Monnè, outrages et défis

Disobeying Samory, emperor of the entire Mandingo country, the king of Soba, Djigui Keita, did not raze his city upon the arrival of the colonial troops - certain that the magic of the ancestors, the protection of Allah, and the hastily erected wall would be enough to repel the "Nazarenes." They therefore took Soba without a fight. But while the griots sang the glory of Djigui Keita and his 120-year reign, the deposed king sank into an increasingly deadly collaboration with the occupier. Beneath the tragic and derisory epic of a people given over to colonization, lies the satire of modern African states given over to their demons, and an indictment as funny as it is violent against these conformisms that sometimes lead to the worst compromises.

Monnè, outrages et defis is a novel by Ivorian author Ahmadou Kourouma. It won the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire in 1990.