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Tierno
Monenembo
THE KING OF KAHEL (2010) Translated from French by Nicholas Elliott Las Vegas. AmazonCrossing. 2010 Paperback: 304 pages ISBN: 0982555075 reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) biblio.com 09/21/2010 Would you recommend this book to other readers? Yes! * * * * * review: In 2008 the French language novel LE ROI DE KAHEL won for its exiled Guinean author Tierno Monenembo the prestigious Prix Renaudot for being an "outstanding original novel." It appears now in 2010 as THE KING OF KAHEL in clear, unpretentious English rendered by New York writer and translator Nicholas Elliott. The book is preceded by a disclaimer: "This is not a biography but a novel, freely inspired by the life of Olivier de Sanderval. It is very informative and historically convincing. The novel's real life hero was born in Lyon, France Aimé Victor Olivier (1840 - 1919). His family was Catholic, socially prominent, wealthy, and famous for its inventors and entrepreneurs. From an early age young Victor dreamed of adventures and exploration in West Africa. Using his own resources Victor Olivier financed five expeditions beginning in 1879 into what is today the Republic of Guinea, often styled Guinea-Conakry. Conakry is its coastal capital, important in Olivier's later biography. Guinea is a country about the size of the U. K. or Oregon. Olivier was drawn to its inland Highlands, a well watered area rolling between 3,000 and 5,000 feet above sea level. This area contains the headwaters of three mighty rivers: the Niger, the Senegal and the Gambia. The Highlands are described in attractive detail by author Monenembo. A 12 mile by 3 mile fertile valley called Kahel in the militant Islamic highlands Kingdom or Empire of Fouta Djallon attracted Olivier the moment he saw it. Olivier became Kahel's "King" once he persuaded both the national or imperial overlord and local Fulani rulers to accept him as a member of the dominant tribal clan. In Kahel King Olivier created Africa's first standing army. He also persuaded the rulers of Fouta Djallon to allow him to build a railroad from the coast up into their fertile mountains, sometimes styled "the Switzerland" or "the Tibet" of west Africa. By novel's end, at least, no such railroad had been completed. Olivier wrote widely read books and articles about the treaties he had won from the rulers of Fouta Djallon and thereby gained the admiration of the King of Portugal who gave him the title of Viscount of Sanderval. Aime Victor Olivier is best known today as Olivier de Sanderval. THE KING OF KAHEL is a novel, not history, but it is also the work of a serious scholar. The novel draws heavily on the writings of Sanderval and contemporaries and also reflects the Guinean author's desire to understand his country's origins. Sanderval is portrayed as a man as much obsessed with personal power as England's Cecil Rhodes. In his dreams he would use his foothold in Kahel and Fouta Djalon to rule an empire extending deep into Central Africa. He was also a French nationalist. Sanderval expected France to empower him peacefully to win over independent Africans to fruitful, mutually beneficial trading and political relationships with France. Sanderval understood the Guineans and France would do well to do as he said. This, alas, was not to be. France conquered Fouta Djallon in the 1890s and incorporated it into French West Africa. If you do not know much about French West Africa in general or Guinea-Conakry in particular, then THE KING OF KAHEL is a marvelous point of departure for further personal explorations along paths first trod by Aime Victor Olivier, Viscount de Sanderval. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/fiction/the-king-of-kahel- monenembo-tierno-2010~ctbk~e2a3a~348069755 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com 09/21/2010 name of review: "I'm going to Africa to become a king" rating: * * * * review: It was November 29, 1879, a snowy day in Marseille, on France's Mediterranean coast. 39-year old Aime Victor Olivier (1840 - 1919) was setting forth on his first of five expeditions to West Africa, something he had been determined to do since his school boy days in Lyon. His beloved wife Rose insisted that he take along his stage costume for Mephistopheles. For the Negroes would love to see him act. Victor replied: "I'll throw it overboard. I'm going to Africa
to become a king, not a buffoon!" (PART ONE).
But he kept the costume and months later it would save his life in the highlands of Fouta Djallon, in today's Guinea-Conakry. All this and much, much more is told in 2010's THE KING OF KAHEL by political exile from Guinea Tierno Monenembo. This splendid historical novel is New Yorker Nicholas Elliott's translation of Le Roi de Kahel, which won France's prestigious Prix Renaudot in 2008. The novel is freely but in scholarly wise based on the well documented life of pioneer French explorer of the future Guinea-Conakry, Aime Victor Olivier, later ennobled by the King of Portugal as the Viscount de Sanderval. Probing the modern pre-history of his birthplace, biochemist and prolific writer Tierno Monenembo brings to life those lush Guinean Highlands that have been called "the Switzerland of West Africa" for their green mountains as well as "The Tibet of Africa" for their leaders' devout cultivation and preaching of Sufi Islam. His goal was to penetrate the empire of Fouta Djallon and make friends with its King of King, the Almami. He came in peace among the ruling Fula tribesmen, offering more trade and a railroad to the coast. Olivier over the decades made himself the premier interpreter of Fulas to Europeans and vice versa. For himself we won official membership as a Fula tribesman and a 12 miles by 3 miles "Kingdom of Kahel" in a lovely valley of his own choosing. There he made history by raising West Africa's first standing army -- of 3,000 troops. Olivier's personal goal was to dominate the tribes one by one peacefully and become the ruler of an empire extending east through the Sudan down south to the Limpopo River. He saw Africans as the predestined cultural and creative successors to the Romans and Greeks. There was to be no coercion of African rulers, only agreements and covenants openly reached. This peaceful, empathetic method of cultural penetration Olivier preached to the deaf ears of French military and colonial officials. Conquest was their method, absolute obedience their goal. By the 1890s they had scattered the Fula powers of Fouta Djallon, and the French tricolor floated over an enlarged French West Africa. On the basis of his books and explorations, Aime Victor Olivier was ennobled by the King of Portugal and made Viscount de Sanderval. He kept extensive notes, made maps and was closely observed and written about by his contemporaries: French, British, Portuguese and African. He lived. He loved. He put the future capital of Guinea, the island of Conakry, on the map. Today its presidential palace stands on land seized by the French from the Viscount of Sanderval. THE KINGDOM OF KAHEL is an excellent historical-fictional jumping off point for readers who wish to start learning about French West Africa. I commend this historical novel warmly. -OOO- http://www.lunch.com/Reviews/d/tierno_monenembo _the_king_of_kahel-1583991.html?cid=74&gat=review &rid=161352 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) bn.com 09/21/2010 title of review: "Africa is better than any book" rating: * * * * review: Exploring Africa with his son, French adventurer in West Africa Aime Victor Olivier encountered a thousand black people clothed in white sitting on the ground praying. They were waiting for the world to end. They were "serene and contemplative before the fulfillment of fate." Olivier joined them for two days neither eating nor drinking. When his son managed to break him away from his near trance state, Victor Olivier said convincingly: "Africa is better than any book" (PART THREE). All his life Olivier, scion of a rich, inventive family of Lyon, France had yearned to explore Africa. At age 40, in 1879 he at last set out on his first of five journeys to open up the interior of what is today's Guinea-Conakry. He learned local languages. He exercised tact and made friends among a people, the Fulas, reputed to be full of guile beyond all other races. Their king of kings made him a member of the tribe and the subordinate King of Kahel, a beautiful, fertile Highlands valley 12 by 3 miles where Olivier created West Africa's first standing army. West Africa seemed fated to become French one way or another. Olivier's way, which he preached to French naval and colonial authorities was gradual, peaceful, empathetically, repectfully. Not fast enough. If France did not grab the 3,000 foot highlands of Fouta Djallon, Britain surely would. He who controlled Fouta Djallon controlled the headwaters of the Niger, Senegal and Gambia Rivers. Before 1900 the area was therefore conquered and reorganized within the colonial framework of French West Africa. All this and more is told in Guinean political exile Tierno Monenembo's great novel, THE KING OF KAHEL. For his expeditions and books the King of Portugal made Olivier the Viscount of Sanderval. France, by contrast, paid him little official heed. For his troubles Sanderval (as he is now generally styled) was deathly ill on many occasions and had to use his wits to avoid execution or a death by poison. His story, imaginatively turned into fiction, is a wonderful place to begin your personal exploration of Guinea-Conakry and French West Africa. -OOO- recommended reading: Graham Greene: JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS, THE HEART OF THE MATTER http://my.barnesandnoble.com/communityportal/review .aspx?reviewid=1452843 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) amazon.com 09/21/2010 title of review: Late 19th Century France misdiagnosed West Africa: "she was sending a surgeon where a masseuse was needed" rating: * * * * review: There are so many ways to read Tierno Monenembo's lush historical novel of French West Africa, THE KING OF KAHEL: -- (1) as geographical and historical introduction to the 3,000 foot and higher above sea level Guinean (Fouta Djallon) highlands where culturally sensitive French explorer and sui generis imperialist hero of the novel Aime Victor Olivier was created by its King of Kings, the Almami, a legal member of its dominant Fulani people with powers to rule over a 12 mile by 3 mile subordinate kingdom, a pleasant valley called Kahel. Out of those rain-drenched Guinean highlands flow the mighty Niger, Senegal and Gambia rivers. Author Monenembo makes Fouta Djallon live in a reader's imagination, understandably a geographic prize for French colonialism. -- (2) As a French policy clash among imperialists. The French civilian and naval forces active in West Africa saw a huge potential military reserve of Africans with which to stand off Bismarck's and the Kaiser's Germany. Olivier had a more benign view of Africans: theirs was the future. If France would only let him, Olivier would hand over to Africans the glorious torch of Greco-Roman civilization and lead Africans to a fresh start -- avoiding all of Europe's errors of the past thousand years. He would win Africa voluntarily to a junior partnership with France throughout a personal empire ruled by Olivier from the Atlantic eastward to the Sudan and southward to the Limpopo River. Admittedly the rulers of Fouta Djallon were as devious as Odysseus, as wily as the Borgias. But Olivier learned to speak their languages, to respect their militant, mystical Islam, to admire their women and their princes. He commended to his fatherland his own interculturally sensitive, patient approach but proved a prophet without honor in his native France. By the 1890s the tricolor flew over the Guinean highlands but not with the consent of the governed. In the view of Aime Victor Olivier late 19th Century France continually misdiagnosed West Africa: "she was sending a surgeon where a masseuse was needed." -- (2) As one man's coming to terms with hyper-romantic images of Africa learned during his affluent boyhood in Lyon. Olivier would explore Africa. He would rule Africa if he could. And he had the resources to finance trading stations, ships, men and materials to do it. One of his lasting achievements was to create in his tiny Kingdom of Kahel west Africa's first permanent, standing army. THE KING OF KAHEL, among many other things, is biography. And its subject is an inventor, manufacturer, not a bad chess player, man of iron will and determination. Today, the palace of the President of Guinea sits on land in Conakry confiscated from Olivier by a petty French colonial governor. The prophet was without honor in France. But his adventures, maps, books and discoveries earned him the respect of the King of Portugal and the Portuguese title of Viscount of Sanderval. He shot across the skies of la belle epoque like a comet. Olvier's story is beautifully told and well worth a leisurely reading. It may launch novices into lifelong literary explorations of the Guinean Highlands, called the Switzerland of West Africa (for their landscape) also known as the Tibet of Africa (for their nuanced mystical sufi Islamic teachers and prophets). -OOO- tags: french west africa, guinea-conakry, aime victor olivier, viscount de sanderval, fouta djallon http://www.amazon.com/King-Kahel-Tierno-Monénembo/ dp/0982555075/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= 1282590537&sr=1-1 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) epinions.com 09/21/2010 Review Title: Lyon's Gift to Africa: Viscount Olivier de Sanderval Product Rating: * * * * PROS: How a great city, Lyon, and a creative, multi-generational family impacted French West Africa. CONS: For American readers: initial unfamiliarity with 19th Century French West Africa and the Guinean Highlands. BOTTOM LINE: A Guinean political exile in France crafts a fictionalized cross-cultural biography of a Frenchman who opened Guinea-Conakry to French penetration. This novel inaugurates Amazon Crossing, innovative publishing. aohcapablanca's Full Review: Call him Aime Victor Olivier, Viscount de Sanderval. He is the real-life hero of Tierno Monenembo's 2008 novel in French, Le Roi de Kahel. I am now reviewing the 2010 English translation by Nicholas Elliott, THE KING OF KAHEL. Translator Elliott, be it noted in passing, in an interview on amazon.com's site for this book, is justifiably proud that his translation launched the very first book published in amazon's daring new Amazon Crossing publishing experiment. I will say more of Amazon Crossing at the end of my review. A first reading of THE KING OF KAHEL drew me into Africa, especially the Guinean Highlands visited five times by Viscount Sanderval beginning in 1879. Then the Highlands were part of a small empire called Fouta Djallon ruled by ethnic Fulas and their King of Kings (or Almami), champions of militant Islam. They attracted both British and French colonialists because they contained the headwaters of three important West African rivers: the Niger, Gambia and Senegal. The French government, with scant justification, ultimately seized the Guinean Highlands by armed force in the 1890s. Viscount Sanderval, by contrast, had preached winning the Fulas to France and to his personal paramountcy among them through learning their language, living peacefully among them, building a railroad for them and even teaching them Greek, Latin and the glories of ancient Europe. But on a second reading of THE KING OF KAHEL, I was drawn more into France than into Africa. Author Tierno Monenembo, long resident now in France, was exiled from Guinea-Conakry for political opposition to its dictator Ahmed Sekou Toure. Legend has it that the first Greek grammar was written by a Syrian. Since then outsiders have often been the best interpreters of a country or culture. Witness Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville and American democracy. Similarly, in THE KING OF KAHEL, author Monenembo does not just explain Guinea to Europeans and Americans, he explains 19th Century France to Guineans and to the world. It is an amazing tour de force. Within the first thirty pages of his novel, Monenembo has convincingly portrayed Aime Victor Olivier as a product of his country, his city, Lyon, his super-achieving family, his Catholic faith and his age. He even quotes a Bantu proverb in support of his approach to writing biography: "One
is more the son of one's era than of one's father."
Young Aime Victor was mad for Africa by age eight. Just being a member of the combined families of Olivier and Perret was a global education in itself. Thus Victor's great-uncle Simonet, clan bohemian, regaled the boy night after night with "wild adventures of pioneers of
civilization lost among the cannibals, saved from the boiling pots … at
the last moment by the goodness of Christ."
At age seven his tutor Father Garnier took young Victor in imagination around the world. The boy would dress up in pith helmet and boots and trek along the Rhone with Father Garnier who "painted
tattoos on his forearms and scarifications on his face. … Then they set
up camp nearby for the Latin lesson and a dinner of canned sardines."
As a published author and expert on the Guinean Highlands, Aime Victor Olivier was ennobled by the King of Portugal as the Vicount de Sanderval (he is usually styled Olivier de Sanderval nowadays). He was wont to say of himself: "I come from a family where banality is unacceptable." They were "the
Lyon bourgeoise, which was Latin and Catholic. … Neither the Oliviers
nor the Perrets came into the world with bold arrogance, proclaiming
their high birth, but with the nerve-racking obligation to rival their
father's accomplishments."
But they could have fun and be eccentric, too. THE KING OF KAHEL convincingly recreates the world of the great French belle époque cities that formed Olivier and his family, Lyon especially, but also Avignon and Marseille. I have recently reviewed THE KILLER OF LITTLE SHEPHERDS, a book that showcases the city of Lyon as a pioneering city for CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) and the home of INTERPOL. Lyon made the Viscount of Sanderval. Enough of this excellent novel.
Now a few words about the project that saw it translated from French to English, AMAZON CROSSING. In a nutshell it is a project in which amazon.com becomes a publisher of English translations of outstanding books in other languages. THE KING OF KAHEL launched the venture. My guess is that this will be a growth industry. -OOO- Recommended: YES. * * * * I thank you, catergory lead PESTYSIDE/Patsy (1) for making this new book reviewable on epinions; (2) for suggesting that I mention in passing that this is the first translation published by amazon.com in a brand new and potentially revolutionary project. http://www.epinions.com/review/Tierno_Monenembo _The_King_of_Kahel_epi/content_525504188036 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/ monenembo_kahel.html |