The Black Terrorist
SynopsisPlot
The Black Terrorist is a fictional account built around the true, extraordinary, but little-known story of Addi Bâ. Addi Bâ was born in Guinea about 1916, brought to France in the late 1930s, and became a riflemen in the Twelfth Regiment de Tirailleurs Sénégalais (African soldiers from French colonies) fighting for France during World War II. Captured after the Battle of the Meuse, Addi escapes from German forces, wanders in the forests, before finding refuge in a village in the Vosges, where he encounters the French Resistance and becomes a leader of a Resistance network. However, Addi is captured, tortured, and executed in December 1943. His military exploits against the Germans earned him the name "the black terrorist." The story of Addi Bâ is told sixty years later from a number of perspectives, though largely from Germaine Tergoresse, who was a young girl during the war, now eighty years old relating her memories to Bâ's nephew. But who betrayed Addi Bâ?
Story
About this book
Tierno Monénembo's novel draws on the real but largely forgotten life of Addi Bâ, a Guinean-born soldier who fought for France during World War II. Bâ was born around 1916, brought to France in the late 1930s, and enlisted as a rifleman in the Twelfth Regiment of Tirailleurs Sénégalais, a unit composed of soldiers from French colonies in Africa. After being captured following the Battle of the Meuse, he escaped German forces and spent time hiding in forests before reaching a small village in the Vosges mountains of northeastern France.
There, Bâ joined the French Resistance and eventually led a local network. His activities against the German occupation earned him the name that gives the novel its title. He was captured, tortured, and executed in December 1943. Monénembo tells his story sixty years after the events, filtering it through multiple voices. The primary narrator is Germaine Tergoresse, now around eighty years old, recounting her wartime memories to Bâ's nephew. Running through the narrative is a quiet, persistent question: who betrayed Addi Bâ.
The book received the Erckmann-Chatrian Prize in 2012, followed by the Palatine Grand Prize and the Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize in 2013. Monénembo, himself born in Guinea, has written extensively about African histories shaped by colonial ties to France.
