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Allah is Not Obliged
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
8 posts | 5 read | 8 to read
ALLAH IS NOT OBLIGED TO BE FAIR ABOUT ALL THE THINGS HE DOES HERE ON EARTH.These are the words of the boy soldier Birahima in the final masterpiece by one of Africa’s most celebrated writers, Ahmadou Kourouma. When ten-year-old Birahima's mother dies, he leaves his native village in the Ivory Coast, accompanied by the sorcerer and cook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by rebels and forced into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope and a tiny wage. Fighting in a chaotic civil war alongside many other boys, Birahima sees death, torture, dismemberment and madness but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Raw and unforgettable, despairing yet filled with laughter, Allah Is Not Obliged reveals the ways in which children's innocence and youth are compromised by war. From the Trade Paperback edition.
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BarbaraBB
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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#BookReport 13/22

Another good book. I am enjoying the #internationalbookerprize2022 longlist and am making progress on #ReadingAfrica2022 too. This week‘s favorite: Love in the big city

Cinfhen Great 😊 3y
61 likes1 comment
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BarbaraBB
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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Mehso-so

What a mess, West-Africa in the 90s. When his mother dies and he is left without family, a young boy from #IvoryCoast travels through war torn Liberia and Sierra Leone in search of his aunt. He becomes a child soldier and witnesses all the horrible things a kid shouldn‘t. Drugged and hyper he writes down his story.

#19822022 #2000 #ReadingAfrica2022 🇨🇮 #pop21 #FeaturesTwoLanguages

Librarybelle This sounds heartbreaking 3y
Cinfhen The history in modern day Africa is just as heartbreaking as the days of early slavery 3y
BarbaraBB @Librarybelle @Cinfhen It is heartbreaking indeed and it seems hopeless 💔 3y
Megabooks Thinking about what the west has imposed on Africa and the issues colonization and slavery created just breaks my heart. It‘s been hard for me to have the emotional space to read these stories this year with the other issues I‘ve had. 3y
BarbaraBB @Megabooks I can understand that. It is hard to read and to deal with. 3y
73 likes5 comments
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BarbaraBB
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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#WeeklyForecast 12/22

I want to read an #InternationalBooker nominated book a week. This week that‘ll be After the Sun. But of course there‘s also #ReadingAfrica2022. I‘m almost finished with the fantastic The Burgess Boys for Somalia. Next will be the tagged one for Liberia. Last but not least my Greek #FoodAndLit choice, a book that I can use for some challenges as well!

BarbaraBB @Cinfhen I am too. I feel like I know these people! 3y
Cinfhen I‘m SUCH a FAN of Elizabeth Strout 💕💕💕 3y
69 likes3 comments
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ErinSBecker
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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Completed so far for #bookspinbonanza!

rockpools Wow! 5y
TheAromaofBooks Yay!!! 5y
43 likes2 comments
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ErinSBecker
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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Pickpick

Well, that was quite a ride... Think Adventures of Huck Finn, but Huck is a child-soldier in Liberia's 1990s civil wars. Add a strong, repetitive narrative voice reminiscent of three part jokes or formal prayer, a dash of Joyceian circular narrative, and a metric fuckton of obscenity. I. Was. Not. Expecting. This. 😳😶😳

TheAromaofBooks Sounds interesting! 5y
32 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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ErinSBecker
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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"three genuine old k***** shamans wearing filthy bubus - as filthy and disgusting as a hyena's anus. They had been chewing cola nuts for so long that two of them were, as toothless as a chimpanzee's arse." - ok, I get that the author is trying to sound like an 11 yo boy, but two ass similes back to back? Seems a bit overkill...

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ErinSBecker
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma

I happen to have landed two really harsh downers next to each other on#bookspinbonanza. Having trouble getting into either. Tagged and Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. I really want to read both, they're good! But finding myself for the first time this month reading something that's not on my #bookspin list. Should I leapfrog over these two or keep trying?

vlwelser Read one and go back to the other later is what I would probably do. 5y
TheAromaofBooks I'm not being horrifically strict on the “read in order“ rule, so if you have two back-to-back that just aren't working, feel free to swap one with a book further down the list if that will help!! 5y
ErinSBecker Thanks @vlwelser and @TheAromaofBooks for the advice! 🙂 5y
29 likes1 stack add3 comments
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jveezer
Allah is Not Obliged | Ahmadou Kourouma
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Bahnmi, jasmine iced tea, and a new book to start!