This is definitely from the archives of Nairaland. As at when it was posted (a good number of us haven't signed up).

Ever what happened to Camara laye (the author of "The African Child)?

Well you are about to find out

Enough of the hackneyed story of the doomed romance between Romeo and Juliet. Theirs is fiction, the one I am posting is true.
While living in Nigeria, I read my brother's novel, "The African Child" authored by Camara Laye. I was moved by the tone of the novel, especially its sucessful attempt to portray Africa as a continent filled with love, hospitality and compassion. Towards the end of the story, the protagonist falls in love with a half caste lady, Marie and then embarks on a study leave to France. In real life, Camara Laye married this lady. I came across this interesting information while reading his bio. Sadly though, the marriage ended in divorce. But their marital split would have been averted were it not for the evil machinations of a third party , Sekou Toure.
After completing his studies, Camara Laye returned to Guinea. The country was in the throes of development and this young budding writer was named the ambassador of his country to Ghana. When Guinea abruptly cut of diplomatic relations from France, the latter retaliated by cutting off funds to punish the country. Camara Laye in his plum position was able to secure some funds to bail out his ailing country. As the years went by on, Sekou Toure morphed into an evil dictator. During that period, Camara Laye fell out of favor with the president and he was imprisoned briefly. During his incarceration, he was poisoned, and the consequences led to a swollen body. Then, he was released and with his family, he fled to neighbouring Senegal, never to returned to his beloved homeland, Guinea.
Laye's life in exile was marred by tragedies. His parents had passed away during his days in Senegal, but he was justifiably absent from their funeral for fear Sekou Toure, though he was the first born. Financially, he was struggling. A one time ambassador, he was now reduced to the position of a research assistant for some organization in Senegal. And to compound his woes, he was faced with a kidney problem (which would be the cause of his death), probably as a result of the food poisoning earlier in prison. Nevertheless he and his family thrived on, until a telegram from from family friends in Guinea would torpedoe his relationship with his wife, Marie.
Marie's father was dying. In the telegram, he dictated to friends, he begged Marie to visit him while he was alive. Against the wishes of her husband who was concerned for her safety, Marie flew out of Senegal to Guinea to visit her father who had just been released from jail. As soon as she arrived at the airport in Guinea, she was immediately arrested (at the airport) and taken to jail where she was incarcerated for SEVEN years!!!.
Laye took his wife's incarceration hard. He was hospitalized out of a very serious illness relating to his wife's incarceration. To curb the lingering loneliness of Marie's absence, he took in a second wife, an act that was in accordance of his islamic faith. Ramatoulaye Kante, his Senegalese wife also played the role of his nurse because of his failing health. But her presence in the household did not dim his affection for Marie. Acting on the advice of some friends, he suspended the publication of another novel of his which was to be a scathing attack on Sekou Toure for fear of his wife's safety. He changed his stance of his attack on Sekou Toure, organized some friends of his to pressure the president to release his wife. Eventually, he would cede to their demands and release Marie. This came after seven years.
Upon her release from prison, Marie moved back to Senegal to be reunited with her family. But the reunion was not as memorable between husband and wife as one would have anticipated. Marie refused to accept the presence of the second wife on valid grounds , she was Roman Catholic. And so, she divorced him.
Laye did not live long after the divorce. In failing health since the 60's probably stemming from a food poisoning incident in prison in the sixties, exarcebated by his beloved wife's incarceration and their subsequent divorce in 77 which consumed him towards the end of his life, Camara Laye gave up the ghost in 1980 and was buried in exile, Senegal.
Sekou Toure's evil deeds caught up with him in 1984, when he died, while undergoing a heart surgery in the United States of America. His demise was celebrated in his country. I dont know if Marie is still alive or not, but in 1990, she was alive and living in Guinea. She is memorialized on the website of the infamous Boiro prison in Guinea. I am amazed that she even survived the incarceration, because people died in that camp. Documents have surfaced that some of these dead people were buried in unmarked graves.

www.nairaland.com/10200/saddest-love-story-camara-laye

One of my best books then way back.
Quite touching of a man who wrote such a great book...

Why is it that ingenious African writers always suffer some form of hostile action against government
Chinua Achebe case in point.



Disheartening.

The African Child....... That book brings back innocent memories.....

though, i never read the book. my elder sister back then, would always explain to me everything that happen to the African Child. i miss those days.............

This should make front page please

The woman divorced him because of her faith shey? Doesn't this same faith condemn divorce?
At least she should have understood her husband's need for another wife when she was in prison.
What a sad story.

The bearer of truth is always persecuted because people prefer to hear others tell them lies.

vince001:
The woman divorced him because of her faith shey? Doesn't this same faith condemn divorce?
At least she should have understood her husband's need for another wife when she was in prison.
What a sad story.

Pretty sure she used her faith as an excuse. She just could not bear the thought of sharing her man. Just the same way a man wouldn't want to share his woman with another.

"I still remember, my hands and feet still remember, what used to lie in wait for us on our first day in school..."

I can't forget that line in the book, The African Child...the author went on tell how he was bullied on his first day at school. Sad tale about what eventually happened to him.

Funny enough I can also remember reading this when it was first posted on Nairaland. Hehehe

what a pity.

The way brain-dead African leaders treat their intellectual-betters!

Camara Laye and Marie are real life husband and wife in the sequel, "A Dream of Africa." They got married in 1953. I first learnt of their union in this book, "The writings of Camara Laye" by Adele King back when I was in secondary school in Nigeria. The discovery of the book at my friend's place was surreal because I had just finished reading the "The African Child" earlier on when I stumbled upon it. That woman, Adele King, can write, I will give her A1 in that regard because she had me hooked from the beginning of his biography to meeting Marie in Conakry, to their wedding in France and then to the final page of the book when she wrote of their divorce. Man, the pleasant feeling that I had seeing the book and reading of their union just vanished at the end of the page.