Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

The African (Conton novel)

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Language
  
English

Author
  
William Farquhar Conton

Publisher
  
Heinemann

3.4/5
Goodreads

Originally published
  
1964

Genre
  
Fiction

Similar
  
People of the City, Mission to Kala, Devil on the Cross, Mine Boy, Houseboy

The African is the 1964 debut novel by Sierra Leonean novelist and educator William Farquhar Conton. It was the 12th work published in Heinemann's African Writers Series. The novel's plot revolves around the romance between a black African student and a white South African woman in England.

Contents

Themes and style

The novel turns autobiographical elements into a call for Africa to move as a continent beyond apartheid. Wole Soyinka criticised its utopian "love optimism", calling the novel's main character, Kamara, an "unbelievable prig".

Reception

Contemporary reviewer Mercedes Mackay describe the novel as a "promising first novel" which excels in highlighting the author's "rich sense of humor" and his role as "a fine philosopher". Mackay compared the novel to the debuts of Cyprian Ekwensi (People of the City), Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart) and Kamara Laye (The African Child).

References

The African (Conton novel) Wikipedia