This book is a bilingual (Maninkakan [ Malinké] - French) presentation of narratives by an old blacksmith, Bala Kanté. The narratives are strikingly coherent in the sense that they use use indigenous models for historic causation to recount of the changes Mali has gone through in the 20th century. Though the narratives often recount well-known oral traditions, Bala Kanté embeds them in an argument which is highly original. Hence, the texts are of great interests for both historical and literary research. Moreover, the book contains archival material about the Sobara region where Bala Kanté lived most of his life and which marginal but unique history may be a prerequisite for Kanté's unique oeuvre.