The Sheikh and the Medal

Number of pages: 180 pages This novel will surprise you a little. After you finish reading it, you will not be able to tell it. The author is from Cameroon, and the story is simple, set in a society of racial discrimination controlled by the whites: the villagers wake up to news from the military governor stating that the "Great White Leader" will come from Paris to award Elder Mika a medal; in appreciation of his efforts and sacrifices, he who lost his two sons who fought with the French army, and donated his land to the new church. Like the villagers, Mika feels greatness because of this recognition, but he quickly realizes that he is not strong, but an old weak oppressed man in a weak oppressed society, and he fights a battle in which he is defeated without his opponent appearing in the ring. The old man and the villagers try to cling to what remains in their memory about themselves, their customs, their ways of expression, their reactions, and their struggle for justice, but they realize daily: "that the whites have left us nothing." Ferdinand Ouyouno does not intervene, as if he is sitting among them, doing what they do, so you do not know his direct stance on what is happening, and you are also drawn to sit with them and share them; he does not aim only to introduce you to the problem that people live with, but also to their creative expressive methods.