BOUND TO VIOLENCE

by Yambo Ouologuem ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 1971

This begins in 1202 with a recital of the legendary history of Nakem, an African empire ruled by the Saifs. In the guise of a proper bard celebrating dynastic glories, Ouologuem exposes a native tradition of butchery and exploitation and insists that the ""bloody adventure of the niggertrash"" antedates white intrusion. Further, he shows how the ill use of blacks by blacks continued unsuspected by naively paternal white colonials -- how drugs were used to lure the poor into slavery, how snakes were trained for ""accidental"" murder, how the latter-day ruler Saif ben Isaac al-Heit blackmailed his feudal dependents and manipulated his French overlords. As the narrative nears in time the range narrows, focusing finally on Raymond Spartacus Kassoumi, the son of serfs destroyed by their master Saif and his henchmen. Saif has had his own reasons for allowing Raymond to be educated in French schools; and Raymond, hating the bloody densities of his homeland, has his own motives for returning as a gallicized colonial governor after World War II. Once back he realizes the role he is expected to play, and how centuries of intrigue have defined him as the perfect expendable pawn. The first half of the book has the flamboyant sweep and sanguinary lyricism of epic, and its ironic use of that form is quite compelling. The second, about Raymond's expatriation, is as francophilic as its hero and degenerates to pompousness. Well worth reading even so, for the maculate high-colored vision of a gifted African writer.

Pub Date: March 10, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION