Short stories
Leur figure-là
Not translated into English
Towaly · 1985
Synopsis
The first part, which gives the book its title, links eight short tales mixing anecdote and the marvellous, in the manner of the gli, the Ewe oral tale, around a single character, Bossou-le-scandale, a bloodthirsty monster in whom a dictator can be glimpsed. Texts of every form follow: fantastic short stories such as “Fantasticas” or realistic ones such as “Pays”, a scene for the theatre, a prose poem, a screenplay, and a short novel, “La Tête gâtée”, which follows Towali's exile in France and his affair with a Frenchwoman, Chris.
Context
The collection appeared in Paris in 1985 from L'Harmattan, in the Encres noires series, under a pseudonym that said nothing of the author but his West African origin: in the Togo of General Eyadéma, it was not safe to write freely. It passed almost unnoticed, probably because of the mixture of genres that the publisher classed under the name of short stories. Its texts denounce demagogy, the cult of personality and the inequality between North and South, and tell of exile, to Abidjan or to Europe, a theme still rare at the time. Sélom Gbanou read in it in 1999 a written reworking of Ewe oral tales.
Who it is for
Short texts in a great variety of forms, in French, to be read in pieces, in whatever order one likes.
Prizes and reception
Almost unnoticed when it appeared, it has since been reread for its mixing of genres and its way of taking up the speech of the Ewe evening gatherings.
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