Overview
Region
West Africa
Mali
Era
Post-colonial
Language
French
Genre
Fiction
About This Work
A violent, anti-heroic history of the fictional Nakem empire and its ruling Saif dynasty — implicating African rulers in the slave trade and resisting any romantic vision of pre-colonial Africa.
Literary Significance
Prix Renaudot; the most controversial African novel ever published; attacked both colonialism and the mystification of Africa's pre-colonial past