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Allah is Not Obliged (Hardcover)

by Ahmadou Kourouma (Author), Frank Wynne (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd; 1st Edition edition (24 Aug 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0434009571
  • ISBN-13: 978-0434009572
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 468,985 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"It is a powerful, shocking and deeply moving novel; an African Lord of the Flies. Through Kourouma's skilful telling, the characters live on the page."
-"Guardian"
"Melding fiction and fact with the humility of childhood, Ahmadou Kourouma deftly exposes the desperate nature of the civil wars -- and the relentless poverty -- that have ravaged Africa...."
-"New Statesman"

"From the Trade Paperback edition."

Product Description

Birahima is ten years old. He is from the Ivory Coast. He is a soldier. When Birahima's mother dies, he leaves his native village - accompanied by the sorcerer Yacouba - to search for his aunt, Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, scant rations of food, and plenty of dope. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other child soldiers, he sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity...Told in the remarkably realised voice of a ten-year-old boy, Birahima's story is tinged with both humour and disdain. As Birahima takes us through the bloody battlefields of horrific warfare, he makes no attempt to explain the inexplicable. Yet, by making us both sick with despair and filled with laughter at the incredible and the ridiculous, his story brings us closer to comprehending the rivalries, power structures and customs that fuel Africa's bitter wars. Both shattering and heartbreaking, "Allah Is Not Obliged" is a remarkable masterpiece.
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4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good s**t, 14 Dec 2006
By BA Baracus "BA" (Abidjan, Ivory Coast) - See all my reviews
Ahmadou Kharouma has created a thoroughly engaging character in Birahima our guide through Africa's wild west. He is like so many of the poor street children that pound Africa's streets doing their best to survive. He is a good kid, from a loving family, who do their best to protect him from the attractions of a life of crime.
Upon capture in Liberia where Birahima was going in search of his aunt with his village sorcerer, he is captured and joins the ranks of a group of child soldiers. He continues through Liberia and Sierra Leone joining the armies of a variety of power crazed war lords, each seemingly more insane than the previous. Documenting his personal experiences in a diary, he gives an often hilarious account of some of the most depraved, sadistic acts that anyone could imagine. These experiences no doubt helped to produce the colourful and vibrant voice that bursts from each page. Birahima's detached manner enables him to look objectively at the madness and contradictions that surround him and Africa in general.
It's a real slap in the face to Live 8's naive views that if we erradicate 3rd world debt, we erradicate poverty. It is minds that need to change and education that can only provide this. Otherwise Africa is doomed to repeate this cycle of abuse reeped upon them people such as Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh, Hinga Norman etc. Birahima recognizes this and it is his despair at the ignorance of his fellow men that makes him angry.
All in all it was a fantastic read and one i can't highly recommend enough.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Good book about Africa., 20 Jan 2010
By Elif Ece Kayaalp - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Allah is Not Obliged (Paperback)
This is a great book. It is so easy to read, one can even finish in a day. All my friends are waiting to borrow this book from me.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Juggling the front lines, 21 Aug 2009
By Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Allah is Not Obliged (Paperback)
Orphaned following the death of his mother, Birahima, ten or twelve year old self-declared "fearless blameless street kid", leaves his native village in Ivory Coast to find his aunt in far away Liberia. He is accompanied by Yacouba, "money multiplier", shaman and "gri-gri man", a man who makes amulets for whatever religion seems appropriate at the moment and claiming to protect the wearer from hostile bullets from the other side. They are caught up in the middle of West Africa's brutal civil wars of the nineteen nineties. Having little education and no training, Birahima joins the hordes of child soldiers, fighting for whatever faction supplies them with food, weapons, protective amulets (gri-gri) and hashish. Ahmadou Kourouma, highly respected award winning Ivorian author, has created with ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED a vivacious, often hilarious, but also disturbing and thought provoking novel.

Published in 2000 in its original French, it was likely the first of fictionalized or factual accounts capturing the life of child soldiers in West or East Africa. Written in the voice of a boy with less than three years of schooling, and with limited French, the author uses his protagonist to convey much more than the intimate reflections of one of the "small soldiers" and what the youth describes as his "miserable existence". The young hero, like the author, is Malinké, an ancient and powerful West African civilization with its own unique language. Birahima shares his story in an unusual and often slang-type French. The author uses this approach to give the reader a flair of the idiomatic Malinké expressions that are full of vivid imagery, curious connotations and convey its distinct African logic. To help the reader understand the young narrator, he explains French, African and pidgin terms and phrases in brackets, using several dictionaries and phrasebooks Birahima has acquired at some point. French terms or concepts are often interpreted in his own child-like way to benefit his African readers, he states. While this initially interrupts the flow of the narrative, it gives Birahima's account a very personal, conversational and often humorous touch. His language does not lack in vulgarity when conveying the often objectionable and brutal reality he encounters. "My characters must be credible and to be credible they must speak in the novel as they speak in their own language..." the author explained in a 1999 interview. The translation by Frank Wynne does convey both the narrative and the odd language quirks expertly.

A ten (or 12) year old boy has only a limited horizon and narrow understanding of the politics of his country and geographic region. Growing up in extreme poverty, however, while being confronted with the corruption, violence and power grabs around him, makes him an astute and sarcastic observer. Birahima's journeys bring him face to face with the vicious commanders of some of the most cruel dictators in the region. Each of them relies not only on the effectiveness of arsenal of guns - 'kalashs', AK 47s, being the weapon of choice given to the child soldiers - but any "magic" such as gri-gris, or religious ritual they can muster or buy. Birahima learns to understand the intricacies of power as well as the futility of the traditional powers. His comments are astute. At the same time, kids are kids; he and the other child soldiers need bonds of affection and emotions can run high when one of theirs is killed or punished.

As the story progresses, the author mixes Birahima's voice, relaying his experiences as a "small-soldier", with that of a more adult narrator who provides the factual context of the complicated historical sequence of events in, primarily, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Aware of the lack of detailed knowledge most people have of these events, it is helpful to relate these to the reader - a technique Kourouma has used in his previous novels also. Here as in those Kourouma has always tackled social injustice, whether during colonial times or since with the corruption and cruelty of West African dictators being one of his target subjects.

With ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED, the author raises important questions about the absurdity of war, of the power structures that lead to them and the suffering of the innocent people caught up in them. It was Ahmadou Kourouma's last published novel; the author died in December 2003. [Friederike Knabe]
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