Batouala won the Prix Goncourt in 1921, the first time an African did so. It's been hailed as the beginning of African literature in French. It's composed of sketches of life in a West African village in today's Central African Republic. It both confirms and challenges stereotypes of Africans that were common among Europeans from this period. The main character Batoula is a village chief who goes through his daily rituals and rhythms of life. A plot unfolds around a young man who is attempting to have an affair with one of his nine wives - descriptions of sex border on the pornographic but not needlessly (an uncensored version of the novel did not appear until the 1930s). The book is a jazz-age artifact for a Parisian audience, smoky dark exoticism and lyrical improvisation. Anyway, Batoula tries to kill the young man but nature intervenes with the last word. The novel is dense with native vocabulary and seems authentic.

There is a lot going on in this novel. It sparked tremendous debate in the 1920s due to the Preface which is a scathing indictment of French colonialism, long before Things Fall Apart did the same for English literature. It also was a mirror of French attitudes towards the black Africans and by proxy French exotic desires. It inspired many essays and even books in defense of the French civilizing project in Africa and at home. Today it's not considered to be of high literary value, and since France is no longer colonizing Africa (if anything population trajectories have reversed) it's importance has become a matter of historical interest. Nevertheless, the rich African vocabulary, descriptions of flora and fauna, and the lyrical jazz-like improvised prose remain to its credit. ( )

I'm not sure what to make of this book. None of the characters were consistently sympathetic, and overall it seemed so pedantic in tone. But I can see for the time it was written it was startling in it's open portrayal of anti-colonialism among Africans. And there are moments when the characters' thought processes are amazingly clear, taking me inside someone else's thoughts and fears.
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Printed Letterpress by Walpole Printing Office USA.
Illustrated and signed by Miguel Covarrubias.
Fine quality sand paper, watermarked.
Limited to 1500 copies, this is 397.
Rebound by Bayntun in full dark brown Hewitt Calfskin and japanese endpapers. ( )