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Camp Boiro Memorial
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Message from Akanimo Uwan Akpan
Information on Marie Lorofi
Date: June 2, 2006 2:29:15 AM EDT
To: info@campboiro.org
Hello there,
My name is Akanimo Uwan Akpan
. I am a Nigerian, residing in Northern California. During my stay in Nigeria, I read this novel, The African child
, authored by Camara Laye
. I was moved by the plot of the novel, because it sort of mirrors my own childhood in Nigeria. The novel was sweet and sentimental and the story of Laye's relationship with Marie was another highlight of the novel
That same period, while visiting a friend, I read his biography and was just shocked to have read that they had divorced, because of Sekou Toure. The circumstances that led to Laye's and Lorifo's split was very moving. I found Sekou Toure
's actions to be completely incomprehensible and totally heartless. Nevertheless, I am glad that Marie Lorifo survived the incarceration to be reunited with her children.
Is this woman still alive? I would like to send her a note. Their divorce is one of their saddest love stories that I have ever read. By God's Grace, I plan on visiting Conaky some day. Please tell her that I sympathized for the injustices meted to her by Sekou Toure. I wish her well.
Best regards,
Akanimo Uwan Akpan
P/S: I posted this story on this Nigerian webboard .
Publisher's comment : Marie Lorofi is alive. She spends her time between Conakry, Dakar and Paris, where her children live.
Reactions to the above posting.
Topic: Saddest Love Story: Camara Laye And Marie (Read 146 views)
Ndipe (m)
1. Saddest Love Story: Camara Laye And Marie
« on: April 09, 2006, 12:10 AM »
Enough of the hackneyed story of the doomed romance between Romeo and Juliet. Theirs is fiction, the one I am posting is true.
While living in Nigeria, I read my brother's novel, The African Child authored by Camara Laye. I was moved by the tone of the novel, especially its sucessful attempt to portray Africa as a continent filled with love, hospitality and compassion. Towards the end of the story, the protagonist falls in love with a half caste lady, Marie and then embarks on a study leave to France. In real life, Camara Laye married this lady. I came across this interesting information while reading his bio. Sadly though, the marriage ended in divorce. But their marital split would have been averted were it not for the evil machinations of a third party, Sekou Toure
.
After completing his studies, Camara Laye returned to Guinea. The country was in the throes of development and this young budding writer was named the ambassador of his country to Ghana. When Guinea abruptly cut of diplomatic relations from France, the latter retaliated by cutting off funds to punish the country. Camara Laye in his plum position was able to secure some funds to bail out his ailing country. As the years went by on, Sekou Toure morphed into an evil dictator. During that period, Camara Laye fell out of favor with the president and he was imprisoned briefly. During his incarceration, he was poisoned, and the consequences led to a swollen body. Then, he was released and with his family, he fled to neighbouring Senegal, never to returned to his beloved homeland, Guinea.
Laye's life in exile was marred by tragedies. His parents had passed away during his days in Senegal, but he was justifiably absent from their funeral for fear Sekou Toure, though he was the first born. Financially, he was struggling. A one time ambassador, he was now reduced to the position of a research assistant for some organization in Senegal. And to compound his woes, he was faced with a kidney problem (which would be the cause of his death), probably as a result of the food poisoning earlier in prison. Nevertheless he and his family thrived on, until a telegram from from family friends in Guinea would torpedoe his relationship with his wife, Marie.
Marie's father was dying. In the telegram, he dictated to friends, he begged Marie to visit him while he was alive. Against the wishes of her husband who was concerned for her safety, Marie flew out of Senegal to Guinea to visit her father who had just been released from jail. As soon as she arrived at the airport in Guinea, she was immediately arrested (at the airport) and taken to jail where she was incarcerated for seven years
!!!.
Laye took his wife's incarceration hard. He was hospitalized out of a very serious illness relating to his wife's incarceration. To curb the lingering loneliness of Marie's absence, he took in a second wife, an act that was in accordance of his islamic faith. Ramatoulaye Kante
, his Senegalese wife also played the role of his nurse because of his failing health. But her presence in the household did not dim his affection for Marie. Acting on the advice of some friends, he suspended the publication of another novel of his which was to be a scathing attack on Sekou Toure for fear of his wife's safety. He changed his stance of his attack on Sekou Toure, organized some friends of his to pressure the president to release his wife. Eventually, he would cede to their demands and release Marie. This came after seven years.
Upon her release from prison, Marie moved back to Senegal to be reunited with her family. But the reunion was not as memorable between husband and wife as one would have anticipated. Marie refused to accept the presence of the second wife on valid grounds , she was Roman Catholic. And so, she divorced him.
Laye did not live long after the divorce. In failing health since the 60's probably stemming from a food poisoning incident in prison in the sixties, exarcebated by his beloved wife's incarceration and their subsequent divorce in 77 which consumed him towards the end of his life, Camara Laye gave up the ghost in 1980 and was buried in exile, Senegal.
Sekou Toure's evil deeds caught up with him in 1984, when he died, while undergoing a heart surgery in the United States of America. His demise was celebrated in his country. I don't know if Marie is still alive or not, but in 1990, she was alive and living in Guinea. She is memorialized on the website
of the infamous Boiro prison in Guinea. I am amazed that she even survived the incarceration, because people died in that camp. Documents have surfaced that some of these dead people were buried in unmarked graves.
Hotstepper (f)
|
Comment
: In 2002 I had a long interview with Marie Lorofi in Conakry. She is the daughter of Dr. Henri Lorofi. He was not dying when she came to visit him in 1977 on the same plane as the Lions, Senegal's national soccer team. But he was recovering from physical and mental abuse in political prison. He had been incarcerated for five years in the aftermath of the so-called Complot Petit-Touré
. Marie temporarily left two people dependent on her for their well-being: an ailing husband and a five-month old infant. In a our conversation, she told me that Laye warned and begged her not to fall in Sekou Touré's trap. But she said she had to see and comfort her father. Besides, she said, I'll be back soon. Alas! Laye's fears proved founded For Mary returned only seven years later. During her detention, Marie was never interrogated by the secret Commission d'enquête , headed by Ismael Touré , Sékou Touré's half-brother. In fact, her chief jailor, Siaka Touré , was a frequent guest to her house and table in Paris before Guinea's independence. Also, Sékou Touré's wife, Andrée Touré, was a high-school roommate Siaka personally performed Marie's arrest at the Conakry airport. First he confiscated her passport. But Marie alerted the Senegalese players. When they began asking questions, Siaka downplayed the move. He told them it would be a mere formality and that he had booked a room for her at the nearby hotel. Once she had answered a few questions, he added, she would be free to go home to her father. Effectivey, Marie stayed at the Gbessia Motel for two days, i.e., until after the soccer game. However, when the Senegalese team flew back to Dakar, Sekou Touré ordered her to Camp Boiro. There, she wasted seven long years, weeping out her shattered motherhood, and helplessly ruining her union to her beloved Laye. Marie saw Siaka Touré only a couple of times at Camp Boiro. On both occasions, she confronted him and even scolded him. In vain. Afteward, he consistently eluded her, until the day of her release. Yet he made sure that she was relatively well-treated in jail!? Her returning to Dakar, Senegal, was not easy. She had no passport, and the regime wanted to keep her away from her family. She cleverly turned Sekou Touré's megalomania and paranoia to her advantage. She told him that she just wanted to remove her son from bourgeois education in Senegal. She said she'd rather have him brought up in Guinea's revolutionary school system. Touché! Flattered, Sékou Touré immediately instructed his henchmen to facilitate her trip In Dakar her infant was now a boy. When they first met, the child stared at her intensely. Then he grabbed her portrait sitting in the living room. He compared the lady in front of him with the picture of his mom. When he realized that the two matched, he hugged Marie, and reconnected with his mother (T.S. Bah , publisher, Camp Boiro International Memorial) |
2. Re: Saddest Love Story: Camara Laye And Marie
« #2 on: April 09, 2006, 03:26 AM »
Wow. That nice guy -- I've read some of his books. He certainly didn't deserve it. May Sekou Toure pay for his sins. .
Ndipe (m)
3. Re: Saddest Love Story: Camara Laye And Marie
« #3 on: April 09, 2006, 10:18 PM »
If I tell you that I wasnt moved by his biography, I would be kidding you. I had just finished reading "The African child" at home and was quite floored by the sentimental description of his life in Guinea. Mirrors my own childhood back home. That same year, or thereabout, while visiting a friend, I stumbled upon his bio and read it. His life in exile was a rude/dark contrast to his idyllic life in Guinea. Sekou Toure was a monster. Already, some magazine is trying to paint him as a hero? I might pen a rebuttal by bringing up his atrocities against Camara Laye as well as thousands of Guineans who suffered under his regime.
Seun (m)