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Username Please enter your Username. It was as if I was being torn apart. Shortly before the publication of his first novel, he brought Marie Lorifo, whom he had known from Conakry, to Paris and married her. L'Enfant noir received critical acclaim and won the Prix Charles Veillon in February of ; the novel was recognized as one of the most important pieces of contemporary prose from French-speaking Africa. Laye's second novel, Le Regard du roi ; The Radiance of the King , presents the wandering Ishmael of a starveling Frenchman adrift in Africa and forced to work out through suffering a new destiny for himself.
Clarence, guided by two jostling, derisive, but still solicitous boys, finds a home of sorts as a stud for a tired master of a large harem. Beginning his trek in search of a wonderfully wise and rich king, Clarence enters the whirlpool of sloth, of lust, of despair, until one day the King arrives and accepts in his open arms the bedraggled but earnest man, no longer full of the unconscious arrogance of the white man.
Widely considered Laye's masterpiece, Le Regard du roi firmly established Laye's reputation as a quality writer. Laye and his wife returned to Guinea in After Guinea attained its independence in September of , Laye became Guinea's ambassador to Ghana and played a key role in procuring aid for his country. He also spent a short time as a diplomat in Liberia; later, he returned to Guinea and held a series of prominent positions including director of the Department of Economic Agreements at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and associate director of the National Institute of Research and Documentation.
While working for the government, Laye continued to write, completing plays for radio and collecting some oral literature of the Manding.
His popularity in West Africa grew. As Guinea's political situation deteriorated, Laye voiced his concern. He soon fell into disfavor and often was close to being under house arrest. In he fled with his family to Dakar in Senegal. Torn from his beloved homeland, he would never be able to return. African author Camara Laye was born on January 1, in the city of Kouroussa, Guinea , then a colonial possession of France. Laye which is actually his first name, but is used as a preceding name, to keep in tradition with regional customs was born into a Malinke family, an ethnic group related to the Mandingo people who created the Mali Empire.
His father was a blacksmith. Early in his childhood, Laye briefly attended a Koranic school, before his father enrolled him in a French Colonial Government school.
Laye excelled academically throughout his primary school years, and around the age of fourteen, he began his attendance at Ecole Georges Poiret School in Conakry , the capital of Guinea.
Since the scholarship he had been awarded expired after one year, Laye was forced to work as a porter in the public transport system and a skilled auto worker for a car assembly plant. During his stay in France, Laye came into contact with other African students and scholars, exposing him to such ideas as the Pan-Negro and Negritude which later influenced his writings. In Laye married his first wife, Marie Lorifo, whom he had met in Conakry before leaving for France.
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