Introduction to Dossier Kourouma

Abstract

hese words of political wisdom of Tiekoroni, dictator of Republic of Ebony, to new president Koyaga have a special resonance throughout Ahmadou Kourouma's writings. Having modeled Tiekoroni, fictional character, after late Ivorian president, Felix Houphouit Boigny, writer obliquely refers to his own coming to field of literature as much as he provides an important clue for reading his novels. Indeed, zero-sum approach to politics displayed through Tiekoroni's mantra led to the quest for truth, on behalf of which Kourouma started his improbable writing career. We recall that Houphlou t had Kourouma and some friends jailed following imaginary coup of 1963. Yet one will certainly be mistaken to consider his writings as history manuals, despite their obvious penchant for testimonial or denunciation. Having been lauded as truth teller extraordinaire by readers prompt to see in chunky details of his writings, nuggets of African political life from colonial era through decolonization, Cold War, and, finally, ever-pervasive civil wars of last decades, Kourouma reminds us that his work remains first and foremost fiction feigning biographical. Through complicity of readers, whether Africans or close observers of African social political scene, fictional is transformed into national. At same time, derision and parody of specific cultural aspects often end up being perceived and received as authentic discourse or real occurrences by less informed readers. In skillfully blending facts and fiction, Kourouma brought his African and Western readership to a mesmerizing point.