Postcolonial novels written by those colonized are recently achieving a wide international readership. Vakunta (French and English, Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA) looks at the
difficulties of transmitting African cultures through the French language. He notes ways in which authors adapt French to evoke African oral traditions as well as cultural assumptions. Through
the use of native cadences and terms, they "indigenize" French in order to express their individual backgrounds. Vakunta focuses on novels by three men from different areas of Francophone
Africa: Nazi Boni, Ahmadou Kourouma, and Patrice Nganang. These provide examples of the ways in which African experience is interwoven with the European language. Vakunta also examines the
problems of translators into other languages who may not have an understanding of the base culture. This study adds much to the international discussion of postcolonial literature. Annotation
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