The 2018 Paris
Book Fair (Livre Paris) took place against the backdrop of demonstrations in Mayotte
that echoed similar protests a year ago in French Guiana, putting the topics of literary activism and popular disaffection high on the agenda at the March 16-19 event.
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| Literary representatives from French Guiana at Livre Paris. |
Writers from
France’s overseas regions and departments, which include Mayotte in the Indian
Ocean, spoke out about their role and contribution to French literature, highlighting
the social and economic conditions in their territories.
Launching an
anthology of short stories titled Guyane:
Nou gon ké sa (We're fed up), Guyanese authors said they felt compelled to address on-going struggles.
“The demonstrations
were for better security, healthcare, infrastructure, transportation, all of which affects
everybody,” said Joël Roy, one of the contributors. “Writers aren’t separate
from this.”
In March 2017,
strikes and protests in Guiana blocked streets, caused the temporary closure of
schools and some businesses, and delayed the launch of a rocket from the
aerospace centre that is run by France and the European Space Agency.
Reports of the
demonstrations filled the airwaves in mainland France, with some commentators making
it seem as if the population was being unreasonable (“We can’t keep sending money
there,” said one Parisian). But writers have been among those spotlighting the
hypocrisy in government policy, where money can be found to launch rockets but
not to improve access to healthcare or to control crime.
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| Tchisseka Lobelt, founder of Promolivres, French Guiana. |
French
President Emmanuel Macron eventually visited Guiana to address the concerns of
the 250,000 residents, and to make a number of pledges; but there was no political
representation at the launch of Nou gon ké
sa in Paris, despite invitations having been extended, said Tchisséka
Lobelt, who chaired the literary panel at the fair.
While the
authors and activists present (such as Sylviane Vayaboury and France Nay) evoked
the grievances and injustice that led to the protests, they aren’t just waiting
around for political support, although this would be welcome.
Lobelt, for instance,
is one of the movers behind promoting the literature of Guiana and providing a platform for writers. In 1996, she founded an association called Promolivres, which in
turn created the Salon du Livre de Cayenne - a biennial book fair that had its
10th “edition” last November.
The Salon attracts
participants from neighbouring countries such as Brazil and Suriname, and the
2017 “guest of honour” was Colombia.
For Lobelt,
intra-regional literary cooperation is important, and she believes translation
can help to pave the way for readers to know more about the literature of
France’s overseas departments and regions.
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A new anthology of stories by writers
from French Guiana.
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“Translation is
key, and we have to develop a real policy to get books translated from French and
Creole into other regional languages and vice versa,” she told SWAN.
Anglophone Caribbean
writers such as Guyana’s Pauline Melville and Jamaica’s Alecia McKenzie (founder of the Caribbean Translation Project, and SWAN’s editor) have been able to
participate in the Cayenne book fair because of translation, Lobelt said. Both have
been winners of the Prix Carbet des lycéens, a prize awarded by French
high-school students in Guadeloupe, Guiana, Martinique and (now) London.
In addition, French
writer Jean-François Tifiou, who has written an absorbing and well-researched
book about the women prisoners sent to Guiana when it was a notorious French penal
colony, is looking at getting his work translated into English and Spanish. Tifiou
visited schools in the region to present De Quimper à Cayenne (From Quimper
to Cayenne), and many readers believe that the book deserves to be more
widely known.
“Even if we
translated one book per year, that would already be something,” said Lobelt. “We
can do a lot on our own, but we still need institutional help.”
At the Paris
Book Fair, the French “Outre-Mer” Ministry emphasized support for writers and publishers
from the overseas departments and regions, which are traditionally grouped at a
special pavilion. The ministry cited the international stature and unique “witnessing”
of writers such as Maryse Condé, Patrick Chamoiseau and Aimé Césaire, among others.
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| A visitor checks out some titles at Livre Paris. |
“Literature
from the overseas departments has a true specificity, far from clichés and stereotypes,”
said an official brochure. “As Chantal Spitz (Tahiti) has declared: ‘My country
is not a postcard’.”
This was certainly
borne out by some of the debates at Livre Paris (which, uncomfortably, had
Russia as the 2018 “guest of honour”).
More than anything, what was notable
was that many writers and publishing professionals seemed determined to open the eyes of
those who would perhaps prefer not to see certain social situations.
For more information about current events in Mayotte and French Guiana, please see:
For more information about current events in Mayotte and French Guiana, please see:
