STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan 6 (IPS) – In 2021, Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr became the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to win the Prix Goncourt, France’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize. Awarded.
literature
his novel, Men’s most secret memoriesMan’s Most Intimate Memories is the story of a young Senegalese writer living in Paris who happens to come across a novel published in 1938 by a Senegalese writer named TC Elimane. The writer was once welcomed by an ecstatic Parisian press but then disappeared. Elimane was accused of plagiarism before all traces of him disappeared. After losing legal proceedings relating to plagiarism charges, Elimane’s publisher was forced to withdraw and destroy all available copies. Labyrinth of Inhumanity. However, a few extremely rare copies of the novel remained, and it had a profound impact on anyone who happened to read it. The novel’s main protagonist (as well as several others) eventually becomes involved in a desperate search for the phantom Elimane, who leaves a rare trace in France, Senegal, and Argentina.
Readers of Sarr’s multifaceted and exquisitely written novel are confronted with a diverse choir of voices that blend, harmonize, and/or contradict one another. The story blurs the line between fiction and reality and turns into an unsolvable labyrinth. Sarr moves in the ocean of world literature. He appears to have read everything worth reading, and the allusions are either obvious or inconspicuous. Ultimately, the novel explores the boundaries between myth and reality, memory and presence, and, above all, the question of what storytelling is. What is Literature? Is it about “truth” or constructing a parallel version of reality?
A disturbing problem lurks beneath the surface of an intriguing story. Why were two outstanding West African writers before Sarr heavily investigated and accused of plagiarism? Why were they accused of not being “African” enough? Are African writers doomed to remain in the shadows as exotic curiosities, judged from the outside by a prejudiced literary world that regards African writers, with the exception of white Nobel laureates like Gordimer and Coets, as exotic natives or clones of European literature? ?
Men’s most secret memories Like the Guinean writer Camara Laye, it has a disturbing prehistory that reflects the real-life experiences of the unfortunate Malian Yambo Ouologuem.
At the age of 15, Camara Laye came to Conakry, the capital of French colony Guinea, to receive vocational training in automobile mechanics. In 1947 he traveled to Paris to continue his studies in mechanics. In 1956, Camara Laye returned to Africa, first to Dahomey, then to the Gold Coast, and finally to the newly independent Guinea, where he held several government positions. After suffering political persecution in 1965, he left Guinea for Senegal and was unable to return to his home country.
A 1954 novel by Camara Laye king’s gazeThe Radiance of the King was published in Paris and was described at the time as “one of the finest works of fiction to come out of Africa.” The novel was pretty strange, and it still is, especially since the main character is white and the story is told from a white person’s perspective. After failing at most things in his home country, Clarence recently arrived in Africa hoping to find some luck there. After losing all his money gambling, he is kicked out of his hotel and, in despair, decides to follow a legend that suggests a wealthy king can be found somewhere deep in Africa. Clarence hopes that this king will be able to provide for him and even provide him with a job and purpose in life.
Laye’s novel becomes an allegory about man’s search for God. Clarence’s journey develops into a path of self-actualization, and he gains wisdom through a series of dreamlike and humiliating experiences. Although often harrowing, sometimes maddeningly nightmarish, the story is occasionally brightened by absurd and fascinating humor.
However, some critics have asked whether this is really an African novel. The language was strangely simple, but the allegorical way of telling the story led critics to assume it was influenced by Christianity, its African knowledge was “superficial” and its narrative style was “Kafkaesque.” Even African writers thought that Laye ‘imitated’ European literary role models. Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka said: king’s gaze As a weak imitation of Kafka’s novel castlePlanted on African soil and within France, suspicions soon arose that a young African car mechanic could not have written such a strange and multifaceted novel. king’s gaze.
This unkind and spiteful criticism grew more and more bitter, disparaging what was in reality the work of an interesting genius. The bullying continued until the American professor’s final blow. Comprehensive research by Adele King Writing by Camara Ray We “proved” it in 1981. king’s gaze In fact, the book was written by Francis Soulé, a Belgian intellectual who participated in Nazi and anti-Semitic propaganda in Brussels and was forced to settle in France after World War II. According to Adele King, Soulé was with her editor, Robert Poulet. headpublished by publisher king’s gazeHe achieved success by creating the story that his novel was actually written by a young African. To support her theory, Adele King presents a thorough account of Camara Laye’s life in France, tracing his various acquaintances and coming to the conclusion that Laye received money from: head act as an author king’s gaze.
Among other observations, Adele King says that Laye’s novels have “an un-African character with a sense of European literary form,” which she refers to as the work of Francis Soulé. This is despite Soulé’s very poor literary output (King notes that he “drew into exotic writing in his youth”) and the fact that Laye wrote several other very fine novels.
Among other signs that Laye was unable to write king’s gazeKing argued that the novel’s “messianic message” sounded false as if it came from African Muslims. She therefore ignores the fact that Laye came from a Sufi tradition rich in similar concepts and the “kafkaesque” flavor of the novel, which was not overpowering, and why a young African writer living in France could not have done so like so many others. , were you inspired by the writings of Franz Kafka?
Nonetheless, these and many other unstable assumptions led King to the following conclusion: king’s gaze It was written by the little-known Francis Soulé, and her verdict was accepted almost unanimously. In 2018, for example, it was featured prominently in Christoffer Miller’s popular and quietly good books. Impostors: Literary Fraud and Cultural Authenticity.
Another major accusation against an outstanding West African writer occurred in 1968. duty of violenceAfter a short period of praise for “Bound by Violence,” it was shattered on charges of plagiarism. duty of violence It covers seven centuries of violent history of a fictional kingdom in Africa (which is actually quite similar to modern-day Mali). In its passionate, first-rate, free-wheeling language, the novel does not shy away from depicting extreme violence, royal oppression, religious superstition, murder, corruption, slavery, female genital mutilation, rape, misogyny, and abuse of power. Although everything is interspersed with episodes of genuine love and harmony, there is no doubt in Yambo Ouologuem’s opinion that a powerful, old and corrupt African elite enriched itself and prospered through collaboration with an equally corrupt and brutal colonial power. Each benefit.
As expected, Ouologuem provoked a fierce response from writers who adhered to the concept: ignorerepresents a framework of critical and literary theory developed by francophone intellectuals that emphasized African solidarity and the idea of a unique African culture. Ouologuem provided: ignore A movement that uses his own disparaging term – blackblame ignore He is the author of Deep-rooted Slavery and Inferiority Sense of the Black Population in Africa. He accused such writers of portraying Africa as a ridiculous paradise. But in reality, the continent was and is just as corrupt and violent as the European continent. Ouologuem also wondered why African writers could not be allowed to be as critical, forthright, and politically inappropriate as the French writers Rimbaud and Céline, for example.
The final verdict that befell Ouologuem was delivered by the generally respected Graham Greene. Graham Greene has launched a lawsuit against Ouologuem’s publisher, accusing the African author of plagiarizing parts of Greene’s novel. It’s a battlefield. Greene won the case, Ouologuem’s novel was banned in France, and the publisher was forced to destroy all available copies. Ouologuem never wrote another novel. He returned to Mali and headed a youth center in a small town, before retreating to a secluded Muslim life. marabout (spiritual advisor).
Given the framework of Ouologuem’s overall and surprising novel, Graham Greene’s response seems trivial, if not downright comical. The plagiarism was limited to a few sentences describing a French mansion, itself quite absurd in an African setting, and the description was quoted with a clear satirical intent (in his novel Greene described the rather comically decorated apartments of British communists ). .
The condemnation of Laye’s novel, especially Ouologuem’s novel, can be identified as an inspiration for Mohamed Sarr’s novel. Sarr writes about a young African writer caught in limbo between two very different worlds: Senegal and France. He found home and solace in literature, where he discovered a true gem: Elimane’s novel, his talisman. However, the confused young man’s efforts to find the man behind the book end in vain, and his search for himself in this labyrinth that makes up our lives and the world we live in may also be in vain.
Sarr’s novel reminds us of the fate of two other West African writers before him, who were accused of being not “authentic” and “plagiarists.” Sarr thus succeeds in asking what is real in the floating world of globalization.
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