Author
Anih, U. B.
Abstract
There is abundant evidence that Francophone African Literary writers have employed
child characters in their works, offering, sometimes, contradictory representation of
childhood in their works. This study attempts a comparative analysis of the representation
of childhood in Camara Laye’s The African Child and Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is not
obligedi
by. juxtaposing the paradoxical portraiture of childhood in both texts. While The
African Child offers an idyllic and pacific African childhood and marking “the closing
stages of the colonial period” (Sow 2010, 489), Kourouma’s Allah is not obliged
chronicles the gradual degeneration of childhood within the post-colony.
Notwithstanding the charge of writing “misery literature” targeted mainly towards
Western consumption and the humanitarian industry leveled against the author, the novel
clearly demonstrates post-independence disillusionment by its portrayal of the
progressive transformation of childhood innocence typified in The African Child to
monster creatures in Allah is not obliged. Drawing from sociological and fictional
accounts on childhood, this study underscores the gradual loss of good parenting and
positive African values as well as Western materialism and values which Kourouma’s
text clearly depicts. The comparative analysis reveals a transition from innocence to beast
as both writers clearly represent childhood from different historical periods culminating
in the paradox which their novels evince. However, beyond the theme of lost childhood
often popularized in Western ‘humanitarian’ literature, Kourouma further showcases his
creative ingenuity by his employment of the unedifying character of the child-narrator to
satirize the enabling African milieux.
Keywords
Paradox, Childhood, African, sociopolitical, obliged
Introduction
This paper argues that post-independence reality of the colonized African child is such a
tragic one and whose literatures have birthed tragic child characters bereft of any
childhood innocence. Such child characters are categorized as “de-socialized” (Kodah
2019) by considering the kind of dysfunctional sociopolitical realities within which they evolve and operate. Thus, the emergence of child soldering narrative also reflects the
general outlook of African sociopolitical landscape.
Content
As rightly noted by Rosen (2007) and cited by Mastey (2017)” the child soldier ‘crisis’
is a modern political crisis…” occasioned by postcolonial forces in Africa. Consequently,
novels on child soldering have begun to flourish within the African literary corpus in
reaction to the sociopolitical realities and upheavals that have characterized the continent
in the early 2000. Novels such as Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah is not obliged (2000),
Chris Abani’s Song for Night, Emmanuel Dongala’s Johny Mad Dog (2002), Grace
Akallo’s Girl Soldier (2007), Uzodinma Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation, Emmanuel Jal’s
War Child: A Child Soldier Story, China Keitesti’s Child soldier constitute an African
literary corpus featuring child protagonists who contrast with the Laye’s pattern of the
The African Child. Since the publication of Camara Laye’s The African Child (originally
published in French as L’enfant noir) in 1953, the autobiographical novel undoubtedly
occupies a classical and controversial position within the corpus of Francophone African
novels of the colonial period. Though it won the prestigious literary award, Prix Charles
Veillon in 1954, its reception among fellow writers of that time is marked by heavy
criticism. Specifically, Mongo Beti (Afrique noire, littérature rose, 1955) accused
Camara Laye of not being a committed writer and of course, for blissfully ignoring the
“grim realities of colonialism” (Feuser, 1997:116) in Africa, especially its obvious
betrayal of the emancipatory struggle for which committed African literature is known.
In spite of all the shortcomings ascribed to The African Child, its relevance within
Francophone fictional writings remains indelible as a classical text which has come to
debunk most myths about Africa and Africans.
Conclusion
This essay has demonstrated that there is a transition from innocence to the beast in the
representation of childhood in the two novels. While Camara Laye portrays childhood as
a period of complete innocence, Kourouma’s image of childhood is highly terrifying as Allah is not obliged presents children as blood-thirsty, ill-mannered and violent creatures.
The explanation for such change is to be found in the general sociopolitical conditions
which shape the post-independence and the lack of responsible parenting in contemporary
times. The African Child epitomizes the ideal African child whose existential conditions
reflect the important value placed on children and parenting within most African milieux
of precolonial and colonial period. The image of the child within Allah is not obliged
clearly mirrors the postcolonial angst and a dysfunctional society in which there is a lack
of sympathy for vulnerable children and respect for the rights of children.
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