The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy on Amazon™

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The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy

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Customer Review

Memoir of an African Childhood
Camara Laye was one of the first sub-saharan writers to become well-known outside of Africa. "L'Enfant Noir" or "The Dark Child" (also titled "The African Child"?) was published in 1953 when the author was twenty-five and living in France. It is a pleasantly nostalgic memoir of a childhood spent in the town of Kouroussa (French Guinea, now Guinea) and the village of Tindican, his mother's birthplace. Chapter by chapter Camara recounts his childhood memories: his father's work as a goldsmith and his position in society, his parent's magic, village life, the rice harvest, elementary Koranic education, circumcision and young men's secret society, secondary education in Conakry, girls and courtship, and his departure to continue his studies in France. After almost half a century in print, this deserves to be called a classic. [Note: some authorities state that his family name is Camara (also spelled Kamara) and his given name is Laye; the text supports...
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November 29, 2000 (I Love Seattle!) | Helpful Votes: 26 | Rating: 5

beautiful
A beautifully textured, fluid and organic autobiography, Camara Laye offers readers a piece of his life in The Dark Child. As part of the Malinke community in Upper Guinea, Laye captures the layered tradition and culture of his community, deemed, perhaps by most, to be simplistic or primitive compared to today's modern standards. Yet it is exactly from Layes descriptions of the traditions of his community that we can begin to understand the psychology of the author. Each chapter is rich with imagery, and his words smack of sincerity and innocence, bringing about an effortless quality and flow to his work--it is as if we are there with Laye experiencing his many transitions, from boyhood to manhood. His descriptions of the communal lifestyle of his people is remarkable. Laye's works like other modern African authors reveal the realities of colonization, and help readers to appreciate and celebrate indigenous African traditions.
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July 5, 2001 (Silver Spring, MD) | Helpful Votes: 12 | Rating: 5

It took me a long time to read this book.
I first got this book in junior high by a family friend but never bothered to read it until I entered high school. Not having anything to read, I took it upon myself to read the book. I found myself intrigued by the author's way of life during colonialism and his upbringing in a village and his graduation from high school. It was sad that one of his classmates died unexpectedly. Wanting to find out some more about this author I looked up a book of African authors. Unfortuately he passed away in 1980. He is a great writer and wished that I had read it soon as it was given to me.
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February 9, 2001 | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

Product Description

The Dark Child is a distinct and graceful memoir of Camara Laye's youth in the village of Koroussa, French Guinea. Long regarded Africa's preeminent Francophone novelist, Laye (1928-80) herein marvels over his mother's supernatural powers, his father's distinction as the village goldsmith, and his own passage into manhood, which is marked by animistic beliefs and bloody rituals of primeval origin. Eventually, he must choose between this unique place and the academic success that lures him to distant cities. More than autobiography of one boy, this is the universal story of sacred traditions struggling against the encroachment of a modern world. A passionate and deeply affecting record, The Dark Child is a classic of African literature.

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The Radiance of the King (New York Review Books Classics)

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Customer Review

By far the best French African novel I have read
This book is a wild trip. The main character is a white French man, living in an unidentified African setting (although the author must have been inspired by his Guinean background), who is totally broke. We don't know anything about his backgrounds, his reasons for being in Africa, or his prior professional occupations. Rejected by the French community, he is bummed. To get out of his misery, he wants to meet a mysterious African king, and apply for a position as advisor at the court. In his quest to find the king, the white man gives up his 'white' identity, and gets in touch with a variety of weird and fascinating characters: an old griot, two annoying boys, a mad village priest. During his journey, 'regular' situations rapidly degenerate into eery hallucinations. One of the things I especially liked in this breathtaking literary masterpiece was that Camara Laye didn't emphasize human weaknesses of a white oppressor (like Oyono enjoys doing, although I like Oyono a...
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August 31, 1999 (Den Haag Netherlands) | Helpful Votes: 16 | Rating: 5

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At the beginning of this masterpiece of African literature, Clarence, a white man, has been shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. Flush with self-importance, he demands to see the king, but the king has just left for the south of his realm. Traveling through an increasingly phantasmagoric landscape in the company of a beggar and two roguish boys, Clarence is gradually stripped of his pretensions, until he is sold to the royal harem as a slave. But in the end Clarence’s bewildering journey is the occasion of a revelation, as he discovers the image, both shameful and beautiful, of his own humanity in the alien splendor of the king Top to learn more

An exciting read with some lofty symbolism
Clarence is a European with a gambling debt, who has been austracized by his countrymen in an ambiguous place in colonial Africa and without anything more than the clothes on his back. He is determined to meet the king, thinking that the monarch will certainly take him in as a "worldly" advisor. When initial attempts to catch the king's attention fail, Clarence is lead south by an old beggar and two young boys to await the king, who will be touring this area of his dominion. Time passes as Clarence waits, and as this happens our young and arrogant hero becomes a more humbled through a series of events deep in the forested South.This story was intriguing to me, and it reminded me very much of Alejo Carpentier's "The Lost Steps" with the theme of a man arrogantly thinking he is capable of anything, but whose ignorance is exposed once he is taken out of the culture and environment he is accustomed to.There is a twist in the plot of the story which surprised me,...
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June 27, 2006 (Stamford, CT) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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The Dark Child by Camara Laye | Summary & Study Guide

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The Dark Child Study Guide consists of approx. 43 pages of summaries and analysis on The Dark Child by Camara Laye.

This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

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L'Enfant Noir

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Customer Review

This is the daily life of all African boys in rural area
It is amazing how Camara Laye gave an accurate account of the day to day life of all young African boys in this book. Although not from his native Guinee (Conakry), could relate to scenes, stories as if it occured in my own life each time I came into contact with the rural area of my native D. R. of the Congo (either by visiting or from my classmates accounts of their lives in the countryside. Moreover, it recaptures the two cultures standing side by side, the Western and the traditional African as lived and experienced by African boys. The family structure, going to school, playing in the farmes, visits to the city, etc... This is a very powerful testimony of the uniqueness and common shared experiences in the vast and multicolor Africa.
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February 23, 1999 (Chatham, MA) | Helpful Votes: 15 | Rating: 5

Wonderful biography
This was a wonderful book. It read very fluently and was more captivating than most biographies. L'Enfant noir is a wonderful example of the movement known as La Negritude, and it is the best French-language book I have ever read.
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January 13, 2000 | Helpful Votes: 11 | Rating: 5

Outstanding
I am bilingual and have greatly enjoyed this wonderful and captivating, autobiography of the social education of a young boy in Guinee. The author gives considerable understanding to the reader of the customs of Guinee and of the responsibilties of a young boy in that country. The whole book is enthralling and definitely worth reading to understand the African continent.
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March 7, 2007 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

Product Description

Table des matières Introduction Poème: A ma mère Texte, accompagné de notes linguistiques et culturelles Activités Mise en train Questions à choix multiple Réflexions Essais Termes littéraires Bibliographie Top to learn more

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The Guardian of the Word: Kouma Lafolo Kouma (Aventura: the Vintage Library of Contemporary World Literature)

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L'Enfant Noir: Prix Charles Veillon 1954, Roman (Texte Integral) (French Edition)

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Camara Laye

Devenu chercheur , il arpente les Etats africains de l’Ouest afin de recueillir les récits des griots, ces poètes et musiciens de l’Afrique, dont le résultat fut Le Maître de la parole , publié en France en 1953, a reçu le Prix de Charles Veillon... Il occupe différents postes en dehors du Ghana avant de revenir à Conakry, où il travaille pour le Département des accords économiques avant d’être nommé directeur de l’Institut national de la recherche et de documentation. Mais j’ai vraiment eu l’impression de lire une version simplifiée de Amkoullel, l’enfant peul , un pur chef d’œuvre, d’autant qu’on est loin du talent de conteur d’Amadou Hampaté Bâ. Dans tous les cas, j’ai trouvé ce récit un peu simpliste, comme... Dans ce roman, Camara Laye dépeint avec nostalgie son enfance heureuse, ses parents, son éducation, le rituel de la circoncision qui est un élément important dans l’initiation à la culture malinke et la fin de sa jeunesse. Après des déboires politiques, il est emprisonné pour une courte période puis, dans le milieu des années 1960, il s’enfuit avec sa famille en Côte d’Ivoire, avant de s’installer au Sénégal, où il travailla comme chercheur à l’ I nstitut... Il se met alors à travailler tout en continuant ses études, le soir, au Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, et au Collège technique de l’aéronautique et de construction automobile.

Laye’s first novel, The African Child (titled L’Enfant Noir in French) was published in 1954 and received the Priz Charles Veillon – one of France’s leading literary awards. Sources: New York Review of Books, Wikipedia, Rereading Camara Laye by Adèle King (2002), Kirjasto. Camara Laye, a Guinean novelist, short story writer, and essayist, was born in 1924 in the ancient city of Kouroussa, Upper Guinea. The African Child was one of the first novels by an African writer to gain international attention, and is still regarded among the continent’s best works.

“Camara Laye: An entry from Charles Scribner’s Sons’ Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students ” Overview This digital document is an article from Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students , brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world... Based on the scholarship in the acclaimed Encyclopedia of Africa, this work presents Africa, from Egypt to Cape Town and from prehistoric times to the present day.

Adele King met Camara Laye in 1978, two years before his death, and in 1980 published the principal study about him, The Writings of Camara Laye. A year later Laye published Le Regard du roi, a Kafkaesque story of a white man in Africa, which was very different in tone, style, and content from L’Enfant noir and from any other African literature being published at the time. Rereading Camara Laye describes King’s research, which has taken more than ten years.

Camara Laye News

Inside the West's double standards Part II

At home and at school we read novels, poems and plays by Bethwell Ogot, Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Camara Laye, David Rubadiri, Mongo Beti, Cyprian Ekwesi, Okot P'Bitek, and Alechi Amadi. This did not exclude western texts.
The Good Life: Ten things you need to know about Didier Drogba

4) He would read a lot, comparing his homesickness to that suffered by the protgaonist of Camara Laye's 1954 novel: The Dark Child, the reconciliation of an American student suffering a French exile. 5) After earning success with Chelsea,
La chronique de FZE: Les aventures de Faka Bilumba N°71

Il se trouve aujourd'hui, cher Camara Laye, que les jeunes mamans africaines, certaines en tout cas, se veulent modernes. Aussi, porter son enfant sur le dos, l'allaiter avec son sein, c'est dépassé. Alors que d'autres peuples du monde nous envient