Allah Is Not Obliged

Product Description Review a powerful, shocking and deeply moving novel, an African — The Guardian, August 12, 2006 From the Publisher An extraordinarily powerful and affecting novel of Africa’s child-soldiers, by French Africa’s pre-eminent novelist. In the tradition of City of God. From the Inside Flap Birahima is ten years old. He is from the Ivory Coast. He is a soldier.When Birahima’s mother dies, he his native village – accompanied by the sorcerer Yacouba – to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by a rebel force and press-ganged into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, scant rations of food, and plenty of dope. Fighting in a totally chaotic civil war, and alongside many other child soldiers, he sees death, torture, amputation and madness, but somehow manages to retain his own sanity Told in the remarkably realised voice of a ten-year-old boy, Birahima’s story is tinged with both humour and disdain. As Birahima takes us through the bloody battlefields of horrific warfare, he makes no attempt to explain the inexplicable. Yet, by making us both sick with despair and filled with laughter at the incredible and the ridiculous, his story brings us closer to comprehending the rivalries, power structures and customs that fuel Africa’s bitter wars. Both shattering and heartbreaking, Allah Is Not Obliged is a remarkable masterpiece.     About the Author Ahmadou Kourouma was born in the Ivory Coast in 1927. Hailed as one of the leading African writers in French, he died in 2003.