Abstract:
Yakabou, like every other boy in the small African village of Kolokonde, wants two things - a radio and a motorbike. After Yakabou gets a radio by working as an apprentice mason for his father he has to have batteries to play the radio.

Yakabou and his friends Assume and Assume’s sister Ataja go to work in the Kolokonde marketplace so he can buy batteries. But they are lured by two truck driver’s helpers into a scheme to steal batteries from a Bon Femme (Market Woman).

When Yakabou is unfairly blamed for stealing batteries the Village Chieftain banishes him from the village and he must choose to either run away or to live like the “Old Africans.”

Yakabou’s final decision is only made after several adventures, with the help of his friends and in spite of his village enemy Mammadou.