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Francophone African Poets in English TranslationJean-Joseph Rabearivelo.
Madagascar (1901-1937). Also see the African writers page, which focuses on novelists. It also points to resources for research in African literatures, including reference sources and critical works. An OverviewFrancophone African poetry (that is, poetry written by Africans in the French language) is a rich and varied literary expression. While the colonial legacy can be blamed for much of Africa's ills, it is also largely responsible for this great contribution to humanity. For while many of Africa's diverse cultures have a long history of oral verse, the French language added a new medium through which African voices could be expressed to a broader, more international audience. The result is some of the most powerful work in the French language. Indeed, as Léopold Senghor declared upon becoming the first African invited into the Académie Française, the invention of Francophone African poetry has provided an opportunity not just for Africans to broaden their audience, but for African writers to actually influence and change the French language to suit a broader purpose. Since Francophone African poetry is mostly a product of colonialism, there is a relatively short timeline of authors. However, the generational shifts in poetic expression are marked. We can identify four distinct generations of Francophone African poets. The first generation, represented by Rabearivelo, was marked by a classical use of rhyming verse learned largely in colonial schools. The second generation, represented by Senghor, David Diop, and Dadie, graduated Francophone African poetry from merely an attempt to mimic French poetry, to a new, identifiably African expression. Many writers of this generation were trained in France and lived many years there. Authors used their training and talents to express their displeasure with the tyranny of colonial rule. In this way, Francophone African poetry became as much a political foil as a mode of expression. This explains why so many poets of this generation were also statesmen. The third generation of scholars, represented by Joachim, U Tam'si, Tati-Loutard, Syad, and M'Baye, were largely trained in France in the young independence era. Their work therefore tends to reflect a more idealistic global view and focuses commonly more on the African plight than the foreign perpetrators of atrocities. Perhaps the most broadly influential generation, this group of poets tends to be more educated (formally) and is larger than its predecessors. Indeed, many poets from this generation are faculty at prestigious European and American universities. Finally, the poets of the fourth generation are still too young to have garnered enough acclaim to have been translated into English, and thus won't be addressed here. It would be beyond the scope of this brief introduction to discuss all of the various contributions that the first three generations of Francophone African poets have made. However, I would be remiss if I left out the single most important contribution of Francophone African Poets: the concept of "negritude." Defined by Senghor as "the awareness, defense, and development of African cultural values" (in Elimimian 1991:25), negritude is arguably the basis for modern American Afrocentrism. While the term was coined by Aimé Césaire, its intellectual breadth and broad cultural relevance can be attributed to the poetry of Senghor, David Diop and Birago Diop. These three poets developed negritude as a "literary and cultural movement with the fundamental objective of defining black aesthetics and black consciousness against a background of racial injustice and discrimination around the world" (Elimimian 1991:23). While some credit the rise of negritude's popularity to its historic roots in the black injustices of Europe and the United States, the power of negritude is most apparent in its early recognition of the African woman as not only the economic force for much of the continent, but a being of beauty, virtue, faith, and strength. Senghor in particular was a driving force as both a poet and a statesman in recognizing the way in which feminism, and female sensuality in particular, leads to moral virtue, and consequently the rise of hope and the human spirit. While on its face negritude may have served as an uncontested beacon for African-ness, critics have driven the debate about negritude to new heights. Perhaps the most famous criticism of negritude comes from an essay by Wole Soyinka who wrote that "a tiger does not proclaim its tigritude". That is, the African voice need not be loud but to cause action (Elimimian 1991:26). Morality has a greater bearing on the development of cultural values than does skin color. Senghor, David Diop and Birago Diop, while differing slightly in perspective, also offer negritude as a platform for the African exploration of Western influences. They were not contrary to Western influence. In fact, Senghor has made a point of expressing how he relishes the opportunity to live and work in France. Cognizant of their dual perspectives, all three acted to launch a new perspective on African-European relations that recognized the intertwined history of the two continents. They sought to reject black inferiority and European exploitation, while marrying Africa to the virtues of the French language and the potential for African-European cultural hybridization. This page of Francophone African poets is by no means a contribution to the broad body of scholarship on the subject. I am a consumer of poetry, not a scholar of it. It serves as an introduction to Francophone African poetry and points out its accessibility at the University of Florida and elsewhere. The comments I have made, while historically correct, may lack sophistication. I therefore welcome contributions and suggestions from poets and scholars. In addition to Francophone African Poets with accessible English translations that I have represented on this page, I have appended a list of poets whose work is available in French, whether at the University of Florida or not. Richard R. Marcus, Ph.D. (Political Science), University of Florida
Select Bibliography from the UF LibrariesChipasula, Stella and Frank. The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry. London: Heinemann, 1995. D'Almeida, Irène Assiba. Francophone African Women Writers: Destroying the Emptiness of Silence. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1994. Elimimian, Isaac I. Theme and Style in African Poetry. Lewiston, NJ: Edwin Mellen Press, 1991. Herdeck, Donald E. African Authors: A Companion to Black African Writing, 1300-1973. Washington D.C.: Black Orpheus Press, 1973. Jahn, Janheinz, Ulla Schild, and Almut Nordmann. Who's Who in African Literature: Biographies, Works, Commentaries. Tübingen, Germany: Horst Erdmann Verlag, 1972. Kizer, Carolyn. Carrying Over: Poems from the Chinese, Urdu, Macedonian, Yiddish, and French African. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon Press, 1988. Lordereau, Paulette. Litteratures Africaine a la Bibliothèque Nationale. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1984. Moore, Gerald and Ulli Beier. Modern Poetry from Africa. London: Penguin Books, 1975. Reed, John and Clive Wake. French African Verse. London: Heinemann, 1972. Reed, John and Clive Wake. A Book of African Verse. London: Heinemann, 1978. Sekou Toure, Ahmed. Militant Poems. African Democratic Revolution No. 21. Conakry, Guinea: State House Press, 1978. Senau, K.E. and T. Vincent. A Selection of African Poetry. London: Longman, 1988. Senghor, Léopold Sédar. The Collected Poetry. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1991. U'Tam'si, Tchicaya. Selected Poems. London: Heinemann, 1970. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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