Twain’s Huckleberry Finn meets Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment interlaced with a sailor’s reputation for swearing; that’s how I could best describe the action, tone and themes of Allah Is Not Obliged written by Ahmadou 
Kourouma. The basic plot summery is provided by the publisher:
“When ten-year-old Birahima’s mother dies, he leaves his native village in the Ivory Coast, accompanied by the sorcerer and cook Yacouba, to search for his aunt Mahan. Crossing the border into Liberia, they are seized by rebels and forced into military service. Birahima is given a Kalashnikov, minimal rations of food, a small supply of dope, and a tiny wage. Fighting in a chaotic civil war alongside many other boys, Birahima sees death, torture, dismemberment, and madness but somehow manages to retain his own sanity. Raw and unforgettable, despairing yet filled with laughter, All Is Not Obliged reveals the ways in which children’s innocence and youth are compromised by war.”
I picked this book up on peer impulse. I saw the bright yellow cover from across the book store, and even though I had several books that I had been meaning to read, I couldn’t resist. Although I got quite a few strange looks, reading a bright yellow book, with a blood red title on both the DC Metro and a couple of airline flights.
On one of the flights I was asked by the person sitting next to me if I was Muslim, which I am not. Turns out she was from Sierra Leon: the exact area of Africa where this book takes place. We talked about some of the situations in Africa including the child-soldiers, and sure enough the atmosphere of the flight became increasingly uncomfortable. People’s candor about their experiences and my naiveté surrounding those same events, always strikes me as odd during the conversation. Of course it tends to make sense later: Other people have had experiences that I will never have. While I can try to imagine myself in other people’s situations, that is nowhere near the understanding gained through actually experiencing the same situations.
When I first bought the book I had never heard of Ahmadou Kourouma, but he was one of the preeminent African authors. Kourouma was born in the Ivory Coast town of Boundiali in 1927. He fought for the French Colonial Army in one of their campaigns in Indochina. After his military duty, Kourouma studied science in France thereafter he returned to the Ivory Coast to work. He was later imprisoned for his political and ideologically views (apparently the government of the Ivory Coast didn’t share his views). Before his death in 2003, Kourouma spent many years of his life in exile. His works include plays and four novels; Allah Is Not Obliged, Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote, Monnew, and The Suns of Independence.
Allah Is Not Obliged reminds me a lot of Heller’s Catch-22 in their shared distaste of war. Both authors strive to make the oddities, ironies, and especially the stupidity of war ring through their words. Of course the war is different, and in the case of the book at hand much more worrisome. Throughout the book you encounter children murdering, being
murdered, and being mutilated. No character is safe, and Birahima knows that; he makes no strong connections through life because nearly everyone he encounters is murdered at some point. This book is a harsh critique of Africa’s current position in the world. The United Nation’s meddling only seems to further propagate the atrocities throughout the book (not that their home governments help much either). Which begs the question central to this book: What can we do to stop the tribal wars in Africa?
If you watched the movie Blood Diamond and want another view of what being in Africa is like during wars, famine, and refugee epidemics, Allah Is Not Obliged will certainly expand your view. I thought overall it was worth reading, even through all of the rampant swearing, death, and different forms of racism represented throughout the novel. Also if you have been looking for an antiwar statement or have lived in, been to, studied Africa then this book is a must read.