DJELI, a Modern Tale
(DJELI, conte d'aujourd'hui)

In an Africa in the throes of change, there emerge problems which have their roots in millenary traditions. Fanta and Karamoko plan to get married. They were born in the same village, they grew up together, and their families know each other, so what could be more natural? What the two young people do not know is that their union is impossible. Karamoko cannot marry Fanta because she descends directly from one of the most illustrious mandingo families. Even if the story is set in a town that is about to become a sub-prefecture, where houses built of cement are coming up like mushrooms, the old mud huts survive and the story of Fanta and Karamoko seems extraneous to the changes in a society which do not affect the mental attitudes of families.