Alain Mabanckou:
Astride the Black World

Ramonu Sanusi

His reputation neither rests on his prolific output nor on the fact that his books are published by Seuil, the French answer to Penguin in the Anglophone world. Rather, Mabanckou’s inimitable prose, his handling of themes, motifs, myths, and characterization sustains his readership from novel to novel, making each of his works “un-put-down-able”. Dialogue is handled with sophistication; the novelistic scenario is constructed with trademark brio. In essence, he belongs in the rare rank of artists that can hold an audience in work after work without boring them. I got a window into these aspects of his work when I met Mabanckou for the first time in Madison, Wisconsin during the African Literature Association Conference in 2004. By then his reputation was already secure as one of the most celebrated francophone African writers of the new generation, along with Abdourahman Waberi and Calixthe Beyala. During a long conversation we held about the condition of the African continent, I was enthralled by his ability to narrativize Africa’s malaise in a lyrical, almost griotic/artistic, form in the context of an off-the-cuff discussion. I almost felt like I was listening to a new novel in impromptu composition.

 

Alain Mabanckou

After this encounter, I understood where the tic in his novel, Et Dieu seul sait comment je dors (2001), came from. This novel was a bestseller. It is the story of Auguste-Victor, a West Indian haunted by his obscure past; a strange man who always dresses in white on Sundays. Makabana, an old African hunchback, a solitary and curious character, who has been living in Guadeloupe for half a century, meets Auguste-Victor one day and will never sleep again after the encounter. The narrative proceeds with a lyricism and a descriptive power reminiscent of Emile Zola.

The narrative verve of this modern African griot draws substance from African, and particularly Congolese, oral tradition: short stories, proverbs, songs, legends, poetry among others. For instance, talking about Mémoires de porc-épic (2006), the author has admitted on several occasions that there exists a legend in Central Africa and in Congo-Brazzaville, in particular, which parents used to scare their children into going to bed at night; and that he was inspired by it to write his novel. It is also important to note that his novels sometimes take on a black internationalist dimension especially when one bears in mind that Et Dieu seul sait comment je dors is set in the West Indies. 

His intertextual conversation is also broad. In an Interview with Bruno Thibault and Catherine Perry, Mabanckou affirms that his novel Mémoires de porc-épic pays homage, and is indebted, to influences as diverse as Jean de la Fontaine, the 17th century French fabulist, and Amos Tutuola, the Nigerian legendary storyteller and author of The Palm wine Drinkard. Mabanckou’s literary themes vary but definitely do not shy away from the questions relating to the black race in the Diaspora. Besides fiction, Mabanckou has also been exploring the essay genre to amplify his credentials in black internationalist knowledge production. He recently published an essay entitled Lettre à Jimmy, (Fayard 2007) which pays homage to James Baldwin. In Mabanckou, the African continent has  produced a writer who has definitely earned his place among his famous compatriots – Sony Labou Tansi, Tchicaya U Tam’si, and Henri Lopes.