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Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy

by Camara Laye

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 859 ratings · 67 reviews

This book is a distinct and graceful memoir of Camara Laye's youth in the village of Koroussa, French Guinea, a place steeped in mystery. Laye marvels over this mother's supernatural powers, his father's distinction as the village goldsmith, and his own passage into manhood, which is marked by animistic beliefs and bloody rituals of primeval origin.

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Published January 1st 1954 by Turtleback Books

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Jul 07, 2013 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century , africa , m-a-list , memoir , post-colonial

Recently I’ve found myself reading a number of memoirs by authors who grew up in various parts of Africa. This one stands out as unique, mostly because it is so unremarkable. There’s no civil war, no violence, no rape. The only bloody scenes are those describing ritual circumcision, and even these showed a communal event of initiation and coming-of-age rather than an act of brutality (as in other books that address the subject). Injustice in society never came forward as a theme. To be honest, i Recently I’ve found myself reading a number of memoirs by authors who grew up in various parts of Africa. This one stands out as unique, mostly because it is so unremarkable. There’s no civil war, no violence, no rape. The only bloody scenes are those describing ritual circumcision, and even these showed a communal event of initiation and coming-of-age rather than an act of brutality (as in other books that address the subject). Injustice in society never came forward as a theme. To be honest, it reminded me much more of gentle French childhood memoirs such as La gloire de mon père than what I have come to expect from African memoirs.

The narrative winds along peacefully, describing Laye’s childhood in Guinea during the early part of the 20th century. It’s a story that strikes a universal chord: love between parents and children, experiences of being bullied in school, the blurry transition between childhood and adulthood. It introduces us to several layers of Guinean society: Laye is the son of a goldsmith and shares a bed with his father’s apprentices, but at various times he spends time both with his grandmother in rural Guinea and with his uncle in the capital city.

Written five years before Guinea’s independence from France, this book is one of the first major works of Francophone African Literature. In view of this fact, I found it surprising how little France’s involvement in Guinea’s history and society was addressed in this book. Without previous knowledge, I wouldn’t have known that the world described in this book was under French rule. The only hints towards this fact were that the narrative was written in French, and that the book’s final conflict centered around whether or not Laye should leave his homeland in order to go to France and continue his education. Yet perhaps in the 1950s, even a peaceful and unassuming literary description of African existence was an act of courage. ...more

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Dec 11, 2010 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fairly short and simple autobiographical account of a boy growing up in Guinea in the 1930s and 40s. Camara Laye wrote it in 1954 while studying in France, and you can feel the nostalgia for his homeland. Although the writing style is quite understated, the emotion is communicated quite effectively, and it’s very moving in places.

As the title suggests, the book only deals with his childhood, and it is faithful to a child’s outlook on the world. At the start, his entire world is the ver This is a fairly short and simple autobiographical account of a boy growing up in Guinea in the 1930s and 40s. Camara Laye wrote it in 1954 while studying in France, and you can feel the nostalgia for his homeland. Although the writing style is quite understated, the emotion is communicated quite effectively, and it’s very moving in places.

As the title suggests, the book only deals with his childhood, and it is faithful to a child’s outlook on the world. At the start, his entire world is the veranda around his father’s hut. Then it gradually expands to the rest of the concession, then to school, the town of Kourassa, then the wider country of Guinea when he goes off to study in the capital Conakry. Finally the link with childhood is severed altogether as he gets on a plane to France.

The mixture of pain and excitement at each stage of growing up is beautifully rendered. He wants to be part of his family, to follow his father as a blacksmith or his uncle as a farmer, but always knows that his success in school is moving him further away from that. He is being marked out for a different future, his family are sacrificing to give him something better, and he wants that, but also wants to stay where he is. His parents, too, are caught in this conflict of wanting him to succeed but knowing that his success means his departure from their lives.

Quite a bit of time is spent describing the circumcision rite, which may be of anthropological interest to some, but was for me more interesting as a symbol of the other changes he goes through in the book, the pain and fear at something new, the loss of the old, but also the anticipation of being a man, the pride he feels when he is given his own hut and his own grown-up clothes.

My copy is from 1969, and made me realise a couple of things. First, the introduction emphasises again and again the “dignity” of the protagonist and his family, as if it’s some amazing discovery that Africans can have dignity. Some people of course would still hold similar views, but I’m glad that for most of us today the value of a book like this is no longer in the radical discovery that African people are actually human beings. The second thing I realised is that I need to start buying hardbacks – this paperback literally crumbled in my hands as I read it. Does anyone else have very old paperbacks (60s or earlier)? Do they last?

Anyway, I enjoyed this book as an insight into a life at a moment of great change, starting in a very traditional setting and moving very quickly into different worlds. A lot of the political context is absent – French colonialism, for example, is only a shadowy presence in the book – but I don’t see this as a fault. This is a childhood memoir, and does no more or less than you’d expect: it gives a faithful depiction of the author’s early years. I found it interesting and quite moving. ...more

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Jan 19, 2015 Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world-books-challenge , africa , memoirs , guinea , read-in-translation , 3-stars-and-a-half

Not much happens in this gentle, sentimental little book, but it’s a pleasant read all the same. There seems to be some disagreement about whether The Dark Child is a memoir or an autobiographical novel; my library shelves it as nonfiction, though given the abundant dialogue, the author clearly took some creative license.

Either way, it’s a nicely-written coming-of-age story of a boy from in a traditional village in Guinea in the 1930s and 40s. There are no atrocities, no violence (except from bu ...more

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Jun 17, 2015 farah Smidi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

the best <3

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Nov 18, 2011 Susan Denney rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: French speakers interested in African culture.

I used several chapters of this book in my 4AP French classes. I have read the book many times. The book has an outlook which is unique. Camara Laye has a foot in two worlds. We see him as a boy in the villages of his father and grandmother. He opens a window for us into a world where spirits reside in every living thing and where a snake can speak and share knowledge with the leader of a clan.

He also shows us his introduction to European science-based culture. And even though the two worlds see ...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Moses Kilolo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have always heard of Camara Laye, but never really got to read any of his writing till now. I'm glad I did. This book, detailing the earlier part of his life in the French Gambia is simply amazing. Its writing is brilliant, and there is no doubt it is a book to last. So sad that I still don't know much about what happened from the time he went to France for further education, but Im going to find out. Its similarity to Ngugi's book is that education is given a focal point in his dreams and des ...more

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Mar 02, 2015 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books , atw-globetrotter , w15 , 2015-reads

This is a wonderful little book. Why it is on the 1001 books to read list is a mystery to me - I thought that was meant to be a list of novels but this is clearly a childhood memoir.

The storytelling is unapologetically sentimental and extremely touching. It is refreshing to read an account of an African childhood not defined by war, the slave trade, famine, or other atrocities. This is a story of family love, deeply entrenched culture and custom, and the pull of a shrinking world in the early / ...more

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Jan 15, 2012 Elise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american-african-diaspora

This book, which I read in one sitting, will always be close to my heart. I identified so much with Camara Laye because of my own firsthand experience of leaving my childhood home post-Katrina, during the time of the New Orleans diaspora. His detailed, slice of life account of the enchanting lives of Muslims in the village of Kouroussa(Guinea--French Africa) was very moving. I can't wait to discuss it in my "Literature of the African Diaspora" class!

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Jun 25, 2014 Maryann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001

This is a memoir of a boy growing into a man in a small village in Guinea. It is simply told and recounts some of the superstition and ritual that those of us who know nothing more than what we saw in National Geographic magazine when we were children think of as "African". Laye tells his story with dignity and grace, but reserved emotion. At just under 200 pages, it's a short book and easy to read. I don't feel that I gained much from reading it, however.

Food: goat stew over rice. It's tasty e ...more

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Apr 15, 2015 Aurelie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 24, 2015 Elham rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: africa

I did have hopes for this book. I thought it would be enlightening in some ways about African historical and political issues. But it wasn't like that. Instead it concentrated on some traditional costumes that to tell you the truth I wasn't much interested in them. Mainly the traditions revolving around men: Genital circumcision rituals, celebrations and dances and how boys should avoid women, even their mothers, during those days and how after that they become real 'men'! And considering that i ...more

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Jan 25, 2015 Nina Chachu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-literature , autobiography , nina-african-classics

A student returned this book - she's one of our really consistent borrowers - and I realized that I had never read this classic autobiographical account of a childhood in Guinea. It was a quick read, helped by having time during my car-less commute. It is a bit idyllic, but then that is to be expected, as it is looking back from adult-hood. But it does bring up the most important events for one child. Although it is now more than sixty years since it was first published, it is deservedly known a ...more

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Oct 17, 2014 Frumenty rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french

This autobiographical novel went out into the world (in 1953) like an ambassador to the French for a francophone African colony. It presents Guinean culture with dignity and affection, and much colourful detail. Laye is at pains to make his readers see beyond apparently strange customs and beliefs and appreciate a shared humanity. This he does well. The book could justly be called a work of propaganda, but worth reading (and quite short) for all that. Such has been its success that it has been a ...more

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Dec 04, 2013 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a fairly short and simple autobiographical account of a boy growing up in Guinea in the 1930s and 40s. Camara Laye wrote it in 1954 while studying in France, and you can feel the nostalgia for his homeland. Although the writing style is quite understated, the emotion is communicated quite effectively, and it's very moving in places.

As the title suggests, the book only deals with his childhood, and it is faithful to a child's outlook on the world. At the start, his entire world is the ver This is a fairly short and simple autobiographical account of a boy growing up in Guinea in the 1930s and 40s. Camara Laye wrote it in 1954 while studying in France, and you can feel the nostalgia for his homeland. Although the writing style is quite understated, the emotion is communicated quite effectively, and it's very moving in places.

As the title suggests, the book only deals with his childhood, and it is faithful to a child's outlook on the world. At the start, his entire world is the veranda around his father's hut. Then it gradually expands to the rest of the concession, then to school, the town of Kourassa, then the wider country of Guinea when he goes off to study in the capital Conakry. Finally the link with childhood is severed altogether as he gets on a plane to France.

The mixture of pain and excitement at each stage of growing up is beautifully rendered. He wants to be part of his family, to follow his father as a blacksmith or his uncle as a farmer, but always knows that his success in school is moving him further away from that. He is being marked out for a different future, his family are sacrificing to give him something better, and he wants that, but also wants to stay where he is. His parents, too, are caught in this conflict of wanting him to succeed but knowing that his success means his departure from their lives.

Quite a bit of time is spent describing the circumcision rite, which may be of anthropological interest to some, but was for me more interesting as a symbol of the other changes he goes through in the book, the pain and fear at something new, the loss of the old, but also the anticipation of being a man, the pride he feels when he is given his own hut and his own grown-up clothes.

I enjoyed this book as an insight into a life at a moment of great change, starting in a very traditional setting and moving very quickly into different worlds. A lot of the political context is absent - French colonialism, for example, is only a shadowy presence in the book - but I don't see this as a fault. This is a childhood memoir, and does no more or less than you'd expect: it gives a faithful depiction of the author's early years. I found it interesting and quite moving. ...more

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Sep 18, 2013 Briana rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: world-literature , class-novels

Laye's brevity and elusiveness on the day to day affairs of his childhood were the biggest failures of the memoir. Written as an explanatory presentation of life in Guinea for the French reader, Laye stresses the humanity his people, the Malinke, to refute the continuing portrayal of Africans as savages during the last decades of colonialism. Even understanding all of this, Laye does not engage the reader to get inside of his head as a child. Throughout, we are given intimations that he somehow Laye's brevity and elusiveness on the day to day affairs of his childhood were the biggest failures of the memoir. Written as an explanatory presentation of life in Guinea for the French reader, Laye stresses the humanity his people, the Malinke, to refute the continuing portrayal of Africans as savages during the last decades of colonialism. Even understanding all of this, Laye does not engage the reader to get inside of his head as a child. Throughout, we are given intimations that he somehow different from of his kinsmen as a budding scholar, but we never delve intimately into his family life to discover why he is different. Different men and women, often relatives or friends of Laye's, appear and fade without warning in the story. He rarely paints a full tableau of the people who influence him in life, their mannerisms, beliefs, or even simple, physical descriptions of appearance. For example, the rite of circumcision is Laye's greatest trial in the novel. Out of nowhere, his father's second wife appears and bears the symbols of his chosen profession, a notebook and a pen. This is the first and last time that we meet her. Why is her presence absent throughout the story? Why don't we ever meet his brothers or sisters beyond those cursory instances in two chapters?

It is possible that Laye made no lasting connections in Guinea before leaving to study abroad, but we spent the entirety of his childhood in Guinea. He does not spend one chapter reflecting on the most intimate aspects of his childhood life. Even though the novel is narrated from a first-person perspective, Laye leaves the reader looking down on world from the sky, distantly. His writing doesn't bind the reader to his life, its characters, or its significant events. Even the chapter on the circumcision rite is lacking. For eight chapters, he dreads and longs for the day, but when writing it, Laye strips the chapter of all detail that allow the reader to fully visualize and understand its importance. We learn that he is now considered a man after the rite, but he does not give the ordeal any sort of personal or spiritual importance. It happens, there are few spare details of the night, and that is it. No reflection. No deepening relationships. Nothing.

This is less Laye's reflection as a child growing up in the rural town of Kouroussa and more about his desire to pursue his education in the country's capital and in France. Laye writes his parents' struggles with his growing disconnection from Malinke culture fairly well, but once again, what is Laye thinking? His thoughts as they connect with Malinke culture and identity are few in the novel. He has very little to say about the French presence in the country as well beyond extolling the virtues of the French education system.

It is impossible to connect with Laye on any sort of personal level. As an attempt to humanize the Malinke to outside readers, the memoir is lacking in any sort of humanity on its own. ...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Jonathan Widell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In this novel, the author takes us to the African village of his childhood. Ever since (I don't know when) people in the west or north have used some relatively primitive society to reflect their own society. Sometimes, those "alien" societies are populated by noble savages, such as in Rousseau's romantic view of the noble savage. Sometimes that fairly simple formula is broken by more challenging approaches, such as in William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, where British boys turned into savag ...more

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Jul 08, 2011 Nathaniel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: originally-in-french , africa

In the first 90 pages of this book, the great drama involves influential parents intervening to stop schoolyard bullying and in the second 90 pages of this book, the great drama involves the foreskin being chopped from the author's penis. ("Later on, I went through an ordeal much more frightening than Konden Diara, a really dangerous ordeal, and no game: circumcision." Oh my god!!)

And in case you were worried that your pulse might slow in the dying chapters of the "novel," in the last fifteen p In the first 90 pages of this book, the great drama involves influential parents intervening to stop schoolyard bullying and in the second 90 pages of this book, the great drama involves the foreskin being chopped from the author's penis. ("Later on, I went through an ordeal much more frightening than Konden Diara, a really dangerous ordeal, and no game: circumcision." Oh my god!!)

And in case you were worried that your pulse might slow in the dying chapters of the "novel," in the last fifteen pages, there is some canned hand-wringing about hurting a mother's feelings by traveling to another country to pursue your education. I have never read an African novel with less substance or less style.

It boggles my mind that Laye wrote this book in his twenties. It has no youth in it whatsoever: no playfulness; no striving; no struggle and no love. It felt like the sanitized nostalgic reminiscences of an old man who reached his age without acquiring wisdom or wit and whose primary concern is making the circumstances around his youth seem as pure, well-designed and dignified as possible.

The persistent non-happening of this book might have been elevated if the author was insightful or reflective; but the closest thing he offers are perhaps a dozen scattered rhetorical questions like, "Do we still have secrets?" "Are we not always consumed with longing?" "Do our hearts ever rest?"

Um? Our protagonist has a heart? He longs for something? Could've fooled me. Closest we come to experiencing that longing is his rhetorical question, which has no power whatsoever.

There are so many wonderful books about growing up in Africa and there are some pretty decent ones romanticizing village life and traditional crafts. This is not one of them. It would be a shame if this was even one of the first twenty books that you read by an African author. I swear by the five yours I wasted that there is nothing between the covers but ink.

If you set out to write a book that is designed to make your parents feel better about your exile and the role they had in shaping your destiny; perhaps the product is inevitably doomed to an earnest and artless one-dimensionality. ...more

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Nov 19, 2014 Gary Sudeth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone interested in learning about life in an African village in the 30's and 40's

Recommended to Gary by: Footnote in "The Discovery of the Individual 1050-1200" by Colin Morris

An easy read written about a young man from Kourassa, Guinea, who grew up in the late 30's and 40's, describing the cultural experiences of the inland peoples of Guinea, his place, and departure in his early 20's for the world outside.

This is regarded as a good example of African writing. What this points out is the dearth of quality literature emanating from Africa. While it is reasonably well-written, and the author is a likeable sort, it is not great literature.

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Nov 14, 2013 Rojo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only thing that I have to say about this book is that Camara Laye and I have the same mother (maybe it's just an African mom thing, though).

That's actually not all I have to say. This book is...something else. It reads fairly quickly and all the questions that Laye asks himself in text just makes it so much more personal rather than all the other autobiographies that I've read where there no feeling or story. This was a story, and a great one at that. I have never related to an author so muc ...more

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Jun 25, 2008 Lesleylarson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first attempted this autobiography in French, when on a Study Abroad in West Africa. In English this time, my own African experience was rediscovered in the description of this boy's childhood in Kouroussa, French Guinea. Though it is a true autobiography, it reads more like a novel -- a story of the coming of age of any African boy.

It delivers a taste of cultural customs, religious rites, and a certain manner of conversation that is formal, yet interested, that I also observed while in West A ...more

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Jun 25, 2008 Lesleylarson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Jan 27, 2015 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Beautifully, simply written. The simplicity offers a clarity and a beauty that is rare. Story of a young boy growing up to a certain point in his home village, then moving on to the capital city and then, he is given the chance to go to France -- which his mother is gravely set against.

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Apr 09, 2011 Darcy Conroy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: work-in-progress-research , africa

No excuses or literary conceit in this review. This is more of a descriptive essay than a memoir, as the author tells us the events of his childhood but avoids offering any insight. The author also witholds description in many places giving as his excuse that he was too young and so did not understand, but one cannot help but notice that most of these instances concern the uses of traditional magic by his family and that, perhaps, he was avoiding shaming them, or himself - devout Mohammedans (hi ...more

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Sep 29, 2014 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are interested in learning about West African culture this would be a good place to start. I don't remember all of it as well as I'd like (I read it for a class and not for pleasure, always makes remembering it a little harder for me), but overall it was interesting as it was a culture I knew very little about. Glad I read it.

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Jun 25, 2012 Melinda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

Short, dense memoir of a boy growing up in Guinea and leaving his tribal world for school in France. I liked the details -- the way he described the harvest in his grandmother's village of Tindican, the details of the public ceremony preceding the circumcision (where the older boys act as guiding "lions"), and the writer's exploration of Conakry where he is sent to school and views the sea for the first time. Another memorable detail for me is when his mother gives him an "elixir" to drink each ...more

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Dec 11, 2009 Gregory Mose rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a beautiful account of a childhood in eastern Guinea in the 1930s. From watching his father smelt gold and make jewelry to undergoing the traditional Malinke circumcision ritual, Camara tells of his adventures with frankness and humor, and manages to evoke a world and a way of life now all but lost. I give it three stars only because it is a slow read, and many readers who do not have a particular interest in Africa will find it rather dull. But if the subject is your cup of tea, this bo ...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Dan Belongia

Recommended to Liz by: David Newbury

Shelves: class

A classic African biography that was published for native Africans. It is a story of how modernism and village life collide to change lives. This books is a translation, so a lot is lost. However, it is a good biography to read when considering how someone chooses to narrate their own life. Also, colonialism may not be blatantly present in this book, but the aftermath of it is. I would recommend reading this book without a huge history about Guinea-Conakry. Because then you can think about what ...more

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Dec 09, 2014 Pierre Fortier rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Petit livre sans danger qui passe très mal l'épreuve du temps, celui d'un jeun africain passé dans son village à grandir. Décalage. Aujourd'hui, devant la mondialisation, "L'enfant noir" n'a plus rien d'exotique et de nouveau. On se demande pourquoi il se retrouve dans les 1001 livres à lire dans sa vie.

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May 06, 2014 Alex Andrasik rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bildungsroman , college , everyday-drama , francais , memoir , owned , ya

Couldn't find the French edition.

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Oct 25, 2010 Quiet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Dark Child is a good book. It tells you about the main events taking place during his life.Most of the events ive read if mostly happy like when he see his father crafting something or when he helped his uncle during the ceremony.Also sad though when the older kids were picking on him and his friends because they were younger and pretty much powerless but i will continue reading this book and see what will happen.Overall though its a amazing book.

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About Camara Laye

During his time at college he wrote The African Child (L'Enfant noir), a novel based loosely on his own childhood. He would later become a writer of many essays and was a foe of the government of Guinea. His novel The Radiance of the King (Le Regard du roi) is considered to be one of his most important works.

He was born Malinke (a Mandé speaking ethnicity) into a caste that traditionally worked as During his time at college he wrote The African Child (L'Enfant noir), a novel based loosely on his own childhood. He would later become a writer of many essays and was a foe of the government of Guinea. His novel The Radiance of the King (Le Regard du roi) is considered to be one of his most important works.

He was born Malinke (a Mandé speaking ethnicity) into a caste that traditionally worked as blacksmiths and goldsmiths. His family name is Camara, and following the tradition of his community, it precedes his given name—Laye. His mother was from the village of Tindican, and his immediate childhood surroundings were not predominantly influenced by French culture. He attended both the Koranic and French elementary schools in Kouroussa. At age fifteen he went to Conakry, capital of Guinea, to continue his education. He attended vocational studies in motor mechanics. In 1947, he travelled to Paris to continue studies in mechanics. There he worked and took further courses in engineering and worked towards the baccalauréat.

In 1953, he published his first novel, L'Enfant noir (The African Child, 1954, also published under the title The Dark Child), an autobiographical story, which narrates in the first person a journey from childhood in Kouroussa, through challenges in Conakry, to France. The book won the Prix Charles Veillon in 1954. L'Enfant noir was followed by Le Regard du roi (1954; The Radiance of the King, 1956). These two novels are among the very earliest major works in francophone African literature.The Radiance of the King was described by Kwame Anthony Appiah as "One of the greatest of the African novels of the colonial period."
In 1956, Camara returned to Africa, first to Dahomey (now Benin), then Gold Coast (now Ghana) and then to newly independent Guinea, where he held government posts. In 1965, he left Guinea for Dakar, Senegal because of political issues, never to return. In 1966 his third novel, Dramouss (A Dream of Africa, 1968), was published. In 1978 his fourth and final work was published, Le Maître de la parole - Kouma Lafôlô Kouma (The Guardian of the Word, 1980), based on a Malian epic, as told by the griot Babou Condé, about the famous Sundiata Keita (also spelled Sunjata), the thirteenth-century founder of the Mali Empire.

Camara died in 1980 in Dakar, Senegal of a kidney infection. ...more

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Books by Camara Laye

The Guardian of the Word =: Kouma Lafolo Kouma

The Granta Book of the African Short Story

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Preview — Dark Child by Camara Laye

Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic Discuss This Book

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

About Camara Laye

Books by Camara Laye

Share This Book

Share on your website

Trivia About The Dark Child

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Discuss This Book