Ahmadu Kuruma’s Novel Allah n’est pas oblige - As an Example of a Polylingual Text

Abstract

Writing in the ethnic languages of Africa arose relatively recently on a historical scale, so local writers used the languages of the colonialists in their works of fiction. However, some of them did not completely break with the languages of their localities, capturing in their works the linguistic diversity characteristic of the living environment. The material of our research is the novel Allah n’est pas obligé (Allah is not obligated) by the Ivorian writer Ahmadou Kuruma, published in 2000. The literary work is considered as an example of multilingual artistic creation - French as the official language of Ivory Coast, Malinke as the author's native language and Liberian English (pidgin, originated in the territories of Liberia and Sierra Leone), common in this region. The article describes the linguistic ways of expressing the oral tradition of African storytellers, although the content of Kuruma’s work touches on topics relevant to modern Africa (the use of proverbs, repeated repetitions, literal translation of words and expressions from other languages). The main method of research is the linguistic analysis of the text. It is shown that multilingualism and the use of traditional storytelling techniques are key characteristics of the writer’s work, which contributes to the popularity of his works on the African continent.

Keywords

• multilingualism
• linguistic hybridization
• african literature
• tradition
• ahmadu kuruma