Williams Sassine

Charlotte Baker (Lancaster University)

Ed. by Nicki Hitchcott, University of Nottingham
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.1: Francophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University)

Dates

Born 1944
Died 1997
Activity 1973-1997

Places

Born in Guinea
Active in France; Guinea

Cultural Identities

African French

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Other

Journalist

Resources

Sassine's Works

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Williams Sassine was born in Kankan, Guinea in 1944 to a Lebanese Maronite Christian father and a Guinean Muslim mother. His childhood was influenced by his studies at the colonial primary school in Kankan and at the local Koranic school, but it was his stutter rather than his racial, religious and cultural

métissage

that led him to a lifetime of solitude and marginality. Sassine was a brilliant scholar who excelled at secondary school, where he also engaged in student politics. In 1961, during his final year at the

lycée

in Conakry, he participated in the first major student strike against the authoritarian policies of Ahmed Sékou Touré. The confrontation led to the arrest of many of his classmates and their imprisonment at Alpha Yaya, providing the impetus for Sassine’s…

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1732 words

Citation: Baker, Charlotte. "Williams Sassine". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 August 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13162, accessed 21 November 2024.]