A llah is Not Obliged, the final work by renowned African author Ahmadou Kourouma, is the story of 10-year-old child-soldier Birahima as told in the child’s own words. Although the tale is a fictionalized account, with it comes the unsettling suspicion that it nevertheless lies very close to reality. Kourouma’s young narrator speaks with a childish simplicity tinged by a very adult cynicism. For instance, he tells us that, “‘Humanitarian peacekeeping’ is when one country is allowed to send soldiers into another country to kill innocent victims in their own country, in their own villages, in their own huts, sitting on their own mats.”

The actions of the “peacekeepers” sent into Africa to deal with the ongoing tribal wars, references to “the democracy game,” and the supreme value placed on “real American dollars” throughout the book are enough to call into question both the perceptions of European biases in the UN and the destructive influence of our own country, both directly and indirectly, on the situation.

At times, particularly toward the end, the voice slips, and it becomes not the child-soldier Birahima speaking, but rather the adult Kourouma. Instead of being seen through the eyes of a child, some events and history are observed with the complexity and eloquence of a mature perspective. Yet through it all, through the drugs and the killings and the pain, it remains at its heart the story of a 10-year-old kid searching for his aunt and, in essence, for another place to call home. It is a story of faith in the goodness of Allah, who never leaves empty a mouth he has created, and who is “not obliged” to be fair about all the things he does here on earth. This work serves as a reminder of how true this proverb really is.

—julianne phillips