The Dark Child
by Camara Laye
A Guinea childhood, written in exile knowing it's gone.
you want to give a young reader a portrait of African childhood that is full of warmth and dignity and magic
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Laye grew up in Kouroussa, Guinea, the son of a goldsmith whose work had a spiritual dimension the boy watched with reverence. This memoir reconstructs that childhood — the forge, the harvest ceremonies, the school, his mother's power — with extraordinary tenderness. He wrote it in Paris, in exile, knowing the world he was describing was already changing. The most beautiful dispatch from inside pre-independence West African childhood. Essential for the Raise the Future shelf.
WHERE THIS BOOK LIVES
- Setting
- Guinea • West Africa
- Voice
- Written by a Guinean author
- Themes
- After Empire
