War is a recurring theme in the novels of García Márquez and Sony Labou Tansi. The genealogical narratives of the foundation and the construction of the postcolonial nation are, in effect, narratives of war and violence. While their works may not be reduced to their respective contexts of provenance, the motif of ceaseless wars is one of the factors that make a contextual reading of García Márquez and Sony Labou Tansi's texts not only pertinent but necessary. Colombia, the homeland of García Márquez, like many Latin American countries, gained independence through a protracted war. On the other hand, the two Congos which are knit inextricably in Labou Tansi's writings have had chequered political histories marked by wars since the period of independence in the 1960s. Both authors’ texts can thus be read as allegories of the complex histories of postcolonial war experiences in Latin America and Africa. However, there are metaphorically complex subtexts in their works that invite us to approach war far beyond post-independence armed conflicts, opening the vistas of war analysis onto the colonial encounter as well as the configuration of postcolonial politics as a debased battlefield of power on the one hand and the quest for a new humanity, on the other.