| | I read the novel Ambiguous Adventure by Cheikh Hamidou Kane as the 3rd of six for the Lost in Translation reading challenge. Written in the early 1960s, this is an early example of an African intellectual writing about his experience reconciling traditional culture with a western education and expatriation in Europe. The protagonist attends a madrasah in rural Senegal and distinguishes himself with his memory, voice, and manners that befit the son of a local chief. His aunt points out, however, that due to the French, their people have the “choice” “that we should agree to die in our children’s hearts and that the foreigners who have defeated us should fill the place, wholly, which we shall have left free.” Indeed, the protagonist is such a fine student that he sent to France for university. He loses all sense of God, ease with himself, and firmness of purpose. He seems to himself “like a musical instrument that has gone dead.” Obviously, this is a sad novel, but it examines still relevant issues.
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| | Posted 3/27/2009 5:36 AM - 28 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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