{"id":768,"date":"2026-10-04T12:24:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T12:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/?p=768"},"modified":"2026-10-05T16:04:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T16:04:02","slug":"cheikh-hamidou-kane-du-foyer-ardent-aux-enfants-de-la-rue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/cheikh-hamidou-kane-du-foyer-ardent-aux-enfants-de-la-rue\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheikh Hamidou Kane: from the Foyer-Ardent to street children"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.aiwara-en-content{display:none}html[lang^=\"en\"] .aiwara-fr-content{display:none!important}html[lang^=\"en\"] .aiwara-en-content{display:block!important}<\/style>\n<div class=\"aiwara-fr-content\">\n<p><em>Une vie au service de l\u2019homme<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Cheikh Hamidou Kane m\u2019a accompagn\u00e9 bien avant que je ne mesure la port\u00e9e de son \u0153uvre. Au lyc\u00e9e, il avait pour moi le visage inquiet de Samba Diallo. Des d\u00e9cennies plus tard, je retrouvais son engagement dans un autre combat, bien r\u00e9el celui-l\u00e0 : celui des enfants de la rue. Entre le Foyer-Ardent et le PARRER, entre la litt\u00e9rature et l\u2019action publique, une m\u00eame interrogation semble traverser son itin\u00e9raire : comment ouvrir l\u2019enfant au monde sans le livrer au monde ?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group aiwara-panel\">\n<p class=\"aiwara-eyebrow\">PODCAST A\u00cfWARA \u00b7 8 MIN 21 S<\/p>\n<h2>\u00c9couter l\u2019hommage<\/h2>\n<p>Retrouvez cette r\u00e9flexion dans une version audio con\u00e7ue pour prolonger la lecture.<\/p>\n<p><audio controls preload=\"metadata\" style=\"width:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/podcast-cheikh-hamidou-kane.mp3\">Votre navigateur ne prend pas en charge la lecture audio.<\/audio><\/p>\n<p><em>Podcast produit avec l\u2019assistance de l\u2019intelligence artificielle \u00e0 partir de cet hommage de Mamadou Bassirou K\u00c9B\u00c9.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/podcasts\/\">D\u00e9couvrir les Podcasts A\u00cfWARA<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>La disparition de Cheikh Hamidou Kane, survenue \u00e0 Dakar dans la soir\u00e9e du 3 octobre 2026, \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e2ge de 98 ans, ne marque pas seulement la fin d\u2019une vie d\u2019\u00e9crivain majeur. Elle nous oblige \u00e0 relire une \u0153uvre, \u00e0 revisiter une mani\u00e8re de servir l\u2019\u00c9tat et \u00e0 mesurer la coh\u00e9rence d\u2019un engagement qui, de l\u2019\u00e9cole au d\u00e9veloppement, de l\u2019UNICEF au Partenariat pour le retrait et la r\u00e9insertion des enfants de la rue (PARRER), n\u2019a cess\u00e9 de ramener la question humaine au centre. Pour ma g\u00e9n\u00e9ration, <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> fut d\u2019abord un livre \u00e9tudi\u00e9 au lyc\u00e9e. Avec le temps, il est devenu davantage : une interrogation durable sur ce que nous gagnons lorsque nous nous ouvrons au monde, et sur ce que nous risquons d\u2019y perdre.<\/p>\n<h2>Samba Diallo ou l\u2019exp\u00e9rience d\u2019une conscience d\u00e9chir\u00e9e<\/h2>\n<p>Publi\u00e9 chez Julliard en 1961 et couronn\u00e9 l\u2019ann\u00e9e suivante par le Grand Prix litt\u00e9raire d\u2019Afrique noire, <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> est souvent ramen\u00e9 \u00e0 une opposition entre tradition africaine et modernit\u00e9 occidentale. Cette lecture n\u2019est pas fausse ; elle est trop \u00e9troite. Le roman ne met pas face \u00e0 face deux blocs immobiles. Il met en sc\u00e8ne une conscience qui d\u00e9couvre que l\u2019apprentissage de l\u2019autre peut modifier jusqu\u2019\u00e0 la mani\u00e8re de se comprendre soi-m\u00eame.<\/p>\n<p>Tout part de l\u2019\u00e9ducation. Au Foyer-Ardent, Samba Diallo est form\u00e9 par Thierno dans une discipline spirituelle exigeante. Puis survient l\u2019\u00e9cole nouvelle, non comme un simple d\u00e9sir individuel, mais comme une d\u00e9cision historique qui engage tout le pays diallob\u00e9. Le Chef en formule l\u2019angoisse dans une question rest\u00e9e c\u00e9l\u00e8bre : \u00ab Ce qu\u2019ils apprendront vaut-il ce qu\u2019ils oublieront ? \u00bb La Grande Royale, elle, tranche. Elle sait que la d\u00e9faite a r\u00e9v\u00e9l\u00e9 une puissance dont il faut d\u00e9sormais comprendre les instruments. Son choix n\u2019est pourtant ni une c\u00e9l\u00e9bration de l\u2019assimilation ni une abdication culturelle : c\u2019est l\u2019acceptation lucide d\u2019un risque.<\/p>\n<p>Le d\u00e9placement de Samba Diallo est donc moins g\u00e9ographique qu\u2019int\u00e9rieur. \u00c0 mesure qu\u2019il passe du Foyer-Ardent \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9cole fran\u00e7aise, puis de l\u2019Afrique \u00e0 Paris, ce ne sont pas seulement ses rep\u00e8res qui changent : c\u2019est l\u2019unit\u00e9 m\u00eame de sa conscience qui devient probl\u00e9matique. Il ne cesse pas d\u2019\u00eatre africain pour devenir europ\u00e9en ; il d\u00e9couvre qu\u2019on peut appartenir \u00e0 plusieurs univers sans parvenir \u00e0 les r\u00e9concilier en soi. Son drame est spirituel et ontologique avant d\u2019\u00eatre seulement sociologique.<\/p>\n<p>C\u2019est ici que le dialogisme de Mikha\u00efl Bakhtine offre un outil de lecture particuli\u00e8rement f\u00e9cond. <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> ne parle jamais d\u2019une seule voix. La parole de Thierno, celle du Chef, celle de la Grande Royale, les discours de l\u2019\u00e9cole, les \u00e9changes parisiens et les h\u00e9sitations de Samba Diallo portent des visions du monde qui se r\u00e9pondent, se heurtent et se d\u00e9placent mutuellement. Le h\u00e9ros n\u2019est pas seulement plac\u00e9 entre ces voix : il devient l\u2019espace m\u00eame de leur confrontation. La force du roman tient pr\u00e9cis\u00e9ment \u00e0 ce refus de distribuer trop facilement les certitudes.<\/p>\n<p>Cette pluralit\u00e9 emp\u00eache de r\u00e9duire Samba Diallo \u00e0 la figure commode d\u2019un homme \u00ab entre deux cultures \u00bb. L\u2019entre-deux, chez Kane, n\u2019est ni une posture \u00e9l\u00e9gante ni une synth\u00e8se d\u00e9j\u00e0 acquise. Il peut \u00eatre f\u00e9cond ; il peut aussi devenir une blessure. C\u2019est ce qui maintient le roman dans notre pr\u00e9sent, \u00e0 une \u00e9poque o\u00f9 les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s africaines affrontent \u00e0 la fois la circulation mondiale des savoirs, les mobilit\u00e9s, les langues dominantes, les nouvelles d\u00e9pendances et la recherche d\u2019une souverainet\u00e9 intellectuelle qui ne soit pas un repli.<\/p>\n<h2>De <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> aux <em>Gardiens du temple<\/em> : de la d\u00e9chirure \u00e0 la reconstruction<\/h2>\n<p>Il serait pourtant injuste d\u2019enfermer Cheikh Hamidou Kane dans son premier roman. Dans un entretien accord\u00e9 \u00e0 <em>Africultures<\/em> en 2014, il confiait : \u00ab J\u2019ai us\u00e9 de l\u2019\u00e9criture pour porter t\u00e9moignage de mon histoire. \u00bb Cette phrase dit beaucoup de son rapport \u00e0 la litt\u00e9rature. L\u2019\u00e9criture n\u2019est pas chez lui un exercice s\u00e9par\u00e9 du monde ; elle est une mani\u00e8re de traverser l\u2019histoire, de l\u2019interroger et d\u2019en transmettre l\u2019exp\u00e9rience.<\/p>\n<p>Publi\u00e9 en 1995, <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em> prolonge et d\u00e9place ainsi la question ouverte par <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em>. Le temps historique a chang\u00e9. Il ne s\u2019agit plus seulement de savoir ce que la colonisation et l\u2019\u00e9cole occidentale font aux consciences africaines ; il faut d\u00e9sormais regarder ce que les Africains font eux-m\u00eames de l\u2019ind\u00e9pendance, du pouvoir, du savoir et de leurs h\u00e9ritages. Kane expliquait d\u2019ailleurs que son premier livre portait le t\u00e9moignage de la p\u00e9riode coloniale, tandis que le second se tournait vers les premi\u00e8res d\u00e9cennies de l\u2019ind\u00e9pendance.<\/p>\n<p>On peut r\u00e9sumer ce d\u00e9placement sans le simplifier : Samba Diallo porte la d\u00e9chirure ; Salif B\u00e2 cherche la synth\u00e8se. Le premier r\u00e9v\u00e8le le co\u00fbt int\u00e9rieur de la rencontre ; le second ouvre la possibilit\u00e9 d\u2019une reconstruction. Avec <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em>, la question n\u2019est plus seulement : comment ne pas se perdre ? Elle devient : que faire, d\u00e9sormais, de tout ce que l\u2019histoire nous a transmis, impos\u00e9 ou appris ? L\u2019ambigu\u00eft\u00e9 change alors de statut. Elle cesse d\u2019\u00eatre seulement une blessure pour devenir une responsabilit\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Toute l\u2019\u0153uvre de Kane peut d\u00e8s lors se lire comme une pens\u00e9e de la transmission. Elle refuse deux facilit\u00e9s sym\u00e9triques : sanctuariser la tradition au point de la rendre immobile, ou traiter la modernit\u00e9 comme une valeur parce qu\u2019elle vient d\u2019ailleurs. Un h\u00e9ritage ne demeure vivant que s\u2019il peut \u00eatre interrog\u00e9, transform\u00e9 et transmis. Une ouverture n\u2019est f\u00e9conde que si elle ne se paie pas de la disparition de soi.<\/p>\n<h2>Quand l\u2019\u00e9crivain entre dans la Cit\u00e9<\/h2>\n<p>La coh\u00e9rence de cette pens\u00e9e appara\u00eet avec davantage de force lorsqu\u2019on la rapproche de la carri\u00e8re publique de l\u2019\u00e9crivain. Form\u00e9 au droit et \u00e0 la philosophie, pass\u00e9 par la Sorbonne puis par l\u2019\u00c9cole nationale de la France d\u2019Outre-Mer, Cheikh Hamidou Kane appartient \u00e0 cette g\u00e9n\u00e9ration pour laquelle l\u2019ind\u00e9pendance n\u2019\u00e9tait pas seulement une proclamation : elle \u00e9tait une administration \u00e0 b\u00e2tir, une planification \u00e0 concevoir, des institutions \u00e0 faire fonctionner et une responsabilit\u00e9 \u00e0 assumer.<\/p>\n<p>Il fut gouverneur de Thi\u00e8s en 1961, Haut-Commissaire g\u00e9n\u00e9ral au Plan en 1962, puis exer\u00e7a des responsabilit\u00e9s internationales \u00e0 l\u2019UNICEF. En 1967, il prit la t\u00eate du Bureau r\u00e9gional de l\u2019UNICEF pour l\u2019Afrique de l\u2019Ouest et du Centre, \u00e0 Abidjan. Il poursuivit ensuite son parcours au Centre de recherches pour le d\u00e9veloppement international \u00e0 Ottawa, avant d\u2019exercer au S\u00e9n\u00e9gal les fonctions de ministre du D\u00e9veloppement industriel et de l\u2019Artisanat en 1978, puis de ministre du Plan et de la Coop\u00e9ration de 1981 \u00e0 1988.<\/p>\n<p>Ces responsabilit\u00e9s ne constituent pas une parenth\u00e8se \u00e9trang\u00e8re \u00e0 la litt\u00e9rature. Elles donnent au contraire une profondeur concr\u00e8te \u00e0 certaines interrogations de l\u2019\u0153uvre. Le romancier se demande ce que devient l\u2019homme lorsqu\u2019un monde en rencontre un autre ; le serviteur de l\u2019\u00c9tat travaille sur les instruments par lesquels une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 devenue ind\u00e9pendante peut agir sur son propre avenir. Penser et servir ne sont pas ici deux vocations oppos\u00e9es. Encore faut-il que le service ne dispense jamais de penser.<\/p>\n<p>Cette articulation est l\u2019une des le\u00e7ons les plus fortes de son itin\u00e9raire. Cheikh Hamidou Kane rappelle qu\u2019un intellectuel peut entrer dans la Cit\u00e9 sans renoncer \u00e0 l\u2019exigence critique. Mais l\u2019entr\u00e9e dans l\u2019action accro\u00eet alors la responsabilit\u00e9 : le pouvoir, la planification et l\u2019administration doivent \u00eatre soumis au m\u00eame examen que les id\u00e9es. \u00c0 quoi sert l\u2019ind\u00e9pendance si elle n\u2019accro\u00eet pas la capacit\u00e9 d\u2019un peuple \u00e0 se gouverner, \u00e0 transmettre et \u00e0 prot\u00e9ger ?<\/p>\n<h2>Du Foyer-Ardent aux enfants de la rue : la seconde rencontre<\/h2>\n<p>C\u2019est ici que mon rapport \u00e0 Cheikh Hamidou Kane devient plus personnel. Je ne savais pas, lorsque je lisais Samba Diallo sur les bancs du lyc\u00e9e, que je retrouverais un jour son auteur dans un univers professionnel devenu le mien : celui des droits et de la protection de l\u2019enfance.<\/p>\n<p>Comme conseiller technique n\u00b0 2 charg\u00e9 de l\u2019enfance, coordonnateur national d\u2019un projet de lutte contre la traite et les pires formes de travail des enfants, directeur des droits et de la protection de l\u2019enfant au minist\u00e8re charg\u00e9 de la Famille, puis conseiller charg\u00e9 de l\u2019enfance \u00e0 la Pr\u00e9sidence de la R\u00e9publique, j\u2019ai travaill\u00e9 au c\u0153ur des politiques confront\u00e9es aux violences, \u00e0 l\u2019exploitation, \u00e0 la mendicit\u00e9, \u00e0 la traite et aux ruptures familiales. Dans ce paysage institutionnel, le PARRER occupait une place singuli\u00e8re.<\/p>\n<p>Le Partenariat pour le retrait et la r\u00e9insertion des enfants de la rue devint formellement une association le 22 f\u00e9vrier 2007. Son assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale constitutive r\u00e9unit des repr\u00e9sentants de l\u2019\u00c9tat, de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 civile, des familles religieuses, des partenaires au d\u00e9veloppement et du secteur priv\u00e9 ; Cheikh Hamidou Kane fut \u00e9lu \u00e0 sa t\u00eate. Ce choix n\u2019\u00e9tait pas anodin. Sur une question aussi sensible que la pr\u00e9sence des enfants dans la rue et la mendicit\u00e9 des talib\u00e9s, il fallait une personnalit\u00e9 capable de parler \u00e0 plusieurs mondes sans nier aucun d\u2019eux.<\/p>\n<p>Son engagement ne proc\u00e9dait pas d\u2019une hostilit\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9ducation coranique. Cela aurait contredit sa propre trajectoire autant que la profondeur spirituelle de son \u0153uvre. Il distinguait le daara comme lieu de transmission religieuse et \u00e9ducative des pratiques qui exposent l\u2019enfant \u00e0 l\u2019exploitation, \u00e0 la mendicit\u00e9 forc\u00e9e, aux violences ou \u00e0 la privation de ses droits. Il insistait sur la responsabilit\u00e9 des familles, sur le r\u00f4le des ma\u00eetres coraniques et des chefs religieux, sur la modernisation des daaras et sur la n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 d\u2019une mobilisation collective. La protection de l\u2019enfant ne pouvait, \u00e0 ses yeux, r\u00e9ussir contre les communaut\u00e9s ; elle devait se construire avec elles, sans renoncer \u00e0 l\u2019exigence de protection.<\/p>\n<p>Il faut ici r\u00e9sister \u00e0 la tentation d\u2019une filiation trop commode. <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> n\u2019est pas un trait\u00e9 de protection de l\u2019enfance et Samba Diallo n\u2019est pas un enfant de la rue. Le roman montre d\u2019ailleurs une forme traditionnelle de qu\u00eate et de mendicit\u00e9 li\u00e9e \u00e0 l\u2019apprentissage religieux, qui ne saurait \u00eatre confondue m\u00e9caniquement avec l\u2019exploitation contemporaine. Mais un fil plus profond demeure : dans les deux cas, une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d\u2019adultes doit r\u00e9pondre de ce qu\u2019elle fait de l\u2019enfant lorsqu\u2019elle pr\u00e9tend pr\u00e9parer son avenir. L\u2019enfant ne peut \u00eatre r\u00e9duit \u00e0 l\u2019instrument d\u2019un projet, f\u00fbt-il religieux, \u00e9ducatif, \u00e9conomique ou politique, qui l\u2019\u00e9crase.<\/p>\n<p>La phrase qui relie, pour moi, ces deux moments de Cheikh Hamidou Kane pourrait \u00eatre celle-ci : <strong>ouvrir l\u2019enfant au monde sans le livrer au monde.<\/strong> Elle ne pr\u00e9tend pas r\u00e9sumer son \u0153uvre. Elle dit ce que son itin\u00e9raire me laisse aujourd\u2019hui comme exigence.<\/p>\n<h2>Une \u00e9criture de la retenue et de la profondeur<\/h2>\n<p>Il faut enfin rendre justice \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9crivain dans sa langue. La grandeur de <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> ne tient pas seulement \u00e0 ses th\u00e8mes. Elle tient \u00e0 une \u00e9criture de la retenue, \u00e0 une prose dense o\u00f9 la m\u00e9ditation philosophique ne dissout jamais tout \u00e0 fait la tension romanesque. Kane n\u2019accumule pas. Il concentre. Une conversation, un silence, une image ou une formule suffisent souvent \u00e0 faire basculer la r\u00e9flexion du r\u00e9cit vers la m\u00e9taphysique.<\/p>\n<p>Les dialogues jouent ici un r\u00f4le d\u00e9cisif. Ils ne servent pas seulement \u00e0 faire avancer l\u2019action ; ils donnent une forme dramatique aux id\u00e9es. Le Chef h\u00e9site, la Grande Royale tranche, Thierno r\u00e9siste par la foi, Samba Diallo int\u00e9riorise le conflit. M\u00eame Paris n\u2019est pas seulement un d\u00e9cor : la ville devient une exp\u00e9rience de l\u2019\u00e9tranget\u00e9, une mani\u00e8re sensible de montrer la distance qui s\u2019installe entre un \u00eatre et les rep\u00e8res qui l\u2019avaient constitu\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Cette \u00e9conomie explique peut-\u00eatre l\u2019endurance du livre. Beaucoup de romans vieillissent avec les d\u00e9bats qu\u2019ils ont illustr\u00e9s. <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> r\u00e9siste parce que sa langue ne ferme pas la question. Le texte ne livre ni programme politique ni morale pr\u00eate \u00e0 l\u2019emploi. Il place le lecteur dans l\u2019inconfort d\u2019une contradiction qu\u2019il doit habiter. C\u2019est l\u00e0 que le dialogisme bakhtinien rejoint la pratique de Kane : aucune voix ne parvient \u00e0 abolir toutes les autres, et le sens demeure en mouvement.<\/p>\n<p>Cheikh Hamidou Kane n\u2019a publi\u00e9 que deux romans. Cela ne diminue en rien son importance. La litt\u00e9rature ne se mesure ni au nombre de titres ni au volume d\u2019une bibliographie, mais \u00e0 la profondeur des d\u00e9placements qu\u2019une \u0153uvre produit dans la conscience de ses lecteurs. Il existe des \u0153uvres abondantes qui s\u2019effacent ; il existe aussi des livres rares qui deviennent des lieux de m\u00e9moire intellectuelle. Les siens appartiennent \u00e0 cette seconde cat\u00e9gorie.<\/p>\n<h2>Ce que Cheikh Hamidou Kane laisse aux Africains<\/h2>\n<p>Au-del\u00e0 du deuil, Cheikh Hamidou Kane nous laisse d\u2019abord une mani\u00e8re d\u2019affronter la complexit\u00e9 sans la mutiler. Son \u0153uvre ne demande pas \u00e0 l\u2019Afrique de choisir entre l\u2019enracinement et l\u2019ouverture. Elle lui demande quelque chose de plus difficile : entrer dans le monde sans s\u2019y dissoudre. \u00c0 l\u2019heure o\u00f9 le continent cherche \u00e0 renforcer ses souverainet\u00e9s politique, \u00e9conomique, culturelle et technologique, cette exigence garde une force singuli\u00e8re. La souverainet\u00e9 n\u2019est pas le refus du savoir venu d\u2019ailleurs ; elle commence lorsque l\u2019on peut l\u2019accueillir, le discuter, le transformer et l\u2019inscrire dans un projet dont on reste l\u2019auteur.<\/p>\n<p>Il nous laisse aussi une le\u00e7on de transmission. Une tradition que l\u2019on r\u00e9p\u00e8te sans l\u2019interroger finit par se figer ; une modernit\u00e9 que l\u2019on importe sans la transformer finit par produire une nouvelle d\u00e9pendance. Entre ces deux impasses, Kane appelle \u00e0 cr\u00e9er. Cr\u00e9er des savoirs, des institutions, des formes \u00e9ducatives, des \u0153uvres et des politiques publiques capables de dialoguer avec l\u2019universel sans demander l\u2019autorisation d\u2019exister comme africaines.<\/p>\n<p>Son parcours public ajoute \u00e0 ce legs une exigence de service. L\u2019\u00c9tat ind\u00e9pendant n\u2019accomplit pas sa promesse par le seul fait d\u2019exister juridiquement. Il doit acqu\u00e9rir la capacit\u00e9 de penser, de planifier, de prot\u00e9ger et d\u2019agir. Chez Kane, cette exigence rejoint la question litt\u00e9raire : que faisons-nous des instruments que nous avons acquis ? \u00c0 quoi servent le savoir, la puissance et la modernit\u00e9 s\u2019ils cessent de revenir \u00e0 l\u2019homme ?<\/p>\n<p>C\u2019est peut-\u00eatre cela, finalement, que les nouvelles g\u00e9n\u00e9rations peuvent retenir de son aventure : elles n\u2019ont pas \u00e0 choisir entre la fid\u00e9lit\u00e9 et le mouvement. Elles ont \u00e0 produire la synth\u00e8se qu\u2019aucune \u00e9poque ne leur donnera achev\u00e9e. L\u2019h\u00e9ritage ne vaut que par ce que l\u2019on en fait ; l\u2019ouverture ne vaut que par la libert\u00e9 qu\u2019elle agrandit.<\/p>\n<p>Ma premi\u00e8re rencontre avec Cheikh Hamidou Kane eut lieu sur les bancs du lyc\u00e9e, entre les pages de <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em>. Les ann\u00e9es ont pass\u00e9. Je suis devenu professeur de Lettres, puis acteur des politiques de protection de l\u2019enfance. Au moment o\u00f9 sa voix physique s\u2019\u00e9teint, le lien entre ces deux rencontres m\u2019appara\u00eet plus nettement. La premi\u00e8re m\u2019apprenait qu\u2019on ne sort jamais indemne de la rencontre avec l\u2019autre. La seconde m\u2019enseignait qu\u2019une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 se juge aussi \u00e0 la mani\u00e8re dont elle prot\u00e8ge ceux qu\u2019elle pr\u00e9pare \u00e0 cette rencontre : ses enfants.<\/p>\n<p>Samba Diallo reste donc parmi nous. Le Chef des Diallob\u00e9 continue de nous demander ce que vaut ce que nous apprenons au regard de ce que nous oublions. La Grande Royale continue de nous rappeler qu\u2019il existe des moments o\u00f9 refuser de choisir est d\u00e9j\u00e0 un choix. Salif B\u00e2 poursuit la recherche d\u2019une synth\u00e8se. Et les enfants pour lesquels Cheikh Hamidou Kane s\u2019engagea nous rappellent que la pens\u00e9e n\u2019a de grandeur que lorsqu\u2019elle accepte de r\u00e9pondre du r\u00e9el.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Les grands \u00e9crivains meurent lorsque leurs livres cessent de poser des questions aux vivants. Celles de Cheikh Hamidou Kane, elles, sont encore devant nous.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mamadou Bassirou KEBE<\/strong><br \/>\nSp\u00e9cialiste des civilisations africaines<br \/>\nExpert en droits et protection de l\u2019enfance<br \/>\nFondateur de la plateforme africaine de prospective,<br \/>\nd\u2019intelligence strat\u00e9gique et d\u2019aide \u00e0 la d\u00e9cision A\u00cfWARA<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/\">www.aiwara.africa<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Sources et rep\u00e8res<\/h2>\n<h3>\u0152uvres, critique litt\u00e9raire et r\u00e9f\u00e9rences philosophiques<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>KANE, Cheikh Hamidou, <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em>, Paris, Julliard, 1961.<\/li>\n<li>KANE, Cheikh Hamidou, <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em>, Paris, Stock, 1995.<\/li>\n<li>KANE, Cheikh Hamidou, \u00ab Rupture ou continuit\u00e9 entre <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> et <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em> ? \u00bb, allocution au congr\u00e8s du CI\u00c9F, 24 mai 2016, <em>Nouvelles \u00c9tudes Francophones<\/em>, vol. 31, n\u00b0 2, automne 2016, p. 7-13. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/44685390\">R\u00e9f\u00e9rence<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>BAKHTINE, Mikha\u00efl, <em>Esth\u00e9tique et th\u00e9orie du roman<\/em>, trad. du russe par Daria Olivier, pr\u00e9f. de Michel Aucouturier, Paris, Gallimard, coll. \u00ab Biblioth\u00e8que des id\u00e9es \u00bb, 1978. <a href=\"https:\/\/catalogue.bnf.fr\/ark:\/12148\/cb346098141\">Notice BnF<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>BAKHTINE, Mikha\u00efl, <em>La po\u00e9tique de Dosto\u00efevski<\/em>, trad. de la 2e \u00e9d. russe par Isabelle Kolitcheff, pr\u00e9sentation de Julia Kristeva, Paris, \u00c9ditions du Seuil, coll. \u00ab Pierres vives \u00bb, 1970. <a href=\"https:\/\/catalogue.bnf.fr\/ark:\/12148\/cb35233273h\">Notice BnF<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>COURTOIS, Maurice, \u00ab Aventure ambigu\u00eb \u00bb, <em>Litt\u00e9rature<\/em>, n\u00b0 34, 1979, p. 121-125. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.persee.fr\/doc\/litt_0047-4800_1979_num_34_2_2113\">Pers\u00e9e<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>MONGO-MBOUSSA, Boniface, \u00ab Les gardiens du Temple. De l\u2019occultation fran\u00e7aise \u00e0 la culpabilisation africaine \u00bb, <em>Africultures<\/em>, 30 septembre 1997. <a href=\"https:\/\/africultures.com\/les-gardiens-du-temple-de-loccultation-francaise-a-la-culpabilisation-africaine\/\">Lire<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>BOCAND\u00c9, Anne et BRINKER, Virginie, \u00ab L\u2019Afrique conditionnera l\u2019avenir du monde \u00bb, entretien avec Cheikh Hamidou Kane, <em>Africultures<\/em>, 4 mai 2014. <a href=\"https:\/\/africultures.com\/lafrique-conditionnera-lavenir-du-monde-12201\/\">Lire<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Rep\u00e8res biographiques, institutionnels et documentaires<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Agence de Presse S\u00e9n\u00e9galaise (APS), \u00ab D\u00e9c\u00e8s de l\u2019\u00e9crivain et ancien ministre Cheikh Hamidou Kane \u00bb, 4 octobre 2026. <a href=\"https:\/\/aps.sn\/esfdeces-de-lecrivain-cheikh-hamidou-kane-une-figure-litterature-au-dela-de-nos-frontieres\/\">APS<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Universit\u00e9 num\u00e9rique Cheikh Hamidou Kane, \u00ab Historique et parrain \u00bb, rep\u00e8res biographiques et fonctions publiques de Cheikh Hamidou Kane. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unchk.sn\/linstitution\/presentation\/historique-et-parrain\/\">UN-CHK<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>UNICEF S\u00e9n\u00e9gal, <em>Pour chaque enfant, de l\u2019espoir<\/em>, histoire de l\u2019UNICEF au S\u00e9n\u00e9gal : r\u00f4le de Cheikh Hamidou Kane au Bureau r\u00e9gional et engagement en faveur de l\u2019enfance. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/senegal\/media\/346\/file\/UNICEF.pdf\">UNICEF<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Banque mondiale, Bureau r\u00e9gional de Dakar, magazine n\u00b0 7, mars 2007, dossier \u00ab Partenariat pour le retrait et la r\u00e9insertion des enfants de la rue \u00bb : cr\u00e9ation du PARRER et \u00e9lection de Cheikh Hamidou Kane \u00e0 sa pr\u00e9sidence. <a href=\"https:\/\/documents1.worldbank.org\/curated\/fr\/976631468017648912\/pdf\/393890PAPER0SN1Mondiale0N701PUBLIC1.pdf\">Banque mondiale<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>PROLONGEAU, Hubert, \u00ab Les petits mendiants d\u2019Allah \u00bb, <em>Le Monde<\/em>, 3 septembre 2007 : engagement de Cheikh Hamidou Kane en faveur des talib\u00e9s et modernisation des daaras. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/afrique\/article\/2007\/09\/03\/afrique-les-petits-mendiants-d-allah_950677_3212.html\">Le Monde<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France (BnF), notices bibliographiques relatives \u00e0 <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> et \u00e0 l\u2019\u0153uvre de Cheikh Hamidou Kane.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"aiwara-en-content\" lang=\"en-GB\">\n<p><em>A life devoted to humanity<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Cheikh Hamidou Kane accompanied me long before I grasped the full significance of his work. At secondary school, he bore for me the troubled face of Samba Diallo. Decades later, I encountered his commitment in another, very real struggle: that of street children. Between the Foyer-Ardent and PARRER, between literature and public action, the same question seems to run through his life: how can we open children to the world without abandoning them to it?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"wp-block-group aiwara-panel\">\n<p><span class=\"aiwara-eyebrow\">A\u00cfWARA PODCAST \u00b7 8 MIN 21 SEC<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Listen to the tribute<\/h2>\n<p>Experience this reflection in an audio version designed to extend the reading experience.<\/p>\n<p><audio controls preload=\"metadata\" style=\"width:100%\" src=\"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/podcast-cheikh-hamidou-kane.mp3\">Your browser does not support audio playback.<\/audio><\/p>\n<p><em>Podcast produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on this tribute by Mamadou Bassirou K\u00c9B\u00c9.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/en\/podcasts\/\">Explore A\u00cfWARA Podcasts<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The passing of Cheikh Hamidou Kane in Dakar on the evening of 3 October 2026, at the age of 98, marks more than the end of the life of a major writer. It calls on us to reread his work, revisit his way of serving the State and recognise the coherence of a commitment that\u2014from education and development to UNICEF and the Partnership for the Withdrawal and Reintegration of Street Children (PARRER)\u2014never ceased to place the human question at the centre. For my generation, <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> was first a book studied at secondary school. Over time, it became something more: an enduring inquiry into what we gain when we open ourselves to the world, and what we risk losing in the process.<\/p>\n<h2>Samba Diallo, or the experience of a divided consciousness<\/h2>\n<p>Published by Julliard in 1961 and awarded the Grand Prix litt\u00e9raire d\u2019Afrique noire the following year, <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> is often reduced to an opposition between African tradition and Western modernity. That reading is not wrong; it is simply too narrow. The novel does not set two static blocs against each other. It portrays a consciousness discovering that learning from the other can transform even the way one understands oneself.<\/p>\n<p>Everything begins with education. At the Foyer-Ardent, Samba Diallo is formed by Thierno through a demanding spiritual discipline. Then comes the new school\u2014not as a matter of individual desire, but as a historic decision involving the entire Diallob\u00e9 country. The Chief gives voice to its anguish in a question that has become famous: \u2018Is what they will learn worth what they will forget?\u2019 The Grande Royale makes the decision. She knows that defeat has revealed a power whose instruments must now be understood. Yet her choice is neither a celebration of assimilation nor a cultural surrender; it is the lucid acceptance of a risk.<\/p>\n<p>Samba Diallo\u2019s journey is therefore less geographical than inward. As he moves from the Foyer-Ardent to the French school, and then from Africa to Paris, it is not merely his bearings that change: the very unity of his consciousness becomes problematic. He does not cease to be African in order to become European; he discovers that one can belong to several worlds without being able to reconcile them within oneself. His tragedy is spiritual and ontological before it is merely sociological.<\/p>\n<p>It is here that Mikhail Bakhtin\u2019s concept of dialogism offers a particularly fruitful interpretive lens. <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> never speaks in a single voice. Thierno\u2019s words, those of the Chief and the Grande Royale, the discourse of the school, the conversations in Paris and Samba Diallo\u2019s hesitations all convey worldviews that answer, confront and reshape one another. The protagonist is not merely placed between these voices: he becomes the very space of their confrontation. The novel\u2019s power lies precisely in its refusal to allocate certainty too readily.<\/p>\n<p>This plurality prevents us from reducing Samba Diallo to the convenient figure of a man \u2018between two cultures\u2019. In Kane\u2019s work, the in-between is neither an elegant posture nor a synthesis already achieved. It can be fertile; it can also become a wound. This is what keeps the novel firmly in our present, at a time when African societies face the global circulation of knowledge, mobility, dominant languages, new dependencies and the search for an intellectual sovereignty that does not amount to withdrawal.<\/p>\n<h2>From <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> to <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em>: from rupture to reconstruction<\/h2>\n<p>Yet it would be unjust to confine Cheikh Hamidou Kane to his first novel. In an interview with <em>Africultures<\/em> in 2014, he said: \u2018I have used writing to bear witness to my history.\u2019 The remark says much about his relationship to literature. For him, writing is not an exercise detached from the world; it is a way of moving through history, questioning it and transmitting its experience.<\/p>\n<p>Published in 1995, <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em> extends and shifts the question opened by <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em>. The historical moment has changed. The issue is no longer merely what colonisation and Western schooling do to African consciousness; it is now necessary to examine what Africans themselves make of independence, power, knowledge and their inheritances. Kane explained that his first book bore witness to the colonial period, while the second turned towards the first decades of independence.<\/p>\n<p>The shift can be summarised without oversimplifying it: Samba Diallo embodies rupture; Salif B\u00e2 seeks synthesis. The first reveals the inner cost of encounter; the second opens up the possibility of reconstruction. With <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em>, the question is no longer simply: how can one avoid losing oneself? It becomes: what are we now to do with everything history has handed down, imposed upon us or taught us? Ambiguity thus changes status. It ceases to be only a wound and becomes a responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Kane\u2019s entire body of work may therefore be read as a meditation on transmission. It rejects two symmetrical temptations: turning tradition into a sanctuary until it becomes immobile, or treating modernity as a value simply because it comes from elsewhere. An inheritance remains alive only if it can be questioned, transformed and passed on. Openness is fruitful only when it is not purchased at the cost of self-erasure.<\/p>\n<h2>When the writer enters the public realm<\/h2>\n<p>The coherence of this thought becomes even more apparent when set alongside the writer\u2019s public career. Trained in law and philosophy, educated at the Sorbonne and later at the \u00c9cole nationale de la France d\u2019Outre-Mer, Cheikh Hamidou Kane belonged to a generation for whom independence was not merely a proclamation: it meant an administration to build, planning to devise, institutions to make work and responsibility to shoulder.<\/p>\n<p>He served as Governor of Thi\u00e8s in 1961 and High Commissioner for Planning in 1962, before taking on international responsibilities at UNICEF. In 1967, he became head of UNICEF\u2019s Regional Office for West and Central Africa in Abidjan. He later continued his career at the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, before serving in Senegal as Minister of Industrial Development and Handicrafts in 1978, and then as Minister of Planning and Cooperation from 1981 to 1988.<\/p>\n<p>These responsibilities were not a parenthesis unrelated to literature. On the contrary, they gave concrete depth to several questions raised in his work. The novelist asks what becomes of the human being when one world encounters another; the public servant works on the instruments through which a newly independent society can shape its own future. Thinking and serving are not opposing vocations here. Yet service must never become an excuse not to think.<\/p>\n<p>This connection is one of the strongest lessons of his journey. Cheikh Hamidou Kane reminds us that an intellectual can enter the public realm without abandoning critical rigour. But entering the sphere of action increases responsibility: power, planning and administration must be subjected to the same scrutiny as ideas. What purpose does independence serve if it does not increase a people\u2019s capacity to govern itself, to transmit and to protect?<\/p>\n<h2>From the Foyer-Ardent to street children: the second encounter<\/h2>\n<p>It is here that my relationship with Cheikh Hamidou Kane becomes more personal. When I read Samba Diallo at secondary school, I could not have known that I would one day encounter his author again in a professional field that became my own: children\u2019s rights and child protection.<\/p>\n<p>As Technical Adviser No. 2 responsible for children, National Coordinator of a project combating trafficking and the worst forms of child labour, Director of Children\u2019s Rights and Protection at the ministry responsible for the Family, and later Adviser on Children at the Presidency of the Republic, I worked at the heart of policies addressing violence, exploitation, begging, trafficking and family separation. Within that institutional landscape, PARRER occupied a distinctive place.<\/p>\n<p>The Partnership for the Withdrawal and Reintegration of Street Children formally became an association on 22 February 2007. Its founding general assembly brought together representatives of the State, civil society, religious families, development partners and the private sector; Cheikh Hamidou Kane was elected to lead it. This choice was far from incidental. On an issue as sensitive as the presence of children on the streets and the begging of talib\u00e9 children, what was needed was a figure capable of speaking to several worlds without denying any of them.<\/p>\n<p>His commitment did not stem from hostility towards Qur\u2019anic education. That would have contradicted both his own journey and the spiritual depth of his work. He distinguished the daara as a place of religious and educational transmission from practices that expose children to exploitation, forced begging, violence or deprivation of their rights. He stressed the responsibility of families, the role of Qur\u2019anic teachers and religious leaders, the modernisation of daaras and the need for collective mobilisation. In his view, child protection could not succeed against communities; it had to be built with them, without compromising the duty to protect.<\/p>\n<p>We must resist the temptation to draw too convenient a line of descent here. <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> is not a treatise on child protection, and Samba Diallo is not a street child. The novel also depicts a traditional form of alms-seeking associated with religious learning, which cannot mechanically be equated with contemporary exploitation. Yet a deeper thread remains: in both cases, a society of adults must answer for what it does to the child when it claims to be preparing that child\u2019s future. A child cannot be reduced to the instrument of a religious, educational, economic or political project that crushes them.<\/p>\n<p>For me, the sentence that links these two moments in Cheikh Hamidou Kane\u2019s life might be this: <strong>open children to the world without abandoning them to it.<\/strong> It does not claim to summarise his work. It expresses the demand that his journey leaves with me today.<\/p>\n<h2>A prose of restraint and depth<\/h2>\n<p>Lastly, justice must be done to the writer\u2019s language. The greatness of <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> does not reside in its themes alone. It lies in a restrained style, in dense prose where philosophical meditation never entirely dissolves the narrative tension. Kane does not accumulate; he concentrates. A conversation, a silence, an image or a phrase is often enough to shift the reflection from narrative to metaphysics.<\/p>\n<p>Dialogue plays a decisive role here. It does more than advance the action; it gives dramatic form to ideas. The Chief hesitates, the Grande Royale decides, Thierno resists through faith, and Samba Diallo internalises the conflict. Even Paris is more than a setting: the city becomes an experience of estrangement, a tangible way of showing the distance that grows between a person and the bearings that formed them.<\/p>\n<p>This economy may explain the book\u2019s endurance. Many novels age along with the debates they once illustrated. <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> endures because its language does not close the question. The text offers neither a political programme nor a ready-made moral. It places the reader in the discomfort of a contradiction that must be inhabited. Here Bakhtinian dialogism meets Kane\u2019s practice: no voice manages to abolish all the others, and meaning remains in motion.<\/p>\n<p>Cheikh Hamidou Kane published only two novels. That in no way diminishes his importance. Literature is measured neither by the number of titles nor by the size of a bibliography, but by the depth of the shifts a work produces in its readers\u2019 consciousness. Some prolific bodies of work fade away; other, rare books become sites of intellectual memory. His belong to the latter category.<\/p>\n<h2>What Cheikh Hamidou Kane leaves to Africans<\/h2>\n<p>Beyond mourning, Cheikh Hamidou Kane first leaves us a way of confronting complexity without mutilating it. His work does not ask Africa to choose between rootedness and openness. It asks something more difficult: to enter the world without dissolving into it. At a time when the continent is seeking to strengthen its political, economic, cultural and technological sovereignties, this demand retains a singular force. Sovereignty is not the rejection of knowledge from elsewhere; it begins when we can receive it, debate it, transform it and incorporate it into a project of which we remain the authors.<\/p>\n<p>He also leaves us a lesson in transmission. A tradition repeated without being questioned eventually hardens; a modernity imported without being transformed eventually creates a new dependency. Between these two dead ends, Kane calls us to create: to create knowledge, institutions, educational models, works and public policies capable of engaging with the universal without seeking permission to exist as African.<\/p>\n<p>His public career adds to this legacy an ethic of service. An independent State does not fulfil its promise merely by existing in law. It must acquire the capacity to think, plan, protect and act. In Kane\u2019s life, this requirement meets the literary question: what do we do with the instruments we have acquired? What are knowledge, power and modernity for if they cease to return to the human being?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps this is what new generations can ultimately retain from his adventure: they need not choose between fidelity and movement. They must create the synthesis that no age will hand to them complete. An inheritance is worth only what we make of it; openness is worth only the freedom it enlarges.<\/p>\n<p>My first encounter with Cheikh Hamidou Kane took place at secondary school, in the pages of <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em>. The years passed. I became a literature teacher and later a practitioner in child-protection policy. As his physical voice falls silent, the link between these two encounters appears more clearly to me. The first taught me that no one emerges unchanged from an encounter with the other. The second taught me that a society is also judged by the way it protects those whom it prepares for that encounter: its children.<\/p>\n<p>Samba Diallo therefore remains among us. The Chief of the Diallob\u00e9 continues to ask whether what we learn is worth what we forget. The Grande Royale continues to remind us that there are moments when refusing to choose is already a choice. Salif B\u00e2 continues the search for synthesis. And the children for whom Cheikh Hamidou Kane worked remind us that thought attains greatness only when it accepts responsibility for reality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Great writers die when their books cease to question the living. Cheikh Hamidou Kane\u2019s questions still lie before us.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mamadou Bassirou KEBE<\/strong><br \/>Specialist in African civilisations<br \/>Expert in children\u2019s rights and child protection<br \/>Founder of the African platform for foresight,<br \/>strategic intelligence and decision support, A\u00cfWARA<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/\">www.aiwara.africa<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Sources and reference points<\/h2>\n<h3>Works, literary criticism and philosophical references<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>KANE, Cheikh Hamidou, <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em>, Paris, Julliard, 1961.<\/li>\n<li>KANE, Cheikh Hamidou, <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em>, Paris, Stock, 1995.<\/li>\n<li>KANE, Cheikh Hamidou, \u201cRupture ou continuit\u00e9 entre <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> et <em>Les Gardiens du temple<\/em>?\u201d, CI\u00c9F Congress, 24 May 2016, <em>Nouvelles \u00c9tudes Francophones<\/em>, vol. 31, no. 2, Autumn 2016, pp. 7\u201313. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/44685390\">Reference<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>BAKHTIN, Mikhail, <em>Esth\u00e9tique et th\u00e9orie du roman<\/em>, Paris, Gallimard, 1978. <a href=\"https:\/\/catalogue.bnf.fr\/ark:\/12148\/cb346098141\">BnF catalogue record<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>BAKHTIN, Mikhail, <em>La po\u00e9tique de Dosto\u00efevski<\/em>, Paris, \u00c9ditions du Seuil, 1970. <a href=\"https:\/\/catalogue.bnf.fr\/ark:\/12148\/cb35233273h\">BnF catalogue record<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>COURTOIS, Maurice, \u201cAventure ambigu\u00eb\u201d, <em>Litt\u00e9rature<\/em>, no. 34, 1979, pp. 121\u2013125. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.persee.fr\/doc\/litt_0047-4800_1979_num_34_2_2113\">Pers\u00e9e<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>MONGO-MBOUSSA, Boniface, \u201cLes gardiens du Temple. De l\u2019occultation fran\u00e7aise \u00e0 la culpabilisation africaine\u201d, <em>Africultures<\/em>, 30 September 1997.<\/li>\n<li>BOCAND\u00c9, Anne and BRINKER, Virginie, \u201cL\u2019Afrique conditionnera l\u2019avenir du monde\u201d, interview with Cheikh Hamidou Kane, <em>Africultures<\/em>, 4 May 2014.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Biographical, institutional and documentary reference points<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Agence de Presse S\u00e9n\u00e9galaise (APS), \u2018D\u00e9c\u00e8s de l\u2019\u00e9crivain et ancien ministre Cheikh Hamidou Kane\u2019, 4 October 2026. <a href=\"https:\/\/aps.sn\/esfdeces-de-lecrivain-cheikh-hamidou-kane-une-figure-litterature-au-dela-de-nos-frontieres\/\">APS<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Universit\u00e9 num\u00e9rique Cheikh Hamidou Kane, \u2018Historique et parrain\u2019, biographical reference points and public positions held by Cheikh Hamidou Kane. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unchk.sn\/linstitution\/presentation\/historique-et-parrain\/\">UN-CHK<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>UNICEF Senegal, <em>Pour chaque enfant, de l\u2019espoir<\/em>, a history of UNICEF in Senegal: Cheikh Hamidou Kane\u2019s role in the Regional Office and his commitment to children. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unicef.org\/senegal\/media\/346\/file\/UNICEF.pdf\">UNICEF<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>World Bank, Dakar Regional Office, magazine no. 7, March 2007, feature on the \u2018Partnership for the Withdrawal and Reintegration of Street Children\u2019: establishment of PARRER and election of Cheikh Hamidou Kane as its chair. <a href=\"https:\/\/documents1.worldbank.org\/curated\/fr\/976631468017648912\/pdf\/393890PAPER0SN1Mondiale0N701PUBLIC1.pdf\">World Bank<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>PROLONGEAU, Hubert, \u2018Les petits mendiants d\u2019Allah\u2019, <em>Le Monde<\/em>, 3 September 2007: Cheikh Hamidou Kane\u2019s commitment to talib\u00e9 children and the modernisation of daaras. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/afrique\/article\/2007\/09\/03\/afrique-les-petits-mendiants-d-allah_950677_3212.html\">Le Monde<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France (BnF), bibliographic records relating to <em>L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb<\/em> and to the work of Cheikh Hamidou Kane.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cheikh Hamidou Kane m\u2019a accompagn\u00e9 bien avant que je ne mesure la port\u00e9e de son \u0153uvre. Au lyc\u00e9e, il avait pour moi le visage inquiet de Samba Diallo. Des d\u00e9cennies plus tard, je retrouvais son engagement dans un autre combat, bien r\u00e9el celui-l\u00e0 : celui des enfants de la rue. Entre le Foyer-Ardent et le PARRER, entre la litt\u00e9rature et l\u2019action publique, une m\u00eame interrogation semble traverser son itin\u00e9raire : comment ouvrir l\u2019enfant au monde sans le livrer au monde ?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Cheikh Hamidou Kane : du Foyer-Ardent aux enfants de la rue | A\u00cfWARA","_seopress_titles_desc":"De L\u2019Aventure ambigu\u00eb au PARRER, Mamadou Bassirou KEBE relit l\u2019\u0153uvre, l\u2019\u00c9tat et l\u2019engagement de Cheikh Hamidou Kane au service de l\u2019homme.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"10","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rendez-vous-des-idees","category-litterature-et-philosophie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiwara.africa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}