The African Child (The Dark Child)

The African Child, (The Dark Child)   (published 1953) written by  Camara Laye   The African Child (French: L'Enfant noir) is an autobiographical French novel by Camara  Laye It tells the story of a young African child, growing up in Guinea. The novel won the Prix Charles Veillon writing prize.

It was translated into English by James Kirkup and Ernest Jones and published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1954 as The Dark Child. In the United Kingdom, this translation was published under the title The African Child in 1959.

Quotes

 * And I was no longer sure whether I ought to continue to attend school or whether I ought to remain in the workshop: I felt unutterably confused.
 * Laye, Page 27.


 * Good people! My little husband has arrived!
 * Laye's Grandmother, page 47.


 * These splendors dazzled country boys whose sole article of clothing was a short pair of drawers. I envied them for their freedom of movement.
 * Laye, page 52.


 * It was true that I had been daydreaming: my life did not lie here ... and I had no life in my father's forge. But where was my life? And I trembled at the thought of the unknown life ahead of me.
 * Laye, page 60.


 * I do not know how the idea of something rustic—I use the word in its accepted meaning: "lack of finesse, of delicacy"—became associated with country people. Civil formalities are more respected on the farm than in the city. Farm ceremony and manners are not understood by the city, which has no time for these things. To be sure, farm life is simpler than city life. But dealings between one man and another—perhaps because in the country everyone knows everyone else—are more strictly regulated. I used to notice dignity everywhere which I have rarely found in cities. One did not act without duly considering such action, even though it were an entirely personal affair. The rights of others were highly respected. And if intelligence seemed slower it was because reflection preceded speech and because speech itself was a most serious matter.
 * Laye, page 62.


 * I realize that my mother's authoritarian attitudes may appear surprising; generally the role of the African woman is thought to be a ridiculously humble one, and indeed there are parts of the continent where it is insignificant; but Africa is vast, with a diversity equal to its vastness. The woman's role in our country is one of fundamental independence, of great inner pride. ... My father would never have dreamed of despising anyone, least of all my mother. He had the greatest respect for her too, and so did our friends and neighbors.
 * Laye, page 63.


 * It was stupid of us to keep silent. Such beatings were utterly alien to my people’s passion for independence and equality.
 * Laye, page 84.


 * All I know is that I could only say, "Mother!" and that after my joy in seeing her I suddenly felt a strange depression. Ought I to attribute this emotional instability to the transformation that had been at work in me? When I had left her I was still a child. Now... But was I really a man now? Was I already a grown man? ... I was a man! Yes, I was a grown man. And now this manhood had already begun to stand between my mother and myself. It kept us infinitely further apart than the few yards that separated us.
 * Laye, page 131.


 * Suddenly at the end of an avenue, I saw it. I stood a long time observing its vastness, watching the waves roll in, one after another, to break against the red rocks of the shore. In the distance, despite the mist around them, I saw some very green islands. It was the most astonishing spectacle that had ever confronted me. At night, from the train, I had only glimpsed the sea. ... Now that the whole spectacle lay before me I could scarcely come away.
 * Laye, page 149.


 * Later on I felt something hard when I put my hand in my pocket. It was the map of the métro.
 * Laye, page 188.


 * The guiding spirit of our race.”
 * Chapter 1.


 * African woman to be “ridiculously humble,” in his country her role “is one of fundamental independence, of great inner pride”.
 * Page 69.


 * My perplexity was boundless as the sky, and mine was a sky, alas, without any stars..."
 * Chapter 1, page 27.

**Chapter 2, page 39.
 * At the first notes of the douga my father would arise and emit a cry in which happiness and triumph were equally mingled; and brandishing in his right hand the hammer that was the symbol of his profession and in his left a ram's horn filled with magic substances, he would dance the glorious dance."


 * It is easy for men who work in the fields all day long to fall into the habit of silence as they mull endlessly over one thing and another."
 * Chapter 3, page 53.


 * Singing in chorus, they reaped, voices and gestures in harmony. They were together!—united by the same task, the same song. It was as if the same soul bound them."
 * Chapter 4, page  61.