Unlike previous novels by the author, Al Capone Malian is firmly planted in Africa. Guinea, Mali, Cameroon, Togo, the narration cuts across all these countries and, hovering above them, the shadow of France. The narrator, Cherin Rene, is a French envoy to Guinea by the magazine that employs him. With his colleague Felix Bernard, a photographer, they should do a story on the Sosso-bala, balafon sacred ancestral heritage dating back several centuries. Greeted by an important representative of the family guardian of sacred balafon, Namane Kouyaté, the stay does not go quite as planned.
In fact the sacred balafon, which justified the presence of reporters on African soil, is ultimately to Rene, the starting point for many adventures in African countries, adventures he saw not as an actor but as an object. In the words of the same character, he plays the "role of silent witness" (p. 181). It is especially the ear that collects the confidences of those who may hope that he, the reporter, can trace the most dignified manner that is the trajectory of their lives, from Al Capone Namane up, passing by Sidonie and Binetou Fall, young women who gravitate to the powerful "master" Al Capone. Sidonie even the French say: "Each of us made you what he wants " (p. 230)
This passivity is not unlike the hero of Girls Mexico . This was an African, who found there echoes of his own condition of Black, a stranger. Here the narrator is a white character who discovers the continent in a different light: it is Africa of the masters of speech, that of women who deconstruct the idea " a gent who needs muzzled, even to cough, the authorization of his masters " (p. 61), the traditions which the new times, the consumer society engaged a fight without mercy. The Sosso-Bala, a curiosity that attracts many tourists disregarded when there is suddenly a brilliant luxury limousine and giving passage to the characters just as flashy.
But this fact also applies to Western countries. Here's what Rene said: " what I told Binetou Fall, it is especially the life of a man identified by the sufferings of a man who failed to find its place in the France of towns and sees her village die. "(P. 266-267), Rene Worst, French white, feel in Paris as a " immigrant among immigrants ." (p. 266) His solitude, his displeasure echo those of black immigrants.
The novel can be divided into two parts, a first that takes the reader "in the heart of Mali" and dominated by the character of Namane Kouyate, a former diplomat, defender of traditional values and a second, dominated by Al Capone, who leads you into the corridors of power where we invariably found the cocktail of sex, money, influence peddling ... I was less captivated by this second part than the first, rather poetic, offering " a moment of sincerity of our culture, our civilization, as they have functioned for centuries ." (P. 71) And in African culture, speech is a mistress that he must possess, as does skillfully Namane Kouyaté. In this part of the same style writing mimics that of the griot music with repeats, as can be seen in the following sentence for example:
" soon as we came into the courtyard, he shook my hand, Namane Kouyaté shook my hand before disappearing into her hut, Namane Kouyaté. "(p. 83)
The other interesting aspect of this novel is that one can, places, hear the author speak about literature, African in particular. Here is an example of what he says francophone African writers:
" With their choice of styles, themes still in mind to attract the attention of white audiences and critics, they will never live up to their own truth. He missed their writings a soul that can only give a text a true cultural anchor . "(P. 161)
The new novel by Sami Tchak is available from your local bookseller.
Sami Chak, Al Capone Malian , Mercure de France, 2011, 300 pages, € 18.80.
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