Season Two
If you asked me for one word that best describes this season, I would say “freedom”. You will notice that the episodes focused mostly on countries’ independence processes. You will discover the struggles behind the liberation movements, but I must say a 7-minute episode can only provide limited context and background to the “relatively questionable” freedom that African countries enjoy today. Any fight has its own heroes (perceived, self-declared or real ones), and these episodes attempt (and hopefully succeeded) in going beyond the official narratives and delves into the untold/unofficial versions that are less known. The truth is however that the small, sometimes invisible, and seemingly meaningless decisions and actions by thousands of activists, led to what we see, in the surface as independence. In many cases, these decisions and actions occurred outside the country in question, and compounded the political struggles of other countries, including the colonial powers themselves. At the end, I ponder What makes one a hero or a heroine in Africa?
My African cliche of today is a challenge on some of your books, prof. Your novel title “Letter to Jimmy” dedicated in 2007 to the American writer James Baldwin, and then your translation from English to French, of the book “Beasts of no nation ” written by the young prodigy of Nigerian-American literature, Uzodinma Iweala
These 2 works where you made the link between what I would call “the two types of blacks, not two nuances of black, but the two ways to be black in the eyes of the West/
- first, the black, American, thats the cool black, who can say without fear of being ogled “I do not speak French well”
- And then, the other black, black African, a bit basic as black, who tries to speak academic French, but stands no chance to actually being reconized for it.
So here is the challenge for you, you who disserted about the ” black Parisian ” , could you tell me, Is a black person different whether he lives like you in Santa Monica, or in Asmara or anywhere else in Africa ? how exactly is it different? What about you, dear listeners, what do you say? What are your own clichés on French-speaking African literature? See you tomorrow for new adventures onboard the Sankofa.
