Williams Sassine

Williams Sassine (1944, Kankan, Guinea – February 9 1997, Conakry, Guinea) was a Guinean novelist who wrote in French. His father was Lebanese Christian and his mother was a Guinean of Muslim heritage.

Sassine was an expatriate African writer in France after leaving Guinea when it received independence under Sékou Touré. As a novelist he wrote of marginalized characters, but he became more optimistic on Toure's death. His novel "Le jeune homme de sable" has been regarded as among the best twentieth century African novels [http://www.nigeriavillagesquare1.com/BOOKS/africabest-fiction.html] . Few of his works have been translated into English, but "Wirriyamu" was published in an English translation in 1980. As an editor he remained critical of Toure as chief editor for the satirical "Le Lynx" paper. Some of Sassine's works have been translated into English, Spanish, and Russian.

elected works

* "Saint Monsieur Baly" (1973)
* "Wirriyamu" (1976) (in 1980, an English language translation by Clive Wake and John Reed was published)
* "Le jeune homme de sable" (1979)
* "L'Alphabête" (1982)
* "Le Zéhéros n'est pas n'importe qui" (1985)
* "L'Afrique en Morceaux" (1994)
* "Mémoire d'une peau" (1998)

External links

* [http://www.asante.net/articles/manthia-n.html Afrocentrism and Afro-Pessimism section of this article]
* [http://people.africadatabase.org/en/person/13161.html Williams Sassine at the Contemporary Africa Database]
* [http://www.lesfrancophonies.com/PAGES/maison/AUTEURS2002/Sassine.htm French language biography]