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Batouk. Batouk was created by the French author Max-André Dazergues and appeared in Batouk, le Roi de la Forêt Vierge #1-18 (1945-1946).

Batouk is a brave, noble young native of the French colony in Niger. In the years before World War Two Batouk helps patriotic French colonial agents and Africa Hands keep the peace in Niger and elsewhere in Africa. Batouk is “intrepid” and “courageous” and tries to protect poor Africans whenever he can. He knows the jungles, rivers, and savannahs intimately, and is a great tracker. He is “strong as an elephant, cunning as a monkey, agile as an antelope, knows the plants that kill and the plants that heal. He is a wizard, a genius, a warrior.”

Batouk appears in stories with titles like “The Boat of Sorcerers,” “The Stranglers of Dahomey” and “The Island of Leopards.”

* I'm including Batouk in the Best of the Encyclopedia category because of Batouk's historical importance. Quick--guess how many African protagonists there are in French popular fiction during the post-WW2 years! Answer: not bloody many, I can tell you that. That alone makes Batouk and Batouk important. The number of African protagonists in French popular fiction would slowly in the 1950s and 1960s, but Batouk has pride of place (as far as I'm aware) and should be counted as a possible influence on post-war French fiction about the colonies. Moreover, Batouk's position as a native who helps the French colonial agents fight against independence forces in Niger and elsewhere, though politically reprehensible, makes Batouk and Batouk of interest purely as a political text. Was Batouk distributed in Africa? Was it intended as propaganda to sway independence-minded Africans? Answers on a postcard. 

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