Five major actors of children's literature in Mali
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Loading... - Larbi Cudjoe
- 25 Aug 2022
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Just as in the other West African countries previously examined, namely Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, Mali also has its number of authors and illustrators of children’s literature who have distinguished themselves nationally and internationally through their achievements.
Progressively, the outstanding actors of children’s literature in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa are promoted. After Ivory Coast and Senegal, we have decided to focus on Mali to present a few authors in the field. In light of the trajectory adopted in the preceding articles, this piece is to make these exceptional people of the field, who stand out in their countries, known.
Ousmane Diarra may not gather crowds in Mali like a president of the republic, but he is an important figure in children’s books. He was born in 1960, the famous year of independence in some French-speaking African countries, in Bassala, Mali. From a general point of view, he is an author who navigates in several genres, notably novel, poetry, short story and of course, children’s literature. His first attempt in the novel genre was a master stroke as “his first novel Vieux lézard won three prizes: the Ahmadou Kourouma Prize of Geneva, the RFO Prize and the Prince Pierre Prize of Monaco. He went on publishing others, not with the same success but following a technique and style of writing proper to griots. In his career, he had the opportunity to rub shoulders with other worlds by participating in fairs in France, Sweden and Guinea.
As for children’s literature, when asked why he is interested in the world of children’s books, his answer is quite striking: “I write children’s books, but also novels for adults, short stories and poetry. I loved to listen to stories when I was a child. I tell them and write them. It’s a choice. My childhood stayed with me.”[1] It is therefore no coincidence that this multi-dimensional author has committed many children’s works such as: la longue marche des animaux assoifés, l’hyène et les chèvres de la vieille femme and the list is very far from being exhaustive. As a well-trained griot, he becomes, in his activities a transmitter of culture and a vector of the African heritage, poured in the tales since he animates since many years already through the hour of the tale to the CCF of Bamako. Now, let us introduce while paying tribute: a goldsmith of the literary creation in general.
Moussa Konaté was born in 1951 in Kita, Mali. Apart from poetry, he has embraced all the other genres notably novel, detective story, the tales, theater, essay, short story. As for the theatrical genre specifically, he distinguished himself by receiving the Sony Labou Tansi prize for high school students for his play Un appel de nuit. He was a pioneer and a reference in literature for a long time. His passion for writing led him to resign from his position as a French teacher. If we have decided to call him an outstanding value of children’s literature in Mali, it is precisely because he is one of the few in the field to have produced children’s novels and storybooks. In the record of the albums of tale, it is an established fact that they are in national languages. Among other productions, we can cite: : la savonnière ( 2003) ; le forgeron ( 2005) ; Tombouctu (2006) etc...
The latter didn’t limit himself to writing, he set up the publishing house Le Figuier in 1997. This made him at that time the first author-publisher in Mali. By establishing this publishing house, one of the objectives was to breathe new life into children’s literature. Among other things, this is what the following statement shows: “He published his first novel in 1981; founded a theater company and created Le Figuier publishing house. This publishing house has deliberately focused on children’s literature in order to show the real face of Africa to young people around the world, far from clichés. Read More...
