Guest of the ilb 2004
Hamidou Dia was born in Saldé, a village in
Senegal, in 1953. He studied Philosophy in Dakar and Paris.
He achieved a doctorate in French Literature at the University of
Laval in Canadian Québec, and wrote his thesis on the theme of
languages, nationalities and identities in literature. For over
twenty years he has taught Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the
Universities of Connecticut, Laval and Dakar. He also worked as
editor and literary critic for various publications, among them the
Québec literary magazine 'Etudes littéraires' and the journal 'Nuit
Blanche'. From 1997 to 2001 he was chief editor of 'Présence
Africaine' a journal which, since its founding in 1947, has shaped the
postcolonial discourse of African intellectuals. From the
early 1980’s, Hamidou Dia was already occupied with two heavyweights of
black literature and the African opposition. In 1981 he published
the biography of the Martinique author and theorist Frantz Fanon, who
as a doctor became involved in the Algerian resistance against the
French colonial power in the 1950’s, and also the biography of the
Franco-Senegalese poet David Diop, in whose work is reflected the hope
for a liberated, independent Africa. Dia has published several
books on African literature. 'Introduction à la littérature
négro-africaine'(t: Introduction to Black African Literature) was
published in 1983. He has also edited the anthologies 'Poètes
d’Afrique et des Antilles'(2002; t: Poets from Africa and the Antilles)
and 'Poésie africaine et engagement'(2002; t: African Poetry and
Commitment). He has also published essays on important writers of
postcolonial literature, among them the Senegalese author Boubacar
Boris Diop (1990) and the major Caribbean poet Aimé Césaire
(2004). He is presently at work on a book on the poet Véronique
Tadjo. His own literary work includes the novel 'Les sanglots de
l’espoir'(1987; t: Sobs of Dispair), the novella 'Le serment'(1987; t:
The Vow), as well as two volumes of poetry. In the first, »Koumbi Saleh
ou Les pâturages du ciel?(1993; t: Koumbi Saleh or heavenly pastures),
he commemorates his ancestors and Koumbi Saleh, the ruined, once
splendid, trading centre for gold, salt, and slaves in the former
kingdom of Ghana. Dia won the Prix Jasmin d’argent de la poésie
francophone for his volume of poetry 'Les remparts de la mémoire'(t:
The Ramparts of Memory). Hamidou Dia lives in Dakar.
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