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Death of an Ancient King, aka known by The Death of King Tsongar, and written by Laurent Gaudé

The story has been paralleled with the "Trojan War", because the adversaries are fighting over a beautiful, rich, noble woman. The fable-like story has widespread interest for youth and adults.

Searching for reviews about this book, I noticed the Tsonga people in the countries of southern Africa. As I'm reading the novel, there's not much connection between that group and Gaudé's story. Perhaps, the Tsonga were King Tsongor's forebears, as he departed from his father's kingdom without an inheritance and with a single coin, traveled and waged war across Africa, subjugating peoples, and building his own superior kingdom faraway in western Africa. After twenty years of warfare, he settled down and ruled his vast kingdom. Besides King Tsongor, there is another important character in Katabolonga. The latter the king designated the role of 'Keeper of the Footstool', so Katabolonga is always with the king. At the end of the last campaign, the tall Katabolonga approached the king, telling him face to face of his eventual revenge for his trampled home and dead family. That honesty did not bother Tsongor.

I read another book by Gaudé The House of Scorta (The Scortas' Sun) and have another one Eldorado in literary sight.

I've read the first couple chapters and kudos to the translator. The prose, imho, is compellingly stylish in English and quite enjoyable.

I found this book to be both tragic, and yet also completely beautiful to read. The prose is almost lyrical, and I found the story to be quite compelling, I almost couldn't put it down once I picked it up again.

Everything flowed so wonderfully in the story, and it never really slowed, or lulled. The characters were quite intriguing even if not always very likable and sympathetic but I liked how flawed each of them where.

On the one hand you could sympathize with them, but on the other hand see how they by their own choices, and actions are culpable for the death and destruction either because of their own inaction/indecision, or their own greed and personal desires.

It did have the feel of a Greek Tragedy, particularly in the way in which it seemed many of these characters did suffer from the Self-Fulfilling prophecy as well as the fatal flaw.

As you mentioned the Trojan War, while reading this story, I thought it did have the feel of a retelling of Helen of Troy, particularly with all of the Greek influences throughout the story.

Don wrote: "...kudos to the translator. The prose, imho, is compellingly stylish in English and quite enjoyable."

The fluidity of language, story, and setting are beautiful. I'm starting the third chapter. The last supper of the siblings and Souba's mule for the journey are reminiscent of a biblical story. I wonder what the omission of the twin Danga in chapter 2 might foreshadow.

"And like a river in flood which overflows its banks and gradually gathers in neighboring streams, so the tears fell in Tsongor's family, from Samilia to Souba, from Souba to Sako, from Sako to Liboko. They all wept, as they smiled. They looked upon each other, as if to keep the faces of those they loved fresh in their minds for ever."

Another thought, chapter 2's title 'Souba's Sail' initially created some wonder.

Silver wrote: "...characters did suffer from the Self-Fulfilling prophecy as well as the fatal flaw...it did have the feel of a retelling of Helen of Troy, particularly with all of the Greek influences throughout the story. "

When Souba meets the escort of Massaba women in chapter 2, he speaks about Fate.

'Fate has decreed that we should meet on this night which, for me, is the night of my exile. I am glad of it. I shall carry within me for a long time the picture of your humble smiling faces. But do not stay away any longer. The sun is about to rise. Take the road back to the city.'

In that passage, Fate is unexpected events, is personified by the word "decreed", and is readily accepted by Souba. The women similarly accept King Tsongor's secret mission for Souba. At the same time, both Souba and the Massaba women retain their free wills, Souba's making common cause with Tsongor's instruction and expressing his wish for no crowd and the women explaining the retinue of followers before conceding to his wish for solitude and bestowing upon him their black sail.

At this early point of the story, the suitors Kouame and Sango are poles apart in their responses after the unforeseen death of Tsongor transpires and the marriage dispute becomes apparent. Kouame is willing to bide his time, while Sango is inflexible.

Don wrote: "...kudos to the translator..."

Don, . She mentions some of her works of translation and some ways of working on translations, and some other stuff, too.

In chapter 3, and in perhaps other chapters, the dead King Tsongor has not yet crossed through the gates of the underworld, the principal reason being the lack of an entrance coin. The coin is in the possession of his youngest son Souba. Souba will fulfill the King's request about the seven monuments before bringing back the entrance coin to him after many years have elapsed.

In this intermediate state, Tsongor's senses are alive to the ghostly procession of so many men. He realizes that his death didn't avert the tragedy of warfare. Bizarrely for a dead man, he seeks corroboration from his alive, longtime friend and servant Katabolonga. The latter confirms Tsongor's intuition across the realms of death and life while Tsongor lingers between worlds.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "In that passage, Fate is unexpected events, is personified by the word "decreed", and is readily accepted by Souba. The women similarly accept King Tsongor's secret mission for Souba. At the same time, both Souba and the Massaba women retain their free wills"

I think the concept of fate expressed within this book is very similar to how the Ancient Greeks perceived fate.

While individuals maintain free will in the choices of certain actions, (perhaps the choices they make are still driven by their fate) there is still no escaping ones fate and the very choices which one makes ultimately lead them into fulfilling the fate which has been laid out for them.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "Don wrote: "...kudos to the translator..."

Don, this is an interview with Adriana Hunter the translator. She mentions some of her works of translation and some ways of working on translations, and..."


Great stuff, Asma. Thanks so much for sharing. So glad to see translators getting recognition. I can't appreciate their work enough.

While reading this I find myself keep trying to remember the details of different Greek tragedies and to draw parallels. Part of what makes it interesting I guess.

Silver wrote: "...there is still no escaping ones fate and the very choices which one makes ultimately lead them into fulfilling the fate which has been laid out for them. ."

While the concept of Fate has changed over the millennia, the Greek definition of it you describe is mentioned in . That article brings into the Mythological picture Greek "Themes, Motifs & Symbols". Besides the all-important one of Fate, they mention "Bloodshed Begets Bloodshed". Some characters of Death of an Ancient King portray that response to the loss of companions. Another is "The Danger of Arrogance and Hubris". That one is evident, too, for victory and for power of ruling; because of it Sako and Danga are adversaries. Its opposite is Humility, which Souba possesses and which Rassamilagh advises before the siege. Another theme is "Reward for Goodness and Retribution for Evil". Again, Souba is probably rewarded at the end of the story.

There's the Motif of "The Hero's Quest" in which Souba is requested by Tsongor to build seven tombs as possibilities for Tsongor's burial. The next motif is "Beauty". In actuality, the story is enlivened by the antithesis of Beauty. All of those troops from different parts are grossly pictured, yet they are also portrayed with the next motif "Love". Their love for their lifelong friends is a different kind from that of Samilia. So far, she claims to love Kouame with an unspoken heart, but she goes to her childhood friend Sango for ethical considerations. There also is the beautiful scene of Samilia and her several siblings in a night of wine and camaraderie when Tsongor is mourned.

Then come Symbols like "Cannibalism". That is reminiscent of biting warriors during the bloodshed. The final symbol is "Art". There's the magnificent cities of Massaba and Saramine and the architecture of the tombs.

Yes, Gaudé's story is full of Greek elements. There's the whole enchilada of it. I'm still reading, so there probably is a lot more examples to illustrate the above.

Don wrote: "...Thanks so much for sharing..."

You're welcome. The one shortcoming is that the interview didn't take the specific novel Death of an Ancient King into account.

Don wrote: "...trying to remember the details of different Greek tragedies and to draw parallels..."

A refresher course in ancient Greek drama would be advantageous.

There's a type of tragedy called Hegelian tragedy. The gist of it is an unsolvable, no-win situation. In Gaudé's story, the dilemma is posed when Sango and Kouame each bring forth their legitimate claims for Samilia's hand. From that point, the prosperous, settled life of Massaba takes a turn for the worse.

Asma Fedosia wrote: "Don wrote: "...trying to remember the details of different Greek tragedies and to draw parallels..."

A refresher course in ancient Greek drama would be advantageous.

There's a type of tragedy ca..."

Thanks for the link. Quite useful and interesting. I very much enjoyed this book. Your comment that "The gist of it is an unsolvable, no-win situation" hits the nail on the head. In the final pages, the old Matthew Broderick movie WarGames came to mind. The book was much more than that as well and seemed to question the basis of identify group politics generally.

This makes an interesting contrast with the previous book, Death and the King's Horsemen. Samilia's unapologetic refusal to commit suicide when called upon to do so was inspiring. This book also lacks the Manichean good guy/bad guy tone of Horsemen. As a parent having raised teenagers, I've had to say "no" many times and been hated and loathed for it, so I guess I can identify with the British colonialists. When it comes to human sacrifice, self- or otherwise, sometimes you just have to say "no." I think Ancient King is so good because it doesn't fall into that pattern.

Don wrote: "This makes an interesting contrast with the previous book, Death and the King's Horsemen. Samilia's unapologetic refusal to commit suicide when called upon to do so was inspiring. This book also la..."

I agree that Samilia's speech was inspiring, and a part of me could not help but to scoff at the idea that clearly the only way to end this conflict is for the woman to kill herself, because we men have too much testosterone, pride and ego to make the mature choice to simply stop fighting over her.

And while I don't think she should have killed herself to stop the war (and as her departure proved it would not have stopped at that point anyway) I was consistently annoyed with her throughout the book for some of the choices she made which I do think contributed to the war.

While it was wrong for her father to have placed her in this position by cowardly taking his own life so he himself did not have to make the choice or deal with the consequences she waited a little late to finally decide to follow through with what her father's dying hope for her was.

In the name of preventing was she should have made this speech at the moment of the realization of her father's death. There is no guarantee that they still would not have fraught, but I was put off by how wishy-washy she was and how she ultimately did play one man against the other.

It would have been more admirable if she had chosen to stand by one man whom she truly loved. But she doesn't make a real choice.

She goes to Sango's camp out of a sense of duty, but than she gives herself to Kouame and thus continues to give him more hope that she may be his, and after giving herself to Kouame she continues to stay with Sango, thus further instigating things.

In her mind she thought she could somehow belong to both men.

Don wrote: "...In the final pages, the old Matthew Broderick movie WarGames came to mind. ..."

Yes, in that movie, the computer game learns the strategy of "no-win" to prevent the cataclysm. From Wikipedia WarGames is this:

"Falken and David direct the computer to play tic-tac-toe against itself. This results in a long string of draws, forcing the computer to learn the concept of futility and no-win scenarios. Joshua obtains the missile code but before launching, it cycles through all the nuclear war scenarios it has devised, finding they too all result in stalemates. Having discovered the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction ("WINNER: NONE"), the computer tells Falken that it has concluded that nuclear war is "a strange game" in which "the only winning move is not to play." Joshua relinquishes control of NORAD and the missiles and offers to play "a nice game of chess."

In Death of Ancient King, King Tsongor learned the value of peace, but the next generation missed his life lessons perhaps because of his death. Some characters, including some of his offspring, learned the lesson from experience.

Don wrote: "... an interesting contrast with... Death and the King's Horsemen. This book also lacks the Manichean good guy/bad guy tone..."

A list of contrasts between those two works might be of service. Also, in the Achebe there is Okonkwo's death by his own hand.

Your first item is the different attitude toward self-sacrifice. In Soyinka, Olunde acts from honor and custom when his wayward father Elesin Oba doesn't act in time. In Gaudé, Samilia refuses against self-sacrifice, it being the politic fix by Kouame, Sango, and the tired warriors. The Amazonians in that story and Samilia's counter to the males, lifting her veils, speaking to the crowd of men, and freely leaving on her own path, emancipate the women in the story and portray equality between the genders; whereas, the women throughout ...Horseman are managed in a communal setting. Elesin's bride is guided by Iyaloja, the marketplace is the scene for matchmaking, and the trio of girls at the sewing school are overseen by Iyaloja, as well.

Your second item is the opposition of good and evil. In ...Horseman, the readers' sympathetic perspective matters. If Soyinka is siding with the colonial British, then the village's custom is evil. If the reader understands that every society is blindly irrational in some ways, then the intrusion of the administrator Pilkings into the affairs of the village seems evil. In Gaudé, the characters combine good and evil in themselves. For example, King Tsongor gravely harms others and destroys civilization in his unquenchable quest, while at first he liked conquest. Later in life, he's a builder of community, a gentler, sensitive soul, his spirit lingering at the door of the underworld and being unhappily subjected to the knowledge about his great city and about his relations.

Those two points you point out are significant to the stories.

Silver wrote: "In her mind she thought she could somehow belong to both men. ..." Yes. She could not resolve either her internal or external conflict and so she exits the scene.

I wish I knew more about the concept of Hegelian tragedy that Asma mentioned to see how exit fits in. As you mention, some of her choices, although not in and of themselves evil, nor ill-intentioned, yet they produce undesirable results.

Silver wrote: "...she waited a little late to finally decide to follow through with what her father's dying hope for her was..."

King Tsongor hoped that his kingdom of Massaba could peaceably join to another's kingdom. Samilia's nuptials with Kouame of the Lands of Salt were the way to accomplish that dream of his (chapter 1 midway).

Did Sango or Kouame love Samilia more? When Sango, Samilia, Kouame, and the remaining warriors meet upon the plain (chapter 5 toward end), Kouame suggests to all present the self-sacrifice of Samilia.

"...the raging passion...boiled within him. What he had said, he had not wanted to say...he was condemning her to death when he wanted to take her in his arms....now he had to see this through to the end, even if it meant being driven mad by the pain...
Kouame smiled like a madman..."

Then Sango sides with Kouame about the matter, and Samilia's brothers are silent about it. Kouame is trying to achieve something. Perhaps, he was saving Samilia's life in an odd way.

You might recall that Richard Flanagan opened chapter 1 of The Unknown Terrorist with the negation of "love is not enough" . So goes the scene after Samilia is walking away by herself. Sango or/and Kouame might have gone to her to bring her back, but Arkalas, recognizing his adversary Bandiagara, begins the ferocity again. Love is not enough. At this juncture of Alkalis and Bandiagara, and at the point of the story where Souba wipes out the Oracle, there seem a lesson about mankind which puts forward the imbalance of love and hostility in a typical human.

Don wrote: "I wish I knew more about the concept of Hegelian tragedy..."

A key to the character of Samilia is her words about ravishment. The words are,

'And did I ravish you?' asked Kouame, half crazed.
'No one has ever ravished me, nor will they ever,' Samilia replied.

She freely leaves the camp to disappear, nobody impeding her. Her character is antithetical to the ravished females of Aphra Behn, studied by Ann Marie Stewart's The Ravishing Restoration: Aphra Behn, Violence, and Comedy. Other key traits of Samilia are her sympathy for the presumed last day of Kouame and her truthfulness to the King and to Sango even though its content does not please the hearer. Her character might be an allegory. What that might be is the hurdle.

Several local public and univ libraries catalogue this book Tragedy And Comedy: A Systematic Study And A Critique Of Hegel. One of the chapters is 'The Tragedy of Self-Sacrifice'.