Cheikh Hamidou Kane was born in 1928 in Mataru in Senegal. Having started at a Koranic school he eventually went to read philosophy and law at the University of Paris before training as an administrator at the Ecole Nationale de la France d'Outre-Mer. He returned to Senegal in 1959 and has become in turn the Director of the Department of Economic Planning and Development, Governor of the Region of Thies and Commissioner of Planning in Mamadou Dia's government. He has worked for UNICEF in Lagos and Abidjan. L'Aventure Ambigue was published by Juillard in 1961 and won the 1962 Grand Prix Litteraire de l'Afrique Noir.