Monnè, outrages et défis

Defying Samory, emperor of the entire Mandingo country, the king of Soba, Djigui Keïta, did not raze his city upon the arrival of colonial troops led by Faidherbe — convinced that the magic of ancestors, Allah’s protection, and the hastily built wall would suffice to repel the “Nazarenes”… Who therefore take Soba without a fight. And here are the griots singing the glory of Djigui, throughout his one hundred and twenty years of reign, while the deposed king, yet faithful to the harsh traditions of his dynasty, plunges into an increasingly bloody collaboration with the occupier.

Under the praises addressed to the king of Soba, under the tragic and derisory epic of a people handed over to colonization, emerges the satire of modern African states surrendered to their demons (love of glory, corruption, cult of a single party, etc.), but also an indictment as funny as it is violent against these conformisms which, everywhere in the vast world, sometimes lead to the worst compromises.