The Dark Child Interpretation

The Dark Child Interpretation

Camara Laye’s autobiographical, The Dark Child expresses an in depth perspective during the 1930’s of a young man’s up bringing in Guinea Africa. He reveals details about his culture and the type of society that he grew up in the village of Kouroussa. Camara describes his cultural practices and a very big initiation ceremony that started him on his journey of manhood. Throughout his autobiographical he was able to provide me as a reader a very descriptive picture of what his education was like, his beliefs, and the economic aspect of his tribe. It seemed that each of the activities that Camara decided to share in his autobiographical all had an important significance in the society of Guinea. After reading The Dark Child it really made me realize that what Camara Laye went through must go on in every tribe, each may be different but the extent of what all the people in the tribe go through is very important to how everything works.

Camara’s culture is revealed throughout the entire book. Praise singing was a big deal in the tribe, and people considered praise singing a very important part of their lives. Singing was used in many ceremonies, dancing, and other cultural practices. The main square in Kouroussa seemed to be where most of the ceremonies took place. It seemed that all of their ceremonies incorporated songs which lead me to believe that they all are interconnected within different activities.

One of the biggest parts of the book I feel was when Camara goes through the process of going from childhood to adulthood. This was his tribal initiation; every young man must go through the same process in order to become a man and go through there rite of passage. This process includes ceremonies that are taken place in public and in private. This ritual took place for Camara before the feast of Ramadan. The tom-tom came, gathered up all the boys before sun set and took them away. Getting circumcised was one of the most important parts of this process. After the procedure is done he then recovered with the other young men, but during this time Camara was isolated from seeing his parents for the first time in his life. He was not able to return home until he was physically able to walk home. Once Camara was healed he then got to move into a new hut. This new hut represented