Representations of Colonial Racism in Monnè, Outrages and Challenges of Ahmadou Kourouma

Abstract

This work explores in a precise way Monne, outrages and challenges by Ahmadou Kourouma (1990). In it, the novelist reconstructs the colonial history of a region of black Africa (the Mandingo) and makes it an essential base for his poetics. Kourouma traces there in a relatively systematic way the various stages of the installation of the Whites in Soba, from the conquest to the disappointments of independence. He also paints a scenographic picture of the life of Djigui, the king of Soba, from his accession to the throne until his death. He therefore intends to reread this story in order to reflect on the repressive methods adopted by the colonizer at this time. He focuses mainly on the forms of racism of which the novelist speaks in his fiction, notably the question of the "rite of allegiance" and "the ceremony of consumption of the submissive", to cite only these two examples. It shows that the black African community, at the time of colonization, had no value. The latter suffered from various atrocities (repression, violence, marginalization, racism, etc.) [1]. So he is targeting the negative image that Karma’s novel talks about. This tends to become a denouncer insofar as the reader is put in a position to take the side of the representatives of this crushed community. By this assigned place, this same reader sees himself led to deem unbearable the fate reserved for the black man who is nevertheless the living and active force of the African continent.