Maryse Condé, the acclaimed Guadeloupean author, has died in France at the age of 90 - her death eliciting an outpouring of tributes across the world, particularly in the Caribbean.
Authorities in
her homeland announced a community wake to be held April 6 in Pointe-à-Pitre,
where members of the public could join in communion to celebrate the life and
work of a writer who “always carried Guadeloupe in her heart”.
(The honour replaced that year’s official Nobel Prize in Literature, which was postponed to
2019 following a scandal. Condé's award, formally called The New Academy
Prize, was set up by “a wide range of knowledgeable individuals” who accepted
the nominations of authors from Sweden’s librarians.)
In its citation for the award, the New Academy declared: “Maryse Condé is a grand storyteller. Her authorship belongs to world literature. In her work, she describes the ravages of colonialism and the postcolonial chaos in a language which is both precise and overwhelming. The magic, the dream and the terror is, as also love, constantly present.”
https://southernworldartsnews.blogspot.com/2018/10/guadeloupean-writer-wins-alternative.html
In paying
homage after the announcement of her death on April 2, French President
Emmanuel Macron wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “A literary giant, Maryse Condé paints a picture of sorrow and hope, from Guadeloupe to Africa, from the
Caribbean to Provence. In a language of struggle and splendour that is unique, universal. Free."
Her writing has been rendered into numerous languages, by
translators including her husband Richard Philcox, and she will be remembered
for work that moved readers across the world and influenced students at institutions where
she taught - such as Columbia University in New York.
"Her life and
writing have been an inspiration to many young scholars, students, writers - and will continue to be so," said Madeleine Dobie, professor of French and Comparative Literature at Columbia.
(For Columbia’s full tribute to Maryse Condé, see: https://globalcenters.columbia.edu/news/tribute-maryse-conde)
Although Condé wrote in French, her work has long transcended linguistic lines in the Caribbean. "Her contribution is beyond measure," Jamaican professor, writer and translator Elizabeth "Betty" Wilson told SWAN.
More than 30
years ago, Wilson and her sister Pamela Mordecai edited an anthology of
Caribbean women writers titled Her True-True Name, which carried a story
by Condé in English translation.
“I am so sad that she is gone,” Wilson said. “She lived life to the full.”
