RESSOURCES DE L’ORALITE DANS ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGE D’AHMADOU KOUROUMA ET THINGS FALL APART DE CHINUA ACHEBE

RESSOURCES DE L’ORALITE DANS ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGE D’AHMADOU KOUROUMA ET THINGS FALL APART DE CHINUA ACHEBE

Abstract:

This is a critical survey of African oral literature in Allah n’est pas obligé by Ahmadou Kourouma and Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe. It tries among other things to examine and show the existence of the elements of oral literature in the said novels. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) and Ahmadou Kourouma’s Allah n’est pas obligé (2000), are novels from two different periods: the former, a colonial novel and the latter, a post-colonial novel. These novels are endowed with rich cultural African heritages. A good number of critics have made several references to the igbonisation of English language by Chinua Achebe and the malinkenisation of the French language by Ahmadou Kourouma in these novels. None has dared to compare the two creative works, as we have attempted in this study, bearing in mind that one of the authors is an anglophone writer and the other, a francophone writer. Our investigations could not have claimed to be exhaustive. We are limiting our study to some aspects of oral literature found in the novels, for example, myths and legends, folklores, songs and drums, superstitions, and finally, proverbs, which constitute a major theme among others in the novels. Both Achebe and Kourouma are talking about destructions and wars in their books, using their maternal languages and the elements of oral literature, to show the decolonisation of African literature, in other words, the africanisation of the language of African literature. By so doing, they give value to some of our ancient beliefs and practices. Some of the instruments of decolonisation used by some writers are translation, the advocacy for unity and the use of local languages. This study shows that the development of oral literature promotes modern African literature. If African literature has attained a high standard today, it is thanks to the role and functions of oral literature in written African literature. A comparative analysis of Allah n’est pas obligé and Things Fall Apart shows that Ahmadou Kourouma and Chinua Achebe made use of some elements of oral literature in both novels. Our research shows that whereas myths and legends, superstitions and proverbs are found in both Allah n’est pas obligé and Things Fall Apart, folklores, songs and drums feature only in Things Fall Apart. We went ahead to show the number of proverbs found in the novels, using these to analyse the frequency of the proverbs in the two novels. Allah n’est pas obligé is more voluminous and has more proverbs but our results show that, if Achebe had as many pages as Kourouma, he would probably have featured more proverbs in his work, Things Fall Apart. We came to the conclusion that the authors of the two novels, Allah n’est pas obligé and Things Fall Apart use the resources of oral literature as an instrument of decolonisation or africanisation of African literature. This study portrays ancient values and promotes African culture and languages. It is a modest attempt aimed at encouraging other researchers to carry out a wider research on this topic

RESSOURCES DE L’ORALITE DANS ALLAH N’EST PAS OBLIGE D’AHMADOU KOUROUMA ET THINGS FALL APART DE CHINUA ACHEBE

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