Narrative
Grandes Eaux noires
Not translated into English
Ibrahim Issa · 1959
Synopsis
The book opens with the creation of men and of Africa, told after the Bible and the Quran, then unfolds a fiction set more than twenty centuries back, in which the author questions what separates Black and White people. Combining narrative, meditation and song of the African past, the text draws from it a reflection on the unity of human nature and on tolerance.
Context
The manuscript was ready as early as 1952, when the author was twenty-three. It appeared in Paris from the éditions du Scorpion, in the Alternance series, its publisher presenting it as a song of Africa's past since it could not be called a novel. When the house was dissolved, the author, then in prison, could not buy back the stock, which was pulped; the book remained unobtainable until its reissue by L'Harmattan, introduced by Jean-Dominique Pénel.
Who it is for
One hundred and twenty-two pages. The text follows no known genre and mixes an account of origins, meditation and ancient fiction: it is better not to look in it for a novel.
Prizes and reception
The first book of Nigerien literature in French, which earns it a place in every literary history of the country.