Camara Laye's The Dark Child (which has also been published as The African Child, depending on the translation) is a 1953 French-language memoir about the author's childhood in Guinea. The son of a protective mother and a mystical-minded blacksmith and goldsmith father, Laye writes with affection about Malinke-Muslim traditions while showing how his pursuit of a French-language education draws him away from his people and toward a European lifestyle and career.
The memoir begins with Laye as a child observing the goings-on in his father's forge in Kouroussa, French Guinea. Laye learns his father has a snake as his totem, and the snake visits his father in dreams to inform him of future...
