Guest of the ilb 2002
African literature, in so far as it is
known at all in Europe, has a problematic history: with its origin
against the background of inhumane colonialism and written in the
language of the colonial powers, the traces remain visible still
today. African narrators write stories which are often difficult
to understand for local readers, poets use poetic pictures the sense of
which is difficult to decipher. And yet they write above all for
a European public: as their books are published in Paris or London and
are usually too expensive to be sold in the bookshops of African cities
where a large part of the population could buy them.
These and
other problems, but also the ever increasing fascination of African
literature is examined in 'Désir d’Afrique', a book by Congolese
literary academic and critic, Boniface Mongo-Mboussa,
born in 1962. He received his PhD in 1999 at the University of
Cergy-Pontoise under Bernard Mouralis, one of the most renowned African
literary academics, and taught at, amongst others, the Columbia
University of Paris, a French branch of the elite American high school:
"It is difficult for black Francophone intellectuals to find a position
at French universities. So I am paid by an American university to
teach American students in Paris about black literature." Today
he is above all responsible for the literary critique in the
'Africultures' magazine, published, of course, in Paris – an equally
favourable, as well as critical, examination of the creative work of a
continent.
To describe Mongo-Mboussa’s representation as simple
literary history would be misleading because it is much more:
a multiple voice, a confident hybrid mix of interviews with famous
authors (including Wole Soyinka, Mongo Beti and Ken Bugul),
contributions from European literary academics (including a text by his
doctoral supervisor about madness) as well as his own reflections on
the consequences of 'Négritude' in more of an essay form – the critic
from 'Le Monde' called it a "happening". Ahmadou Kouroma, the
currently most well-known African writer in France, wrote a preface for
it and the Togolese sociologist Sami Tschak wrote an epilogue.
Abdourahman A. Waberi, one of the young stars of contemporary African
literature in the French language, born in Djibouti but who has for a
long time lived in Caen, writes that with this book Mongo-Mboussa has
established himself as the critic of this new generation who, equally
as little as their predecessors, manage to come to rest between the
continents. And so at the end there is an inevitable longing for
the home continent: "Désir d’Afrique".
Dirk Naguschewski
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