Diagne, Ahmadou Mapaté

Senagalese author

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July 19, 2026

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Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne was a Senegalese writer whose novel Les Trois volontés de Malic (1920) is noted for anticipating themes later explored by writers like Sheikh Hamidou Kane. Diagne's work, Les Trois volontés de Malic, centers on Malic, a Wolof boy navigating the conflict between Muslim tradition and Western influences. He attends a French school instead of a Qur'anic one, becoming a blacksmith. This narrative reflects early 20th-century African literature's focus on the tensions between rural and urban life, African and French cultures, and traditional practices versus Islam.1

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African literature
French
…of Malic”), the Senegalese writer Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne anticipates such later writers as Sheikh Hamidou Kane, also of Senegal. In Diagne’s novel, Malic, a Wolof boy, is embroiled in a struggle between Muslim tradition and the influence of the West. He goes to a French-run school to study; then, instead…
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…of Malic”), the Senegalese writer Ahmadou Mapaté Diagne anticipates such later writers as Sheikh Hamidou Kane, also of Senegal. In Diagne’s novel, Malic, a Wolof boy, is embroiled in a struggle between Muslim tradition and the influence of the West. He goes to a French-run school to study; then, instead…
Read More