Overview

Born in 1900 in French West Africa, Malian writer Amadou Hampate Ba was one of the towering figures in the literature of twentieth-century Francophone Africa. In Amkoullel, the Fula Boy, Ba tells in striking detail the story of his youth, which was set against the aftermath of war between the Fula and Toucouleur peoples and the installation of French colonialism. A master storyteller, Ba recounts pivotal moments of his life, and the lives of his powerful and large family, from his first encounter with the white commandant through the torturous imprisonment of his stepfather and to his forced attendance at French school. He also charts a larger story of life prior to and at the height of French colonialism: interethnic conflicts, the clash between colonial schools and Islamic education, and the central role indigenous African intermediaries and interpreters played in the functioning of the colonial administration. Engrossing and novelistic, Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is an unparalleled rendering of an individual and society under transition as they face the upheavals of colonialism.

Full Product Details

Author:   Amadou Hampâté Bâ ,  Jeanne Garane
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9781478013273

ISBN 10:   1478013273
Pages:   400
Publication Date:   20 August 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Foreword to the Translation / Ralph A. Austen  ix Introduction: Between Memory and Memorial / Jeanne Garane  xv Amkoullel, The Fula Boy Preface to the Original Edition / Théodore Monod  3 Author's Foreword / Amadou Hampâté Bâ  7 1. Roots  1 My Dual Heritage  11 Pâté Poullo, My Maternal Grandfather  15 The Story of My Father Hampâté, the Lamb in the Lion's Den  20 2. Kadidja, My Mother  39 Kadidja's Dream  39 Kadidja and Hampâté: A Rocky Marriage  42 Kadidja and Tidjani  45 The Toïni Revolt 49 Kadidja's Quest  64 The Trial  79 3. Exile  83 Tidjani's Long March  85 Kadidja's Village  87 On the Road to Bougouni with My Mother  98 Kadidja Battle the Boss of the Laptot Boatmen  100 Birth of My Little Brother  105 My Father in Chains  111 An Ember That Does Not Burn  115 Death of My Early Childhood  121 Danfo Siné the Dan Player  124 Death of My Old Master  127 In the Shade of Great Trees  136 Freedom at Last!  137 4. Return to Bandiagara  142 A Day in the Life of a Child  145 The White Man's Excrement and the Town Made of Trash  149 I Establish My First Association  153 A Handful of Rice  156 At School with the Masters of the World  159 Sinali's Garden  161 Boy and Girl Valentines  168 Kadidja and Tidjani in Crisis  173 Circumcision of My Brother Hammadoun  176 The Great Battle  185 5. At the White Man's School  194 Requisitioned by Force  194 The Commandant and the Five-Franc Coin  202 Primary School  209 My First Encounter with Wangrin  218 The Death of My Older Brother  220 The School at Djenné: My Primary Studies Certificate  223 The Great Famine of 1914: A Vision of Horror  234 Declaration of War  241 Flight  251 On The Trail of the War Dogs  256 The Three Colors of France  259 The Land-Roving Pirogue of Metal  264 The Abysmal Lair of the Great Black Hyena  266 6. In the Military of Town of Kati  270 My New Waaldé Association  274 A Hasty Circumcision  278 Return to School  281 The Warrant Officer and the King's Son  282 7. Final Studies in Bamako  296 My Second Primary Studies Certificate  296 In Vain Pursuit of the Wind  299 Boarding School in Bamako  311 The Consequences of a Refusal: Exile in Ouagadougou  317 I Bid Farewell on the Riverbank  326 Translator's Acknowledgments  329 Notes  331 Bibliography  345 Biographies  351 Index  353

Reviews

This book provides an intimate glimpse of all the transactions involved in the various political and social (dis)loyalties, kinship relations, and religious affiliations in a changing colonial landscape. The narrative locates Amadou Hampate Ba in the environment that armed him with a unique character and a set of ideas drawn from secular, animist, Islamic, and Western resources. An education that turned him into a shrewd colonial clerk and archivist of the 'colonial library.' Amkoullel: The Fula Boy is an insightful and significant autobiography and an ethnography of communities in transition and the biography of Francophone colonial West Africa. -- Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University Amadou Hampate Ba has long been recognized as one of the most authoritative voices about Mali, Islamic West Africa, Fulani culture, orality, and the dialogue between religions. Jeanne Garane's masterful translation of Ba's rich and captivating memoir presents a vivid picture of the mechanisms of social change in Mali and many neighboring countries. The publication of Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is truly a blessing. -- Cherif Keita, William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts, Carleton College

This book provides an intimate glimpse of all the transactions involved in the various political and social (dis)loyalties, kinship relations, and religious affiliations in a changing colonial landscape. The narrative locates Amadou Hampate Ba in the environment that armed him with a unique character and a set of ideas drawn from secular, animist, Islamic, and Western resources---an education that turned him into a shrewd colonial clerk and archivist of the 'colonial library.' Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is an insightful and significant autobiography, an ethnography of communities in transition, and a biography of Francophone colonial West Africa. -- Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University Amadou Hampate Ba has long been recognized as one of the most authoritative voices about Mali, Islamic West Africa, Fulani culture, orality, and the dialogue between religions. Jeanne Garane's masterful translation of Ba's rich and captivating memoir presents a vivid picture of the mechanisms of social change in Mali and many neighboring countries. The publication of Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is truly a blessing. -- Cherif Keita, William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts, Carleton College

Amadou Hampate Ba has long been recognized as one of the most authoritative voices about Mali, Islamic West Africa, Fulani culture, orality, and the dialogue between religions. Jeanne Garane's masterful translation of Ba's rich and captivating memoir presents a vivid picture of the mechanisms of social change in Mali and many neighboring countries. The publication of Amkoullel, the Fula Boy is truly a blessing. -- Cherif Keita, William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts, Carleton College This book provides an intimate glimpse of all the transactions involved in the various political and social (dis)loyalties, kinship relations, and religious affiliations in a changing colonial landscape. The narrative locates Amadou Hampate Ba in the environment that armed him with a unique character and a set of ideas drawn from secular, pagan, Islamic, and Western resources. An education that turned him into a shrewd colonial clerk and archivist of the 'colonial library.' Amkoullel: The Fula Boy is an insightful and significant autobiography and an ethnography of communities in transition and the biography of Francophone colonial West Africa. -- Mamadou Diouf, Columbia University

Author Information

Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900–1991) was one of the major intellectual and literary figures of twentieth-century Africa as well as a colonial official and postcolonial diplomat. He is the author of the novel The Fortunes of Wangrin and numerous books in French. Jeanne Garane is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina.

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