Waiting For The Wild Beasts To Vote
SynopsisPlot
Orphaned at the age of seven, Koyaga grows up to be a terrible hunter; he fights mystical beasts, and is a shape-shifter, capable of changing himself into beasts and birds. He fights in the French colonial armies, in Vietnam and Algeria, but on his return, he mounts a coup and becomes ruler and distator of the Gulf Coast. For thrity years, he runs a corrupt but 'clean' state, surviving repeated assassination attempts and gaining support and investment from abroad. But, when the 'First World' decide they no longer want to support disctatorships and call for democracy, he needs another ruse to maintain himself in power ...
Story
About this book
Koyaga is orphaned at seven and grows into a fearsome hunter, battling mystical creatures and able to change his shape into beasts and birds. He fights in the French colonial armies in Vietnam and Algeria, then returns home to mount a coup and rule a state called the Gulf Coast for thirty years, surviving repeated assassination attempts. His regime is corrupt yet outwardly orderly enough to attract foreign backing and investment.
Ahmadou Kourouma, an Ivorian novelist writing in French, builds the book as a donsomana, a ceremonial recitation performed by a griot, or professional oral storyteller, in honour of a hunter. The result reads like a praise song addressed to a dictator, blending folklore with political satire. When Western governments stop supporting authoritarian allies and begin demanding democracy, Koyaga must look for another ruse to stay in office.
The novel first appeared in French in 1998 as En attendant le vote des betes sauvages. Kourouma writes a French shaped by Malinke speech, so the sentences carry the rhythm and logic of spoken narration, and the story stands close to the records of several Cold War era leaders in West and Central Africa.
