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Ahmadou Kourouma

Biography

Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Boundiali in the North of the Ivory Coast. After studying in Bamako, he went to Paris and then Lyons, where he qualified as an actuary. He was a soldier during France’s Indo-China war in Saigon. He worked as a banker and an accountant in various parts of Africa, before becoming director of the Institut national des assurances in Yaoundé. After publishing his successful but controversial novel Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence), he disappeared from the literary scene for twenty years, producing only a play (Tougnantigui, diseur de vérité, which was banned in the middle of its run in Abidjan). He died in 2003, after having published two more successful, highly political novels.

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Ahmadou Kourouma
Ahmadou Kourouma
Ahmadou Kourouma
Interview
Ahmadou Kourouma (in French)
Ahmadou Kourouma (in French)
Décès de l’écrivain ivoirien Ahmadou Kourouma (in French)
Interview (in French)
Interview (in French)
Interview (in French)
Interview (in French)

Bibliography

1970 Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence) (novel)
1990 Monnè (Monnew) (novel)
1998 Le diseur de vérité (drama)
1998 Yacouba, chasseur africain (children’s)
1998 En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages (Waiting for the Vote of the Wild Animals; Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote)
2000 Allah n’est pas obligé (Allah Is Not Obliged)
2000 Le griot, homme de parole (children’s)
2000 Le chasseur, héros africain (children’s)
2000 Le forgeron, homme de savoir (children’s)
2000 Prince, suzerain actif (children’s)
2004 Quand on refuse on dit non (novel – incomplete)