Yambo Ouologuem: the rise, fall and return to grace of an African literary great

Yambo Ouologuem's book "Lettre a la France Negre" is pictured in the family home in Sevare in Mali. Ouologuem, the first African writer to win the Renaudot prize in 1968, had it withdrawn following accusations of plagiarism. Photo: AFP

At the end of an abandoned field in Mali's war-ravaged Mopti region lies the overgrown tomb of Yambo Ouologuem, once a huge star of African literature whose career imploded in scandal after he was accused of plagiarism.

He was all but forgotten until last year when a young Senegalese writer won France's top literary prize for a novel inspired by Ouologuem's strange and tragic life.