The ambivalent portrayal of colonization in the memoirs of Amadou Hampâté Bâ

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	The ambivalent portrayal of colonization in the memoirs of Amadou Hampâté Bâ
Author:	Ducournau, Claire
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures (ISSN 0034-5210)
Volume:	46
Issue:	3
Pages:	68-84
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Mali
Subjects:	colonialism novels
About person:	Amadou Hampaté Bâ (1900-1991)
External link:	http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/research_in_african_literatures/v046/46.3.ducournau.pdf
Abstract:	Amadou Hampâté Bâ addresses the colonial system directly in the two volumes published from his posthumous memoirs, 'Amkoullel, l'enfant peul' and 'Oui mon commandant!'. From an ethical point of view, the memorialist evokes colonization in a profoundly ambivalent way, alternating condemnation with positive evaluations without explicit contradiction. In this article, the author's hypothesis is that this ambivalence toward colonialism in all of its aesthetic, generic, and sociological components is at the heart of the stance of an African memorialist writing in French. The memoirs are the site of a reflexivity that sheds light on the complex affects and feelings of an author caught between precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial societies. Bâ combines these contradictory influences by giving a retrospective with unified meaning through spiritual elevation. In this way, writing is a search for compromise and legitimization inscribed in its very form. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]