Monkey kidnappers would it be a figure of African literature? I do not think so, yet it is the second time, after
The Past ahead of Gatore Gilbert, that I believe in my recent readings. In The Small
the monkey, the Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop
it, or rather "they" because they are two, give the title to the book and hold captive Atou Seck, an old inhabitant of a neighborhood ravaged by civil war. But this is a story within a story, a parable from the imagination of the real narrator, Nguirane Faye, who has created an imaginary alter-ago time in a long digression on "The false history Ninki- Nanka. For
Nguirane Faye has never been kidnapped by monkeys. Just her grandchildren and Mbissine Mbissane arrived from France with their mother after the death of the son of Nguirane, they play with some malice and tyranny to urinate on her prayer mat. And "The false history Ninki-Nanka" is one of seven "books" that the old man, the evening of his life, undertook to write to the attention of another grand-son, his favorite, Badou, went abroad, no one knows where, and which is unaccounted for.
Nguirane Faye has a lot to tell Badou. Life in Niaréla, small neighborhood of Dakar: its people, its crazy, its hearsay, its unspoken. The story of their ancestors and their families: its legends, its lies. Cohabitation with his stepdaughter, Yacine Ndiaye, including no more than Mbissine Mbissane and he did not know existed before she arrived in Marseille, some weeping widow, and moves in with him. And then, Of course, this "false history Ninki-Nanka", where a dictator named Dibi Dibi-promises to the people "change" - in Wolof, "sopi" was the campaign slogan of
Abdoulaye Wade in 2000 - while the scornful ... royally mess
Many, many metaphors, a lot of things difficult to palpate in this book incredibly lousy and it must be said, somewhat confusing ... but he exudes a certain sense of coherence. Nguirane Faye goes from cock to the ass, but obviously, Boubacar Boris Diop will land on his feet at the end. Boubacar Boris Diop that still feels very present, we hear a few digressions blow to the ear of the narrator, we see another feather trim the Main Plant where it hurts.
Les Petits the monkey, I should have clarified from the outset, are translated into French by Boubacar Boris Diop "himself" and
Doomi Golo, a novel written in Wolof by the same Boubacar Boris Diop . Writing if any militant, somewhat in the tradition of Sembene Ousmane
whose strikers
God's Bits of Wood refused to negotiate in French And besides, whether the episode where an ancestor of Nguirane Faye tries to convert a village to Islam, history of Senegalese wrestling with striking invented by a French, or reflections on the first kiss on the lips exchanged in Africa, the author reminds us how the influence of one culture over another can be insidious. This is one of many messages that contain a novel. But there is also the denunciation of corrupt political leaders, who stole the independence and democracy hostage, when the model Nguirane Faye - and Boubacar Boris Diop It will be understood - Cheikh Anta Diop remains
.
Finally, more than the figure of the monkey is that of the madman who haunts this novel. A fool who will take over until the "Books" by Faye Nguirane in a story full of wisdom that should draw two lessons: 1) The insane are not always who you thought. 2) Those that do not believe should listen more crazy from madness of the country they are supposed to lead.
Les Petits the monkey
Boubacar Boris Diop
Philippe Rey, 2009
439 p., 19,50 euros See also the analysis is done Small
of the monkey by Plume French .
Boubacar Boris Diop was born in 1946 in Dakar, Senegal. He was successively adviser to the Senegalese Ministry of Culture and professor of literature and philosophy. It has also long worked as a journalist and leading the Senegalese daily Le Matin . 
