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© Hartwig Klappert
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Aminata Sow Fall
Senegal
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Aminata Sow Fall was born
in Saint Louis, northern Senegal, in 1941, and hails from an ancient
lineage. She studied Literature at the Sorbonne until 1970. After
graduating, she worked as a French high school teacher in Dakar, wrote
her first novels, and was swiftly promoted to leading administrative
positions, often as the first woman to hold those posts. She was a
member of the National Reform Commission for the Teaching of French,
Director of the literature section of the Ministry of Culture as well
as Director of the state-run Centre d'Etudes des Civilisations, which
researches Senegal's culture and oral literatures. Her role as a female
pioneer was confirmed in 1985 when she was named the first woman
president of Senegal's Writers’ Association. Two years later she
founded the Centre Africain d'Animation et d'Echanges Culturels, an
independent organisation which promotes young writers through
literature festivals, competitions and seminars and publishes them in
»Edition Khoudia«, an affiliated publishing house.
The novels
written by this grande dame of African literature are equally marked by
her commitment to social issues. Sow Fall portrays modern Senegalese
society in a critical light: greed and abuse of power among the
postcolonial elite, the uncritical adoption of Western ways of life,
and the disregard for their own culture. In fablelike, realistic
stories written with situational comedy and irony she shows how
instances of social alienation in Senegal can be traced back to a
denial of one's own roots. Sow Fall's most famous novel, »La Grève des
Bàttu« (1979; Eng. »The Beggars' Strike«, 1981), tells the story of the
banishment of beggars from Dakar and their cunning protest, a strike,
which threatens to prevent the implementation of the law on giving
alms. The book has been translated into eleven languages, and adapted
for stage and screen in Africa, the United States and Europe. Her
latest book to appear in Germany – also made into a film – is »The
appeal of the arenas» (2001; OT: »L'appel des arènes«, 1982), a story
of a generational conflict within an upper class family. A son's
interest in the traditions of his people is completely incomprehensible
to his parents, who are subject to Western influences and focused on
prosperity and career. In the end only the father succeeds in warily
embracing his child and his own origins. Sow Fall also highlights the
difficulties of cultural modernisation and a synthesis of both cultures
in her account of a well-meaning monarch who in »L'Ex-Père de la
nation»(1987; t: The nation's former father figure) becomes a tyrant,
as well as in her most recent work, »Festins de détresse« (2005; t:
Feasts of distress).
The author has received prizes such as the
Grand Prix Littéraire d'Afrique and the Prix International Alioune
Diop. She has also been awarded an honorary doctorate by Mount Holyoke
College in South Hadley, Massachussetts. She is a member of several
orders, among them the Ordre de Mérite. The mother of four lives in
Dakar.
© internationales literaturfestival berlin
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Douceurs du bercail
Nouvelles Éd. Ivoiriennes
Abidjan,1998
Le Jujubier du patriarche
Le Serpent à Plumes
Paris, 1999
Die Rückkehr der Trommeln
edition KAPPA
München, 2001
[T: Cornelia Panzacchi]
Un grain de vie et d'ésperance
Truffaut
Paris, 2002
Festins de détresse
Or des Fous
Nyons, 2005 |
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