French Tropicalism

When it comes to engaging with French language opinions and writings in English, it’s a desert out there.

Image Serigne Diagne. Via Flickr CC.

Recently the University of Chicago Press published ‘African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson and the Idea of Negritude‘ by Senegalese philosopher Souleymane Bachir Diagne (originally published in French in 2007). It is how I found myself listening to this interview with Diagne where he speaks about his new book, ‘Bergson Postcolonial’, I intended to write a short post wondering why it often takes years before important work by African authors (both fiction and non-fiction) that is initially published in French becomes available in English – if at all.

Browsing through English news and culture blogs focussing on ‘things African,’ one does find a lot of visual work (by francophone artists, fashionistas, or musicians) because that work is easy to blog and reblog (Tumblr & co). Still, when it comes to engaging with French language opinions and writings, it’s a desert out there.

It’s hard to shake off the feeling that the result is a virtual and cultural space of two separate worlds missing out on each other’s written work. Short a post on why French African authors matter and why they are often absent on English platforms.

Until I came across the argument below, by Souleymane Bachir Diagne himself, who expresses their importance far more eloquently than I could have. (As a scholar of Léopold Senghor’s work and as a friend of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Diagne couldn’t leave them out of the argument.) In English.

I’ll still make that list of French works I believe need to be translated and read. Another day.

Further Reading

The Visa farce

The South African government’s rush to clear visa applications has led to mass rejections, bureaucratic chaos, and an overloaded appeals system—leaving thousands in limbo.

Enter the Povo

Mozambique’s disputed elections triggered a deadly uprising, as citizens resisted Frelimo’s rule and exposed the cracks in neoliberal policies.