FRANCIS BEBEY

How many great African musicians were also great writers? Francis Bebey (1929 - 2001) of Cameroon certainly bestrode both genres. He attended the Sorbonne (France), and was further educated in the United States. His most popular novel was Agatha Moudio's Son (Translated from the French)

His published books include: Le fils d'Agatha Moudio (1967) -  La poupée Ashanti (1973) ie The Ashanti doll; Musique de l'Afrique (1969), Embarras & cie,  Le ministre et le griot,  Le roi Albert d'Effidi, and Nouvelle saison des fruits (1980)

Studies:

Francis Bebey by David Ndachi Tagne

Francis Bebey : l'homme-orchestre : un dossier 

Africa at the crossroads : the fiction of Francis Bebey by Wilbert
Curtis Schade

Francis Bebey : écrivain camerounais [1929-2001) by Romuald-Blaise
Fonkoua 

YAMBO OUOLOGUEM

Yambo Ouologuem (born 1940) is a renowned Malian writer. His first novel, Le Devoir de Violence (English: Bound to Violence, 1968), won the Prix Renaudot. He later published Lettre à la France nègre (1969), and Les mille et une bibles du sexe (1969) under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph. Despite raucous accusations of “plagiarism” Ouologuem’s writing is still highly respected. As a young man he learned several African languages and gained fluency in French, English, and Spanish. He studied sociology, philosophy and English at Lycée Henry IV in France.

After the plagiarism controversy over Le Devoir de violence, Ouloguem returned to Mali in the late seventies. His major work, Le Devoir de violence initially met with wide critical acclaim. He has also published striking poetry and essays. 

Studies:

 In search of Yambo Ouologuem by Christopher Wise 

Breaking the silence : the narratives of Sahelian politics in the literature of Yambo Ouologuem and Norbert Zongo by Jamie Ann Tyo 

Yambo Ouologuem, ou le silence des canons by Claude Bouygues 

...intertextuality in Yambo Ouloguem's Le Devoir de violence by Jonathan

MBELLA SONNE DIPOKO

Mbella Sonne Dipoko (1936 – 2009) was a Cameroonian novelist, poet and painter. He is widely considered to be one of the foremost writers of Anglophone Cameroonian literature. To many readers and critics he will be mainly remembered for the erotic content of his most famous works.

His major works are A Few Nights and Days, Because of Women, and Black and White in Love.

Studies:

Themes of authenticity in the poetry of Mbella Sonne Dipoko by Jerry
Glenn Holt

AHMADOU KOUROUMA

Ahmadou Kourouma (1927 – 2003) was a remarkable, award-winning Ivorian novelist. As a young man when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France for further studies. He was to spend several years in exile, living in a number of countries. His first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970) contains an imaginative, yet critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa.

Later on he published works like Le diseur de vérité (drama) Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), Allah n'est pas oblige (translated as Allah is Not Obliged). Prizes he has won include the Prix Renaudot (2000) and the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens. 


Studies:

La langue d'Ahmadou Kourouma, ou, Le français sous le soleil d'Afrique
by Makhily Gassama

Ahmadou Kourouma : le "guerrier" griot by Madeleine Borgomano

Ahmadou Kourouma by Jean-Michel Djian

L'imaginaire d'Ahmadou Kourouma : contours et enjeux d'une esthétique

La créativité langagière dans la prose romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma
by Gérard Marie Noumssi

Le politicien, le marabout-féticheur et le griot dans les romans
d'Ahmadou Kourouma by Joseph Ndinda

Histoire et fiction dans la production romanesque d'Ahmadou Kourouma
by Bi Kacou Parfait Diandué

Un donsomana pour Kourouma

Le réel et sa représentation dans l'oeuvre romanesque d'Ahmadou
Kourouma by Mesmin Nicaise Yaussah