelsk i 2017. Meget velskrevet, ganske vittig og i det hele taget en overraskende underholdende og god læseoplevelse.

Læs hele anmeldelsen på K’s bognoter: http://bognoter.dk/2018/05/21/massa-m...