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The Dark Child By Camara Laye

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To summarize the autobiography, “The Dark Child”, Camara laye, is a person who struggled between two cultures throughout his life and faces Western belief such as education, language, and many challenges. In The Dark Child, Camara Laye’s youth and development of his cultural and personal values as a young man is well explained. He is part of the Malinke tribe in the village of Koroussa. In the beginning, he learns about many of the tradition and customs of his people from his parents. While learning about his people, he attends a Koran school and then a French school in another part of town. Later in the book, he learns about Kondon Diara a ceremony that is a ritual used to overcome a boy’s fear before the initiation of circumcision. He went through the ritual and circumcision then joined the manhood. After graduating from his school, Laye leaves his parents to attend a technical college in Guinea’s capital city of Conakry. Like any mother, Laye’s mother warns him to take care of himself and sends him off on a train to live with his uncles in Conakry where he becomes across many cultural changes. Camara Laye grows up in an environment where he is greatly loved by his both parents and his relatives such as his uncle and grandmother. Both his parents have something supernatural about them and they explain their magic to Laye and how it would help him to know his parents tradition. His father is a well-recognized blacksmith in his community who makes trinket out of gold,

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