The African continent has produced some incredible writers, and Cheikh Hamidou Kane is one of the best known in the world. In 1961, fifty years ago this year, he published his most famous work, L'Aventure ambiguë , which in 1962 won the first Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noire. Since then he has served Senegal's Minister of Economic Development and Planning, Director of UNICEF for Sub-Saharan Africa, and President of several NGOs dealing with the protection and welfare of children and with the preservation of West Africa's cultural heritage.
L'Aventure ambiguë is an autobiographical novel that discusses a "traditional society in transition"; that is, a traditional Muslim, West African society dealing with the influence of secular, Western (French) society. The narrative follows a boy, Samba Diallo, as he goes from a traditional Koranic school, to a French primary school, and ultimately to the Sorbonne. "The substance of Kane's novel is not in its incident, but in its argument, presented by way of parable, metaphor, and symbol. It is structured as a series of confrontations and dialogues, each presenting a stage in the quest for the Absolute, a facet of a complex spiritual dilemma, or, at the lowest level, a search for a strategy to halt the destruction of the basic values of [religion] by the inroads of westernization. The novel's symmetrical structure, and elegant simplicity of language give it its classic proportions and make it a work of poetic beauty" (Dorothy Blair,Oxford Companion to French Literature).
March 17-18 BYU will host a colloquium celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of L'Aventure ambiguë. Cheikh Hamidou Kane is now 82 years old and has already visited BYU twice, but is determined to make the trip again because he feels here a "kindred faith". Other speakers include writers such as Adourahman Wabéri, who won the Grand Prix Littéraire de l’Afrique noire in 1996 and is at the moment a visiting professor at Claremont College in California, and Lydie Moudelino, a professor of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania and author of critical works on Caribbean and African literature. Souleymane Bachir Diagne, a Senegalese philosopher currently teaching at Columbia University, will also speak, as well as Mamadou Sy Tounkara, Director of l’Ecole Supérieure de Sciences Politiques et de Relations Internationales in Dakar and General Secretary of the Committee on the 50th Anniversary of l’Aventure ambiguë.
At present the program looks something like this:
• An Honors seminar is already scheduled for Thursday, March 17, at 11:00. Title of the seminar: The Clash of Culture and Faith in Colonial Africa. Professor Thompson will give an introduction to the novel, focusing on reason vs. faith, then turn the time over to Cheikh Hamidou Kane himself. We will open this seminar (in English) to the BYU community at large and expect 200-300 people.
• An evening activity sponsored by the French club and the College of Humanities on Thursday, March 17 at 7:00 pm, in the Hinckley Center Assembly Room. The Ambassador of Senegal in the US may be in attendance. We will hear briefly from each speaker, give an award to Cheikh Hamidou Kane, and then enjoy a performance by Voice of Africa, a local group specializing in African music and dance.
• On Friday, March 18, we will have a full day of presentations by our distinguished speakers—titles pending.
I've posted this announcement two months in advance in the hopes that you, the faithful reader, will have time to read L'Aventure ambiguë for yourself and benefit from this extraordinary, truly once in a lifetime opportunity. The book can be found here and here in translation. Thanks to Chantal P. Thompson for her contributions to this article.
