The novel won the Prix Goncourt, one of France's highest literary awards, making Maran the first black author to win that honor.

Batouala also speaks about the French forcing the Bandas into slavery on their railroads and in their rubber plantations, which causes the tribe to live in poverty and disease as they do not have proper time to tend to their crops.

[3] Batouala is set in the Grimari village in the southern part of French Equatorial Africa's Ubangi-Shari colony, now the Central African Republic.

In Grimari there are many hill, grass lands, and jungles, and game for hunting and panthers live outside the edges of the village.

[4] Batouala (bah-TEW-ah-la) – Chieftain of many African tribes, exhibits many traits of violence, jealousy, and vengeance.