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[CULTURE-BOOK] – Boubacar Boris Diop: The last column of African literature?

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As soon as I finished an article about a Senegalese – Sheikh Anta Diop – I was rushed to propose another one. What do I say! I was not offered any, I was forced to do so, like a paranoid Russia that is going to impose a stupid war on a poor Ukraine. The subject of my article is Boubacar Boris Diop; another writer, another Senegalese. And when I say “on,” I mean by this impersonal pronoun, a person who is not at all unknown to me; I mean my boss. She gets me drunk sometimes! I count on you not to blow her anything. I start not to hit her again. Would a Sufi named Diop have promised her a crowned crane, this totemic animal of the Joob? I ask myself the question while throwing the name of Boris Diop in the mouth of the search engine. Amazing! The amount of information he’s getting in my face. They’re all as fragrant as each other.

Who is this man for whom praise is not lacking? Suspicious, I smell, like a drug dog, a trick. I go to the library to stuff some of his books: The Time of «Tamango», 1981; «Murambi», the Book of Bones, 2000; «The Cubs of the Monkey», 2009. The latter would be the French version of his first novel in wolof. «Doomi Golo», 2003; «Frère d’âme», 2018; eLa porte du voyage sans retoure, 2021. I like to form my own opinion of authors who pass under my pen and then sprinkle them with a little of my gall. And as always, I always manage to get a counter-opinion.

I tell you right now – it may not please many people -, but the leitmotiv that transpires through the work of Boris Diop: the decolonization of African literature that he thinks degenerated by literature in African language, left me puzzled. For it raises many questions. One is: How can you write in a language, win literary prizes (Grand Prix littéraire d’Afrique noire, 2000; Prix Goncourt des lycéens, 2018 and Booker Prize International, 2021) and want to raise the standard of a hypothetical emancipation? How many readers can read in an African language?

Boris Diop started out as a journalist, writer, screenwriter, to finish – if he has not yet completed his metamorphosis – translator in the Wolof language. He is a bloated man of paradox. A first. Zulma, Paris and Mémoire d’encrier, Montreal. Two French-language Western publishing houses create a collection (Céytu) dedicated to African languages and appoint him as director. I do a tour, curiosity obliged, on the site of the Céytu. Second paradox. The site exists only in French and English. Not in Wolof. Third paradox. The writer lives in Pau. We would not have preferred Dakar.

Why Cetu and not Thiaroye or Ziguinchor?
Boris Diop claims that the choice of the name Céytu, village of Cheikh Anta Diop, would be a nod to the scientist. Beyond the slightly nepotistic character of this tribute. I doubt that the latter, a deeply Afrocentric, would have lifted his thumb to such a rapprochement. I would rather lean towards a finger of honour.

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But, beyond my apprehensions, I met, through the work, the imprint of a man of an immense culture, but also that of a fierce revolutionary who wants to crush Idols and Fetishes. Boubacar Boris Diop is a defender of African cultures and identities. He proposed to write in wolof, a purely African language free of all imported stylistic contingencies. One is immediately struck by his revolutionary look and the quality of his writing: an aesthetic performance and a textual dynamism unlike any other. Wolof writing allows in some way to put Western literature and African literature, undervalued, on the same tune.

In short, it is as much a question of a desire to reverse the linguistic relations between colonizers and colonized people as of a demonstration of the linguistic and literary performance of wolof.

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A LA UNE

MALI – Musician Salif Keita appointed Councilor Head of the Junta

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Malian music star Salif Keïta has been appointed advisor to the head of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta, says a decree issued Monday, August 14, 2023.

The artist is part of a list of five people named “special advisers” to the Malian head of state, says the decree dated August 11. The text does not specify the role of Salif Keïta.

The great name of afropop and World Music, Salif Keïta, 73, also stands out for his political commitment and, since the advent of the colonels following a putsch in 2020, for his support of the junta.

He was appointed one week after the announcement of his resignation from an assembly set up by the military as a legislative body.

“I will always remain the undisputed friend of the military of my country,” he said in his letter of resignation read in the gallery.

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Mr. Keïta publicly expressed his support for the sovereignty discourse of the authorities. He openly called a few months ago for the departure of the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA), since officially announced by the UN Security Council.

Since 2012, Mali has been plagued by jihadist expansion and a deep multidimensional crisis. Violence from the north has spread to central Burkina Faso and neighbouring Niger.

Salif Keita et Assimi Goïta
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CHAUD TOO CHAUD

SENEGAL – Investigative journalist arrested!

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Senegalese investigative journalist Pape Alé Niang was arrested on 6 November at his home and taken into police custody. He is the director of the news site Dakar Matin critique du pouvoir in Senegal. Pape Alé Niang is a journalist famous for his regular chronicles of the news that Senegalese listen to.

Collateral damage on collateral damage! The «Sweat Beauty» case has not finished creating surprises. For this umpteenth arrest, it is around investigative journalist Pape Alé Niang to pay the costs, he was arrested on Sunday, November 6 and detained at the central police station of Dakar. He is accused of having an investigation report from the gendarmerie on the file between the pastef leader Ousmane Sonko and masseuse Adji Sarr. According to one of his lawyers, Mr Ciré Clédor Ly, the police arrested him on the orders of the Public Prosecutor.

In addition, a videographer from the Buur News website on behalf of Fatou Dione was the victim of “police violence” on Saturday, 5 November during a banned demonstration in Dakar. She “fainted when the police came to evacuate her with unprecedented brutality”. This demonstration was the initiative of a collective formed especially of activists. They demanded the release of “political detainees” most of whom are close to the opposition.

About 20 arrests took place during the demonstration and the arrested persons are still detained according to the local press.
Senegal is ranked 73rd out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index compiled by the NGO Reporters Without Borders.

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A LA UNE

IVORY COAST – Alpha Blondy supports Nathalie Yamb: “Nathalie Yamb is for us a calming factor that helps us rebuild”

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It is through a video of more than five minutes that the international reggae artist Alpha Blondy spoke on his facebook page this Saturday, November 4, 2022. He ruled on France’s decision to ban Nathalie Yam on its territory because of her hostile ideas towards the metropolis, according to the French authorities. The Ivorian singer did not go there with half words: “In France there are people who despise us, who speak ill of Africans, who insult us with their insolence, their arrogance… They have the right, but why not Nathalie Yamb. It’s not fair! It’s worse than FrançAfrique. Get your act together, let’s get our act together; let’s not push people to make decisions like the Algerians do: “the suitcase or the coffin”. For us, Nathalie Yamb is a sedative that helps us rebuild! Africa needs it! This economic slavery, this slavery, has only lasted too long, it must stop! Mr. Macron, please correct the tire, please! Thank you. I’m Alpha Blondy.”

The transcript of his full message can be read here:
I would like to speak today about the sanction taken by the French government against my sister Nathalie Yamb. I find that unfair and illegal for a country like France where there is freedom of expression. Nathalie Yamb has the right as an African to defend her continent and her people, a people that needs to be rebuilt. Nathalie Yamb is among those who are rebuilding the African mentality that has been deconstructed for more than 5 centuries, I am not talking about Arab-Muslim slavery, so we are going towards 1200 years.

When Charlie Hebdo was a victim of what we all saw, you took steps to defend freedom of expression, so why doesn’t Nathalie have the right to defend her people, to help her people regain confidence in themselves, to have a little dignity, To call the heads of state to raise their heads even if they are victims of false blackmail.

She is right that Mali has the right to choose its friends. It is not up to France to dictate to French-speaking African countries which ones they must attend or not. Your history with Russia is none of our business, we don’t have to follow your lead. Mali is an African country and Nathalie Yamb is an African who speaks to Africans. When she criticizes Alassane Ouattara, it is her right as an African to speak to her African brother. When she criticizes Mr. Macky Sall, she also has the right to criticize…. Nathalie Yamb has the right to say what she says and you don’t have the right to forbid her to go to France, don’t push too hard. We need her words, it heals us! It heals our wounds. We must not gag her. She did not say to attack the embassies of France, she told the Africans that to take dignity, to take a thickness, she has the right to say that.

In France there are people who despise us, who speak ill of Africans, who insult us with their insolence, their arrogance… They have the right, but why not Nathalie Yamb. It’s not fair! I would like to ask Mr. Macron, you said that FrançAfrique is over, but what is this story about bagging Nathalie Yamb? It’s worse than FrançAfrique. Get your act together, get our act together! Let us not push people to make decisions like Algerians do: “the suitcase or the coffin”. For us, Nathalie Yamb is a sedative that helps us rebuild! Africa needs it! This economic slavery, this slavery, has only lasted too long, it must stop! Mr. Macron, please correct the tire, please! Thank you. I’m Alpha Blondy.

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