The lieutenant of Kouta / Massa Makan Diabate ; translated by Shane Auerbach and David Yost.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diabaté, Massa M., author.

Contributor:

Yost, David, translator.

Auerbach, Shane, translator.

Series:

African humanities and the arts.

African humanities and the arts

Standardized Title:

Lieutenant de Kouta. English

Language:

English

French

Subjects (All):

Mali--History--Autonomy and independence movements--Fiction.

Mali.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (128 pages).

Place of Publication:

East Lansing, Michigan : Michigan State University Press, [2017]

Summary:

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-62895-283-0

1-60917-512-3

OCLC:

962157210