Abstract
The sad news of the death of Camara Laye came on 4 February 1980 as this issue of Index went to press. The following interview by Denis Herbstein, a Sunday Times reporter and author of White Man, We Want to Talk to You (London, 1978), is one of the last times the Guinean novelist talked with a Western journalist. Herbstein noted his ill health, but Camara Laye's resolve remained strong, ‘I shall only go back home when Sékou Touré is no longer president. Even if he rules for a long time …’