Il n'y a pas de petite querelle : Nouveaux contes de la savane

by Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Hélène Heckmann (Preface)

167pages. 22,4x14x8,4cm. Broché.

Genres: Fiction

164 pages, Paperback

First published March 23, 1999

About the author

Amadou Hampâté Bâ was born to an aristocratic Fula family in Bandiagara, the largest city in Dogon territory and the capital of the precolonial Masina Empire. After his father's death, he was adopted by his mother's second husband, Tidjani Amadou Ali Thiam of the Toucouleur ethnic group. He first attended the Qur'anic school run by Tierno Bokar, a dignitary of the Tijaniyyah brotherhood, then transferred to a French school at Bandiagara, then to one at Djenné. In 1915, he ran away from school and rejoined his mother at Kati, where he resumed his studies.

In 1921, he turned down entry into the école normale in Gorée. As a punishment, the governor appointed him to Ouagadougou with the role he later described as that of "an essentially precarious and revocable temporary writer". From 1922 to 1932, he filled several posts in the colonial administration in Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso and from 1932 to 1942 in Bamako. In 1933, he took a six month leave to visit Tierno Bokar, his spiritual leader.(see also:Sufi studies)

In 1942, he was appointed to the Institut Français d’Afrique Noire (IFAN, French Institute of Black Africa) in Dakar thanks to the benevolence of Théodore Monod, its director. At IFAN, he made ethnological surveys and collected traditions. For 15 years he devoted himself to research, which would later lead to the publication of his work L'Empire peul de Macina (The Peul Empire of Macina). In 1951, he obtained a UNESCO grant, allowing him to travel to Paris and meet with intellectuals from Africanist circles, notably Marcel Griaule.

With Mali's independence in 1960, Bâ founded the Institute of Human Sciences in Bamako, and represented his country at the UNESCO general conferences. In 1962, he was elected to UNESCO's executive council, and in 1966 he helped establish a unified system for the transcription of African languages.

His term in the executive council ended in 1970, and he devoted the remaining years of his life to research and writing. He moved to Abidjan, and worked on classifying the archives of West African oral tradition that he had accumulated throughout his lifetime, as well as writing his memoirs (Amkoullel l'enfant peul and Oui mon commandant!, both published posthumously).

(source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Safae · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's a great book , I've read it in Arabic and enjoyed every little bit of it, it contains some really amazing stories full of wisdom ^^

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

C'était mon premier livre de contes africains. J'ai beaucoup aimé. Les histoires contées y sont superbes. Elles trouvent leurs origines pour la plupart dans les peuples peuls.

Comme l'a si bien dit A. Hampâté Bâ "En Afrique, quand un vieillard meurt, c'est une bibliothèque qui brûle". Ce message, ce cri d'alerte lancé par l'auteur est d'une importance capitale. En effet, la transmission des histoires par la parole est un des piliers de la culture ancestrale africaine. C'est un privilège aujourd'hui de pouvoir lire et apprécier ces histoires, autrefois contées par des griots, où que nous soyons.

Les comportements humains y sont dépeints en passant par des animaux. Certains y voient un passe temps et d'autres en tirent des leçons. Me concernant, j'ai pu trouver mon bonheur en ces deux points.

[Benoît · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book of tales from the oral tradition, some very succinct and some longer and reworked by AHB. The shortest ones are not remarkable, but as for the other ones, they remain concise, playful, drawing their mystery from their reliance on a secret wisdom. I like how the tales sway between fortunate and unfortunate circumstances for each character and reward the compassionate, generous and the loving, as opposed to tales of sad inescapable fates (decidedly too recurrent in European literature). I could have done with a few less animals though.

[Wim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Petit recueil de comptes écrits par Amadou Hampâté Bâ, reconstitué après sa mort à partir de ses archives non publiées. Quelques comptes sont vraiment merveilleux ! J'ai particulièrement aimé la querelle des deux lézards, l'homme et le crocodile, le fille au masque de bois, et le berger bossu-bossu.

[Chema Caballero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recopilación de cuentos populares africanos, en su mayoría peuls. Interesante. Anecdótico.

[Tatu · Rating 4 out of 5]

"en afrique, quand un vieillard meurt c’est une bibliothèque qui brûle" ahb

[Nino Magro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amadou m’a prêté ce livre car je lui ai dis que j’étais en train de lire un conte pour enfants. Les contes qui sont présents dans ce recueil sont tous incroyables. Le premier m’a particulièrement touché. « La querelle des deux lézards », ou « Il n’y a pas de petite querelle ». Le titre nous dit tout ce qu’il y a à savoir. Aucune querelle n’est trop petite pour être prise au sérieux, et il est du devoir de chacun de s’assurer que rien ne dérape lorsque l’on voit un problème surgir quelque part.
Mais en général, je pense que les contes sont une excellente manière d’éduquer les gens. On ne s’identifie pas nécessairement aux personnages, et ainsi l’éducation qu’ils apportent ne nous paraissent pas être un jugement porté sur notre personne, mais plutôt un idéal de vie vers lequel on a envie de tendre.

[Yann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ces contes sont très plaisants.