His most well-known works are The African Child (L'Enfant noir), a novel based loosely on his own childhood, and The Radiance of the King (Le Regard du roi).
His family were Malinke (a Mandé-speaking ethnicity), and he was born into a system where he had to follow his forefathers footsteps who traditionally worked as blacksmiths and goldsmiths.
"[1] In 1956 Camara Laye returned to Africa, first to Dahomey, then the Gold Coast, and finally to newly independent Guinea, where he held several government posts.
She suggests that Francis Soulié, a Belgian literary critic, was the true author of Le Regard du roi, and Laye was merely an intermediary.
[4] Christopher L. Miller examined the controversy in his book Impostors: Literary Hoaxes and Cultural Authenticity; he found King's allegations were credible that Laye's involvement in authorship were minimal.