Within the political context of French colonial settlement in Africa, the practice of translation could be suspected of either collaboration or resistance. Indeed, translating means simultaneously serving the colonizer's dominant language (in this case, French) and giving oneself the opportunity to manipulate it. Amadou Hampaté Ba's hero Wangrin embodies such a contradiction. Educated at the French colonial school (also called "school of hostages") yet familiar with both African and Muslim traditions, Wangrin works as an interpreter for the French colonial administration. However, instead of falling victim to his many contradictions, Wangrin is the perfect trickster: he has the ability to negotiate opposites. Like Hermes or Ulysses, Bâ's hero avoids overt conflicts, especially linguistic ones, by systematically resorting to his legendary ruse. As a result, the narrative economy of L'Étrange destin de Wangrin is no longer that of dualism. It is that of "in between" (Bhabha) or ambiguity. In other words, conflict as well as resistance are no longer a matter of brutal and inefficient oppositions (colonised/ coloniser, White/Black, writing/oral tradition, reality/fiction), but they require a good dose of strategy. Whilst locking itself within a sterile game of opposition, enunciation is constantly on the run, as though it were fighting to escape the inevitable. By inevitable, we mean at once the oppressor, destiny, the return of dialectics and the putting into writing of the story.

Once "laid down on a piece of paper", enunciation runs the quite foreseeable risk of being, in turn, ultimately manipulated. No wonder then that the reader asks himself if the narrator is the author, the hero of the novel or just a faithful friend reporting a true story. In this connection, the postscript to the novel speaks for itself:

Depuis la parution de ce livre en 1973, certains malentendus sont apparus çà et là tant sur la personnalité réelle du héros que sur la nature même de l’ouvrage. Je ne sais pourquoi certains (et cela en dépit des précisions apportées dans l’Avertissement) s'interrogent : ce récit est-il une fiction, une réalité, ou un habile mélange des deux ? On admet généralement l'existence historique de celui qui s'était surnommé lui-même «Wangrin», mais on pense que j'ai dû « romancer » quelque peu sa vie, y introduisant même, pour corser l’histoire et lui donner une sorte de signification symbolique, un dosage subtil de tradition orale et d'événements surnaturels de mon cru. (Bâ 1992: 359)

[Since the publication of this book in 1973, some misunderstandings have come out here and there about the real personality of the hero as well as on the nature of the book itself. I wonder why some (without paying attention to the pieces of information given in the foreword) keep asking themselves : is this narrative a fiction, a real story of a clever mix of both? Although, the historical existence of the one who called himself "Wangrin" is generally taken for granted, people think that I must have "romanticized" his life a bit by introducing a subtle dose of oral tradition, and supernatural events of my own invention in order to liven up the story, and endow it with a kind of symbolical significance,] (my translation)

As we will make clear, the act of writing itself is undermined by an inner conflict which can also be expressed in terms of translation. On the one hand, it is stricken by an ontological suspicion which can only be understood in the light of the peculiar relationship linking man to his word within the African context. On the other hand, writing allows both the re-composition and preservation of African oral tradition. The strength of such an ethical link contrasts with the anonymous materiality of the written text. In the same way, the true story of Wangrin challenges the traditional reading contract as well as the naïve realism typically granted to African writers. Significantly, the narrative begins with "a promise made to a man" (Bâ 1992: 7).

L'étrange destin de Wangrin stages the antagonistic condition inherent in the act of translating, that is: the forced respect due to the (colonial) authority of the Original and the possibility of its subversion. Wangrin is not only blessed by the gods, he knows how to supersede his destiny. Conning the oppressor is not simply and naively going against his will, it has to do with producing a knowledge or, rather, a translation, challenging that of the former. Both Wangrin's ability to overtake his destiny and Bâ's narrative discipline originate in this immanent or vernacular knowledge of Africa.

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