French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Mongo-Mboussa (ed.), Désir d'Afrique
Francophone and Oral Literatures
Review published in Acta Fabula, critical dossier "African Studies: New Approaches, New Stakes" (November 2020, vol. 21, no. 10): Hugues Diby and Maframa Ouattara, Les littératures africaines de langues europhones & leur désir d’Afrique
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BONIFACE MONGO-MBOUSSA
Désir d'Afrique
First published in 2002
Preface by Ahmadou Kourouma, afterword by Sami Tchak
Folio essais series (no. 653), Gallimard
Publication date: 03-01-2020
384 pp. — ISBN: 9782072877940
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"This literature began with Négritude. Western ideologues, seeking to justify slavery and colonization, had decreed that the Negro had no history because his history was not written down. Africans driven by a desire for Africa armed themselves with the pen to prove them wrong. They demonstrated that Africa, humanity's cradle, bore countless traces of its millennia-old past, both written and unwritten. They (the Western ideologues) had claimed we were without culture. The response was that Africans, possessing humanity's most ancient history, held the richest culture in the universe." — Ahmadou Kourouma.
This volume belongs to the broader field of Francophone literary studies and postcolonial criticism, engaging with the complex relationship between African writers and European languages. Situating these works within their wider cultural setting involves examining how writers responded to colonial discourses and built upon foundational movements such as Négritude.
Readers interested in African literatures and postcolonial cultural history may find this Gallimard paperback edition a relevant contribution to contemporary debates. The book assembles critical reflections on the ways European-language writing became a vehicle for asserting cultural identity and historical depth.