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