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Moussa Konaté : >L’Affaire des coupeurs de têtes, (Headless in Kita)
This novel is set in the Malian town of Kita, in South-West Mali 120 miles west of Bamako along the Dakar-Niger railway. The main activity is agriculture, specialising in cotton and peanuts. There are, as we shall see, different clans and even different religions and these are very much a factor in this book. Some of the key characters claim descent from Sundiata Keita., the legendary founder of Mali.
We open with a large crowd outside the relatively small station, with singers dancers, griottes and other musicians waiting the return of their glorious football team which, for the first time ever, has beaten the team from the regional capital Kayes. The train arrives and the team is acclaimed and they leave on their bus for home, followed by the crowd. Left behind is a beggar, who has not moved and a few children playing football. The football strikes the beggar who was sitting on the ground but he still he does not move. When the children go to collect the football, the beggar falls over. They see that he has no head.
The police are summoned underCaptain Dembelé but there is no obvious clue, with one exception. Ngaba, the local madman appears. He has a machete around his neck and keeps shouting.Chop it! Chop it! However, he has been doing this for many years and has never hurt anybody.
The town has expanded in recent years, which means more people and therefore more crime. Captain Dembelé struggles to keep up with it and has received a certain amount of criticism for not doing so.
Things get more complicated when they see a silhouette clad from head to toe in deep red and carrying a flickering torch disappearing behind a rock.
Gouloufin is one of the characters descendedrom Sundiata Keita., the legendary founder of Mali. However, he has not honoured the family name as he drinks, does not go to the mosque and generally behaves badly. He was returning from his field to his home when the same figure accosts him. He condemns Gouloufin’s bad behaviour and betrayal of his ancestors.Gouloufin flees but has a heart attack and dies.
Fadiala Dembelé is a virtuous Muslim who regularly attends mosque and behaves in an exemplary fashion. The figure tells him he has a responsibility to save the town from what is happening.
The next day, the town worthies, including Captain Dembelé ,meet. The soothsayer tells them that the ancestors are angry because our daughters are selling their bodies. The unfortunate captain feels he now has to solve both mystery of the headless beggars – there has been another one found – and also be a moral guardian for the town.
It is time to call in the cavalry and the government sends a senior police officer from Bamako to help. He is a native of Kita is called Habib. He is accompanied by his assistant Sosso. While all this is going on, we continue seeing a certain rivalry between the different ethnic groups, particularly theMandinke and Fulani, each mocking and criticising the other even though they are working together.
Headless bodies continue to appear and in every case Ngaba seems to be nearby. But is he intelligent enough to have carried out these crimes? They do arrest him and he goes ballistic but the other the police officers generally agree that he is not responsible for these crimes.
Two of the police officers even set up a sting but he the murderer manages to escape.
There remain different views about who is responsible. For example Habib’s aunt is convinced that it is being done by spirits and begs her nephew to have nothing to do with it.
Inevitably, there is lots of sleuthing by the various police officers, both local ones and those from Bamako, and they get various clues.Habib comes up with various theories. Is just one person in involved or are there more? What is the motive of the killer or killers? And what has happened to the heads, which seemed to have disappeared?
In some respects, it is Miss Marple/Hercule Poirot as a picture is gradually built upof who might’ve done it and why. But of course it is also very different from Agatha Christie because of the location and the fascinating culture clashes.
It is made more complicated as a suspect is arrested and another body appears when he is in prison. It becomes even more complicated when the suspect escapes prison. But Habib is a first class police officer and we end up with a denouement where all parties are assembled in a room and the guilty party or parties are revealed.
Did I guess who dunnit? Well yes and no is the answer I did very much enjoy the book which was very much enhanced by the, for me, colourful locale.
Publishing history
First published in 2015 by Editions Métailié,
First English translation in 2026 byDedalus
Translated by Susan Pickford