Born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1957, Pap Abdoulaye Khouma is an African Italian novelist, essayist, teacher, and journalist. Fluent in several languages including French and his native idiom Wolof, Khouma recounts in his autobiographical novel
Io, venditore di elefanti[
I Was an Elephant Salesman]
(1990) that,
in Senegal, he was a ceramist and liked to paint (16). Around 1974, he migrated to Abidjan in the Ivory Coast where he became a vendor. However, maybe because he felt a strong sense of nostalgia, the young Khouma decided to return to Senegal. He then immigrated to Europe in 1984. At first, he wanted to go to Spain – because the plane ticket was cheaper, he writes (23) –, but in July he ended up landing in Italy. To be more specific, he decided to go to Riccione because some of his…
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Citation: Ciamparella, Anna. "Pap Khouma". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 January 2019 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14142, accessed 23 November 2024.]
